Nobody Did It Like Harvey

When I was 11 years old, I was forced to spend six months in bed due to a condition known as St. Vitas’ Dance, which was a relative of Rheumatic Fever.

I was miserable.

We didn’t have a TV, so I listened to the radio — constantly. The station I listened to featured two newscasts a day hosted by a guy I came to know very well. He became almost like a member of the family from that time until just last weekend, when he died at the age of 90.

His name was Paul Harvey, although for awhile I knew him as Paul Harvey News because that was the way he was introduced on the radio. The announcer would say: “And now, here’s Paul Harvey News.”

His voice was so authoritative and his descriptions of happenings were so vivid the listener thought he was at the center of whatever Paul was talking about.

During that time, a kid by the name of Bobby Greenlease was kidnapped in Mission Hills, Kansas. Paul, and I through him, followed that case daily and I wouldn’t miss a newscast. I was up for the 7:30 a.m. newscast and wouldn’t eat lunch until 12:15 p.m., after the noon newscast was over. Paul’s delivery was so “listener friendly” I never tired of it. And I knew more about the Greenlease kidnapping than anyone in Cleveland, where I was living at the time.

His delivery was so dynamic that his “Rest of the Story” also became a part of my life. I mean, the man knew how to tell a story!

I knew he was 90 years old and I knew his wife, his beloved Angel, had passed away last year. And, I knew he was not behind the mike for over a month before I got the fateful call from a friend of mine in New Orleans last Sunday morning. It was before 9 a.m., so I knew it was important. He knows I like to sleep late on Sunday mornings.

He didn’t beat around the bush.

“I just thought you’d like to know that Paul Harvey died last night,” he said slowly and distinctly.

I was stunned and then overcome with sadness. I couldn’t talk.

“Thanks,” I replied, adding: “I’ll call you later.”

I laid there and reflected, thinking about all the newscasts we had shared over the 55 years that I had known the man. We met once, and he called me once. Both occurred while I was with the New Orleans Saints in the early 1970s.

In 1971, I was sitting at my new desk at 900 St. Charles Avenue on Lee Circle when my secretary buzzed in telling me Paul Harvey was on the phone for me. As I was want to do, I replied to her: “THE Paul Harvey?”

Excited, I picked up the phone and identified myself.

“Mr. Liddell,” he began, “I am Paul Harvey with ABC Radio News. Do you have a few minutes to talk about Archie Manning?”

Archie was my favorite topic of conversation at the time as he was the Saints’ number one draft choice that year. He asked me questions about Archie for five minutes or so and his final question was: “Larry, would you say that Archie is the same kid that is portrayed by his press clippings?”

Since I had been writing his press clippings for three years while we were both at Ole Miss, I said: “I would say that he is definitely like his press clippings portray him. In fact, I can honestly say he hasn’t changed since his sophomore year in high school, except, of course, to mature.”

At noon that day, I listened to “Paul Harvey News & Comment” and heard Paul repeat, in his own fashion, what I had told him during the five minute conversation I had had with him that morning. A year or so later, while in Chicago, I dropped by his office at ABC Radio and asked to see him. He came right out and visited with me for a few minutes. He was so gracious and friendly, it was like meeting the old friend that I considered him to be.

So, when my friend called with the tragic news of Paul’s death, it was as if I had lost a long-time friend. I’ve often thought about why Paul never went into television news, but, after thinking about it, I don’t think television would have worked for him. His descriptions of what was going on in the world were often more graphic and descriptive than any camera could have portrayed.

For it was his voice that captured the audience.

His son, Paul Harvey, Jr., wrote the perfect epitaph for his father. “My father and mother created from thin air what one day became radio and television news,” he wrote. “So, in the past year, an industry has lost its godparents and today millions have lost a friend.”

Good Day!