Howard Claney

Howard Moorhead Claney (April 17, 1898 – April 30, 1980) was an American actor, radio announcer, and film narrator. Born in the Manchester neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was the son of William J. Claney and Mary J. Claney. He attended Allegheny High School before pursuing studies at Carnegie Tech, and he served in the U.S. Army during World War I.

Claney began his professional life on the stage, appearing on Broadway between 1920 and 1929. His theatrical credits included A Man of the People (1920), Liliom (1921), Don Juan (1921), Lillian (1921), The S. S. Tenacity (1922), Voltaire (1922), Macbeth (1924), The Little Poor Man (1925), The Immortal Thief (1926), Caponsacchi (1926), King Henry V (1928), and Lolly (1929). In addition to performing, he worked as a stage manager for the Shubert family.

His transition into radio began when he announced a remote broadcast featuring Vincent Lopez and his orchestra. His first full-time radio position was as announcer on the Women's Radio Review. He went on to announce numerous programs, among them The Voice of Firestone, Information Please, General Motors Concerts, Waltz Time, Log Cabin Dude Ranch, The Famous Actors Guild, Amanda of Honeymoon Hill, American Melody Hour, The American Album of Familiar Music, The Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, Mr. Chameleon, and Stella Dallas.

Claney also narrated Vitaphone films, including the Newman Traveltalks titles Long Bright Land, Land of the Kangaroo, Malayan Jungle, Pearl of the East, Toradja Land, and Isles of Enchantment, as well as films in the Vitaphone Pictorial Revue series.

Outside of his performing career, Claney pursued visual art, studying at the Art Students League of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and through additional coursework in London and Paris. During the 1930s, his paintings were featured in several exhibitions, and he sold works in both oil and watercolor. He favored landscapes, with a particular focus on scenes from the Pittsburgh area.