hotdiscomix: DJs & Clubs

Interview

Name:	Johnny George
Type:	club- & radio-DJ, record pool director
Website:	www.johnnygeorge.com

Here's JOHNNY “MasterMix“ GEORGE

In September 2004, hotdiscomix interviewed Johnny George. Known by many around the globe for his MasterMix Medley, Johnny George is a man of varied backgrounds: from record pool director to club and concert organizer; from D.J. and radio broadcaster to multimedia creator and much more. The interview introduces and details Johnny George’s multifaceted career spanning three decades. It also offers a unique perspective perhaps unknown to many disco aficionados: a look at the ‘70s club and music scenes outside the Big Apple, in Indianapolis. It is here that Johnny George and Chicago D.J. Mick Oliver created the notorious MasterMix Medley. And it is also here that the curious origins of the term MasterMix came into being.

— Steffen Spranger, aka ‘hotdiscomix’

hotdiscomix: Please tell us about yourself.

Johnny George: Always had a interest in radio and music due to my father being a Ham radio operator as a hobby in my grandmother’s attic and a record collector of old 78’s when I was a young boy.  Listened to radio stations everywhere we went when on vacation.  Got into the CB radio craze in the ‘60’s & ‘70’s.  Called into radio stations and disguised my voice to play a variety of characters to various stations, especially WIFE-AM (Top 40) when calling in to Roger W. Morgan and Bouncin’ Bill Baker.  Began my broadcast career at WELL radio, (cable FM) in Michigan in 1969, while away at college preparatory school.  Majored in Broadcast Production Technology at Vincennes University 1972-74. (Radio, TV, film production and more)  Freshman Class President and Student Senator during that tenure.  MC of various variety shows and beauty pageants that were also broadcast on local TV.  Finished my college career at Murray State University in Radio/TC Technology.  Involvement included Activities Director for MSU.  Scheduled and produced concerts of Sly & The Family Stone, Billy Joel, Jim Stafford and others for the student body at Murray.  Member of the Zeta Lambda chapter of Alpha Tau Omega. (Pledge Class President)  Then on to the beginning of the true working world.  Additionally, getting married in 1982 and raising a son beginning in 1983, who is now in his 4th year of college studying Architecture at Ball State.  My wife and I finished building a new condo in Fishers last summer where my new DigiStudio is now my pride & joy.  Additionally, I’m the Creative Services Director for Susquehanna Indianapolis, a station cluster of 95-5 WFMS (Country) Gold 104.5 (Oldies) & 93-9 The Song (Contemporary Christian)

hotdiscomix: When did you discover your interest in music? What was your first step into the music/entertainment business?

Johnny George: Piano lessons as a kid, playing the drum draped with the ‘R’ of Culver in the Culver Drum & Bugle Corp in summer camp 1963-65.  Our military band playing on the steps of the Soldier & Sailors Monument in Indianapolis for President Johnson in the summer of 1965.  I was also one of the drummers for the rock & roll bands The Englishmen and The Suede Fortress, amongst many other hats I wore during those years in junior high and high school.

hotdiscomix: When and how did you get your first club gig?

Johnny George: Came out of college in summer of 1975 and started at Indy’s most popular disco, The Reunion, in Indianapolis that had just opened several months earlier.  The only DJ at the time played records on a home turntable set up with a killer “Earthquake/Cerwin-Vega” sound system and a mirror ball.  Larry Mac played records until they faded out and then said, “Boogie… everybody, boogie”, while he set up the next record.  I struck up a conversation with the manager and told him of my college experience and showmanship.  He asked me to audition that next Friday night and “do my thing”.  I came in with an extra home turntable, my reel to reel with sound effects and “Here’s Johnny…” intro from Ed McMahon.  After downing a nice adult beverage… the rest is history.  I was hired that night and proceeded to take on the responsibilities of advertising, marketing and entertainment over the next few months.  Along with the club manager, Bob Welcher, we had every promotion possible over the next year and a half.  Additionally, I designed and incorporated quite a significant unique light show and security system.

hotdiscomix: Briefly share with me your life experience as A DJ, including the venues in which you played your most important gigs.

