Cronkite

by Douglas Brinkley

  158 they offered Cronkite a job as substitute host: “Radio-TV Notes,” New York Times, June 29, 1951.

  158 Cronkite, the substitute, became the host in 1954: David Schwartz, Steve Ryan, and Fred Westbrook, The Encyclopedia of TV Game Shows (New York: Checkmark Books, 1999), pp. 106–7.

  Eleven: Election Night and UNIVAC

  159 “It seemed then that a revolution”: Sig Mickelson, The Electric Mirror: Politics in an Age of Television (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1972), p. vii.

  160 “I used to see him fairly frequently”: Jay Perkins, “Television Covers the 1952 Political Conventions in Chicago: An Oral History Interview with Sig Mickelson,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 18, no. 1 (1998). Perkins used sections from a number of oral histories Mickelson conducted from July 30 to August 2, 1993. Those interview tapes—recorded in San Diego—are on file at the Middleton Library at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Two other Mickelson oral histories exist at San Diego State University and Columbia University.

  160 morphing CBS Radio and CBS TV: Gary Paul Gates, Air Time: The Story of CBS News (New York: Berkeley, 1979), p. 59.

  160 “I held to my [pro-Cronkite] position”: Perkins, “Television Covers the 1952 Political Conventions in Chicago.”

  161 “I am not sure if that term was ever used”: Ibid.

  161 “political shell-game . . . rigged, traded”: Sperber, Murrow, His Life and Times, p. 385.

  161 the idea was nixed as an illegal corporate contribution: Martin Plissner, The Control Room: How Television Calls the Shots in Presidential Elections (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p. 35.

  161 “I had little contact with Edward R. Murrow”: Perkins, “Television Covers the 1952 Political Conventions in Chicago.”

  162 “all in the eyes”: Michael A. Russo, “CBS and the American Political Experience: A History of the CBS News Special Events and Election Units, 1952–1968,” PhD dissertation, New York University, June 1983, pp. 86–88.

  162 The 1952 coverage of both Chicago political conventions: John Crosby, “Too Much Coverage?” Council Bluffs Non Pareil, July 13, 1952.

  162 “TV had been radio’s little brother”: Plissner, The Control Room, p. 36.

  162 “Those 1952 conventions were not only the first”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, p. 182.

  163 “We were young,” Mickelson recalled: Perkins, “Television Covers the 1952 Political Conventions in Chicago.”

  163 CBS planned to find a “common man”: Val Adams, “How Much Commentary Is Necessary?” New York Times, July 20, 1952.

  163 The 1952 Democratic Convention is remembered in the annals of U.S. political history: Plissner, The Control Room, p. 36.

  164 “proclaiming that they favored television”: Reuven Frank, Out of Thin Air (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), pp. 55–56.

  164 “He ran a wire,” Cronkite recalled, “up the outside of the hotel”: Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life, p. 91.

  164 “ethical considerations did not deeply disturb us”: Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite, p. 37.

  165 CBS’s convention coverage ran for 13.9 hours: Plissner, The Control Room, p. 38.

  165 “Walter Cronkite,” he wrote, “the slot man for CBS”: Crosby, “Too Much Coverage?”

  165 “Television,” David Halberstam wrote of early 1950s journalism: Halberstam, The Powers That Be, p. 130.

  165 “I am succeeding in maintaining objectivity”: Walter Cronkite to Don Michel, Michel Archive (personal), Dallas, Texas.

  165 “we had really pulled off a revolution”: Perkins, “Television Covers the 1952 Political Conventions in Chicago.”

  166 Cronkite had become “not just ‘an anchorman’ ”: Hewitt, Tell Me a Story, p. 55.

  166 “you’re famous now”: Tom Wicker, “Broadcast News,” New York Times, January 26, 1997.

  166 “On the air Murrow treated Cronkite with collegiality”: Edwards, Edward R. Murrow.

  166 issued a press release naming him “anchor-man”: “CBS-TV’s Plans for Nationwide Election Day Coverage,” CBS press release, September 25, 1952, CBS News Archives, New York.

  166 able to project election results from returns better than humans: James W. Cortada, Before the Computer: IBM, NCR Burroughs, and Remington Rand and the Industry They Created, 1865–1956 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1993), p. 156.

  166 “The novelty value of using UNIVAC: Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite, p. 138.

  166 This left ABC news director John Madigan to lampoon: “Radio: Univac and Monrobot,” Time, October 27, 1952.

  167 “Actually we’re not depending too much”: Quoted in Chinoy, “Battle of the Brains,” pp. 254–255.

