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Robert Edmonds Kintner (September 12, 1909 – December 20, 1980) was an American journalist and television executive who served as president of both the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).

Early life

The son of Albert H. Kintner and the former Lillian M. Stofflet, Robert grew up in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Stroudsburg High School in 1927. Kintner next attended Swarthmore College, where he served as editor of the college newspaper, the "Phoenix", during his senior year until graduating in 1931. Following his graduation, he spent the three months of the summer of 1931 doing publicity for the Buck Hill Falls, where he started a weekly newspaper called "The Breeze". The experience inspired him to forego his previous plans to attend law school and instead seek employment in news. However, no jobs were forthcoming, and he instead took a job as a researcher and editorial assistant to writer William S. Dutton.

Reporter and columnist

About a year later, fellow Swarthmore alumnus C. Norman Stabler helped Kintner obtain a job as a financial reporter for the New York Herald Tribune. This was fortuitous timing for Kintner, as former New York chief assistant district attorney Ferdinand Pecora was appointed chief counsel to the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking and Currency in January 1933 to head up what became known as the Pecora Commission, given wide remit to investigate all the many financial abuses and crimes that had caused the Great Depression. In 1935, Kintner was transferred to the Washington bureau of the Herald Tribune.

From 1937 to 1941, he paired with Joseph Alsop to write a nationally syndicated column called "The Capital Parade". Alsop, a fellow reporter for the Herald Tribune, had arrived in Washington the year after Kintner. The North American Newspaper Alliance had approached Alsop in the fall of 1937, suggesting that he start a column with Turner Catledge, with whom Alsop had written a series of articles for the Saturday Evening Post. Catledge, the Senate Reporter for the New York Times, declined, so Alsop approached Kintner. The Capital Parade first appeared in November 1937.

In 1941, after it had become clear that the United States would soon enter World War II, Alsop and Kintner suspended their column and volunteered for the armed forces; Alsop to the Navy, and Kintner the Army.

Military service

During World War II, Kintner served in the U.S. Army Air Force, leaving the service in 1944 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was discharged on medical grounds in 1944, having been injured in an airplane crash. Upon his discharge he joined ABC, which had been created in 1943 following the divesture of NBC's Blue Network.

Network executive

Kintner was hired straight out of the Army as a vice president of the Blue Network by candy magnate Edward J. Noble, whom Kintner had known from his days as a columnist, to do both public service and public relations work. In early 1945, Kintner was named vice president of news and news features. He rose rapidly at the then-small network, becoming an executive vice president in November 1946, and its president in 1949.

Kintner is credited with making ABC more competitive with the older and better-established networks NBC and CBS who also had radio networks. ABC forged partnerships with Warner Bros. Television and Walt Disney to offer a diverse range of programming to viewers. The network played a crucial role in broadcasting the Army-McCarthy hearings and showcased popular shows such as Disneyland, which featured a blockbuster hit with Davy Crockett. Another success was Cheyenne, the pioneering hour-long television Western that sparked a trend in Western-themed entertainment dominating the medium's lineup through 1963.

Kintner then led NBC from 1958 to 1965. His NBC tenure was marked by his aggressive effort to push NBC News past CBS News in rankings and prestige. The news department was given more money, leading to notable coverage of the 1960 presidential election campaign and the prominence of the Huntley-Brinkley Report.

Quiz-show scandals

Kintner was forced to defend NBC at the height of the late 1950s quiz show scandals, testifying to the United States Congress that NBC and the other networks were victims of the quiz-show rigging just as viewers were, and that the networks were working to wrest production control of programming from advertisers, whose pressure had been seen as a key influence driving the scandals.

Cabinet secretary

Kintner returned to Washington, D.C. in 1966 after President Lyndon B. Johnson named him to be his White House Cabinet Secretary. However, Kintner's failing eyesight forced him to resign the following year.

