The AM Forum

You too can own a piece of Hollywood ham radio history;
Marlon Brando's Sunair HF transceiver for sale on ebay - $25,000 starting bid:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120549432285&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Free shipping!

Your kind of radio Frank, go for it.

Great Mic for SSB Phone.

73
Jack.

Wonder how much Joe Walsh's converted AM broadcast transmitter would go for?

Is he dead yet?

Naaa just Pickled.... 8)


73
Jack

Joe and the rest of the Eagles will fly in Philly shortly...

Contrary to the rumors of years ago, Marlon Brando was never a ham. 

KE6PZH/FO8GJ Brando/Brandeaux was not an amateur radio operator? Really ?

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/02/100/?nc=1 (http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/02/100/?nc=1)

Transcript of interview with Larry King ( http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/04/lkl.00.html (http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/04/lkl.00.html) ) :


CALLER: Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Mr. Brando, I hope this is not -- isn't a frivolous question, but I understand you're a ham radio operator, or you were, and I wonder if you'd mind talking about that? And I appreciate it.

BRANDO: I am a ham radio operator. And the thing I enjoyed about it is anonymity, because When you call up and you say, "This is Marlon Brando calling," they give you the routine -- any famous person.

"Martin Brandeaux" was never his name.  Is it legal to apply for a ham license under a fictitious name?  I don't think so.

He was born Marlon Brando, Jr.  He died Marlon Brando Jr.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Brando

Perhaps he was an SWL, scanner enthusiast, CBer, Freebander, or a bootlegger, which many in media equate with being a "ham".  He himself may have considered himself a "ham" without having a valid license.  I don't.

Please provide a Callbook listing or QSL card from "Marlon Brando" to support your belief and I will eat humble pie.

Eric

I don't see any assertion or even rumor anywhere except for yours that he was never licensed, on the other hand KE6PZH/FO8GJ is w-i-d-e-l-y reported to be the two amateur radio licenses held by Marlin Brando.



The "callbook" and QSL cards mean very little as they're not documents issued by responsible licensing authorities, on the other hand if you go to the FCC ULS search page at

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp;JSESSIONID_ULSSEARCH=y6yVL4dhqC4v29bNpZMMXJP32HYch37DTbyT20m4b4rpSyJKcslk!-1611690090!692170129 (http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp;JSESSIONID_ULSSEARCH=y6yVL4dhqC4v29bNpZMMXJP32HYch37DTbyT20m4b4rpSyJKcslk!-1611690090!692170129) and enter KE6PZH you will find "Brandeaux" at 12900 MULHOLLAND DR
, Beverly Hills which a little searching will reveal as the address of Marlon Brando.



So I believe the burden of proof is on you my friend and the amateur radio world awaits your explanation as to exactly why everyone else who has reported this is 100% wrong.  :-)

Welp,.. still doesn't make the radio worth a plug nickle to me....I don't know what operating
condition it's in I don't care who owned it. Can they demonstrate it...

And it should have been offered at a gooder market bid an let fly 25 grand give me a freaking
break,...it's a radio not the Duck Diamond Don't see many skirmishes over it.  

Hey I know Let's E Joe have him take a trot up there an give a look see.....

73
Jack.

Looks like the antenna tuner is missing too!

So far the only mention is a magazine article stating someone named Martin Brandeaux, who is/was a licensed ham was in fact, really Marlon Brando.  The ARRL article was duplicated in other ham magazines and I suppose this constitutes being "widely reported". 

He was born Marlon Brando, Jr.  I see nothing in his bio on Wikipedia stating the use of another name besides his birth name.  Nor have I found any other references to that anywhere else.  When Marlon passed away several years ago, I was looking for something in all of the news articles at the time to tie him to the name Martin Brandeaux but came up empty.  I was trying to corroborate the story with something or anything elsewhere.  I started to believe that Martin Brandeaux and Marlon Brando might be two different persons. 

If you are correct that Martin Brandeaux was in fact a fictitious name that Marlon Brando used to obtain his ham license, I question the legality of that. 

