In Bill’s honor
Thank you to Dennis and Sarah Koller for remembering Bill today and laying a wreath in his honor at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery in Arlington, Texas.
The Thanksgiving when no one showed up
Thanksgiving Day, 1985. For our first Thanksgiving in our new home in Incline Village, Nevada, Bill and I invited Bill’s ski cabin group, San Francisco friends who had been sharing a ski lease at Lake Tahoe for thirteen winters since 1972. Bill and I woke up on Thanksgiving morning to three feet of fresh snow…
Re-send w/slight correction – Happy Birthday to Bill McGee on his 94th
Pardon this re-send, but some blog recipients reported to me that the image did not have the red play arrow in the center, indicating the image was a video (even though the red play arrow showed when I previewed the post before sending). So click anywhere on the image to view “Reno Memories” – a…
Happy Birthday to Bill McGee on his 94th
Click to view “Reno Memories” – a special, 7-min featurette produced by Cloverland for Twentieth Century Fox to accompany Fox’s 2007 re-release on DVD of their 1939 film Charlie Chan in Reno. Available in the box set, The Charlie Chan Collection, Volume 4.
“You could say I owe my success in the broadcasting industry to Bill McGee.”
August 2019 – Sandra Younts, president of Capital Co-op Consultants in Washington, D.C., is recognized in the broadcasting industry as a success story in broadcast co-op and vendor sales specialist. Sandra’s career path first crossed with Bill McGee’s in the 1970s. Bill was busy at the helm of his company, Broadcast Marketing Company, in…
Hot off the press! “How I Learned to Sell and Make Deals”
“Bill, how would you like to make more money in a month selling Willys Jeeps than I bet you make in a year of cowboying?” July 2018 – Award-winning author William L. McGee opens his fifth memoir with the event in 1950 that changed the course of his life from cowboying in the West to…
Cover reveal – “How I Learned to Sell and Make Deals, 1950-1958”
Full cover spread Scheduled for release July 2019
Honorary Naval Airman Bill McGee aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln
Bill McGee shares a special memory… At sea, February 3-4, 2000 – As a member of the Navy League of the United States, Santa Barbara Council, I was invited to fly out to the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), the United States Navy’s Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Even for an old World War II salt like me,…
Feeling grateful this Christmas
WISHING YOU A COZY CHRISTMAS wherever you are! On Christmas Eve, we’ll be by the fireplace with Whiskey Sours, grateful to still have each other’s company. (Photo: Bill’s Christmas card from December 1948, Flying M.E., Washoe Valley, Nevada.)
Book Review – Howard “Howie” Reed
“THE BROADCASTING YEARS, 1958-1989 by Bill McGee brings back great memories of co-workers and friends from a glorious past when I was in the business and when advertising and broadcasting in San Francisco were the center of my universe. . . . Considering I only got one mention in Bill’s book (the fragile ego takes yet…
Book Review – BROADCASTING & CABLE Magazine
Thank you to Michael Malone for his review in Broadcasting & Cable (see below)… As an aside, when Bill started in the broadcasting industry in 1958, Broadcasting (as the magazine was then called) was the go-to trade publication for people in the business and it’s still going strong today. REVIEW by Michael Malone William L. McGee has…
Scripts for “The Tony Kilgallin Show”
WORKING FURIOUSLY on four interview scripts for “The Tony Kilgallin Show” on Napa Valley TV, Channel 28… Two in the can; two to go. (Image: Screenwriter Terry Robinson at the Flying M.E. dude ranch, Washoe Valley, Nevada, 1948. Caricature by Joan Allison)
“THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS” wins MWSA 2018 Silver Medal Award for History
The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943: From Guadalcanal to Bougainville, Pacific War Turning Point wins the MILITARY WRITERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2018 SILVER MEDAL AWARD FOR HISTORY! The awards were formally announced on November 10, 2018 at the MWSA annual awards banquet in Charleston, S.C. Published in 2001, the second volume in Bill McGee’s Pacific war trilogy…
