Dick Lane: KTTV Channel 5

[Ron Hill]

When we raced on TV, Speedboat Rodeo (Winter 1955-56) , we raced for 39 straight weeks. We didn't run all classes, we ran three classes each week. The TV Show was like 10 to 12 every Sunday. Dick Lane announced ever race. He'd come early, and walk around the pits and talk to everyone. He often said how much fun it was to announce the Boat Races. He'd watch testing, and if you stood near him, he'd be talking to himself getting "PUMPED UP" for the show. He'd watch someone come around a corner and he'd say, "Whoa Nellie" which he was famous for...He also seemed to like me, and the HILLS, he called me "Silky Sullivan Hill." His favorite class was 36 runabout, as they only went about 39 MPH and he could announce every move, all racing was live, no tapes in those days. They'd super impose the clock in one corn of the screen for the starts, quite cool for the era...They had a "FAVORITE DRIVER" contest, and the winner got a set of Ptoto Tools...I won the tools, this is a picture of me with Dick....They later sent me a complete set of new tools as this set was missing some wrenches...


Dick also announced Jalopy Derby were Rufus Parnell Jones raced...Dick shortened his name to Parnelli Jones. When I see Parnelli he often speaks fondly of Dick Lane......

Early years
Lane was born in 1899 in Rice Lake, Wisconsin to a farm family. Early in life he developed talents for reciting poetry and doing various song-and-dance acts. By his teenage years, he was doing an "iron jaw" routine in circuses around Europe and worked as a drummer touring with a band in Australia. After the decline of Vaudeville, Lane obtained extensive work in motion pictures and was best known at the time for playing Inspector Farraday in some Boston Blackie features.
During World War II, he appeared as MC with USO troupes entertaining G.I's. His unit appeared at Ft. Mc Arthur in September 1944.

Filmography

1937 : Flight From Glory : Mr. Hanson 1937 : Should Wives Work? 1938 : Radio City Revels : Crane 1938 : I'm from the City : Captain Oliver 'Ollie' Fitch 1938 : Mr. Doodle Kicks Off : Assistant Coach 'Offsides' Jones 1938 : Charlie Chan in Honolulu : Mike Hannigan, alias Det. Arnold 1939 : Union Pacific : Sam Reed 1940 : Brother Orchid : Mugsy O'Day 1940 : Boom Town : Assistant District Attorney 1941 : Sunny : Reporter 1941 : Time Out for Rhythm : Mike Armstrong 1941 : Hellzapoppin' : Director 1942 : Ride 'Em Cowboy : Pete Conway 1942 : To the Shores of Tripoli : Lieutenant on Minesweeper 1942 : A-Haunting We Will Go : Parker 1942 : Arabian Nights : Corporal 1943 : Air Force : Major W.G. Roberts 1943 : It Ain't Hay : Slicker 1943 : Corvette K-225 : Vice Admiral 1943 : Crazy House : Hanley 1943 : The Chance of a Lifetime : Insp. John Farraday 1943 : Gung Ho! : Captain Dunphy 1944 : Mr. Winkle Goes to War : Sgt. 'Alphabet' Czeidrowski 1945 : Here Come the Co-Eds : Nearsighted man at Miramar Ballroom 1945 : The Bullfighters : Hotshot Coleman 1946 : Pardon My Terror : Dick 1946 : Sioux City Sue : Jefferson Lang 1947 : Devil Ship : Captain 'Biff' Brown 1948 : The Babe Ruth Story : Boston Braves' coach 1949 : He's in Again : Dick 1949 : Mighty Joe Young : Attorney 1949 : That Midnight Kiss : Radio D.J. interviewing Ethel Barrymore 1949 : The Big Wheel : Reno Riley 1950 : The Jackie Robinson Story : Clay Hopper, Montreal Manager 1951 : I Can Get It for You Wholesale : Kelley 1960 : Visit to a Small Planet : Superbo Television Spokesman 1964 : The Killers : Demolition Derby Announcer 1965 : Dear Brigitte : Track Announcer 1976 : The Shaggy D.A. : Roller Rink Announcer 1978 : The One and Only

Work with KTLA

Due to his work at Paramount Pictures, he was able to obtain work at KTLA which was owned by the studio at the time. When the station went commercial for the first time in 1947, Lane started work as a news presenter. One of the early highlights of his career was to report on the first atomic explosion covered by a television newscast. His claim to fame was when KTLA agreed to broadcast wrestling matches from the Olympic Auditorium in 1946 and hired Lane to comment on the action. He started his work airing Roller Derby in 1951. His broadcasts featured such personalities as Gorgeous George, Mr. Moto (wrestler) and Doc Grable. Contrary to popular opinion, it was Lane and not former ABC sports announcer Keith Jackson who coined the exclamatory expression "Whoa, Nellie!" when something "bad" happened in the ring or on the rink.^[1]

Later Years

After Lane retired from television full time in 1972, he accepted few offers for work, but did make a notable cameo appearance in Raquel Welch's vehicle The Kansas City Bomber. Lane died in Newport Beach, California on September 5, 1982.

