Don McNeill

(1907–1996)

Don McNeill — host of Don McNeill's Breakfast Club, one of the longest-running and most beloved programs in American radio history. The show ran on ABC from 1933 to 1968 — 35 years — and was a fixture of morning life across the Midwest and beyond. McNeill's warmth, gentle humor, and famous segments (including the "March Around the Breakfast Table," in which listeners were invited to get up and march around their own breakfast tables) made the show a national institution.

Connection

Thomas McNeill — the son (or grandson) of Don McNeill and Joel Anderson's friend and classmate. Herbert met Thomas at Joel and Pauline's wedding in 1993.

Why Herbert Would Be Delighted

This connection is especially poignant. Herbert grew up marching around the breakfast table to Don McNeill's radio call — the show was woven into the fabric of his childhood mornings. Meeting Joel's friend Thomas McNeill at the wedding and later discovering that Thomas is a McNeill of those McNeills closes a circle that stretches from Herbert's earliest memories to his son's adult life.