Lawrence E. Spivak

Lawrence Edmund Spivak (June 11, 1900 - March 9, 1994) was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as a regular panelist and later moderator on NBC's "Meet the Press" from 1947 to 1975, a program he produced and co-created with original host Martha Rountree. Prior to his assuming the moderator's chair in 1966, he sat on the panel, while Ms. Rountree, and later Ned Brooks, moderated.

When the program premiered in November 1947, Spivak was already fairly well-known as the publisher of "The American Mercury", which was then a still relatively mainstream conservative publication best known as the literary home of H. L. Mencken rather than the radically racialist publication it was to become during its final, dying years. He also published "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" and "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction". He sold "Meet the Press" to NBC in 1945, keeping his roles as panelist and producer at a salary of more than $75,000 per year.

Spivak was distinguished by his rather dapper appearance, his wardrobe usually including a bowtie and heavy-rimmed glasses. He first appeared as the one permanent member of the program's panel of reporters, asking the first round of questions. As moderator, he asked the first question of the "Meet the Press" guest and then handed off to the other journalists on the panel, which usually totaled four during his decades-long tenure as the host/modertor of this TV program.

Spivak and his wife Charlotte lived in the Sheraton-Park Hotel in Washington. He died of congestive heart failure at Washington's Sibley Memorial Hospital.

External links

* Shahid, Sharon, " [http://www.newseum.org/news/news.aspx?item=jn_MTP071114&style=f 60 Years Ago in News History: America Meets the Press] ," Newseum "Journalism News," November 14, 2007
*Severo, Richard, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E03EFD7173DF933A25750C0A962958260 Lawrence E. Spivak, 93, Is Dead; The Originator of 'Meet the Press'] ," "The New York Times", March 10, 1994
*imdb name|id=0819211|name=Lawrence E. Spivak