Bob Gallico's Trans-Atlantic Adventure
An Exclusive Interview with Bob Gallico - Ireland's Veteran Broadcaster
By Seán McCarthy - N.U.J.
Broadcaster Bob Gallico's distinguished career as an actor and broadcaster on commercial radio in Ireland spans three decades (The Gallico Family Archives)
In the first ever interview conducted by THE IRISH EXAMINER on Skype (www.skype.com), Seán McCarthy talks across the internet to Ireland's legendary broadcaster Bob Gallico, whose distinguished career as an actor and broadcaster on commercial radio in Ireland for these past 3 decades has brought Gallico full circle, and back to his original place of birth, The United States of America. When his father the world-renowned novelist Paul Gallico wrote 'The Poseidon Adventure' in 1969 (Published by: William Heinemann, London), little did the acclaimed writer know that his own son Robert would later embark on a very own personal high-seas adventure across the Atlantic Ocean ... to the shores of Ireland.
Now, with the shelves of major DVD rental stores nationwide and globally sporting the latest big-screen rendition of his father's original novel (Warner Bros. 2006 'Poseidon' - Directed by Wolfgang Petersen) Bob Gallico sits back in a comfy recliner as we speak, one eye possibly on his favourite mystery movie, another possibly on his latest script, and talks to me candidly on Skype from Salem, MA about, among other subjects, his Mam and Dad, his childhood in New York, his late wife Joyce and her passion for painting Irish race-horses, his remarkable move to Ireland over three decades ago, his many broadcasting colleagues including Larry Gogan and Declan Meehan, and his recent return to the United States of America. Gallico also shares his personal thoughts on the recent blockbuster film 'POSEIDON' (Warner Bros. 2006):
Seán McCarthy: You've always been a bit of a techie Bob. How do you find communicating with your family and friends around the world on Skype? What is it about Skype you enjoy most?
Bob Gallico: It's free!
SMcC: You were born on 5th Avenue in New York City in 1930, and reared in Westchester, the son of working journalists Paul Gallico and Alva Taylor. Talk to me about your parents Bob, and your early childhood?
Bob Gallico: Well, I was born in a sanatorium, and that's 'sanatorium', not 'sanitarium', thank you very much! (Gallico points out wittingly). The sanatorium is no longer there I believe, I think it burned down some years ago, and I had nothing to do with that! I was brought up in Westchester County NY. We lived in Larchmont, and did all my schooling in that area, Larchmont, Port Chester. I really didn't know my father and my mother. My childhood is kind of a blank to me. They were separated when I was, oh I suppose about five or six years old. I honestly can't remember my father in the context of my early childhood. And it was only in later years that I got to know my mother, very well obviously. (Gallico chuckles fondly). Because they were both working journalists, we always had somebody looking after us ... a nurse or something like that. And I got to know my father in later years.
SMcC: Your father of course wrote The Poseidon Adventure, and it has been a big-screen blockbuster before, in 1972, with Robert Neame directing and starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters and Roddy McDowell. How did you find the latest screen adaptation directed by Wolfgang Petersen? Was it a true adaptation of your father's original novel?
Bob Gallico: Well, they call this latest version: Paul Gallico's 'Poseidon'. It was not! This was a special effects film, loosely based on The Poseidon Adventure written by Paul Gallico. The basic idea of the ship turning turtle, with some people getting out, and most perishing? That's where the resemblance ended. The first version you mention (1972) was much more character-driven. In this latest one, quite honestly (Bob says with great wit)... I couldn't really care whether anybody, any of those characters got out of the ship! I had no interest in them whatsoever, as characters. In the original 1972 version, you at least had 'some' interest, some empathy with the characters. In the book, there was even more. But this latest version? Special effects, great, wonderful! But Paul Gallico's Poseidon Adventure? No.
SMcC: Were you disappointed?
Bob Gallico: No, I wasn't really disappointed because I wasn't expecting it to be anything other than what it was. So on that level, I wasn't disappointed.
Bob Gallico broadcasts on ILTV Ireland (Anner International)
SMcC: Getting back to your father's novel The Poseidon Adventure, when did you first read it and what did you yourself think of your dad's book?
Bob Gallico: I read it in the late 1960's, before the film came out. I thought it was an excellent story. It was a unique idea. In fact, some people know this, a lot of people don't: it was based on an actual incident. My father was coming back from Europe in the late 1930's on one of the ocean liners. I think it was The Queen Mary, or The Queen Elizabeth. They ran into a storm, and there 'was' a freak wave, and the ship keeled over to its side, and turned turtle, as in the film version. The ship keeled 'well over' ... and then righted itself again. And that's obviously what gave my father the idea for the book. It was an actual incident that he went through. When I read the book I thought it was a terrific idea. I thought the characters were interesting, and I enjoyed it as a book. And I enjoyed the original film, although the film was a bit more of a kind of big-screen adventure which lost a little of the sophistication of the book. But still, it was good. But the latest one? Uh uh! Special Effects, ten out of ten! The rest? Uh!
