Show r RADIO GARDENER 44 don mcneill M C of the breakfast club program fans the prayer and impromptu assignments sign ments for D day will go down in radio as a classic of the year when the program was started 12 years ago no visitors were allowed this rule was first broken in 1937 in response to a letter from a hopelessly tubercular marine who wrote that seeing a performance of the club was chief among the things he wanted to do before his final hour in 1938 the doors were thrown open to all comers since then half a million people have seen the program and watched the gang go through their paces the program has attracted national attention in its effective war work they are given credit for hav T 6 r V r J ap ff P W mil L MA when the entire cast takes the stage things begin to hum over the air ing started the waste wast paper salvage drive in the united states they focused national attention on the crucial manpower shortage in war industries dus tries and early in the war received the governments thanks for this work at one bond auction mcneill sold worth of war bonds at the swank winnetka district for this he received a treasury citation mc don mcneill is an honorary sergeant major at fort sheridan and a reserve recruiting official in the marines he was recently awarded the degree of doctor of frustration by the boswell institute his greatest honor however he says is the thousands of letters received from his fans the host of the breakfast club was born in galena ill december 23 1907 that should make him 38 33 years old but he insists that he is only 28 23 several years later the mcneill family moved to sheboygan wise where don attended high school there is no record of any previous previous s schooling he gained fame in high high scho school ol 01 by winning a fly swatting contest in 1925 he found his way to milwaukee and enrolled in the college of journals jour journalism nali SM at marquette university where he edited the student newspaper a and rid tooted a snazzy saxophone his personal representative jimmy bennett says say that the success of b both oth ventures can be determined by the fact that he is no longer employed as a tooter footer of saxophones or a newspaper editor in 1928 1923 he secured a job on a milwaukee radio station announcing programs directing programs riding gain in the control room rounding up guest speakers editing the stations publicity releases and answering the telephone I 1 he le was paid 10 a week which was later increased to 15 a week when he recently signed a new five year contract with the blue network it was at a figure above what he was getting at milwaukee after rece receiving i ving his jhb degree he decamped de camped to louisville where he became one 0 of f the two professors a comedy team over in 1 1933 he went to chicago took over the not too well wel known pepper pot program and developed the present breakfast club ever since pearl harbor the breakfast club calendar has been crowded with extra curricula i activities the entire cast has a appeared before hospitals and camps they have appeared at the great lakes training station on several occasions when D day broke don mcneill was on the way it to 0 the studio he cleared the way fa for r the omission n ol of commercials ha had d patriotic rn music PI played a and offered up a prayer the order was to stand by for ne news Ws flashes and the prayer which was written 15 minutes before air time |