Word: cullen
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Houston, one of the biggest rich (estimated fortune: $200-$300 million) in the land of the big rich, Oilman-Philanthropist (University of Houston) Hugh Roy Cullen, flanked by his wife, three daughters and three grandchildren, sat down at a luncheon to hear himself eulogized by grateful city fathers. The fitting occasion: the publication of a Cullen biography (Hugh Roy Cullen: A Story of American Opportunity; Prentice-Hall; $4). Orated Houston's Mayor Roy Hofheinz: "Houston is so proud to have been the place where the touch of the hand of Cullen's has been permitted to fall...
...Cullen credits most of his good luck to a disaster that struck him at the age of 18 months. A polio attack left him with a permanent limp. Always drama-minded, Bill decided that radio "was the one place that a ham like me-and, believe me, I'm a ham-could limp and still get a job." He started as an unpaid announcer at Pittsburgh's station WWSW. Within five years, he was getting $300 a week. In 1944, he headed for New York and CBS: "But I don't kid myself. All the good announcers...
Serious & Sad. Cullen underestimated TV cameramen. On Place the Face he is continuously on his feet, but few viewers are aware of his limp. Says Cullen: "To show you how good the camera work is. I've had people stop me on the street and say, 'Hey, Bill, what happened to your leg?' like it happened . over the weekend...
Next week, while Bert Parks is on vacation, Cullen will fill in for him on ABC-TV's Break the Bank. A week later he will start on the CBS-Radio version of Stop the Music. Next month, when Place the Face leaves the air, he will move to a new M.C. job on CBS-TV's Name That Tune. He has a filmed TV question-and-answer show called Professor Yes 'n' No that is seen in 30 cities, and coming up this fall is another radio show with Arlene Francis...
While in transcontinental flight between quizzes, Cullen sometimes broods about his work: "I think to myself: here I play parlor games on Wednesday night, parlor games on Thursday night, and merely chat all afternoon Saturday-for this I get three grand a week! You can't help but realize that it's all pretty useless." But this mood is infrequent: "Mostly, I try not to take myself seriously because when I do, I get sad. I've got no beefs. I'm just a guy who's on a good-luck kick and I hope...