Despite four decades of navigating Hollywood’s bright lights and busy streets, Huntington native Jim Thornton has never lost sight of one thing: home. This is exactly why the “Wheel of Fortune” announcer did not think twice about his answer when asked to be the university’s grand marshal for Homecoming 2025.
Executive Editor Baylee Parsons spoke with Thornton about his Huntington roots, his adventures at Marshall and a career, he said, that has brought him more good fortune than any wheel ever could.
Since you left Marshall before graduating, what was it like going directly into the workforce?
I’ve worked ever since I was a kid. At age 12, I was mowing lawns, and I always thought it was magical; getting a paycheck in return and earning money was just magical to me. So, I would mow the lawns, and I passed the newspapers for USA Today and The Herald-Dispatch as a teenager.
So, I’d already worked, but going out to L.A., it was scary. I was homesick; I missed all my friends that I hung out with. But I worked fast food, I did whatever I could. Nobody wants to hire a 19-year-old kid just right off the street, and I wanted to do camera, anything I could get into with showbiz. I also wanted to disc jockey, but you don’t just walk into that either in L.A., so it was a big adjustment for a country boy like me.
No matter where you’re from in Appalachia, typically, to outsiders, everybody has an accent. Did you have any experiences with this, or did they ask you to work on it?
Oh, yeah. I didn’t hear it, but I remember I was really young, and somebody I worked with when I first started on the microphone reporting traffic – and this is in Los Angeles – she was a big time traffic anchor. She said, “Oh, it’s so cute. I hope you don’t ever lose it.”
I had an accent, and it just went away on its own. I didn’t really have to try because I have an ear for mimicry, but there’s still plenty of room for people with our lovely West Virginia accent.
As you said, you relocated to L.A. at the age of 19. Do you think that young West Virginians have to move away to “hit it big” today?
I don’t want to discourage people at all, but I think quite often you do need to move around to where the activity is going on or into a big city to do showbiz. Any version of showbiz, whether it’s radio, TV, movies, voiceover – although now everything can be done remotely, you still want to be near where the action is just because people, in their own minds, will think of you as across town, not across the country. It’s kind of a show of faith, or it’s showing that you’re really committed and you’re there in that city.
The real “hitting it big” moment in your career was “The Price is Right” and then “Wheel.” Walk me through how this came about and what it was like for you.
Well, with “The Price is Right,” that was 2004, and Rod Roddy had passed away. I saw that they were using several people, and they hadn’t settled on anybody. And I thought, “Well, I’m going to give it a try.” It’s what I always wanted to do, but I was bashful about promoting myself, but it does take self-promotion, so I finally sent out a CD. I heard back within, like, 12 days, and they said, “We didn’t get all that many tapes, maybe 15 tapes from across the country,” and I thought that was wild because I thought everybody in the world would want to do this job.
Fast forward to Harry Friedman, the executive producer of “Wheel of Fortune,” I met him when Charlie O’Donnell passed away … My agent got a call that they were looking for somebody to replace Charlie, and they were “jazzed about me,” is the way he put it, I think. I was so touched by that, that they knew me from the radio station where I did news.
I said, “If this lasts one day, it will have fulfilled an entire child’s dream.” Ever since I was like five years old, I have wanted to do what I’m doing now. Being on the radio, being a voice on the TV, I was so intrigued by that power. I think I was watching “The Wizard of Oz,” and the man behind the curtain, I was like, “Wow.” All he has is this microphone, and he can be anything he wants.
What does a typical day look like for you, and what’s the most exciting part of it that others may not know about?
Well, I like seeing the contestants coming in and rehearsing when we get a room full of contestants because they’re so excited to be here. It’s something they feel like they know so well, but they’ve never been there, and it’s their first time coming on stage.
I say “hi” to them in the morning when they come in to rehearse on stage, and they’re looking around at all the wheel, the puzzle board and the available letter board, and it’s just great. I get so plugged in to where they are, having grown up in Huntington and having seen Hollywood from far away; it’s so cool because I feel like one of them all the time.
After spending so much of your life away from home, how do you stay true to your Huntington roots?
Oh, it never left me. I mean, it’s living and breathing. I go back a lot. I have a house in Proctorville, and my dad is over in Proctorville, too, so I see him and my friends that I grew up with; a number of them are still in Huntington. I still dream, not exclusively, but a lot of the time in my dreams, I am somewhere in Huntington, like the house where I grew up on the hill in the woods.
In Marshall’s press release, you expressed quite a bit of love for Marshall. How did it feel whenever you were chosen as this year’s grand marshal?
Oh, it took me a minute. I mean, that is the kind of thing that’s reserved for people much bigger than me. And I think about people who are gone now, like Peter Marshall, Soupy Sales – even Billy Crystal went to Marshall.
I just thought, well, they must have run out of names, but no, I was so honored. It’s a thrill, and I’m so into it because I love to promote our state and our city and our wonderful university. I just love what they’ve done, and I hope they keep attracting the best out there.
Baylee Parsons can be contacted at [email protected].
