Parley Baer

Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was a prolific American actor in radio and later in television and film.

Early career

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, Baer had a circus background, but began his radio career at Utah station KSL. He studied drama at the University of Utah.

Circus

Early in his career, Baer was a circus ringmaster and publicist. He left those roles for military service in World War II. In the 1950s, he had a job training wild animals at Jungleland USA in Thousand Oaks, California. Still later, he served as a docent at the Los Angeles Zoo.

Military

Baer was a member of the United States Army Air Force during World War II, serving in the Pacific Theatre and earning seven service stars.

Radio

Baer was director of special events at KSL in the 1930s. His first network show was The Whistler which was soon followed by appearances on Escape (notably narrating "Wild Jack Rhett" and as the title patriot in an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's "A Tooth for Paul Revere"), Suspense, Tales of the Texas Rangers (as various local sheriffs), Dragnet, The CBS Radio Workshop, Lux Radio Theater, The Six Shooter, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, to name a few.