Private life

Kintner was married twice. He married Daisy Jean Nancy Andrews on January 20, 1934, but it ended in divorce in June 1939. On March 11, 1940, he married Jean Elaine Rodney, with whom he had three children: daughter Susan and sons Michael and Jeffrey. Kintner died from a heart ailment on December 20, 1980, in Washington, D.C.

Cultural references

Kintner was portrayed by Allan Rich in Quiz Show, the 1994 film about the quiz-show scandal.

References

1. "Kintner Named Speaker For Easton Dinner". The Daily Record. February 10, 1955. p. 19. Retrieved March 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
2. ^ Smith, J. Y. (December 23, 1980). "Robert E. Kintner, Ex-Head of ABC and NBC Radio and TV, Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
3. "Edits College Paper". The Philadelphia Inquirer. March 25, 1930. p. 8. Retrieved March 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Pocono Mountains Plan Laurel Time". The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 5, 1931. p. 77. Retrieved March 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
5. ^ "Vice Presidents are People... Portrait of a "V.P."" (PDF). Radio & Television Best. June 1948. p. 49.
6. "Pecora Appointed for Stock Inquiry". The New York Times. January 25, 1933. p. 23. ProQuest 2291391197. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Proquest.
7. "President Upholds Banking Inquiry". The New York Times. March 14, 1933. p. 1. ProQuest 100741574. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Proquest.
8. ^ "Alsop And Kintner Drop Pens For Service With U.S. Forces". The Washington Post. June 13, 1941. p. 17. ProQuest 151369209. Retrieved March 4, 2023 – via Proquest.
9. "Robert E. Kintner Dies; Ex-Head of TV Networks". Evening Star. December 23, 1980. p. 15. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via NewsBank.
10. Merry, Robert W. (2012). Taking on the world : Joseph and Stewart Alsop--guardians of the American century. Viking. ISBN 978-1-4679-0184-0. OCLC 850908909.
11. "Named Vice President of the Blue Network". The Washington Post. August 5, 1944. p. 13. ProQuest 106860131. Retrieved March 4, 2023 – via Proquest.
12. "Blue Names Jaeger, Smith, Rynd V-Ps; Kintner to Head Washington Operation". Broadcasting. February 14, 1945. p. 24. Retrieved March 4, 2023 – via Archive.org.
13. "Our Respects To Robert Edmonds Kintner" (PDF). Broadcasting/Telecasting. November 25, 1946. pp. 54, 56. Retrieved March 3, 2023.
14. ". "NEW PRESIDENT AND VICE CHAIRMAN OF A. B. C."". The New York Times. December 30, 1949. ProQuest 105831488. Retrieved March 3, 2023 – via Proquest.
15. "Show Business: The Ultimate Responsibility". Time. 1959-11-16. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
16. "Deal". Long Branch Daily Record. Long Branch, NJ. January 20, 1934. p. 12. Retrieved March 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
17. "Robert Kintner to Wed Jean Rodney of N. Y.". The Washington Post. The Associated Press. February 25, 1940. pp. R7. ProQuest 151253815. Retrieved March 1, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
18. "Paid Notice: Deaths PENNYBACKER, JEAN RODNEY KINTNER". The New York Times. 1999-07-13. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
19. Smith, J.Y. (December 23, 1980). "Robert E. Kintner, Ex-Head of ABC and NBC Radio and TV, Dies". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 10, 2023. Robert E. Kintner, 71, a former president of both the ABC and NBC radio television networks who was largely responsible for innovations that are now common practices in the broadcasting industry, was found dead yesterday at his home in Washington. He had a heart ailment.

• Schmemann, Serge. "Robert E. Kintner, Ex-Head of ABC and NBC, Dies". New York Times 23 Dec. 1980: B15.

• 1909 births
• 1980 deaths
• 20th-century American journalists
• 20th-century American writers
• American male journalists
• American television executives
• NBCUniversal people
• Presidents of NBC
• Presidents of NBC Entertainment
• Presidents of NBC News
• Presidents of the American Broadcasting Company
• Phi Delta Theta members