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Jack Eigen

H

howardm

Anybody remember late night talk show host Jack Eigen. He had an Eastern accent & was on 670 AM after 10 I believe.
 
Thanks to Radioman for Jack Eigen memories. There are others who had great voices in that era, Mal Belairs, Franklin McCormick, etc. Then there was the Breakfast Club with Don McNeil I believe, from top of the Allerton Hotel.
 
howardm said:
Anybody remember late night talk show host Jack Eigen. He had an Eastern accent & was on 670 AM after 10 I believe.
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I think he had a show on Channel-44 when they first started.


Old Chicago
 
The Eastern accent came from Eigen's New York City roots. Before he moved west he had a long running talk/interview show with a show business slant from New York's Copacabana nightclub that ran in the midnight hour over WINS in New York right after World War II, in "1010 WINS"'s pre-rock and pre-wall-to-wall news days. That ended around 1951 when he landed at WMAQ.

They say he got some of his best publicity from the way Mike Nichols used to make fun of him, doing a thinly disguised character called "Jack Ego" and satirizing his shtick. He reportedly didn't mind Nichols' barbs, because he thought the attention did him good (and thought Nichols was funny).
 
Bob1370 said:
The Eastern accent came from Eigen's New York City roots. Before he moved west he had a long running talk/interview show with a show business slant from New York's Copacabana nightclub that ran in the midnight hour over WINS in New York right after World War II, in "1010 WINS"'s pre-rock and pre-wall-to-wall news days. That ended around 1951 when he landed at WMAQ.
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...and Eigen himself became a running punchline on The Fred Allen Show on NBC (and, therefore, WMAQ/670) during Allen's last couple of years doing that show, even guesting a couple of times with Fred...

They say he got some of his best publicity from the way Mike Nichols used to make fun of him, doing a thinly disguised character called "Jack Ego" and satirizing his shtick. He reportedly didn't mind Nichols' barbs, because he thought the attention did him good (and thought Nichols was funny).
Click to expand...
...of course, he'd been ribbed by (and done some ribbing with) Fred Allen nationally, so that also helped explain his attitude towards the Nichols schtick...
 
Re: Jack Eigen/Mal Bellairs/Franklin McCormick

Very interesting comments and memories of Jack Eigen. Had a national following. Not so much national interest for Mal Bellairs or Franklin McCormick. Both had excellent voices. Young people liked to have McCormick's program on when they were out on date. Remember his line, "The torch is burning"? I know he was on WGN late night, but Bellairs I'd guess was on WBBM.
 
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