Dialing up 1972 for a phone interview with Miss Annette Hanshaw---
Jack Cullen interviews Annette Hanshaw (10/18 1901 - 03/13 1985)
A chance to hear Miss Hanshaw in her own words & songs! A few words about Canadian broadcaster John F. "Jack" Cullen (02/16 1922 - 04/27 2002) Cullen was best-known (for over five decades) at CKNW as host of his lateshow “Owl Prowl” until 1999. His Sunday night show was called "98 Memory Lane" where he'd play 78 RPM records from the 1920s - 1950s. Cullen purchased his first 78 RPM record, “Don’t Give Up The Ship” (by Dick Powell) in November 1935. From there his record collection grew to over 300,000! Jack Cullen tried to interview virtually every entertainer who came to Vancouver & was first hired by CKNW in 1949. By then, Cullen was constantly taking a wire recorder around to local nightclubs to capture acts by artists such as Frank Sinatra & Judy Garland for quasi-legal use on his radio shows! Most of the performers weren't so concerned by this as they knew that Cullen would promote hell out of their music on the radio & paint them in a favorable light. Surreptitiously Cullen taped performances by Harry Belafonte, The Beatles & Frank Sinatra to play on his show, leading to chastisement by the American Federation of Musicians! For that reason Sinatra refused to be interviewed by Jack Cullen. Louis Armstrong on the other hand, was so charmed by Cullen that he authorized the official release of a bootleg recording Cullen made of him in 1951! Cullen was known to be on good terms with Bob Hope, Sammy Davis Jr. & also charmed Nat King Cole with reminiscences of Cole’s early career. Here at The Big Broadcast Legacy Group we hear him charm the charming Annette Hanshaw. He recorded this exchange for his CKNW radio show in 1972. His programs often contained surface noise (bangs thuds & crunches), as he would move around to pick a record or answer a phone with the mike on!
