John Nesbitt is an American actor, storyteller, announcer, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known as a narrator (voice-over) in the American radio series "Passing Parade" by the Metro-Golden-Mayer studio.
Biography
John Booth Nesbitt was born on August 23, 1910 in Victoria, British Columbia.
His grandfather was the famous American actor Edwin Thomas Booth, who became famous in the 19th century for his tour of the United States and Europe with plays by Shakespeare. Edwin Booth founded his own Booth Theater in New York. Some theater historians consider Edwin Booth the greatest American theater actor of the 19th century and the greatest actor who played on the stage of Prince Hamlet's theater. However, there is a dark page in his biography: Edwin's younger brother, actor John Wilkes Booth, was the assassin of American President Abraham Lincoln.
John Nesbitt himself attended St. Mary's College in California as a child. Received acting education at the University of California
Radio career
After graduating from university, Nesbitt took a job at the National Broadcasting Company NBC in San Francisco in 1933. Within a couple of years, he was able to take the chair of the announcer of the San Francisco radio station KFRC (this station ceased to exist in 2005).
His most famous radio show was the series Passing Parade, which was better known as John Nesbitt's Passing Parade. It was directed, written and narrated by John Nesbitt himself, who adapted for him the Oscar-winning Metro-Golden-Mayer series of short films.
The series' plots focused on strange but believable historical events, with famous and little-known historical figures such as Nostradamus and Catherine de Medici.
The series began broadcasting in 1937 and finished only in 1949. The episodes lasted 15 to 30 minutes. The series was licensed on radio stations such as CBS, Mutual, NBC Blue and NBC Red. The Passing Parade also contained an excerpt from the author's show by John Charles Thomas (1943-1946) and a program that replaced the 1942 summertime series The Meredith Wilson-John Nesbitt Show.
One of the authoritative critics of the time wrote about Nesbitt in his review, published on July 31, 1943 in Billboard: “John Nesbitt could sense the passage of time in a dramatic and supernatural way and had an incredible ability to detect in this time the exact moments when it was necessary to insert or replace, then or some other word. This explains why he is the number one storyteller on the radio."
John Nesbitt's other show, the anthological program So History Goes, which aired in 1945 and 1946, gained a little less popularity.
Creativity in film and television
That Mothers Might Live (1938) is an American-made short film directed by Fred Zinnemann. In 1939, at the eleventh Academy Awards, the film won an Oscar for Best Short Film. The plot of the film briefly tells the autobiographical story of the Hungarian doctor Ignas Semmelweisy and his scientific discovery calling for the observance of sterile cleanliness in maternity hospitals of the 19th century. He found that if the maternity hospital did its best to maintain sterility, infant and maternal mortality was significantly reduced. For the rest of his life, Ignas fought to get his idea accepted. Nesbitt played the role of the narrator in this film, and also acted as the producer. Ignas Semmelweissy was played by Shepard Strudwick.
Main Street Martha (1941) is an American historical short film directed by Edward Kahn with John Nesbitt as producer and narrator. At the 14th Academy Awards, the film won a second Academy Award for Best Short Film. Although the film is only 20 minutes long, it gives a brief history of events in the United States and Europe one and a half years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Bobbleheads and Puzzles (1941) is an American short documentary directed by George Sidney. The film won the first Academy Award at the 14th Academy Awards for Best Short Film. John Nesbitt was both the producer and the voice narrator in the film.
Stairway to the Light (1945) is an American short film directed by Sammy Lee. The script is based on one of the episodes of John Nesbitt's Passing Parade. The plot of the film tells the story of Philippe Pinel, which took place in Paris during the French Revolution. The moral of the picture is that mentally ill people should not be seen as animals. At the 18th Academy Awards, Stairway to the Light won this award for Best Short Film.
Goodbye Miss Turlock (1948) is an American short film directed by Edward Kahn, based on one of the episodes of the radio series John Nesbitt's Parade Parade. In 1948, at the 20th Academy Awards, the film won the Academy Award for Best Short Film. John Nesbitt acted as a voice-over in it.
Thus, each of the 5 films with John Nesbitt as narrator won an Academy Award.
In 1956 and 1957, John Nesbitt hosted the first season of the American anthological drama series Telephone Time, adapting his own plays. The second season from 1957 to 1958 was hosted by Frank Baxter. The programs were directed by Arthur Hillier, Robert Flory and Lewis Allen. In total, during the period 1956-1958, 81 episodes were released as part of the series. The episodes with John Nesbitt were broadcast on CBS, the episodes with Frank Baxter, the American television and radio company ABC.
For the production of this series, John Nesbitt was nominated (but did not win) an Emmy Award for Best TV Game Screenplay in 1957.
Achievements and personal life
In the year of John Nesbitt's death, two stars were opened in his honor on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The first one at 1717, Vinogradnaya street, section "Movies". The second is at 6200 Hollywood Boulevard in the Radio section. The opening ceremony for both stars took place on February 8, 1960.
Died August 10, 1960 in Carmel, California.
House of John Nesbitt
In 1940, John Nesbitt acquired the famous throughout the States residence - the house of Ennis and with the help of his friend the architect Frank Lloyd Wright redesigned it, adding a primary heating system for the building, a pool with a north terrace and a billiard room on the ground floor.
The Ennis House, located in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA, was designed in 1923 and built in 1924 by architect Frank Lloyd Wright for Charles and Mabel Ennis.
The building is widely known as the fourth residential structure to be constructed from Wright's textile blocks, which are based on a system of interwoven precast concrete blocks. Earlier in the United States, they have already built such: this is La Miniatura in Pasadena and the Storer and Freeman Houses in the Hollywood Hills.
Like the other creations of Frank Lloyd Wright, the House of Ennis resembled ancient Mayan temples. Together with other structures built in the same style (AD German Warehouse in Wisconsin and Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House in Hollywood), they founded a new direction in architecture called Mayan Renaissance Architecture. Perforated, embossed and patterned decorations on more than 27,000 granite blocks, inspired by the symmetry of the architecture of the Puuk Temple in Uxmal, are one of the distinguishing features of all these houses.
Subsequently, expanding several times, the Ennis House has grown into a real miniature town that has become a national landmark.