Johnny George: The Reunion, on the north side, was my first stop.  I remember making $2.25/hour when I first began.  Ended up at 175.00/week for 2 nights.  Not bad back then.  Our biggest competitor was Lucifer’s with a 3 story open-aired, classy disco that once offered me 3 nights as head DJ.  Another hot & heavy nightclub back then that was actually the first one to bring the computerized dance floor and light show, etc. to Indy back in 1972, The Exchange, offered me a better deal and I went there for 3 nights a week plus Entertainment Director.  That was a big thing back then because owners wanted someone who would take care of all the music, spin it, maintain the lighting system and stay on top of the latest and greatest of what was happening in New York City & Los Angeles.  I had started The Indiana Record Pool (IRP) in 1978 since I had laid the framework for that venture the previous year.  More on that later.

I ended up leaving The Exchange to open The Arrangement on the east side of Indy in late 1978.  It was a small dance floor but the club would hold lots of people, so I joined up with them with the understanding that if I could pack the club that they would expand it into the available area next door and make a huge dance floor and extensive light show of neon, fog machines with fog out of the ceiling and rotor beams, etc.  We did it and they followed through too.  It was the talk of the town for about a year, as things went in those days.  The public was so fickle and the next great place stole some traffic away and the crowd had more and more choices as the dance club revolution continued.  But wow, what a place!

I began attending the Billboard Magazine Disco Conventions soon after I got into night club spinning.  I remember bringing back a couple dozen new tunes that we had been given to us as promo’s at the convention, besides invading the imports at Downstairs Records there in Manhattan.  I made the mistake of presenting them as the greatest music since sliced bread at The Reunion one night after returning from NYC and played too many back to back.  That scared everyone off my dance floor little by little, until I was standing in the DJ booth looking at an empty dance floor acting like, “what the hell happened?”  I learned a valuable lesson that day and never repeated it again.

Due to the popularity of the dance music and my blatant marketing abilities to keep myself in the news and very visible, 93.1 WNAP-FM (Contemporary Hit Radio) hired me and my record pool in 1978 to produce a weekly dance music show, Studio 93.  We did it pretty much for mentions of our clubs and the record pool got tons of free publicity.  Our club owners loved it but it never paid off financially for us.  The show was a smash and gave us all celebrity status, which was very nice in those days.  I still have about a dozen of those original shows on 10½ inch reels still to this day.  Most of my friends would not be surprised at that fact at all.  I still have my ticket to see The Beatles at the Indiana State Fair in 1964 too. (See it on my website)

I left WNAP after they cancelled the show since we wanted to be “paid”, instead of free mentions.  I went on to do weekends at KISS 99 (now 99.5 WZPL) and by late 1979, I began working on a mix for the Disconet Program Service.  Several New York jocks had risen to popularity by getting involved with remixing records for some pretty big artists and some also had done some medleys that we all played in our clubs over those several years.  One thing I noticed was that many of the mixes had so many unfamiliar songs in them that broke up the continuity.  I was talking with Mike Wilkinson, owner of Disconet, one day on the phone, when he challenged me to “build a better mouse trap” and do my own mix.  I accepted it and began planning what I thought to be the most popular songs and or “sounds” that I watched people do in the clubs.  Like Michael Zager’s “Let’s All Chant”, with the “Ooh-ah--ooh-ahh” or Dan Hartman’s, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 (Countdown).  Over the next two months I recorded bits and pieces of this formula that I had written down on a napkin one day at lunch and the foundation for The MasterMix Medley was born.  At the time I was working on it, Mickey Oliver was a member of my record pool and he came down one weekend from his home just outside of Chicago to the pool and I asked him for some of his special magic.

I always enjoyed Mick’s spinning and he was such a wild and wacky guy back then.  Everyone loved him.  I had been mixing on my two 1200 MK II’s and laying the tracks down on my stereo Sony reel to reel deck (plus the old original Studio 93 Pioneer Reel-to-Reel) and also splicing parts for repeat tricks etc.  I wanted to do a part where I had already laid down a bed that repeated and wanted to lay just the hook of other songs over them by playing the 3rd record with the tape onto another reel machine.  Guess I just couldn’t hear that night and Mick tried time and time again until we got them just perfect for a part in the medley that really made it what it is today.  Mick was a life saver and helped propel the mix to the next level.  I’ll always be grateful to him for that.  Mick went on to be known as Mickey ’Mixin’ Oliver and was part of the “Hot Mix 5” in Chicago.

