Misplaced Pages

Mike Wallace: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 06:43, 11 November 2018 editJim856796 (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users6,085 editsm His name is "Myron", not "Michael"; Do not exclude the "Mike" from the lead section, please, as it is not a substring of "myron".← Previous edit Revision as of 02:18, 16 November 2018 edit undoLevivich (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Page movers40,421 editsm →Television: Fixed CBS Morning News link to point to correct pageNext edit →
Line 56: Line 56:
A frequent guest on the ''PM East'' segment was ]. Only the audio of some of her conversations with Wallace survives.<ref name="barbra-archives.com"/> Westinghouse wiped the videotapes. Also in the early 1960s, Wallace was the host of the ]–produced '']'' series. A frequent guest on the ''PM East'' segment was ]. Only the audio of some of her conversations with Wallace survives.<ref name="barbra-archives.com"/> Westinghouse wiped the videotapes. Also in the early 1960s, Wallace was the host of the ]–produced '']'' series.


After his elder son's death in 1962, Wallace decided to get back into news and hosted an early version of '']'' from 1963 through 1966. In 1964 he interviewed ], who, half-jokingly, commented "I probably am a dead man already."<ref>Rebroadcast on ], '''' during an interview with Mike Wallace.</ref> The black leader was assassinated a few months later in February 1965. After his elder son's death in 1962, Wallace decided to get back into news and hosted an early version of '']'' from 1963 through 1966. In 1964 he interviewed ], who, half-jokingly, commented "I probably am a dead man already."<ref>Rebroadcast on ], '''' during an interview with Mike Wallace.</ref> The black leader was assassinated a few months later in February 1965.


In 1967, Wallace anchored the documentary '']''. "The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous", Wallace said in the piece. "He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one-chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city—the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/homosexuals-mike-wallace-controversial-1967-cbs-report-gets-170733217.html|title=‘The Homosexuals’: Mike Wallace’s controversial 1967 CBS report gets second viewing online|publisher=}}</ref> In later years, Wallace came to regret his participation in the episode. "I should have known better," he said in 1992.<ref name=alwood>{{cite book|last1=Alwood|first1=Edward|title=Straight News|date=1996|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=0231084374|pages=73–74}}</ref> Speaking in 1996, Wallace stated, "That is—God help us—what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that's what we heard from doctors—that's what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame."<ref name=alwood /> In 1967, Wallace anchored the documentary '']''. "The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous", Wallace said in the piece. "He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one-chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city—the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.com/blogs/cutline/homosexuals-mike-wallace-controversial-1967-cbs-report-gets-170733217.html|title=‘The Homosexuals’: Mike Wallace’s controversial 1967 CBS report gets second viewing online|publisher=}}</ref> In later years, Wallace came to regret his participation in the episode. "I should have known better," he said in 1992.<ref name=alwood>{{cite book|last1=Alwood|first1=Edward|title=Straight News|date=1996|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|isbn=0231084374|pages=73–74}}</ref> Speaking in 1996, Wallace stated, "That is—God help us—what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that's what we heard from doctors—that's what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame."<ref name=alwood />

Revision as of 02:18, 16 November 2018

For other uses, see Michael Wallace.
Mike Wallace
Wallace in 1957
BornMyron Leon Wallace
(1918-05-09)May 9, 1918
Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 7, 2012(2012-04-07) (aged 93)
New Canaan, Connecticut, U.S.
EducationBrookline High School
Alma materUniversity of Michigan (A.B.)
Occupation(s)Journalist, game show host, actor
Years active1939–2008
Notable credit60 Minutes (1968–2008)
Spouse(s) Norma Kaphan
​ ​(m. 1940; div. 1948)​
Buff Cobb
​ ​(m. 1949; div. 1955)​
Lorraine Périgord
​ ​(m. 1955; div. 1986)​
Mary Yates ​(m. 1986)​
Children2, including Chris Wallace

Myron (Mike) Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven decade career. He was one of the original correspondents for CBS' 60 Minutes, which debuted in 1968. Wallace retired as a regular full-time correspondent in 2006, but still appeared occasionally on the series until 2008.

He interviewed many politicians, celebrities, and academics, such as Pearl S. Buck, Deng Xiaoping, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Jiang Zemin, Ruhollah Khomeini, Kurt Waldheim, Frank Lloyd Wright, Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, Manuel Noriega, Nobel Prize winner John Nash, Gordon B. Hinckley, Vladimir Putin, Maria Callas, Barbra Streisand, Salvador Dalí, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Ayn Rand.

Early life

Wallace, whose family's surname was originally Wallik, was born on May 9, 1918, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Russian Jewish immigrant parents, He identified as a Jew throughout his life. His father was a grocer and insurance broker. Wallace attended Brookline High School, graduating in 1935. He graduated from the University of Michigan four years later with a Bachelor of Arts. While a college student he was a reporter for the Michigan Daily and belonged to the Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

Career

Radio

Wallace appeared as a guest on the popular radio quiz show Information Please on February 7, 1939, when he was in his last year at the University of Michigan. Wallace spent his first summer after graduation working on-air at Interlochen Center for the Arts. His first radio job was as newscaster and continuity writer for WOOD Radio in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This lasted until 1940, when he moved to WXYZ Radio in Detroit, Michigan, as an announcer. He then became a freelance radio worker in Chicago, Illinois.

Wallace enlisted in the United States Navy in 1943 and during World War II served as a communications officer on the USS Anthedon, a submarine tender. He saw no combat but traveled to Hawaii, Australia, and Subic Bay in the Philippines, then patrolling the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea and south of Japan. After being discharged in 1946, Wallace returned to Chicago.

Wallace announced for the radio shows Curtain Time, Ned Jordan:Secret Agent, Sky King, The Green Hornet, Curtain Time, and The Spike Jones Show. It is sometimes reported Wallace announced for The Lone Ranger, but Wallace said he never did.

Wallace announced wrestling in Chicago in the late 1940s and early 1950s, sponsored by Tavern Pale beer.

In the late 1940s, Wallace was a staff announcer for the CBS radio network. He had displayed his comic skills when he appeared opposite Spike Jones in dialogue routines. He was also the voice of Elgin-American in their commercials on Groucho Marx's You Bet Your Life. As "Myron Wallace", he portrayed New York City detective Lou Kagel on the short-lived radio drama series "Crime on the Waterfront".

Television

In 1949, Wallace began to move to the new medium of television. In that year, he starred under the name Myron Wallace in a short-lived police drama, Stand By for Crime.

Wallace hosted a number of game shows in the 1950s, including The Big Surprise, Who's the Boss? and Who Pays?. Early in his career Wallace was not known primarily as a news broadcaster. It was not uncommon during that period for newscasters (the term then used) to announce, do commercials and host game shows; Douglas Edwards, John Daly, John Cameron Swayze and Walter Cronkite hosted game shows as well. Wallace also hosted the pilot episode for Nothing but the Truth, which was helmed by Bud Collyer when it aired under the title To Tell the Truth. Wallace occasionally served as a panelist on To Tell the Truth in the 1950s. He also did commercials for a variety of products, including Procter & Gamble's Puffo brand shortening.

Wallace also hosted two late-night interview programs, Night Beat (broadcast in New York City during 1955–1957, only on DuMont's WABD) and The Mike Wallace Interview on ABC in 1957–1958. See also Profiles in Courage, section: Authorship controversy.

In 1959, Louis Lomax told Wallace about the Nation of Islam. Lomax and Wallace produced a five-part documentary about the organization, The Hate That Hate Produced, which aired during the week of July 13, 1959. The program was the first time most white people heard about the Nation, its leader, Elijah Muhammad, and its charismatic spokesman, Malcolm X.

By the early 1960s, Wallace's primary income came from commercials for Parliament cigarettes, touting their "man's mildness" (he had a contract with Philip Morris to pitch their cigarettes as a result of their original sponsorship of The Mike Wallace Interview). Between June 1961 and June 1962 he hosted a New York–based nightly interview program for Westinghouse Broadcasting called PM East for one hour; it was paired with PM West, 30 minutes, hosted by San Francisco Chronicle television critic Terrence O'Flaherty. Westinghouse syndicated the series to television stations it owned and to a few other cities. People in southern and southwestern states were unable to watch it.

A frequent guest on the PM East segment was Barbra Streisand. Only the audio of some of her conversations with Wallace survives. Westinghouse wiped the videotapes. Also in the early 1960s, Wallace was the host of the David Wolper–produced Biography series.

After his elder son's death in 1962, Wallace decided to get back into news and hosted an early version of CBS Morning News from 1963 through 1966. In 1964 he interviewed Malcolm X, who, half-jokingly, commented "I probably am a dead man already." The black leader was assassinated a few months later in February 1965.

In 1967, Wallace anchored the documentary CBS Reports: The Homosexuals. "The average homosexual, if there be such, is promiscuous", Wallace said in the piece. "He is not interested or capable of a lasting relationship like that of a heterosexual marriage. His sex life, his love life, consists of a series of one-chance encounters at the clubs and bars he inhabits. And even on the streets of the city—the pick-up, the one night stand, these are characteristics of the homosexual relationship." In later years, Wallace came to regret his participation in the episode. "I should have known better," he said in 1992. Speaking in 1996, Wallace stated, "That is—God help us—what our understanding was of the homosexual lifestyle a mere twenty-five years ago because nobody was out of the closet and because that's what we heard from doctors—that's what Socarides told us, it was a matter of shame."

