The only child of James A. Des Autels and Phoebe Van Tassel, he was born in
Paragould, Arkansas. The family later relocated to
Portsmouth, Virginia and, in 1923, to
El Paso, Texas. his creative output including a
chalk talk staged during his freshman year, and, two years later, the libretto for a two-act comic opera entitled
Brutuspanto, in which he also costarred with, among others,
Harry Hickox. Following his graduation, Des Autels worked as program director at
KTSA in
San Antonio, and later at
KTSM in El Paso. In 1941, along with
Mike Frankovich,
Don Thompson and others, Des Autel provided play-by-play coverage on
NBC Blue Network's
PCPFL broadcasts. The following year, he hosted
I Solemnly Swear, a daily, 15-minute
U.S. Navy recruiting program, on
KFAC in Los Angeles. In 1947,
Frank Graham and Des Autels co-hosted a well-received listener-participation giveaway show entitled
Three Alarm. In 1948, Des Autels collaborated with producer-director
Jerry Fairbanks, providing narration for
NBC's
Television Close-Ups, a series of 26 five-minute mini-documentaries, dealing primarily with historical subjects. From 1949 to 1950, Des Autels teamed with producer-director
Les Mitchel and composer
Del Castillo, serving as announcer—aka "Van, the Skippy Man"—on the dramatic
anthology series Skippy Hollywood Theatre. He was also the featured actor on the 2/13/49 episode, entitled "Double Talk". From 1961 through 1967, Des Autels was the news anchor at
KTAR-TV in
Phoenix. ==Personal life and death==