Otto Lowy (1921 – May 29, 2002) was the host of CBC Radio 2's The Transcontinental for 22 years until his death. The program was introduced each week as a "musical train ride through Europe".
Lowy was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, to an assimilated Jewish family and was the only member of his immediate family to survive World War II as he fled the country three days before Germany invaded. In England he worked as a member of the ground crew for the Czech Air Force squadron of the RAF. In 1948, he settled in Vancouver, British Columbia, and began his career with CBC Radio, initially as an actor in the series Adventures in Europe. He went on to write radio plays, make documentaries as well as act in dramas and comedies.
He was one of the founders of Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre in 1964.
A 1987 CBC Man Alive documentary short, Journey to Prague, follows Lowy on a trip to Prague in search of what happened to his family in the Holocaust.
References
- "Broadcaster Otto Lowy dies". CBC News. May 31, 2002. Retrieved February 11, 2019.
- Journey to Prague. Canadian Broadcasting Television, Man Alive. 1987. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
- 1921 births
- 2002 deaths
- Canadian male dramatists and playwrights
- British emigrants to Canada
- Czech people of Jewish descent
- Jewish Canadian male actors
- Male actors from Prague
- Male actors from Vancouver
- Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism
- Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
- Canadian male voice actors
- 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- Writers from Prague
- Writers from Vancouver
- CBC Radio hosts
- 20th-century Canadian male writers
- Royal Air Force airmen
- Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
- Czechoslovak military personnel of World War II
- Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom