John Crosby (May 18, 1912 – September 7, 1991) was an American newspaper columnist, radio-television critic, novelist and TV host. After winning a Personal Peabody Award for his radio criticism in 1946, [1] he became a member of the Peabody Awards Board of Jurors, serving from 1947 to 1962. [2] During the 1950s, he was generally regarded as the leading critic of television.
Crosby was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Fred G. Crosby and the former Edna Campbell. His father was in the insurance business. After graduating from New Hampshire's Phillips Exeter Academy, Crosby attended Yale but left without a degree. In 1933, he was a reporter with The Milwaukee Sentinel, moving on to The New York Herald Tribune (1935–41).
During World War II, he spent five years with the Army News Service, rising to the rank of captain. In the post-war years, he returned to the Herald Tribune and began writing about radio, widening his horizon to television in 1952. That same year, his book-length collection of columns, Out of the Blue, was published, prompting Lewis Gannett to comment: "Crosby is at his best when he engages in the art of amiable murder. He can, by his special personalized art of denunciation, make the most brainless radio program interesting, at least in its death pangs. He slays with zest."
Crosby once observed, "A radio critic is forced to be literate about the illiterate, witty about the witless and coherent about the incoherent."
Crosby was known for his literate, caustic remarks about the television industry. One of his most notable quotes came upon the cancellation of Edward R. Murrow's television series See It Now : "See it Now... is by every criterion television's most brilliant, most decorated, most imaginative, most courageous and most important program. The fact that CBS cannot afford it but can afford Beat the Clock is shocking."
Crosby was so highly respected that he became one of the first media critics to host a television show: the Emmy-winning anthology series The Seven Lively Arts , on CBS. Telecast on Sunday afternoons, it lasted a single season, from late 1957 to early 1958, with individual episodes on such subjects as jazz, ballet and films. The program was notable for showcasing the first (albeit heavily abridged) telecast of Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker .
From 1965 to 1975 he was a columnist for the British weekly, The Observer. He married Mary B. Wolferth in 1946, and they divorced in 1959. His second wife, the former Katharine J. B. Wood, was a former fashion editor of Edinburgh's The Scotsman. He had two children with Katharine and two children with Mary. His children with Katharine are named Alexander and Victoria and his children with Mary are Margaret and Michael. In 1977, he moved to a farm outside Esmont, Virginia, and turned to writing suspense novels, including Men in Arms (1983). He died of cancer in 1991 in Esmont.
Among those he wrote:
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. was an American singer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1926 to 1977. He was one of the first global cultural icons. He made over 70 feature films and recorded more than 1,600 songs.
The George Foster Peabody Awards program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and online media. The awards were conceived by the National Association of Broadcasters in 1938 as the radio industry's equivalent of the Pulitzer Prizes. Programs are recognized in seven categories: news, entertainment, documentaries, children's programming, education, interactive programming, and public service. Peabody Award winners include radio and television stations, networks, online media, producing organizations, and individuals from around the world.
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope KBE, KC*SG, KSS was a British-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films—54 in which he starred. These included a series of seven Road to ... musical comedy films with Bing Crosby as Hope's top-billed partner.
The Civil War is a 1990 American television documentary miniseries created by Ken Burns about the American Civil War. It was the first broadcast to air on PBS for five consecutive nights, from September 23 to 27, 1990.
Goodman Ace, born Goodman Aiskowitz, was an American humorist, radio writer and comedian, television writer, and magazine columnist.
James Mavor Moore was a Canadian writer, producer, actor, public servant, critic, and educator. He notably appeared as Nero Wolfe in the CBC radio production in 1982.
Playhouse 90 was an American television anthology drama series that aired on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. The show was produced at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California. Since live anthology drama series of the mid-1950s usually were hour-long shows, the title highlighted the network's intention to present something unusual: a weekly series of hour-and-a-half-long dramas rather than 60-minute plays.
Anthony Christopher Kubek is an American former professional baseball player and television broadcaster. During his nine-year playing career with the New York Yankees, Kubek played in six World Series in the late 1950s and early 1960s, starting in 37 World Series games. For NBC television, he later broadcast twelve World Series between 1968 and 1982, and fourteen League Championship Series between 1969 and 1989. Kubek received the Ford C. Frick Award in 2009.
Great Performances is a television anthology series dedicated to the performing arts; the banner has been used to televise theatrical performances such as plays, musicals, opera, ballet, concerts, as well as occasional documentaries. It is produced by the PBS member station WNET in New York City.
The Edsel Show is an hour-long television special broadcast live on CBS in the United States on October 13, 1957, intended to promote Ford Motor Company's new Edsel cars. It was a milestone in the long career of entertainer Bing Crosby and is notable as the first CBS entertainment program to be recorded on videotape for rebroadcast in the western part of the country following a live performance for the east coast. Crosby arranged for this ‘live’ program to be ‘produced’ by his alma mater Gonzaga University in order that the profits could go to them in a tax efficient way. The program won the ‘Look’ magazine TV Award for ‘Best Musical Show’ and was nominated for an Emmy as the “Best Single Program of the Year”.
Easy Aces is an American serial radio comedy (1930–1945). It was trademarked by the low-keyed drollery of creator and writer Goodman Ace and his wife, Jane, as an urbane, put-upon realtor and his malaprop-prone wife. A 15-minute program, airing as often as five times a week, Easy Aces wasn't quite the ratings smash that such concurrent 15-minute serial comedies as Amos 'n' Andy, The Goldbergs, Lum and Abner, or Vic and Sade were. But its unobtrusive, conversational, and clever style, and the cheerful absurdism of its storylines, built a loyal enough audience of listeners and critics alike to keep it on the air for 15 years.
The Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication is a constituent college of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States. Established in 1915, Grady College offers undergraduate degrees in journalism, advertising, public relations, and entertainment and media studies, and master's and doctoral programs of study. Grady has consistently been ranked among the top schools of journalism education and research in the U.S.
Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 pm ET for three seasons, beginning October 18, 1954. The final episode, the last of 37, was broadcast May 27, 1957.
Clive Alexander Barnes was an English writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977, he was the dance and theater critic for The New York Times, and, from 1978 until his death, The New York Post. Barnes had significant influence in reviewing new Broadway productions and evaluating the international dancers who often perform in New York City.
NBC Sunday Showcase was a series of hour-long specials telecast in color on NBC during the 1959-60 season. The flexible anthology format varied weekly from comedies and science fiction to musicals and historical dramas. The recent introduction of videotape made repeats possible, and two 1959 dramas had repeats in 1960.
John Ludlow Gould was an American journalist and critic, who wrote commentary about television.
The Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts are a regular series of weekly broadcasts on network radio of full-length opera performances. They are transmitted live from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network airs the live performances on Saturday afternoons while the Met is in season, typically beginning the first Saturday in December, and totaling just over 20 weekly performances through early May. The Met broadcasts are the longest-running continuous classical music program in radio history, and the series has won several Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting.
Larry Grossman is an American composer for theatre, television, film, concerts, and cabaret.
Perry Como was an American singer, radio and television performer whose career covered more than fifty years. He is probably best known for his television shows and specials over a period of almost thirty years. Como came to television in 1948 when his radio show was selected by NBC for experimental television broadcasts. His television programs were seen in more than a dozen countries, making Como a familiar presence outside of the United States and Canada.
Bing Crosby Live at the London Palladium is a 1976 vinyl 2-LP live recording of the show put on by Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Kathryn Crosby and Ted Rogers at the London Palladium from June 21 to July 4, 1976. Musical support was provided by the Pete Moore Big Band and the Joe Bushkin Quartet. The Crosby children also took part.
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