Emil “Doc” Mancell’s cozy living room is filled with handwritten notes, memorabilia and letters that showcase much of his life, including the years he spent working in entertainment during the 1930s and ’40s.
There’s quite a bit to document from his radio and live performance days: his luncheon with comedian Eddit Cantor; meeting Martha Raye and Elliott Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin Deleanor Roosevelt; and working with musician Tex Ritter, father of actor John Ritter.
“My wife and I were friendly. We met a lot of people,” laughs the 87-year-old neighborhood resident. “I guess we had good personalities – of course, my wife was pretty.”
A year after moving to Dallas in 1933, Mancell hooked up with an advertising and radio agency akin to a staffing company and did what he could to break into radio – on a part-time basis. From 1936 to 1941, he worked as a freelance producer and radio personality for various programs broadcast on KRLD, KGKO and WFAA. He helped organize programs recorded in well-known Dallas locations such as Fair Park and the Baker and Adolphus hotels.
Although Mancell’s first love had been radio, he found he could make a better living as an accountant with Dallas Power and Light Company (now Texas Utilities).
“I didn’t make any money (in radio) – it was a hobby for me. Dallas was a poor town for radio pay – they didn’t pay hardly anything,” he says.
In between lunch breaks and “anytime I wanted to take off,” Mancell would steal away for an hour or two to play announcer, emcee or composer for various radio broadcasts. He worked on approximately 20 unique radio programs and became a favorite within the radio community.
In 1937, he formed his own company, Mancell Radio Productions, and worked to create programs that dramatized “new inventions, discoveries and ideas in the field of business, industry, science, agriculture, music and recreation,” Mancell says. But after only six shows, which were recorded in Butler Studios in Dallas but broadcast only in New York, his company dissolved due to a lack of finances. In September 1941, Mancell finished his last show, turned the dial on his radio career, and directed his attention to his full-time work as an accountant.
These days, Mancell is reflective, telling stories about the years he spent with his beloved late wife, Katherine, and, of course, his days in radio.
“I write a little every day,” he says of the two dozen binders filled with his recollections. His meticulous memory can even roll back to his childhood, when he lived in Detroit and spent hours in front of the radio, fascinated by the people, programs, music, and sounds.
And at the time, Mancell had said: “When I grow up, that’s what I want to do.”
