Sunoco 3-Star Extra

[Kurt Toy]

I sometimes will look at microfilm copies of old newspapers-mostly from the '50s, and I'll occasionally come across ads for Sunoco mentioning a newscast the company sponsored on NBC Radio called "Sunoco 3-Star Extra. 2 questions, How long did it air, and second, who were the reporters on the broadcast?

 

[drt]

I sometimes will look at microfilm copies of old newspapers-mostly from the '50s, and I'll occasionally come across ads for Sunoco mentioning a newscast the company sponsored on NBC Radio called "Sunoco 3-Star Extra. 2 questions, How long did it air, and second, who were the reporters on the broadcast?

Here is a link that will answer your questions, Sunoco 3-Star Extra is mentioned briefly in a paragraph about half way through the linked article.

The show ran on NBC from late 1947 through 1965 (the article mentions/imiplies that the show ran 18 years on NBC and was broadcast at 6:45pm; it mentioned the name of the three news anchors, none of the three names were familiar to me.

Hope this helps; your post was interesting enough to make me curious, so I went to my "friend" Google!

.....here's the link:

http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1930's/Sunny Days For Sunoco.htm

drt

 

[bpatrick]

I sometimes will look at microfilm copies of old newspapers-mostly from the '50s, and I'll occasionally come across ads for Sunoco mentioning a newscast the company sponsored on NBC Radio called "Sunoco 3-Star Extra. 2 questions, How long did it air, and second, who were the reporters on the broadcast?

Here is a link that will answer your questions, Sunoco 3-Star Extra is mentioned briefly in a paragraph about half way through the linked article.

The show ran on NBC from late 1947 through 1965 (the article mentions/imiplies that the show ran 18 years on NBC and was broadcast at 6:45pm; it mentioned the name of the three news anchors, none of the three names were familiar to me.

Hope this helps; your post was interesting enough to make me curious, so I went to my "friend" Google!

.....here's the link:

http://www.old-time.com/commercials/1930's/Sunny Days For Sunoco.htm

drt

For those who didn't see it, the three anchors were Ray Henle, Ned Brooks, and Felix Morley. Brooks was moderator of "Meet The Press" from 1953 until his death in 1969; Henle did a series of programs in which Herbert Hoover reminisced about his career and his Presidency (trying, I suppose, to justify his actions as President, since many people at the time blamed him for the Depression, even though it was not his fault). I'm not familiar with Morley.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Ned Brooks retired from "Meet The Press" (and maybe NBC) in 1965; he was replaced on that show by Lawrence Spivak, who had been a regular panelist on the show.

BTW, "Sunoco Three-Star Extra" was not the first network newscast sponsored by that gasoline company on NBC Radio.

From 1930 to 1946, Sunoco sponsored Lowell Thomas' nightly newscast on NBC; in 1946, Thomas left NBC News and moved on to CBS. But Sunoco continued sponsoring news on NBC, with the anchors mentioned above.

Sunoco gasoline back then was only available on the East Coast; perhaps this newscast (and Lowell Thomas' prior ton 1946) was sponsored by someone else in the rest of the country.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I remember 3-Star Extra sponsored by Sunoco in the late-1950's to early-1960's. It was carried here by WLW radio at 6:45 P.M. Eastern Time. At that same time on CBS Radio was Lowell Thomas and the News followed by "It's Sports Time" with Phil Rizzuto. And right about that same time on ABC Radio was "Tom Harmon Sports Time" followed by Bob Considine's "On The Line With Considine". All very good programs.

 

[FredLeonard]

There was a bit more the article does not mention:

Lowell Thomas went (back) to CBS as part of CBS' Talent Raid. Basically, CBS gave top radio performers a capital gains deal that helped them avoid the top bracket 90 per cent tax rate. He jumped; Sunoco did not want to, so they hired new air talent.

The program was not produced by NBC News. It was prepared by Sunoco's ad agency.

In the recent model bio of Walter Cronkite, Cronkite is quoted as saying that he was a fan of Lowell Thomas as a youngster and modeled himself after Thomas. The character played by Arthur Kennedy in "Lawrence of Arabia" is based on Thomas. Sunoco sponsored Thomas' trip to the middle east during World War I looking to build US public support for helping the Arabs oppose the Ottoman Turks (and give Sunoco access to all that oil over there).

Ironically, Sunoco was and is controlled by the Pew family, whose foundation issues all those reports on ethics in journalism.

 

[rnigma1]

Lowell Thomas was also busy as narrator of Movietone newsreels. In the '70s he hosted a series for public TV, "Lowell Thomas Remembers," which used plenty of Movietone footage. (I used to receive the Blackhawk Films catalog as a teen, and learned about the show there, as they assisted in preparing the old footage.)

I do remember those gimmicky multi-octane pumps Sunoco had.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

In the '70s he hosted a series for public TV, "Lowell Thomas Remembers," which used plenty of Movietone footage.

