- Howard K. Smith
Infobox Person
name = Howard Kingsbury Smith
image size=200px
caption = Howard K. Smith as he appears at theDelta Music Museum inFerriday, Louisiana birth_date = Birth date|1914|5|12
birth_place = Ferriday,Concordia Parish ,Louisiana , USA
death_date = death date and age |2002|2|15|1914|5|12
death_place = Bethesda, Montgomery County,Maryland
other_names =
known_for =
occupation =Television news anchor forCBS and ABC networks
nationality = AmericanHoward Kingsbury Smith (
May 12 ,1914 -February 15 ,2002 ) was an Americanjournalist ,radio reporter ,television anchorman andcommentator , and one of the original Edward R. Murrow boys.Smith was born in Ferriday in
Concordia Parish ,Louisiana , to Howard K. Smith, originally from a gentleman-farming family in Lettsworth inPointe Coupee Parish , and the former Minnie Gates, the daughter of aCajun riverboat pilot."Howard K. Smith", Delta Music Museum Celebritis, Ferriday, Louisiana, p. 2]Smith graduated from
Tulane University inNew Orleans in 1936, with both abachelor's degree and an L.L.B. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University (Merton College) from which he graduated inSeptember 1939.Early career/CBS years
World War II
Upon graduating, Smith worked for the "New Orleans Item", with
United Press in London, and with the "The New York Times ". InJanuary 1940, Smith was sent toBerlin , where he joined theColumbia Broadcasting System . He visited Hitler's mountain retreat atBerchtesgaden and interviewed many of the most prominent Nazis, including Hitler himself, SS leaderHeinrich Himmler and propaganda ministerJoseph Goebbels .In December 1941 Smith was one of the last American reporters to leave Berlin before Germany and the United States went to war. Smith's 1942 book, "Last Train from Berlin: An Eye-Witness Account of Germany at War" describes the reporter's observations from Berlin in the year after the departure of "
Berlin Diary " authorWilliam L. Shirer . "Last Train from Berlin" became an American best-seller and was reprinted in 2001, shortly before Smith's death.Unable to leave
Switzerland , Smith reported what he could when the Swiss government would let him. After the liberation ofFrance in 1944, Smith reported on the war effort on the frontlines ofEurope for CBS News. He was by then a significant member of the "Murrow Boys" (afterEdward R. Murrow ) that made CBS News the dominant broadcast news organization of the era. In May 1945 he returned to Berlin to recount the German surrender.Post-war
After the war Smith continued to work for CBS as the anchor reporter for CBS Reports. After the Nuremberg Trial, he witnessed the execution of the prominent Nazi leaders, including
Ernst Kaltenbrunner , the highest ranking member of the SS to face trial.After his return to the United States, Smith chaired the first televised presidential debate between Senator
John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon.In 1962 he left his job at CBS over a dispute about a documentary called "Who Speaks for Birmingham." This in-depth investigation concerned the battle between civil rights advocates and the police of Birmingham. His commentary at the end of the piece led to a dispute with CBS management about his reporting of the
civil rights movement, and he left CBS.ABC, 1962-79
Smith moved to ABC at a time when that network's news division was a distant third among the "Big Three" networks. After the 1962 mid-term elections, Smith presented a documentary called, "The Political Obituary of Richard Nixon". Smith referred to Nixon's "last press conference" after his disastrous losing campaign against Democrat Edmund G. "Pat" Brown, Sr., for governor of
California . In that press conference, the former vice president famously told reporters that they would not "have Nixon to kick around any more."After his arrival at ABC, Smith hosted in the 1962-1963 season a public affairs program called "Howard K. Smith: News and Comment" in the 10:30 Eastern slot on
Sunday s, oppositeCBS 's long-running "What's My Line? ". The following season the program was revised as "ABC News Reports". [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1962%E2%80%9363_United_States_network_television_schedule]On
June 5 ,1968 , Smith was anchoring coverage of theCalifornia presidential primary that had stretched to 3 AM New York time. As the closing credits for the special were airing, word came in thatU.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy ofNew York had just been shot. ABC simply showed a wide shot of the chaoticnewsroom for several minutes until Smith was able to confirm the initial story and go back on the air with aspecial report . He continued at the anchor desk for several more hours as reports of Kennedy's condition trickled in.In 1969, the veteran reporter became the co-anchor of the "ABC Evening News," first with
Frank Reynolds , then the following year with another CBS alumnus,Harry Reasoner . He began making increasingly conservative commentaries, in particular adopting a hard-line stance in support of theVietnam War . During this period, his son, future ABC newsman, Jack Smith, was serving with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam. These commentaries endeared him to President Nixon, who rewarded him with a rare, hour-long, one-on-one interview in 1971, at the height of the administration's animus against major newspapers, CBS and NBC..
Smith remained as co-anchor at ABC until 1976, when
Barbara Walters joined the anchor desk, and stayed on for about two more years as an analyst, but left as theRoone Arledge era ofABC News began--and full retirement age approached. Sources say that Smith, apparently bitter over his diminished role at ABC, resigned not too long after criticizing the revamped "World News Tonight" broadcast as a "Punch and Judy show." [ [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/smithhoward/smithhoward.htm Smith, Howard K ] ]Awards, film roles and personal life
Among honors which Smith received over the years were DuPont Awards in 1955 and 1963, a
Sigma Delta Chi Award for radio journalism in 1957, and an award from theAmerican Jewish Congress in 1960.Smith also appeared in a number of films, often as himself. The films include "
The Candidate " (1972), "Nashville" (1975), "Close Encounters of the Third Kind " (1977), "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas " (1982), thetelevision series "The Bionic Woman " - the "Kill Oscar" episode (1977) playing himself anchoring an ABC newscast, and "V" (1984). In "V", Smith introduced early episodes of the series as part of a faux news broadcast in which Smith was depicted as representing the human resistance fighting the series' alien invaders. Smith's prologues were abandoned after the series underwent a mid-season relaunch. In "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", someone addresses him as "Walter", because it was originally intended thatWalter Cronkite would appear in that scene. Smith was also cast in the movie, "The Pink Panther Strikes Again".Along with "Last Train from Berlin", he wrote three other books, a memoir "Events Leading Up to My Death: The Life of a Twentieth-Century Reporter" (1996), a children's book "Washington, D.C.; the story of our Nation's Capital" (1967), and "The Population Explosion" (1960).
Smith's son, Jack, was an ABC News correspondent who received Peabody and Emmy awards for his coverage of
technology ; he died inMarin County, California , in 2004. Smith also had a daughter, Catherine, by his March 1942 marriage to the former Benedicte "Bennie" Traberg, a Danish journalist, whom Smith called the most impressive person he had ever known "far above presidents and generals".Notes
External links
* [http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/S/htmlS/smithhoward/smithhoward.htm Museum of Broadcast Communications]
*"Who's Who in America", 1972 edition
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-EEWRJlDS0 YouTube clip of Smith anchoring "ABC News," November 21, 1969]
* [http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=time%20tunnel&from=0&to=9&type=video ABC News' "Time Tunnel" page containing clips of numerous newscasts on which Smith appeared]sequence
prev=Howard K. Smith andFrank Reynolds
next=Harry Reasoner andBarbara Walters
list=ABC Evening News anchor
1970-1975
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