“THE SOLOMONS CAMPAIGNS” – Finalist in the Military Writers Society of America 2018 Awards
The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943 by William L. McGee has been designated as a 2018 awards finalist by the Military Writers Society of America (MWSA). The award category – Gold, Silver, or Bronze – will be announced at MWSA’s General Membership Conference on November 9, 2018 in Charleston, South Carolina. Sandra McGee, Bill’s publishing partner and wife,…
Setting up for the interview with KNTV NBC Bay Area News
Book Review – MILITARY WRITERS SOCIETY OF AMERICA
A big thank-you to the Military Writers Society of America for the May 2018 review of The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943… Click to read review Since its publication in 2001, The Solomons Campaigns, 1942-1943 has been repeatedly lauded as one of the most comprehensive books on all the campaigns fought in the Solomon Islands. “Enough gripping drama, heroism, and…
Dusting off a project that’s been on the shelf too long
A manuscript that sat on the shelf too long. Today is the first day to work on the final polish of The Broadcasting Years, 1958-1989: A Memoir (Working title)
A Christmas memory from Bill McGee
December 1949 – As the year was coming to a close, I decided it was time to trade in my Levis and boots for Brooks Brothers suits … I left my wrangler job on the Flying M.E. dude ranch in Nevada, and with my new bride in tow (who I met on the…
Remembering the Naval Armed Guard on Veterans Day, Nov 11, 2017
The U.S. Navy Armed Guard was a special service branch of the U.S. Navy responsible for defending U.S. and Allied merchant ships, their valuable cargo, and crews from attack by enemy aircraft, submarines, and surface ships. In World War II, nearly 145,000 men served in the Naval Armed Guard, including Gunner’s Mate and Bronze Star…
Guadalcanal at 75 – A name, an emotion
August 2017 marks the 75th Anniversary of the Battle for Guadalcanal… a major turning point in the Pacific war. On the morning of 7 August 1942, eight months to the day after the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S. 1st Marine Division, under MGen Alexander A. Vandegrift, landed on the islands of Tulagi…
USS “Fall River” shipmates at Operation CROSSROADS reconnect 71 years later
July 1, 2017 – Seventy-one years to the day after the Test Able atomic bomb test at the Bikini Atoll, former USS Fall River shipmates Bill McGee and Paul Dowling reconnected by telephone, thanks to Paul Dowling’s daughter, Paula. “My dad was at Operation CROSSROADS in 1946,” wrote Paula in an email to Bill in…
KTVU Fox 2 Interview by Leigh Martinez
Just in from KTVU Fox 2 (the broadcast station) … The atomic veterans story, which Bill was interviewed for in May, will air on Thursday, June 29, on KTVU Fox 2, in the 5-6 pm news hour. Set your DVRs… (Note: We have not seen the edited version.)
Western Writers of America Cookbook
We’re honored to be included in the just-released Western Writers of America Cookbook … with Bill’s Award-Winning Chili (pg 90) and Sandra’s Southwest Slaw (pg 66). This cookbook celebrates the Western tradition and is filled with more than 150 recipes, anecdotes, and stories from some of America’s most popular Western writers and personalities. This collaborative effort includes…
“PACIFIC EXPRESS” – 7th year on the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional Reading List
For the seventh consecutive year, PACIFIC EXPRESS — THE CRITICAL ROLE OF MILITARY LOGISTICS IN WORLD WAR II, edited by William L. McGee with Sandra McGee, is on the Marine Corps Commandant’s Professional Reading List for Logistics. The books on the Commandant’s Professional Reading List are selected as most pertinent to critical thinking and professional development at…
USS “Fall River” shipmates at Operation CROSSROADS meet up 71 years later
April 5, 2017 – Bill had a nice visit with former Fall River shipmate, Bob “Chris” Chrisman. In 1946, Chris and Bill did duty on the heavy cruiser USS Fall River (CA-131) at Operation Crossroads, the first postwar atomic bomb tests at Bikini in July 1946. Chris had just celebrated his 94th and his son, Rob,…