E_Hoot_Owls

Early in 1933, the Hoot Owls ended their ten-year KGW run. Creating

and presenting the program on a largely volunteer basis was draining

but the passage of time had also taken its toll. Some cast members,

like Haller and Blanc, had moved on. Then, in late April 1931, death

claimed Tige Reynolds, the Oregonian cartoonist whose on-air

presence and visual representations of the Hoot Owls had helped cast

the program’s spell. Quickly, the Hoot Owls cancelled their intended

May 1 program and gathered for a spontaneous Reynolds memorial

before the KGW microphones.

Unfortunately, that event proved a sad rehearsal for the program’s

greatest loss, a September 1, 1932 heart attack which killed Grand

Screetch Charles F. Berg. Berg had some history of ill-health and it

was his first heart attack, in 1922, which brought son, Forrest, to

Portland to assist in his father’s business. Berg, one of Portland’s

“most energetic civic leaders and keenest business minds”, was

editorially mourned by the Oregonian as: “[a] rare

cavalier...far-visioned, competent...boyish of heart, with a mature

wisdom and purpose. [H]e believed, as essential to living, that

laughter is the tonic of the race....In twenty years there has been

little of constructive moment to the city of Portland that did not

summon Charlie to an unselfish task...Charlie Berg was one of the

few.”

The death of this much-beloved Portland figure occurred on a

Thursday evening late in the Hoot Owls’ summer-long vacation from

radio. Notwithstanding their summer hiatus, the following day, on

Friday September 1, the Hoot Owls gathered before the KGW

microphones for a brief, unscheduled broadcast eulogy: “These are

the Hoot Owls assembled in regular meeting in the home roost of

KGW. We are gathered tonight to pay brief and simple homage to

Charles F. Berg, grand screetch and founder of the Hoot Owls, whose

sudden passing gives us pause to scatter that sunshine which he

radiated throughout his life - to his family and countless friends. Ten

years of happy service by Mr. Berg made his name synonymous with

the name Hoot Owls and we aim to carry on, as he would have us

do, his simple creed - ‘service to fellow men.’

With KGW music director Abe Bercovitz playing “Ehli, Ehli,” a

Jewish song of mourning, on the violin

(both Berg and Bercovitz were

Jewish), the Degree Team and the

audience all broke down on air.

Following Berg’s death, the Degree

Team reported their firm intention to

continue - but it wasn’t meant to be.

Following the Berg eulogy and the

conclusion of their summer hiatus, on

September 30, 1932 the Hoot Owls returned to their regular

broadcasting schedule. They promoted a significant Hoot Owls skit,

“Africa Squeaks,” for their October 21 program. The title was a

parody of the 1930 documentary/travelogue "Africa Speaks". The

Hoot Owls even prepared their customary promotional materials

including a silly photo (at right, left to right,Harry Grannatt, Dean

Collins and Frank Sardam) -- but their spirit seemed to be waning.

Likely heavily preoccupied with personal and professional matters,

Forrest Berg never returned to the regular program following his

father’s death. As one cast member put it: “With Charlie gone, and

the Bishop – the heart went out of it.”

Rallying for the traditional Hoot Owls Christmas broadcast for 1932,

the Hoot Owls limped into 1933 with a scheduled January 6 program

but without Berg in their roost the void must have increasingly

seemed overwhelming. It seems unlikely that, as the Hoot Owls

entered the KGW studio on January 6, 1933 for their 518th program,

they intended it would be their final broadcast. Given the program’s

history and prominence, it would seem

that a grand finale edition would have

been prepared if the program’s

conclusion had been anticipated. A skit

had been prepared for the program and

customary advance publicity appeared -

all with no hint that it would be the Hoot

Owls’ final weekly episode. But it was.

Perhaps during the broadcast the Hoot Owls realized just how

difficult it was to go on. Perhaps they had some sense that the

program wasn’t up to their customary standard following the deaths

of Berg and Reynolds and the departures of Blanc, Sumner, Forrest

Berg and others. Whatever the circumstance which caused the

program’s conclusion, no public explanation was given for their

sudden exit. The following morning, in the January 7, 1933

Oregonian, the paper’s “Behind the Mike” column contained their

simple one-sentence epitaph: “The Hoot Owls last night broadcast

their final program and retired to their woods for good.”