John Cameron Swayze (April 4, 1906-August 15, 1995), was a popular news commentator and game show panelist in the United States, during the 1950s. April 4 is the 94th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (95th in leap years). ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... ITV newscaster Mark Austin. ... A game show involves members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. ... The 1950s was the decade spanning the years 1950 to 1959. ...

The son of a wholesale drug salesman, Cameron first sought to make his way as an actor, but his move to Broadway in 1929 was derailed by the scarcity of acting roles following Wall Street's stock market crash. He returned to the Midwest and hired on with the Kansas City Journal Post as a reporter. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... View up Wall Street from Pearl Street NYSE and Broad Street view from Wall Street Wall Street is the name of a narrow street in lower Manhattan running east from Broadway downhill to the East River. ...

From there, Swayze graduated to radio doing news updates for Kansas City's KMBC in 1940 and, reportedly, an experimental early television newscast. Four years later, Swayze went further west, to Los Angeles and Hollywood, where NBC hired him for its western news division before moving him to its New York news operation in 1947. KMBC-TV, KMBC-TV 9 is the ABC affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri (and also for Kansas City, Kansas) owned by Hearst-Argyle Broadcasting. ... 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... NBC, (Formerly an acronym for the National Broadcasting Company until 2004), is an American television and radio network based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ...

At the same time, Swayze proposed and got a radio quiz program, Who Said That? But NBC had other plans for him, too, and naming Swayze to host their national political convention coverage---the first ever on television.

NBC and the public liked what they saw, and Swayze was picked in 1949 to host NBC's first television newscast, the fifteen-minute Camel News Caravan. He read items from the news wires and periodically interviewed newsmakers, but he's remembered best for his two breezy catch-phrases: "Let's go hopscotching around the world for headlines," and his somewhat cartoonish sign-off: "That's the story, folks---glad we could get together." But in time Swayze's almost manic style seemed frivolous compared to his CBS rival, Douglas Edwards with the News, which Swayze once out-rated but whose anchor sounded sober and no-nonsense. By 1956, Swayze had fallen out of favour and was dismissed in favour of a new anchor team, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley. In very short order, The Huntley-Brinkley Report became the nation's top-rated television newscast, ultimately pushing Edwards out of the anchor chair in 1962 in favour of Walter Cronkite. 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... It has been suggested that CBS evening news anchors be merged into this article or section. ... Douglas Edwards (born July 14, 1917 — October 13, 1990) was Americas first network news television anchor, anchoring the CBS Evening News broadcast from 1948-1962. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Chester Robert Huntley (December 10, 1911 - March 20, 1974), more popularly known as Chet Huntley, was an American television newscaster. ... David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003) was an American television newscaster for NBC and, later, ABC. From 1956 through 1970 he co-anchored NBCs nightly news program The Huntley–Brinkley Report with Chet Huntley. ... The Huntley-Brinkley Report was NBCs flagship television news program from late 1956 until 1970. ... 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar). ... Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. ...

By that time, Swayze---despite a brief turn anchoring an evening newscast for ABC---was more familiar for a series of commercials he did for Timex. Again, his flair for writing or handling catchphrases banked him: "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking" ended up living even longer than hopscotching around the world for headlines did, as Swayze appeared in Timex spots that amounted to mock newscasts before delivering the catch-phrase at the end of the spots. Swayze did the Timex spots for over two decades. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) operates television and radio networks in the United States and is also shown on basic cable in Canada. ... Timex Group B.V. is the best-known American watch company. ...

He was satirised easily enough himself, perhaps most memorably by rock and roll comics Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman, who first "break-in" novelty hit (mock newscasts spliced with bits of current rock and roll hits), "The Flying Saucer," satirised him as reporter John Cameron Cameron (played by Goodman). Dickie Goodman (April 19, 1934 - November 6, 1989) is considered one of the earliest proponents of sampling in music, through a series of break-in records he created from 1956 to 1986. ...

John Cameron Swayze bears no relation to the acting Swayzes from Texas, Patrick and Don. But he made periodic cameos in films, beginning with 1957's A Face in the Crowd. He also hosted and narrated a short-lived television drama series, The Armstrong Circle Theater, after leaving NBC News. Patrick Wayne Swayze (born August 18, 1952) is an American dancer, actor, singer and songwriter, memorable for his roles in the popular films Dirty Dancing (where he wrote and composed the hit song Shes Like the Wind) (1987) and Ghost (1990). ... Don Swayze is an American actor was born in Houston, Texas on August 10, 1958. ... 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A Face in the Crowd (1957) is an epic motion picture starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan. ...

John Cameron Swayze had two sons, one of which bears his name -- and anchors weekend news on WCBS Newsradio 880 in New York (under the name Cameron Swayze).

External links

• John Cameron Swayze at the Internet Movie Database