Glen Glenn, born as Percy Glenn on November 25, 1907, in Chipman, also went by the name Raymond Percy. However, he later adopted the first name ‘Glen’ and became known as Glen Raymond Glenn. He was the son of Lionel Glenn and Della Clark, née Della Clark.
On September 6, 1926, Percy moved from Canada to the United States, entering through Vanceboro, Maine. He eventually settled in Manhattan, New York City, where he worked as an electrical engineer. By 1931, he had relocated to California and started working on recording sound for Hollywood movies.
Glen Glenn married Mary Helen McCorkle and together they had four children: Molly, Deanna, John, and James Lionel.
During the summer of 1960, Glen, Mary Helen, and one of their sons, James Lionel, visited Glen’s mother in Chipman. James Lionel was at an uncle’s farm in Minto when, on August 21, Glen’s car veered off a dirt road and crashed through a guardrail into Newcastle Creek. It took several hours to recover the car, and tragically, both Glen and Mary Helen had passed away. They were buried together on August 25, 1960, in unmarked graves overlooking the ocean at Green Hills Memorial Park in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
Glen was the founder of Glen Glenn Sound the legendary Hollywood sound recording company that provided services for over 20,000 movies and television series.
Popular television programs that carried the credit “Sound by Glen Glenn” include I Love Lucy, Bonanza, Mission Impossible, My Three Sons, The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Our Miss Brooks, Get Smart, Star Trek, The Andy Griffith Show, The Brady Bunch, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Mork and Mindy.
Also… The Jack Benny Show, Little House on the Prairie, Doogie Howser, M.D., Cagney and Lacey, Cheers, Taxi, That Girl, Hogan’s Heroes, Mod Squad, I Spy, The Joey Bishop Show, Mannix, The Untouchables, The Loretta Young Show, Death Valley Days, Perry Mason, Make Room for Daddy, Whirlybirds, The Real McCoys, Annie Oakley, The Adventures of Jim Bowie, He-Man and Masters of the Universe, and many others.
Before the advent of television, Glen Glenn Sound engineered sound for movies – musical comedies, dramas, horror, crime, westerns. One of its earliest TV clients was Flying-A Productions owned by Gene Autry.
The Glen Glenn Sound Company was founded by Glen Glenn and Harry Eckles in 1937. (Previous to the 1937 founding of Glen Glen Sound, at least four movies in 1936 carry the credit “Glen Glenn,” and in 1931 through 1933, at least four are credited with “Percy R Glenn.”).
At the time of the company’s acquisition by Todd-AO in 1986, Glen Glenn Sound, with 14 studios at three locations, was the largest independent sound company in the world.
Photos: Gwen Glenn
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My name is Ryan fitzherbert. I live in Portland Maine. I am a direct descendant from the Glens in Minto New Brunswick. All my family on my mother side lives there and I was told about them since I was a child.
Ryan