We sent the masters to Disconet.  When it was released, it was the talk of the country.  It went Top 10 in Miami clubs, Phoenix, of course, Indianapolis, Chicago and other in the US.  But what really was the icing on the cake was the fact that it was also a #1 Dance medley in Mexico, Italy, France and several other European cities according to club DJ lists at the time.  Dance Music Report, Billboard and other magazines did not recognize “medleys” as “records”, since they were only available as subscription items.  We continued our Disconet relationship after Mike died and Steven Von Blau continued the operation into the late 80’s.  Other popular services at the time were Ultimix, (Bradley D. Hinkle - what a genius) Hot Tracks and others. While at a club in Dallas one night, I was asked to autograph the jocks copy of The MasterMix Medley.  I did graciously and he showed me his back up copy called “Another One Madly ’81”.  It was on a plain white cover with a red stenciled label.  It was a bootleg.  I found out later that a jock had bootlegged the Disconet original version of my mix in Mexico and was selling it at the height of its run.  I had made a simple, but appreciated $350.00 from Disconet and this guy had probably made $50,000.  I was floored.  Not much I could do about it so……

Johnny George and Mick Oliver present the “MasterMix Medley.”
Oh, mercy!

Johnny George, who runs the record pool in Indianapolis, and Mick Oliver (who also spins in Indianapolis) have created a high-energy trip with many of your current favorites as well as the disco classics which still turn on crowds. Here’s the roadmap:

QUEEN’s “Another One Bites The Dust” (courtesy of Elektra) starts it off, into STACY LATTISAW’s “Dynamite”/“Jump To The Beat” courtesy of Atlantic. Then some songs (with overlays to kill) which your audience probably can’t get enough of: MICHAEL JACKSON’s “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” (from CBS/Epic), CHANGE’s “Lover’s Holiday” courtesy of RFC/Warners, IKE TURNER’s “Party Vibes” from Fantasy, SOS BAND’s “Take Your Time” from CBS/Tabu, and THE CROWN HEIGHTS AFFAIR’s “You Gave Me Love” courtesy of De-Lite. This provides the backdrop for a few hooks from LIPPS, INC’s “Funkytown” from Casablanca, the MICHAEL ZAGER BAND’s “Let’s All Chant” from Private Stock, and DIANA ROSS’ “The Boss” from Motown. Then it’s the hot violin intro from THE BROTHERS JOHNSON “Stomp” from A&M, and a word or two from KURTIS BLOW’s “The Breaks” from Mercury. KANO’s “I’m Ready” follows from Emergency, with DAN HARTMAN’s “Instant Replay” countdown from CBS/Blue Sky. Two quickies follow: THE JACKSONS’ “Walk Right Now” from CBS/Epic and FREDDIE JAMES’ “Get Up And Boogie” from Warners. Then GONZALES’ “Haven’t Stop Dancing Yet” from Capitol serves as the next background for LIPPS, INC. “Rock It” (Casablanca), CHIC’s “Everybody Dance” (Atlantic), BONNIE POINTER’s “Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch” (Motown), WATSON BEASLEY’s “Breakaway” (RFC/Warners), PEACHES & HERB “Shake Your Groove Thing” (Polydor). JOHN DAVIS’ “Ain’t That Enough For you” (SAM) finishes the medley with Johnny getting the last word ...oh, mercy!

The medley runs 11:12, and goes right into Alives Hidding’s “Hollywood Seven.”

— Disconet DJ News - Volume 3, Program 12

I continued to spin at The Arrangement until it closed and I was on to do some guest shots around town, (Le Club, The Ritz Saloon, Fat Albert’s, etc.) and continued running the pool.  Additionally, it was during this time while I didn’t have a steady club gig, that I won the “Billboard Best Regional Disco DJ - Indianapolis” in 1980 in New York at the Disco convention.  Ray Caviano handed me the pyramid and I don’t think my feet touched the floor on the way up there or back.  My reputation of spinning for the past 5 years and the status of owning/running the record pool aided in winning that award that year I would imagine.  There were some pretty surprised Indy DJ faces at the table that night at the ceremony.  Especially mine.  Since I was a non-working club jock at the time, some of the other jocks thought it was unfair.  That’s a whole other story too.  Several of them tried to start another record pool to go up against mine not too much later.  It never really got that far off the ground and many of them still remained friends with my membership for years to come anyway.  Politics, huh?

I was called back into action in early 1981 to open Captain Alexander’s Wharf in Indianapolis.  It was a 2½ million dollar “Yankee schooner docked at a pier” looking place that had the biggest grand opening you ever saw with everybody, who was anybody, in attendance.  Senators, the Governor, WOW-Oh WOW!  I spun up in Davy’s Locker with my assistant pool director, Skip Hampton.  A real over-classed, evening dance club that made us wear a jackets and turtleneck uniform.  Sunken dance floor, simple lighting and a killer sound system kept us happy for about 9 months until the newness wore off.  The place was “off-the-hook”.  But many people got turned off due to tight dress code and all.

