Ray as head writer on Art Linkletter

Ray Parker’s prolific career as a journalist, author and writer for some of the biggest stars in television almost ended before it began when he joined the Eighth Air Force at age 18 In World War II. Working as a copyboy at the old Los Angeles Examiner and dreaming of being a newspaperman himself some day, he was on duty in the pre-dawn hours of December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He enlisted the next day in the Army Air Corps.

Ray flew as a B-24 bomber navigator at the height of the air war over Europe, miraculously escaping death when his bombardier, thinking Ray was already dead after their plane was shot to pieces by German fighters, pushed him out the escape hatch so he could bail out himself. Ray didn’t have his all-important leg straps buckled yet to take the shock when the chute opened, and he couldn’t get hold of them as he tumbled toward earth, so he improvised — grabbing the chest straps and pressing his arms tightly to his sides so he wouldn’t pop out — and it worked! German soldiers tracking his descent with their binoculars captured him after he hit the ground, saying “For you, the war is over.” But it wasn’t.

Ray working as a staff reporter at the L.A. Examiner

In prison camp, Ray was asked by the senior American officer to become publisher of a daily underground newspaper with BBC news from a secret radio that was vital to camp morale. Ray, with a staff of two translators of German papers and a talented cartoonist illustrator, successfully published the paper under elaborate security for an eventual 9,000 prisoners of war for almost a year before being found out by the Germans…but by then the war was nearly over. Prison camp life was grim. The men were poorly clad for the worst winter in 50 years, and always hungry, depending on Red Cross parcels to keep from actually starving. But after the Russians liberated the camp, Ray and his fellow prisoners were airlifted out to France and transported home on a liberty ship to the good old USA.

Ray with his former Commanding Officer Jimmy Stewart

After recovering from the rigors and privations of prison camp, Ray returned to the L.A. Examiner and rose to become a bylined feature writer and rewrite man. He’d transferred to the L.A. Times when TV, then just beginning, caught his attention with its possibilities for writers. He began his television career as head writer for the top-rated Art Linkletter’s House Party for 14 years, and went on to be a staff writer for other stars including Dinah Shore and the star of stars in comedy, Bob Hope. Ray then spent several years as senior writer and department head at Hanna-Barbera Studios for animated shows like “Scooby Doo”, “The Flintstones”, “Yogi Bear” and “The Smurfs.” His last post before retiring was supervising the writing of 64 live half-hours of “Zoobilee Zoo”, a children’s show jointly produced by by Hallmark and DIC Studios for syndication, and shown later on PBS, the Public Broadcasting System. Meanwhile he “ghosted” a couple of books for Art as well as Dick Van Dyke, and wrote one of his own in semi-retirement about his comic misadventures in an RV, the best-selling “RV Having Fun Yet?” He’s still having fun with his patient wife of 44 years, Ethel Parker, and has just published his wartime memoir, “Down in Flames.” It’s been quite a life!

Ray today

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