SMcC: Of course your father also wrote The Snow Goose, The Small Miracle, The Man Who Was Magic, Trial by Terror, and many other great American classics. But, you're a bit of a writer yourself I believe?
Bob Gallico: In so far as, for my own performance. But I've never considered myself a writer. What I've always wanted to be from childhood is a performer. That's basically what I am, a performer. So what I have written, I have written for my own personal use. The writing talent obviously, some of it comes from my father. But most of the kind of writing that I do I think comes from my Grandfather on my mother's side whose name was Burt Leston Taylor (Quote: "A bore is a man who when asked how he is, tells you" - End Quote). He was a columnist and humorist for The Chicago Tribune. He wrote a column, and humorist kind of things. That's the kind of writing that I do.
SMcC: And your mother Alva was also a columnist?
Bob Gallico: Yes she was. She was a columnist for The New York Daily News. She was the fashion columnist ... that's what she did, she wrote about fashions. And during the World War II when there were no women's fashions, expect for uniforms, there was no need for a fashion column, so they switched her to gardening! And she became the Gardening Columnist for the Daily News. And I was the one who had to do all the weeding and digging up rocks from our Victory Garden ... and the experimentation, so my mother could write about it! (Gallico reflects fondly).
SMcC: Talk to me about your late wife Joyce, and her passion for painting in oils. What, do you believe, drew Joyce to art in the first place?
Bob Gallico: What drew Joyce to art? I really don't know, but she took to it. She had studied art when she was young, and she taught art later in life. She painted, but she didn't paint as much as she wanted to paint, and perhaps not as much as I wanted her to paint. Joyce painted primarily in oils, but she did some watercolours as well. Oils, though, were her preferred medium.
Broadcaster and Actor Bob Gallico in Salem, MA (Kevin Frasca)
SMcC: What do you think drew Joyce to paint horses in particular?
Bob Gallico: Well, she rode horses, as both her brothers also did. When Joyce was a child, she had a pony. And she rode in a number of Horse Shows and Gymkhanas in Ireland, and Joyce won a number of various awards, ribbons, etc. And so, I think, putting together her knowledge of horses and painting skills is much of the reason why Joyce was able to paint horses so accurately. She knew the musculature of horses, whereas a lot of painters who paint horses don't! The understanding that Joyce had of the musculature of horses gave her paintings such accuracy.
SMcC: You are well renowned for being Ireland's most identifiable America voice on Irish commercial radio. How did your radio career in Ireland start, and how did you enjoy it?
Bob Gallico: From a very early age, I wanted to be in radio. I think what I really wanted to be was a radio actor, that was my childhood dream. And so, I was looking for a path to that. In school, I did stand-up comedy, and I did 'behind-the-mike' work for auditorium presentations. Then, when I was in college at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, I worked on the college radio station there. When I left Brown, I got into small-station radio. During that time, I wrote to a number of radio stations, and had replies from two, one which was located in Up-State New York, and the other in Augusta, Georgia! I choose Augusta, because I had a friend from Brown University who was working down in Georgia. I headed down to Augusta and worked for a radio station there, then subsequently worked for another station in Savannah, Georgia. Following that, I sort of lost the path to radio, and I went into theatre for quite a number of years.
SMcC: And your theatre background?
Bob Gallico: I worked in the Barter Theater, Virginia, which was the company started by a man named Robert Porterfield during The Depression. It was called The Barter Theatre because originally, during The Depression, people didn't have much money. And so, to gain entrance to the theatre they bartered things like chickens or hams or whatever! As Porterfield once said, "At the end of the fourth period...four barrels of jelly! That was the profit this evening", or something like that! (Gallico chuckles humorously) It later on became only on a first-night basis, traditionally, that one had to barter for tickets. So I spent a couple of years there, both in summer stock and touring in the South East of America.
SMcC: You're no stranger to film and television either. Indeed your acting career in television, I believe, goes back to 1957 with the hit TV series O.S.S.?
Bob Gallico: Well actually it goes back slightly further than that, because when I left The Barter Theatre I went to New York to try and break into the medium there as everybody would want to do in New York, being the 'Mecca' that it is for actors, apart from Hollywood of course. Again, I had my eye on radio, but that didn't work out right away. But I did have a few television appearances, small walk-ons and one-line parts for a couple of years in New York before I went to Ireland. And it was in Ireland that my real career began. I worked in the Dublin Globe Theatre, The Gaiety, The Gate, and with all the Irish actors of that generation.
SMcC: So you went on to appear in such classic television series, as
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mentioned, O.S.S., The Invisible Man, and The Flying Doctor ...
Bob Gallico: Yes, these were all television series that were made basically for U.S. consumption, UK and Ireland consumption. But before that, before I went to London to do these series, I spent three years in Ireland, in the theatre, from 1954 to 1957. It was in '57 that I went to London to further my career. That's when O.S.S. happened which was a breakthrough for me but in another way, was a bit of an albatross because it kind of typecast me. And I did a lot of other series as you mention, The Invisible Man, The Flying Doctor, The Saint, and The Pursuers.
