Faces in the Window

Late at night, the lights in Chicago's Channel Five studios were too low for the single camera to pick up an image. Slowly, the lights come up until we see the face of Word Jazz artist Ken Nordine, whom we just know is there to scare us silly.

Nordine was still in school when the radio works of Orson Welles, Arch Oboler and Norman Corwin rode the air waves into American homes. He started a radio club at the University of Chicago and found part time work running the mimeo machine at WBEZ, Chicago's public school station.

In 1957, Nordine began releasing a series of Word Jazz LPs. Word Jazz was reminiscent of the coffee house beat poetry of Kerouac, Ginsberg, Ernie Kovacs and Lenny Bruce. Nordine never considered himself a beatnik, however, he was just someone who enjoyed using people's ears to play with their minds.

Like Paul Frees, William Conrad, Orson Wells or Thurl Ravenscroft, Ken Nordine has one of those rich, deep, resounding voices which get into your mind as wrap around it like warm honey on your tongue. It was a voice which advertisers appreciated, and has voiced as many as 300-400 TV spots a year.

On Faces In The Window, Nordine read from the Gothic horror works of Poe, Balzac, Dostoevsky and others. "We weren't interested in good picture quality; we were interested in effects," said Nordine.

"The show won several awards and was very popular, especially with the kids. You see, the guys would turn the lights out; then the girls would get scared, and the guys would hug the girls. I guess I didn't realize it at the time, but I served as sort of a romantic helper on the show."

So get your favorite girl, turn off all the lights, and listen to Faces In The Window; who knows what might happen. For more Ken Nordine work, see also: Adventurer's Club and Incredible But True.