Dick Lane was well known for being the TV KTLA ch 5 announcer for the Jalopy Derby and Destruction Derby from Gardena Stadium.

He was also well known for his role of Leather Britches on the Spade Colley show on KTLA.

[Ron Hill]

Comment: I just read your commentary on Dick Lane. I grew up in Venice in the 50's, and my friends and I would ride our bike to LA Lake to watch you guys race. We used to run in front of the TV camera, and Dick would yell at us to move.

Whoa Nellie! Great memories.

I got an email for a man named "Mark", he said he grew up in Venice and used to come watch the races. He had read my post about Dick Lane and was surprised I didn't use the words "Whoa Nellie:

I guess, I could say that "Slipped" my mind. I remembered back to my running time trials for the Trophy Dash (We only ran three classes a weekend and only one class got to run for the "Trophy Dash". Anyway, I set "TOP TIME" and had to started 4th out of four becasue they inverted the starts. Time Trials were not on TV. When I came in my brother said, "Dick Lane was watching and when you came around that last corner and skidded her wide, ole Dick was going 'WHOA NELLIE', I think Dick is a Hill fan."

I was looking for a Dick Lane "whoa Nellie" reference, because I remember him saying that long before Keith Jackson said it.
I used to watch roller derby, too, and he was a classic!
Now that I have a boat of my own, a 17 1/2' bass fishing boat, I have a whole new appreciation of how you guys raced. I don't think those were deep hulled boats, and I remember how it looked like you were sliding through those turns.
Anyway, glad to hear you're still around.
All the best,
Mark

[smittythewelder]

Fascinating stuff, Ron. For anyone who's wondering why Lane would have called you, "Silky Sullivan Hill," the reference would have been to a nationally-ranked thoroughbred racehorse named Silky Sullivan that became famous for repeatedly coming from the back of the pack to win. But I'm wondering about the bio information saying that as a teenager Lane traveled with a circus doing an "iron jaw" routine . . . what is that??

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silky_Sullivan

A weekly 2-hour television show of boatracing . . . if you weren't telling us about this, I'd never have believed such a thing!!! Dick Rautenburg once told me that he and his brother Dick used to win some rather impressive (for the times) sums in the late-Fifties when there were money races in Reg. 10, and that was already hard to imagine by 1965, even though outboard racing was still very healthy. You got to see the golden era.

[Ron Hill]

Fascinating stuff, Ron. For anyone who's wondering why Lane would have called you, "Silky Sullivan Hill," the reference would have been to a nationally-ranked thoroughbred racehorse named Silky Sullivan that became famous during one season for several races in which he came from mid-pack to win. But I'm wondering about the bio information saying that as a teenager Lane traveled with a circus doing an "iron jaw" routine . . . what is that??

A weekly 2-hour television show of boatracing . . . if you weren't telling us about this, I'd never have believed such a thing!!! Dick Rautenburg once told me that he and his brother Dick used to win some rather impressive (for the times) sums in the late-Fifties when there were money races in Reg. 10, and that was already hard to imagine by 1965, even though outboard racing was still very healthy. You got to see the golden era.

Marshall's book pretty much tells Johnny Cash's life story along with Marshall's.

Sometimes, I think back at boat racing and ask myself what I could have done differently to help boat racing grow. Then, sometime I watch a commuter train cross my road on my way home from work and ask myself, "How could I stop that damn it? Every night it crosses my path, stops four lanes of traffic each way, and nobody is on the train."

I know better than stand in front of the train to try an stop it.

In 1955, my brother had a new '55 Chevy Convertible, Russ Hill Red and Screaming White were the color of the Chevy. My brother and John Drake, dated Phyllis Winger, only female in John Wayne's movie "Island in the Sky." We raced for FREE ENTRY FEE, we got free oil, and they paid $150 a class first place. Speedboat Rodeo was the biggest sporting event of TV in Southern California. On our way home from the races, people would honk and wave.

As weeks of racing went on, the "NEWNESS" wore off, we had 20 boats a class and many drivers wanted to race at Long Beach, San Diego, Carlsbad. At first KTLA followed us to Long Beach and Carlsbad.

Less than two months after Speedboat Rodeo went off the air, taping of TV Shows came in. If we could have raced all the classes for say 13 weeks, and taped and edited the races. But this didn't happen the promoters made some good money and the drivers made out well. When 39 week came to an end, everyone seemed glad.

[DeanFHobart]

There were also TV Boat Races in Region 10 in the 1960 to 1962 Era, every Tuesday evening on Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Washington. Every week during the summer. Different classes every week. Call Letters KTVW, Channel 13. The signal didn't come in very good in Seattle, but I watched it every week anyway.

I'm sure they must have gotten the idea from KTLA.

[smittythewelder]

I heard some reference to those Tacoma races after they were long gone, dang it. But weren't they all Inboard races, Dean?

[DeanFHobart]

No, they were Outboard races. J, A, B, C, and D...... J runabout only, and both runabout and hydro for the others.