  167 Cronkite was trying to gin up excitement: CBS News Election Coverage, November 4, 1952 (eight-part transcription), Paley Center for Media, New York.

  168 “overly rich doses of high technology”: Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite, p. 134.

  169 “it may be possible for men and machines to draw”: CBS Election Night Coverage 1952 (transcript), Paley Center, New York.

  170 “Television has an X-ray quality”: Walter Cronkite, “Government by Hooper Rating?” Theatre Arts, November 1952.

  171 Ernie Leiser in Hungary: Author interview with Morton Dean, September 14, 2011.

  171 Once Leiser and Cronkite had taped the royal pomp: Sonia Stein, “TV’s Coronation Spectacle Shades Space-Time Miracle,” Washington Post, June 3, 1953.

  171 chartered plane: Sonia Stein, “TV Is Rushing Films to U.S.,” Washington Post, May 31, 1953.

  171 “gutted”: Lawrence Laurent, “ABC Wins Sylvania Prize for Coronation Coverage,” Washington Post, December 2, 1953.

  171 A broadcastography of Cronkite: Alfred Robert Hogan, “Walter Cronkite Broadcasting Highlights/Broadcastography, 1943–2009,” August 1, 2011 (unpublished transcript), Hogan Archive, Washington, DC.

  172 “Cronkite and Murrow didn’t work well”: Hewitt, Tell Me a Story, p. 70. See also “Peabody Honors Stations, CBS,” Broadcasting, March 18, 1946.

  Twelve: Mr. CBS Utility Man

  173 announcer would almost shout out, “You are there!”: Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Dictionary to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946–Present, 9th ed. (New York: Ballantine Books, 2007), pp. 1552–1553.

  174 Russell, refusing “dramatic license” in re-creating the past: Lawrence Laurent, “Video Proves Nothing’s as Exciting as History,” Washington Post, December 13, 1953.

  174 “the premise of the series was so silly”: “Walter Cronkite Dies,” CBS News, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/17/eveningnews/main5170556.shtml (accessed November 3, 2011).

  174 “He’s good,” Dozier said, “he’s effective”: Doug James, Walter Cronkite, p. 99.

  174 Cronkite’s “serious demeanor”: “Walter Cronkite Dies,” CBS News.

  174 “the history teacher”: “St. Joseph Native Narrates TV Series on ‘You Are There,’ ” Daily Capital News, February 10, 1955.

  174 “I was brought on as an actor”: Walter Cronkite, “Remembering ‘You Are There,’ ” All Things Considered, NPR, October 27, 2003.

  174 “Sidney Lumet’s stock company”: Walter Cronkite interview with Richard Snow, “He Was There.”

  175 Russell wasn’t willing to “play the blacklist game”: Cronkite, “Remembering ‘You Are There.’ ”

  175 “offered no shortage of ways to deal”: Ibid.

  175 “man of all work”: John Crosby, “Radio and TV Comments,” February 9, 1953.

  175 detonations at Yucca Flats: Tim O’Brien, The Nuclear Age (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1995), p. 123.

  176 created signature sign-off lines such as “A good good-evening to you”: Les Brown, The New York Times Encyclopedia of Television (New York: Times Books, 1970), p. 66.

  176 Murrow wasn’t Mickelson’s “cup of tea”: Felicity Barringer, “Sig Mickelson, First Director of CBS’s TV News, Dies at 86,” New York Times, March 27, 2000.<
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  176 “The name which most viewers”: Mickelson, The Electric Mirror, pp. 159–160.

  177 “I think newsmen are inclined to side with humanity”: Powers, “Walter Cronkite: A Candid Conversation.”

  177 “I thought he’d gotten the nomination”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, p. 114.

  177 “CBS executives sensed a more immediate concern”: Walter Cronkite, “Civil Rights Era Almost Split CBS News Operation,” All Things Considered, NPR, transcript, May 30, 2005.

  178 it would have been a career killer: Author interview with Marvin Kalb, March 18, 2011.

  178 “A puppet,” Cronkite said, “can render”: Michael Davis, Street Gag: The Complete History of Sesame Street (New York: Penguin, 2008), p. 40.

  178 a “whimsical and frequently off-beat sense of humor”: Al Morton, “Martha Wright’s Success Started with Song to Sow,” syndicated, May 27, 1954.

  180 The gig went to Bill Shadel: “TV Anchor Bill Shadel Dies; CBS, WTOP Radio Reporter,” Washington Post, February 1, 2005.

  180 “serious broadcaster”: “Bill Shadel, 96, Nixon-Kennedy Moderator,” New York Times, February 2, 2005.

