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RIP: Les Crane

BossRadioDJ

BossRadioDJ

Norman Davis has sent along word that Les Crane (Leslie G. Stein) passed away last night from pneumonia. Crane was PD at KYA in the early 1960s, where he worked as "Johnny Raven" and built one of the most talented radio teams in local history. He was 74 years old and resided in Belvedere.

After KYA, he moved to KGO/81 (as Les Crane), where he became very successful as the host of a nightly talk show from the hungry i night club. ABC later moved him to KGO-TV, then the entire ABC television network, with a short-lived late-night program called "Night Line ... With Les Crane."

Among the more interesting accomplishments in his life: his fourth wife (out of five) was Tina Louise, who played "Ginger" on "Gilligan's Island"; he started Software Toolworks, whose most notable release was "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing"; and in 1971 he won a Grammy for "Desiderata," the year's best spoken-word recording.

You can hear Les Crane (as Leslie G. Stein) on the "Sounds of San Francisco from the KGO Music Tower" recording on the radio museum website:

http://www.sfradiomuseum.com/audio/kgo/kgo_music-tower_1962.shtml
 
I, and several others, always wondered what became of Les Crane.
Sad to read his obit...the airchecks I've heard of Crane are top-notch...

The excellent book, The Complete Directory To Prime-Time Network
TV Shows, 1946-Present, speaks of Crane in the description of "ABC's
NightLife" as "a young controversial talk-show host from San Francisco
who garnered considerable attention there." Maybe he was ahead of his
time for mid-'60s late-night TV...

Crane left the TV show after only 4 months, though he DID return a
few months later, but just over a year after its premiere, the show
was canceled...

"Desiderata" is a great song, now about 100 years old, that has held up
well, and I'm surprised Crane didn't perform more such recordings...or did
he?
--jay
 
Les Crane also had an excellent late night talk show out of Los Angeles on KTTV-11 (MetroMedia)...from about 1967 to 1970, if my memory serves. I always assumed it was syndicated, but have no idea if it played in the Bay Area. Crane was very fast on the uptake as the host and moderator. The show was controversial, provocative, and leaned toward the anti-Vietnam counter-culture of the times. I remember Crane moderating a debate between Timothy Leary and Max Rafferty (California right-wing politician who lost the US Senate race to Alan Cranston).

I'm sorry to hear Crane died so young, but it shows what a knowledgeable and mature interviewer he was on that late 60s show, given that he was only in his mid 30s at the time.

RIP.
 
His name was mentioned in Phil Och's Love Me I'm a Liberal: "The people of old Mississippi--
Should all hang their heads in shame --I can't understand how their minds work--
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crane?"
 
tripton99 said:
Pretty sure Les Crane was also a talk show host on KLAC radio in the late 60s.
Click to expand...

That's correct...at the same time his TV talk show was on KTTV, the sister TV station. That was typical for MetroMedia - at least in LA. The original shock-talk-jock Joe Pyne was also on both stations. Mort Sahl was yet another.
 
I knew Les personally; I worked with him (outside the radio/TV business) for several years. He was probably one of the coolest people I've ever had the privilege of working with, and his passing is a huge loss. I knew he had been in failing health recently; he smoked quite heavily (and had no desire to quit).

Les was one of those guys that could easliy be your worst enemy if you crossed him- and I've seen the results of that first-hand. One person in particular was giving Les the run-around, and Les threw the entire weight of hell at him (and deservedly so); he could reduce grown men to tears. On the other hand, if you treated him well, he would bend over backwards to help you out or at least do something nice for you.

While I can give many stories of nice things he did for me, probably the best story was about a guy (can't remember his name) who was instrumental in helping Les get to where he was in the TV business many years ago. That person, who was one of the top execs at ABC (I think) during that time, eventually wound up falling on very hard times and ultimately lost his job- and everything else (this all happened well after Les was out of the TV/Radio business and was already successful with Software Toolworks). Les found out about that, and personally paid for an apartment for him to live in somewhere in the Hollywood area, and covered all his utilities as well in order to help him get back on his feet. I thought that was an incredible gesture, and I asked Les why he did that, especially when that person was no longer in the business. Les' reply: "He may be out of the business, but he's one of the reasons I have what I have. I doesn't matter if I get a return on that or not- when people take care of people like he did for me, you just owe. You just owe."

That was Les Crane.

For what it's worth, he made the bulk of his money from Software Toolworks, not from his entertainment days. I asked him why he got out of the TV business one time, and he said "It gave me diarreah. Those people were the most plasic people I ever met, and I'm too much of a regular guy".

That was also Les Crane.

RIP, my freind. Too bad the world doesn't have more Les Cranes.
 
tripton99 said:
KLAC didn't play music in '69.
Click to expand...

Are you sure? I've checked a few internet sources, and found conflicting information. But most of the sources agree that KLAC went to the "California Country" format in 1970. I remember distinctly that they tried an MOR format (competing against KMPC, KFI, KGIL) for awhile between the talk format and country.

Most of the talk hosts (Pyne, Spivak, Elwell) had left KLAC by 68 or 69, so it's possible that KLAC was playing music for part or all of 69. Since Crane had a background as a DJ and program director (KYA, etc.), it's also possible he started on KLAC with the talk format, and stayed on for the MOR format.
 
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