Lots of celebrities change their birth name to something else in their profession.  I'm not aware of any celebrity using their birth name in their profession and using an assumed name for something as official as a ham license.  It's not quite the same as registering into a hotel with an assumed name.  It's a federal license.  It just doesn't sit right with me, and I have my doubts whether this is factual. 

Obviously most hams want to believe that their celluloid hero, Marlon Brando, had the same hobby as they do and will not question it. 

Until there is a reasonable explanation why Marlon Brando would be licensed as Martin Brandeaux I will continue to have my doubts. 

Eric

Marlon's name may never have been Brandeaux, but one of my favorite cat's name was Phydeaux.

Walt, W2DU

Big One for Walt..Good One.. :) :)

73
Jack.

Correction to the original ARRL Letter news item:
***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 23, No. 29
July 23, 2004
***************

* Correction: In the "In Brief" news item "Actor Marlon Brando,
KE6PZH/FO8GJ, SK," appearing in The ARRL Letter, Vol 23, No 28 (Jul 16,
2004), we erred in a statement regarding Brando's real name. He was born
Marlon Brando Jr, although he appears in the FCC database under the name
"Martin Brandeaux," an apparent pseudonym. His FO8GJ listing indicates
both names.

Also, read these:
http://oldqslcards.com/KE6PZH.pdf

http://users.tellurian.com/gjurrens/FO5GJ.html

FO8GJ was not a "federal" licence.  More likely a French Overseas Territory licence, or maybe just a plain French government-issued ham licence.  You can't assume they play by the same rules as in the US. That would be comparing apples to oranges. Maybe French authorities didn't have a problem with how he spelt and pronounced his name.

Yes, that logic could apply to FO8GJ. However, KE6PZH is a US issued license. 

Pete, I suppose after reading the links you provided I will have to eat humble pie and admit I was wrong to say Marlon was not a ham. 

One of the quotes provided claimed: "Isolated in a home atop Los Angeles' Mulholland Drive next door to Jack Nicholson, Brando often connected with the outside world incognito, using fake voices to converse with fellow ham radio operators."

Another: "Ever the mischievous performer, he was said to spend his spare time as a
ham-radio operator. He used vocal mimicry to talk to the outside world, but
always in disguise."

"In an interview with Larry King on CNN in 1994, Brando confirmed his continued
interest in Amateur Radio. In response to a caller's question, he said ham
radio provided him with the opportunity to just be himself."

Isn't disguising one's real voice, and having a license in a pseudonym a contradiction with the last paragraph?

I still question the legitimacy of an FCC license in a fake name.

Eric

And that matters because....????????

I think a lot of the go around about his credentials as a Ham stem from Marlon Brandow's opinions.
As he grew older he let fly with his beliefs about people and about Hollywood and who controls it.
He managed to piss-off a lot of powerful people.

Any way, I don't care if Elvis used that odd-ball rig as a pillow. I can think of many better things to sink $25,000 into at this point as could most of us. I wonder if there are food fragments lodged in that old Shure mic.  :P

P.S. Auction Over, No Bids.                        D.

"WILLFUL FALSE STATEMENTS MADE ON THIS FORM OR ANY ATTACHMENTS ARE PUNISHABLE BY FINE AND/OR IMPRISONMENT (U.S.
Code, Title 18, Section 1001) AND / OR REVOCATION OF ANY STATION LICENSE OR CONSTRUCTION PERMIT (U.S. Code, Title 47, Section
312(a)(1)), AND / OR FORFEITURE (U.S. Code, Title 47, Section 503)."

http://www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form605/605.pdf

Imagine being bran do or the Pelvis...where can you go....can't walk into a candy store.

73
Jack

 

A KWS-1 I owned for a number of years had once been the personal radio of Arthur Godfrey.  Didn't pay a premium for it, and certainly didn't sell it for one.  Should have checked it for fingerprints or smudges of DNA :-)

Have no idea where it is now.  Certainly the provenance didn't make it any easier to change bands on the thing :-)

Grant/NQ5T

Again I ask; it matters because...???
It don't affect me one way or t'other.

This thread is interesting in two ways:

1.  Only a hollywood movie star would have as a ham rig, the weirdest bizarreass "transceiver" I've ever seen (however some of the SGC products are right up there) for a band cruiser.   I mean, is your average schmuck FT1000 or something good enough? Oh No!   You have to go spend 6 or 7 thousands bucks from some vendor no one ever heard of for some piece of kit that only five were probably ever made.   