  180 “I don’t like the challenge”: Steven Scheuer, “Cronkite Likes Show Challenge,” Syracuse Herald-Journal, October 20, 1955.

  180 “But I do believe in Walter Cronkite”: Al Reinert, “The Secret World of Walter Cronkite.”

  181 “emerged wet but unhurt”: Lapham, “The Secret Life of Walter (Mitty) Cronkite,” Saturday Evening Post, March 16, 1963.

  181 “You’re our next Douglas Edwards”: Author interview with Phil Jones, October 21, 2011.

  182 “And then, one of the great compromisers said”: William Whitworth, “An Accident of Casting,” New Yorker, August 3, 1968.

  182 “They received the critical attention: “The Most Intimate Medium,” Time, October 14, 1966.

  Thirteen: The Huntley and Brinkley Challenge

  184 “dead pan”: Jack Gould, “In Retrospect; Some Random Reflections on Coverage of the Conventions by Television,” New York Times, August 26, 1956.

  184 “The low CBS morale”: Eric Sevareid to Sig Mickelson, October 19, 1957, Box: 7733, CBS Records, New York.

  185 Cronkite even intimated: Walter Cronkite to Sig Mickelson, October 14, 1956, Box: 7733, CBS Records, New York.

  185 naturally “clicked”: Gould, “In Retrospect.”

  185 “While past attempts at using two anchormen”: Michael A. Russo, “CBS and the American Political Experience: A History of the CBS News Special Events and Election Units, 1952–1968,” PhD dissertation, New York University, June 1983, p. 160.

  186 “It was a situation made to order”: Sig Mickelson, The Decade That Shaped Television News, p. 210.

  187 Cronkite’s appearance on What’s My Line?: YouTube, “Walter Cronkite—What’s My Line,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6_RHxArgp8 (accessed August 13, 2011).

  187 “Mr. Brinkley’s extraordinary accomplishment”: Jack Gould, “Witty Commentator: Brinkley Enlivens NBC Convention Coverage,” New York Times, August 17, 1956.

  187 “We like the straight-news simplicity”: Sandusky Register Star News, August 8, 1956.

  187 “Walter thought that there were no”: Author interview with Brian Williams, September 2, 2011.

  188 The Pick the Winner series ran for eight weeks: September 12, 1956, through November 5, 1956, CBS News Programming Logs, CBS News Archives, New York.

  188 CBS whipped the competition with a 25.3 rating: Thomas W. Bohn, “Broadcasting National Election Returns, 1952–1976,” Journal of Communication 30, no. 4 (Autumn 1980): 143.

  189 “my presence on CBS was confined”: Walter Cronkite, “How Sputnik Changed the World,” All Things Considered, NPR, October 4, 2002.

  189 By 1958, CBS News had restructured: “CBS at 75” Timeline—CBS News, CBS Archive, New York.

  189 Although Mudd’s primary job was doing the 6:00 a.m. radio newscast: Mudd, The Place to Be, pp. 20–21.

  190 “Although we all snorted about his gaffes”: Ibid., p. 344.

  190 Cronkite had “breached the shallow wall”: Walter Cronkite, radio broadcast, “The Mike Todd Party,” All Things Considered, NPR, November 29, 2004.

  190 first and most well disguised ninety-minute infomercial: Ibid.

  190 “Even the smooth-as-silk Walter Cronkite”: Fred Brooks, “Why Did I Keep Watching That Stupid Show,” Kansas Salina Journal, October 23, 1957.

  191 the episodes immediately took a turn: CBS News, The Twentieth Century (four-year report), October 1957–May 1961, Bob Asman Personal Papers.

  192 “We had lost the space race before we knew we were in it”: Cronkite, “How Sputnik Changed the World,” All Things Considered, NPR, October 4, 2002.

  192 going to Cape Canaveral: Walter Cronkite, “And That’s the Way It Was,” Newsweek, October 26, 1998.

  193 his The Twentieth Century producer the “finest” documentarian: Walter Cronkite, Preface to Fair Play: CBS, General Westmoreland, and How a Television Documentary Went Wrong (New York: HarperCollins, 1988).

  194 “In those days . . . I was temporarily”: Harry Reasoner, Before the Colors Fade (New York: Knopf, 1981), pp. 37–41.

  194 Reasoner blared out, “There she goes”: Alfred Robert Hogan, “Televising the Space Age: A Descriptive Chronology of CBS News Special Events Coverage of Space Coverage from 1957–2003,” master’s thesis, 2005, Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park.

  195 “It’s difficult to remember now how impossibly dangerous”: Walter Cronkite, “And That’s the Way It Was,” Newsweek, October 26, 1998.

