Charles Vanda; Ex-CBS Program Chief

Charles Vanda, a former writer, producer and program manager for the CBS radio network, died Saturday in Las Vegas, two days before his 85th birthday.

At the time of his death he was director of the Performing Arts Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Born in New York on June 6, 1903, Vanda worked as a press agent there in the 1920s. In 1935, he was named program manager for CBS in charge of all Hollywood radio originations for the network. Later he produced and directed shows starring Ronald Colman, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power and Jimmy Stewart.

Vanda left CBS in 1946 to write and direct for television. His credits included “Abbott and Costello” and “Rogue’s Gallery.”

In the 1950s, Vanda worked for Philadelphia’s WCAU-TV, where he produced live series. He went back to Hollywood in 1958 as the J. Walter Thompson Co.’s agency producer for the Jack Benny, George Gobel and “Milton Berle Music Hall” shows.

Vanda moved to Las Vegas in 1966 and joined UNLV in 1975 as director of concert hall programming.

In 1980, he donated his collection of vintage recordings of broadcasts from the 1930s and ‘40s to the UCLA Radio Archives. The collection included “The Adventures of Phillip Marlowe,” starring Van Heflin, and many of the “Theater of Romance” shows that were aired on CBS from 1944 to 1946. The first “Intrigue” show that Vanda produced in 1946 also was included.

Vanda is survived by a son, Bruce, and a daughter, Jody, both of California.