Lucifer’s had been bought out by this time, after some problems they had encountered and lost its steam, but the owners asked me to be part of re-opening it with them as “Speakeasy”.  I had been doing some guest shots outside of Indy and was happy to come back and get back to Indy.  Speakeasy was great.  Three stories tall, four dance floors, great sound, great lighting and packed every weekend.  We did every promotion imaginable to bring in club hoppers on the slower nights.  It worked for awhile and they closed it briefly and reopened as J. Gatsby’s.  I even produced the local version of the semi-finals dance competition of the TV show, Dance Fever and sent our winners to the nationals starring, Denny Terio.

I was still running IRP, had just accepted a job as Production Director for WTLC-FM (urban) and was about to get married all in 1981-82.  TLC hired me first to produce dance mixes for their PD.  Then later as a full time Production guy.  My radio career continued to strengthen (WZPL, WKLR, re-launching WNAP again) and I was just getting too old to haul around peach crates of 12” records and quietly bowed out of spinning, besides a few guest appearances during our Club Z days at a variety of clubs around Indianapolis.

hotdiscomix: Many of the famous clubs typically had DJs and a clientele who were gay. How was the club scene in Indianapolis in this and other respects?

Johnny George: Running a record pool is like running a small country sometimes since you have a micro-cosum of a slice of America.  Straight, gay, black, white, you name it.  I made it my business to check out all of my members in their respective clubs and it was no big deal to go into the gay clubs and listen to my guys spin.  I always enjoyed the freedom that some of those clubs had over the straight clubs that had to play to the general public and play the Top 40 dance tunes etc.  I also attended the black clubs.  Due to my position as pool director, I was basically welcome at any club.  (I knew early what it felt like to be “Daddy”)

Indianapolis supported probably 20 clubs at any one time.  Classy, simple, redneck, rock & roll, white, black, straight, gay, lesbian, teen, you name it, we had it.  Many had jocks.  Some had bands.  Some had both.  And there were quite a few under-21 clubs that came and went.  The “disco” run ran from 1975 thru 1993 when the fizzle began and transformed into the hip-hop of today.

hotdiscomix: Who are the DJs you admire? Why they? What qualities or style do you admire about them?

Johnny George: After meeting John “Jellybean” Benitez at the FunHouse in New York City in the 70’s and having the privilege to hear and dance to others like Jim Burgess (Infinity), Chico Super Star (The Anvil) and a slew of DJ’s at Roseland and others, I really was inspired by the turntable tricks they did that were flawless.  I did hear a few mistakes on occasion and that only reinforced my mind to realize that no one was perfect and I could learn and make mistakes just like the best of them.  It was Jim Burgess that overlayed the slow beginning of “MacArthur’s Park” (Donna Summer) over the entire percussion intro of “At Midnight” (T-Connection) I remember it vividly… it was a private party for Donna at Infinity one night during the convention and I was dancing next to Muhammad Ali on my right and Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band on my left.  Salads, omelets flipping into the air and Champaign flowed all night until the sun came up. Those were the days!  The night before was spent at 12 West where Tom Moulton made a guest appearance spinning and I had the privilege of being Grace Jones’ date, all thanks to Sy & Eileen Berlin her managers at Beam Junction Records.

hotdiscomix: Was the “MasterMix Medley” your only production or have you created other remixes and medleys?

Johnny George: Yes, I also did many urban mixes for WTLC as I said in my 1981-86 tenure.  I was Production Director at WZPL from 1986-1993 and produced another dance music show from ’87-’89 called Club Z that was very successful and was underwritten by Pepsi for several years.  Additionally, two other members of my record pool, Darryl Hill & John Cavallaro shared in the fame and glory of those Club Z years.  They both had unique skills and styles that helped create this “undisclosed” nightclub location every Saturday Night.  Those were some of the hardest and most fun years of my life.  Anyway, I also produced the John Lennon Mix, (privately released 1986 on Lennon’s death anniversary) the Bon Jovi Mix, the Rocket Mix, (dedicated to the shuttle disaster) and the Funkytown Five. (privately released 1981)  Obviously, the term MasterMix, which I used since 1978, became my nickname and moniker over the years.  Funny as this may sound, there was a corn feed company in Ft. Wayne, Indiana that had a grain feed mix called Mastermix.  I saw it on the side of one of their trucks one day and wrote to the company and asked for a hat, bumper sticker and such.  They’re around here somewhere.  As you know, I never throw anything away.  So for history’s sake, the term MasterMix, in the DJ world, originated in Indy in 1978.