SMcC: When you arrived in Ireland and The UK, did production companies and audiences know who you were from the U.S.?
Bob Gallico: Not at all. I was a complete stranger!
An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern with Bob Gallico
SMcC: With so many professional broadcasting colleagues in Ireland, the commercial radio-market audience knows you well for your unique, bass American voice. You've also been instantly identifiable on transatlantic Aer Lingus flights as the in-flight classical entertainment presenter alongside Larry Gogan with your 'Destination USA' programmes. How is Larry to work with?
Bob Gallico: Larry is very easy to work with, and a very down-to-earth guy. I've known Larry Gogan for many, many years. In fact I knew Larry before he was Larry Gogan, when he was 'Lar' Gogan. He was an actor when I was in the Dublin Globe Theatre between 1954 to '57 He had done some acting, and he was in one of our plays. He's a lovely guy, very genuine, a thorough gentleman with a great sense of humour and just so easy to get on with. I hit it off instantly in the same way that I did in Ireland with my breakfast show partner Declan Meehan.
SMcC: Of course, iterating the words 'Bob Gallico and Declan Meehan' in Ireland is like saying 'Cornflakes and Milk'. Talk to me about your work with Declan Meehan over the years in Ireland on various radio shows together?
Bob Gallico: It was very interesting. I had joined a new radio station back in the 1980's called Radio Nova. And Declan joined shortly afterwards. I had been assigned to the Breakfast programme on Nova. And, at that time there was no two-person breakfast programme in Ireland at all. A 'double-hander' as we call it in broadcasting. So Declan and I were thrown together. And I hit it off with him immediately because he's a very professional broadcaster. I based our professional on-air relationship on what to me was one of the outstanding things at the BBC at the time for morning programming: Terry Wogan would do the morning show. And Jimmy Young, the ex-singer came on at about ten o'clock a.m. and would do his programme on the BBC. And they had a crossover segment you know, for about a minute or so, where they both exchanged humorous comments. And I based our show on Nova, with me being the, shall we say, 'staid, up-market type' and doing the Classic programme also (Nova's sister station Magic 103 FM), all very serious you know (Gallico says with tongue-in-cheek wit) against Declan Meehan's 'ordinary Dublin type!' And it worked! We formed this on-air partnership, Declan and I, which I think set the standard for breakfast radio in Ireland for many years to come.
SMcC: What attracted you to Radio Nova in the first place?
Bob Gallico: Well, I had gotten out of the theatre and was working for a company called Weather Glaze, which was a double-glazing and window-replacing company. I had to feed the family! And I wasn't getting enough of the acting work in England to support the family. So I came back to Ireland and got into the double-glazing business! I spent a few years on the road selling, and became an area manager in Dublin for Weather Glaze. And, in my car, I heard this radio station come on the air, Radio Nova. At first I thought it was some station broadcasting from America! It sounded very American. I had been reading about some American station that was going to broadcast across Ireland, and I thought 'this was it!' As it turned out, it wasn't an American station ... it was local. And I said to myself: if I ever get back on the radio, there's the station I would love to work for. Radio Nova.
SMcC: When you heard Radio Nova broadcasting, did the station remind you of America?
Bob Gallico: Yes it did, because it was very professional sounding. In fact, the first voice I heard was that of a presenter called Jason Maine who sounded very American. A lot of the broadcasters at the time sounded American and were broadcasting in a kind of 'transatlantic' accent. But it was the professionalism of the station that appealed to me. And eventually I joined them. And the rest is history.
SMcC: You have delivered thousands of commercials for numerous world-class products and services globally. But you also enjoy music?
Bob Gallico: I love all kinds of music in fact. When I wasn't listening to classical music during the Be-Bop era, I became very fond of jazz, particularly the progressive jazz of the time, up until the time of Dave Brubeck and Take Five (1958-1967). I worked two summers during 1949 - 1950 for an advertising agency in New York, then Benton & Bowles, (now D'Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles). A couple of friends of mine used to go up to The Downbeat Club on West 52nd Street. And we heard all the Jazz Greats in person, like Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie ... all the greats of that particular era. And so yes, I love jazz, and classical music, all kinds of music. As I like to say, I have a very 'Catholic' taste in music! I do love a good Gregorian Chant! So classical music is part of it. And so, when presenting classical radio programmes, what I try to do is to make people 'part' of it. Classical music is not elitist. It's not just for the very rich, and very highbrow. And as I like to say during my classical radio programmes: The height of your brow doesn't matter a damn. It's just 'good music'. Brows have nothing to do with it. It's about the appreciation of music. In fact I also love good pop music!
Director Jim Sheridan sourced Bob Gallico for the role of the American 'Theatre Director' in the Oscar-nominated film 'IN AMERICA' (2002). Gallico continues to this day to write parody and wit, delivers his unique voiceovers from a studio in Salem, MA, maintains an online presence at www.irishvox.com - and is currently reading the literary works of Sheridan Le Fanu. The Bob Gallico legend lives on, as feisty as ever.
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