The series (eventually) reviewed every year from 1919 (when Movietone began newsreel production) through 1975 (the episode reviewing 1975 aired just one year later). Movietone ended domestic newsreel production in 1963; the episodes reviewing 1964 through 1975 likely featured film from a TV network's news archive (could it have been CBS News, given Thomas' connection to that network??) and perhaps overseas newsreel sources as well.

Besides more money, I think Thomas may have jumped to CBS because he wanted to be part of what by 1946 was considered radio's best news team. And after the war, Ed Murrow had (briefly) moved into an executive role at CBS (but in 1947, he'd leave his executive post and return to the air) so Murrow may have played a part in recruiting Thomas.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I do remember those gimmicky multi-octane (gasoline) pumps Sunoco had.

I live near Boston, and there are still Sunoco stations there (as well as up and down the East Coast, the interior Southeast, and the Midwest).

And you can still buy four grades of gasoline there (per http://www.gosunoco.com/quality-fuels/our-fuels ), and they all come from one pump.

As a kid, I thought that there were eight tanks of gas at each Sunoco station, each with a different grade (there were eight kinds then, ranging from "190" low-octane regular to "260" super-premium) of gas with the pump selecting between them.

I later got a brochure from a Sunoco station listing most new and used cars and the grade of fuel they should use. The back cover had an article with an illustration about what "Custom Blending" was: Just two tanks, one of "190", the other filled with "260". The pump would determine the ratio of 190 to 260. The article said it was similar to using hot and cold water to get the right temperature of water out of the tap.

 

[Cincinnati Kid]

I well remember the blended pumps at Sunoco in the 1960's. I usually got "190" because it was the cheapest (about 29.9 per gallon). There were TV commercials for it, too. One showed two women in a car going into a Sunoco station and the woman driving says to the attendant, "Hi. Fill it up with 260, please". When the passenger wonders what she is talking about, the driver explains the various grades available there. There are a number of Sunoco stations in the Cincinnati area. One is a little over a mile away from my home.

 

[FredLeonard]

In the '70s he hosted a series for public TV, "Lowell Thomas Remembers," which used plenty of Movietone footage.

The series (eventually) reviewed every year from 1919 (when Movietone began newsreel production) through 1975 (the episode reviewing 1975 aired just one year later). Movietone ended domestic newsreel production in 1963; the episodes reviewing 1964 through 1975 likely featured film from a TV network's news archive (could it have been CBS News, given Thomas' connection to that network??) and perhaps overseas newsreel sources as well.

Besides more money, I think Thomas may have jumped to CBS because he wanted to be part of what by 1946 was considered radio's best news team. And after the war, Ed Murrow had (briefly) moved into an executive role at CBS (but in 1947, he'd leave his executive post and return to the air) so Murrow may have played a part in recruiting Thomas.

Lowell Thomas was never part of CBS News. He was an independent contractor. He had a contract with his sponsor. His sponsor bought time. Paley made a deal with Thomas to buy one of this production companies. He got a big pay-off from that taxed at the capital gains rate. Then he got a small salary under a long term contract which kept him in the lower income tax brackets. This was discussed in the recent election campaign when Warren Buffett talked about how his secretary paid a higher tax rate than he did. The difference between taxes on salaries and taxes on investments was even more dramatic back then and Paley took advantage of some creative accounting (and NBC's indifferent treatment of talent) to get Thomas, Benny, Burns and Allen, Amos 'n Andy, Edgar Bergen and other top radio stars away from NBC.

 

[joeybabe25]

The top tax rate when benny and company moved to CBS and sold their "production companies" for a capital gain was 91% for income tax. I think capital gain was 20% or lower.

Jack Benny sold his store to Bill Paley for, I think, 2 million dollars, and was able to keep most of it. 2 million in income (unless you had a magical accountant) tax would have wiped him out. There would be no point to it.

Joe

 

[kinsler33]

Insofar as I can recall the anchor was Morgan Beatty for as long as the show lasted. Mr Beatty is listed at IMDB, but 3 Star Extra is not mentioned there. Hugh James read the Sunoco advertisements, which were a true exercise in live radio given that each one ran a full minute. I never heard an error.

Editorially the show was conservative at a time when the rest of America was not. My parents, who like everyone else their age had weathered the Depression, were furious with Herbert Hoover until they died a few years ago, always laughing bitterly when Mr Hoover was mentioned, which was often. Hoover died during the show's run, and it wasn't quick. I recall about two weeks of health reports, and then there was the death watch and then the funeral and then the memorial service.

There were regular reports from Victor Riesel, a famous investigative reporter who was blinded by an acid attack from the Luchese (spelling is wrong) organized crime family on Long Island when he exposed their union racketeering. Riesel kept reporting anyway and became something of a champion of the extreme right wing in the 1960's and a buddy of Richard Nixon.

If Morgan Beatty had personal political views we never heard them. Both the show and I were 18 when it went off the air permanently and I left Cleveland permanently as well.
But it seems to have been a well presented newscast: calm and professional, a model for TV news shows today.

Lowell Thomas did not appear on 3 Star Extra.

Mark Kinsler Lancaster, Ohio, but from Cleveland Heights.