Miss Monitor

Here she is -- "Miss Monitor." Her real name is Tedi Thurman -- the woman who, in "Monitor's" early years, gave weather forecasts in a manner that New York Times media critic Jack Gould described as "an irresistible invitation to an unforgettable evening."

Tedi was a fashion model and actress who had appeared on several TV shows. That turned out to be her ticket to "Monitor," where she gave weather forecasts for cities in a way that they'd never been given before -- in an alluring voice with lush music playing in the background.

The first time you heard that presentation, you'd never forget it -- or "that voice."

(The weather forecasts were real -- except for the time when "Monitor" host Henry Morgan set Tedi's script on fire from the bottom up. Then, she had to make up some of the temperatures.)

She was a smash hit on "Monitor" -- so much so that she appeared in a movie trailer for Dean Martin's "Ten Thousand Bedrooms" flick as, yes, "Miss Monitor" (and thanks to Kent Coscarelly for that piece of information).

You can hear "Miss Monitor" by clicking on the Miss Monitor audio link.

Editor's note: Tedi Thurman died in Palm Springs in September 2012 at the age of 89. I was privileged to meet her at the Monitor reunion in Manhattan in 2004 -- several years after I first talked with her by phone for my books on Monitor. She was always, in a word, delightful. She loved having been on Monitor and was, decades later, surprised that someone (me) was interested in chronicling the program. She told me that she still had friends and acquaintances who remembered "Miss Monitor" -- and who asked her to reprise the role at parties and other gatherings.

In the years after we met, she talked by phone often, and she always expressed her happiness that I had kept Monitor's memory alive. I always, and honestly, expressed my delight to have met her and gotten to know the woman whom I had adored listening to.

I will miss Tedi very much, and I will never forget her and her broadcasting legacy. She was -- without doubt -- a great lady.