The other mixes were productions I played on the show and in other clubs via cassette master tapes I made for some of the jocks.  They were lots of fun, but they weren’t the MasterMix Medley.

hotdiscomix: Did you ever produce any artists or remixes for official labels?

Johnny George: Yes, I did the remix of a single from The Circle City Band in 1983.  I co-mixed the single from the Nite Shift Band, “Electric Break” and “Thank You” in 1984 with Robert Summers. (Both on independent labels from Indianapolis)  And co-produced and mixed Kelley Clark’s single,“Show Me,” that was released on Disconet in 1988.  Co-producer was fellow pool member, Bill Vincent.

From Indianapolis comes Kelley Clark, with her exciting new pop dance tune “Show Me”, for George Vincent Productions. Collaborating with Kelley on “Show Me”, were Johnny George (From the Indiana Record Pool & WZPL) co-producing and mixing, Bill Vincent doing the writing and co-producing, and Chris Rich engineering.

— Disconet DJ News - Volume 10, Program 4

There were several others that unfortunately have escaped my wonderful memory.  (And they weren’t that bad either)

hotdiscomix: Have you ever been a Disconet program subscriber?

Johnny George: Yes.  Monthly customer from 1978 until it ceased operation in the late 80’s.

hotdiscomix: How important have Remix Service productions, especially Disconet, been in your DJ sets?

Johnny George: They were always a great way to see how others mixed and programmed music in other parts of the country and world.  I used them to raise or lower the BPM on my dance floor or to allow me to do a real creative lightshow without my hands being tied up working the tables.  And I never took credit for someone else’s mixes like some I knew back then, who might even lip the words, “Oh Mercy” at the conclusion of playing the MasterMix Medley in their club.  LOL!!  BTW… I always was displeased when a jock would throw on a really good medley and leave the booth for a pee break or to hang out with their friends.  What a great time to give your floor everything you could throw at them to make that night special.

hotdiscomix: You have been the founder of the Indiana Record Pool. How long had the record pool been active and how many members did you have?

Johnny George: The pool originated out of my necessity for promo records.  Every label I called asking for promotional records told me that it was easier to send out a box of 25 records to one location, instead of fielding calls form every jock in the area one by one.  So, I started Indy Pendent Promotions: The Indiana Record Pool out of the second bedroom of my apartment in 1978 with 13 members.  When the pool grew to 22, I was making more money than I needed to run the pool and decided to get it out of my apartment and into a real office location.  We moved the pool into The Marriott, which had been a grand hotel back in its day and leased about 1200 square feet to allow for offices, a studio to practice our mixing and review our product, shipping area for our out of city members and an area to even play pinball.  It was quite a gathering place for our membership.  Everyone posted their Top 20 songs from every segment of our pool….  What were you playing new that was working? …What were the hot requests? …What were the flops? …What clientele liked what type of music?  And so on.  I originally fashioned it after Jackie McCloy’s pool on the east coast.  Jackie and I chatted at the beginning and we shared ideas and such.  I had been getting my music previously from Disco Tech in Chicago, one of Chicago’s first record services before the Dogs of War and The Chicago Record Pool.  Additionally, Dan Miller of The Dixie Dance Kings and I became very good friends over the years too by running questions or ideas past each other over the phone.  It was great to network and improve our working relationships and respect within the industry.

For the first several years we were servicing club, mobile and a few radio DJ’s in Indianapolis (IN), Bloomington (IN), Muncie (IN), South Bend (IN), Mishawaka (IN), Terre Haute (IN), Evansville (IN) and Champaign (IL).  After a few years, we had expanded to cover some DJ’s in Louisville (KY), Missouri, southern Michigan, and western Ohio.  We now were servicing over 46 jocks in 6 states and had made our presence known by increased retail monitoring that showed increased sales and reaching further than just the central Indiana area that we originally set out to cover.  Membership stabilized in the mid-30’s with about a dozen Associate members, who were interested dance music people that were not eligible for record product but wanted to hang with our members as novices trying to learn the skills.  Total membership at its height was about 56, including Associate members and about 24 when we closed the pool in 1993.

hotdiscomix: Were there any noteworthy members in your pool?