  195 He not only liked the role of space reporter: Ibid.

  195 “Walter saw The Twentieth Century as a sly way to build”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  196 employees were forced to sign a loyalty oath: Jeff Kisseloff, “Televison/Radio; Another Award, Other Memories of McCarthyism,” New York Times, May 30, 1999.

  197 “conquest of space”: “NASA Honors Veteran Journalist Walter Cronkite,” NASA.gov, February 28, 2006, http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/features/cronkite_ambassador_of_exploration.html.

  198 Thomas, an obviously serious man of good humor: “Lowell Thomas, A World Traveler and Broadcaster for 45 Years, Dead,” New York Times, August 30, 1981.

  198 “His almost forty-six years of reporting”: George Plimpton, As Told at the Explorers Club: More Than Fifty Gripping Tales of Adventure (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005), p. 431.

  199 “Everybody he met, as far as I know”: Ibid., p. 441.

  199 “If I knew, I’d be working for the Pentagon”: “U.S. Hungry for Know-How,” Associated Press, January 20, 1958.

  199 Before long, Cronkite befriended the intellectual pundits: Burton Benjamin, The Documentary: An Endangered Species (paper #6, Garrett Center for Media Studies), NY: Columbia University, October 1987; “The Documentary Heritage,” Television Quarterly, February 1962; “TV Documentarians Dream in Challenging World,” Variety, January 4, 1961; “From Bustles to Bikinis—and All That Drama,” Variety, July 27, 1960.

  199 “It’s difficult for a celebrity”: Kenneth Barnard, “Korea Was Walter’s Goal But He Got Sidetracked,” Hamburg Iowa Reporter, April 12, 1959.

  Fourteen: Torch Is Passed

  200 “Walter was the ultimate company man”: Author interview with Andy Rooney, March 15, 2011.

  201 “unprecedented” TV coverage of a presidential foreign trip: “CBS to Give Ike’s Trip Unprecedented Coverage,” New York Times, December 4, 1959.

  201 “send me”: Maggie Savoy, “Cronkite Was Here,” The Arizona Republic, April 5, 1961.

  201 “he trots the globe in pursuit of current history”: H. D. Quigg, “CBS Ready to Let Go Anchor-Man at Conventions,” Washington Post, June 19, 1960.

  201 Cronkite, filling in for McKay, quickly became the TV master: Robert J. Donovan and Ray Scherer, Unsilent Revolution: Television News and American Public Life, 1948–1991 (Cambrid
ge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 289.

  202 While he served as anchorman: “Display Ad 110,” Washington Post, February 18, 1960.

  202 Cronkite was accorded some historical credit: “Saturday TV Program,” Washington Post, February 14, 1960; “Thursday TV Highlights,” Washington Post, February 14, 1960; “Television Previews,” Washington Post, February 18, 1960; “Preview of Saturday’s TV Highlights,” Washington Post, February 20, 1960.

  202 Summer Olympics: Jennifer Moreland, “Olympics and Television,” Museum of Broadcast Communications, http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=olympicsand.

  203 “We think of him as the on-air editor and coordinator”: Quigg, “CBS Ready to Let Go Anchor-Man at Conventions.”

  203 “only Walter Cronkite had not been moved forward”: Walter Cronkite Fan Club Newsletter (June 1974), Feder Archive, Chicago, IL.

  204 raising money had become what politicians did: Donovan and Scherer, Unsilent Revolution, p. 225.

  205 the two candidates first had to be chosen: Theodore H. White, The Making of the President, 1960 (New York: Atheneum House, 1961), p. 282.

  205 “We were on a shopping trip”: Dan Rather, I Remember (Boston: Little, Brown, 1991), p. 231.

  206 Paley hated being a number two: White, The Making of the President 1960, p. 283.

  206 “This was supposed to be comeback time”: Author interview with Dan Rather, February 11, 2010.

  206 “I panicked and went to Sig Mickelson”: Don Hewitt, Fifty Years and Sixty Minutes in Television, p. 70.

  206 “Hewitt, whose judgment was normally impeccable”: Mickelson, The Decade That Shaped Television, p. 220.

  207 “One of the basic troubles with radio and television”: Sperber, Murrow, His Life and Times, p. xxii.

  207 “Murrow thought he was a larger historical personage”: Author interview with Don Hewitt, February 15, 1998.

  207 “I applauded it wildly”: Cronkite and Carleton, Conversations with Cronkite, pp. 137–38.

  208 The most notable Murrow documentary became “Harvest of Shame”: Kendrick, Prime Time, p. 505.

  208 “Walter was big”: Author interview with Dan Rather, February 18, 2011.