I can just picture Marlon escorting a ham visitor to his shack, the ham expecting a KWM380, or CX11A and some kind of Godzilla custom Alpha and Marlon opens the door and says with that nasal whine of his, "Here is my rig..." and the guy looks and thinks, "What the f......"

2.  Whether or not Marlon was a ham begs the question what is a ham?  No, not someone with a ticket to operate a ham station somewhere, but a real ham.  If we define "real ham" as someone who knows how radio works and builds/restores his own stuff, or some of it at least, and has a repair bench, not many qualify.  I barely qualify if we really streeeeeeeeeeetch what counts as ham gear.   Not to focus on poor Marlon too much--I have to confess that I draw distinctions amongst the licensed population--I do not treat all with licenses equally at least in terms of my attitude.   Some are vestigial hams; others are hams. 

Ha! Points well taken.
 I myself am a Glazed Ham and having said that, I will pop of the board for a bit.
I need to work my on-line study guide and formulas so I can be an Uncle Sam type Ham again.  ;)

                                                       D.

I'd question the authenticity of the engraved signature on the Shure 444. Just imagine you're Marlon Brando, famous dude, millionaire, owns his own Tahitian island. Would you go to the trouble of engraving your name on the bottom of your $50 mic? Why? In case it got stolen? Yeesh.

Hey, all this argument is over a moot point.  The man is DEAD, for God's sake.

The Sunair 9000 was fairly popular in Mil/commercial circles.  Not a band cruiser, that's for sure, but a bulletproof radio.  You could also get a cute little remote control head for it.

Had a chance to play with a buddy's Sunair 9000 before he sold it to Dale KW1I.

But when alive, he seems to have lived the life of a teenaged boy.

I wonder how many Islands he did own,,?

73
Jack.

The very few things I own with engraving were gifts.  Does anyone ever engrave anything for themselves, really?

Thank you, Ott.  That was my point.  No one should be above the law.

Eric

That's true. Though I think the eBay auction was promoting it as his own signature, i.e. he supposedly engraved it himself.

Below: Authentic and questionable signatures.

The two signatures look pretty close in handwriting form, considering one is on paper and the other was done with a cumbersome etcher.

Of course, anyone could bogus-duplicate this easily enough.

T

Over the years, I've run across or owned rigs and accessories that were engraved with owner's name, or SS number, or even their driver license number. Not an uncommon activity back in the "good of days". Lafayette even sold a hand held engraver to mark your stuff.

Hi Pete,

 I engrave all my hand tools socket sets etc too many relatives
with big eyes and sticky fingers I hate it when they don't come
back.

73
Jack.

But we all know that hollywood stars are all above the law....


Tom - AB3FL

I just can't picture Brando studying a license manual or taking a code test.

If in fact he did have a ham license, he probably was a contest jockey."I could have been a contender".....Lee,N2UDF.

Actually, his island was used by a few corntesters.

yeh, they're  called tattoo's.  ::)

Man some of these postings give Marlon a break

He Defined Cool before how many chump actors like the Fonz tried..LOLOL... 8) AAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.....

"whataya got"   8)


73

Jack.

Great googly moogly, he's been immortalized......

Hook him up with a G.I. Joe, PRC-10 backpac rig and the sky's the limit....



http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.minimodelfilmstuff.co.uk/8025701F0054F3AD/ls/HotToys-6386/%24File/marlon-brando-figure-hot-toys-6386-p.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.minimodelfilmstuff.co.uk/film-collectable/marlon-brando-figure-hot-toys-6386&usg=__vhzrzyxX6Lby-bOD24U41Un4duk=&h=491&w=330&sz=35&hl=en&start=19&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=2uT1xl1qwI2zxM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=87&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmarlon%2Bbrando%2Bwith%2Bradio%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us%26tbs%3Disch:1

Like Elvis, John Lennon, Michael Jackson & Irwin Richardt, Marlon is immortalized in pop culture.  Discussion will never end.

And, in AM pop culture, we have/had several.