Johnny George: Some names of members of the record pool that may have surfaced over the years are: Chuck Charleston & Mike Carroll, (St. Louis, MO), Paul Randle (Champaign, IL) Mark “Turtle” Hultmark, Tim Dale, Ron Cochran, Jimmy “Natasha Goodlay” Spaulding, Charlie Brown, Ivan Crash, Skip Hampton, John Cavallaro, (all from Indianapolis) Brian Wright, Darryl Hill & Bill Vincent (Anderson, IN) and more too numerous to mention.

hotdiscomix: Do you still have your record collection?  If not, what did you do with it?

Johnny George: After I basically stopped spinning, the cost and space to hold my huge collection put me in a bind.  I put the word out that my disco record collection, now numbering over 25,000 records was up for sale.  I sold a few special 12 inchers to several of my pool members that were collector items that possibly only I had received long ago.  I gave some away and I kept most of my Disconet’s & Hot Tracks.  But the best story that came out of this has to be the phone call I got from Leroy Washington who spun at Studio 54 before it closed.  He flew into Indianapolis one afternoon and went through every record I had.  EVERY record.  He pulled about 30 records out that he acted like he’d give me a few bucks for.  He asked for a package price and I obliged.  He pulled out about 10 records that were in my DO NOT TOUCH CAUSE I WANT EM pile and I said, Whoa… wait a minute.  Not those.  He offered me $100 each and I found it hard to say no.  He kept pulling money out of his shoes, belt, pocket, hat and finally went into our restroom and came out and paid for the rest with another 500.00 he had hidden… uh, never mind.  That was a fun day.  Sure helped pay the rent.  And I know you want to know WHAT ones were worth those big bucks.  A couple were Disconet’s that were no longer available and were in mint condition.  I remember he bought several 12 inchers that were the very 1st ones pressed that I had been given since I was a pool director.  Several picture discs that were one-time pressings and a couple of early ones that were apparently very valuable to him because he wouldn’t leave until I gave in and sold them.  See how selective my memory can become so I don’t remember I gave away something that was worth 10 times as much now?

After everyone had gone through my collection and only the “junk” was left, my current assistant pool director offered to “take them off my hands” for 6 months of salary.  He wasn’t getting rich working for me, believe me.  I had asked everywhere I thought.  He apparently had made a tentative deal and got $3,000 for what was left.  I almost died.  Boy, oh boy, what a “wheeler-dealer” I turned out to be.

hotdiscomix: Tell us something about your current projects.

Johnny George: Since going full time in radio in 1981 and doing my spinning, mixing, running and biz etc. on the side, I’ve gotten used to working two jobs full-time.  So when I stopped running the pool, stopped carrying peach crates around full of records and all, I needed to develop another side venture to keep me busy.  I began imaging other radio stations (producing station promo’s & sweepers) and doing voice work, since I had a strong interest and had been doing it on & off since 1972.  I produced two country stations for Citadel Communications from 1990-95; one outside San Francisco (Cat Country 103) and one in Salt Lake City (K-Bull 93).  Additionally, I was doing the daily audio books for the local Fox TV affiliate and commercials.  Since then and due to the influx of the Internet into our lives, I expanded my reach by marketing and promoting myself outside of my market and around the world via my website.

Since then I have been very fortunate to have met some of the right people who had their finger on some pretty big projects.  Some of my credits include, national spots from the movie, “Lost In Space”, “The Action Figures”, (the spot is available still on the VHS and DVD versions) A 2½ year run of Campbell Soup, “Labels for Education” (TV & radio spots), Kraft Foods and spots for clients in Canada, Guam, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Poland and a big project for an electronics firm in China for an English-to-Chinese Translator. (I only did the English side)  My voiceover work is alot of fun and you get a chance to work with some real interesting people.  Since I’m not one of those deep throat, big announcer sounding guys, my signature voiceover is more in demand due to it’s “Guy-next-door” style.  Lately, I’ve been very busy with narrative clients for flash web sites, corporate presentations, medical instructional videos, voice for toys, DVD and video games.  I really enjoy doing the cartoon and character voices for a variety of multimedia projects.
More information is available on my website: www.johnnygeorge.com

hotdiscomix: Johnny, I appreciate your time to tell us about your career, experiences, and unique stories from those memorable years. Best wishes to you and congratulations to your son.