60 Minutes

Wallace and Harry Reasoner on the 60 Minutes premiere, 1968.

His career as the lead reporter on 60 Minutes led to some run-ins with the people interviewed—and claims of misconduct by female colleagues. While interviewing Louis Farrakhan, Wallace alleged that Nigeria was the most corrupt country in the world. Farrakhan immediately shot back that Americans were in no moral position to judge, declaring "Has Nigeria dropped an atomic bomb that killed people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? Have they killed off millions of Native Americans?" "Can you think of a more corrupt country?" asked Wallace. "I'm living in one," said Farrakhan.

Wallace interviewed General William Westmoreland for the CBS special The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception, aired January 23, 1982. Westmoreland then sued Wallace and CBS for libel. The trial ended in February 1985 when the case was settled out of court just before it would have gone to the jury. Each side agreed to pay its own costs and attorney's fees and CBS issued a clarification of its intent with respect to the original story.

In 1981, Wallace was forced to apologize for a racial slur he had made about blacks and Hispanics. During a break while preparing a 60 Minutes report on a bank that had been accused of duping low-income Californians, Wallace was caught on tape joking that "You bet your ass hard to read" if you're reading them over watermelon or tacos.

Attention was re-drawn to that incident several years later when protests were raised against Wallace's being selected to give a university commencement address at the same ceremony during which Nelson Mandela was being awarded an honorary doctorate in absentia for his fight against racism. Wallace initially called the protestors' complaint "absolute foolishness". However, he subsequently apologized for his earlier remark, and added that when he had been a student decades earlier on the same university campus, "though it had never really caused me any serious difficulty here ... I was keenly aware of being Jewish, and quick to detect slights, real or imagined.... We Jews felt a kind of kinship ", but "Lord knows, we weren't riding the same slave ship."

Wallace's reputation was further tainted when he admitted to sexually harassing female colleagues at "60 Minutes" over many years. "Back in the 1970s and ’80s, "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace was known for putting his hand on the backs of his female CBS News co-workers and unsnapping the clasps on their bras. 'It wasn’t a secret. I have done that', Wallace told Rolling Stone magazine in 1991."

In 2018, claims of sexual misconduct at 60 Minutes led to the resignation of Executive Producer Jeff Fager, who had overseen the news show for 36 years. He resigned several months after a July 27 story by Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker. Not only did Farrow's story accuse Fager of ignoring and enabling misconduct by several high-ranking male producers at 60 Minutes, but Farrow also cited former employees who accused Fager himself of misconduct.

Correspondent emeritus

On March 14, 2006, Wallace announced his retirement from 60 Minutes after 37 years with the program. He continued working for CBS News as a "Correspondent Emeritus", albeit at a reduced pace. In August 2006, Wallace interviewed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Wallace's last CBS interview was with retired baseball star Roger Clemens in January 2008 on 60 Minutes. Wallace's previously vigorous health (Morley Safer described him in 2006 as "having the energy of a man half his age") began to fail and in June 2008 his son Chris said that his father would not be returning to television.

Wallace expressed regret with regard to the one big interview he was never able to secure: First Lady Pat Nixon.

Personal life

Wallace in 2007

Wallace had two children with his first wife, Norma Kaphan. Wallace's younger son, Chris, is also a journalist. His elder son, Peter, died at age 19 in a mountain-climbing accident in Greece in 1962.

From 1949 to 1954, Wallace was married to Patrizia "Buff" Cobb, an actress and step-daughter to Gladys Swarthout. The two of them hosted the "Mike and Buff Show" on CBS Television in the early 50's. They also hosted "All Around Town" in 1951 and 1952.

For many years, Mike Wallace unknowingly suffered from depression. In an article he wrote for Guideposts, Wallace related, "I'd had days when I felt blue and it took more of an effort than usual to get through the things I had to do." It worsened in 1984 after General Westmoreland filed a $120 million libel lawsuit against Wallace and CBS over statements they made in the documentary The Uncounted Enemy: A Vietnam Deception (1982). Westmoreland claimed the documentary made him appear as if he manipulated intelligence. The lawsuit, Westmoreland v. CBS, was later dropped after CBS issued a statement explaining they never intended to portray the general as disloyal or unpatriotic. During the proceedings, Wallace was hospitalized with what was diagnosed as exhaustion. His wife Mary forced him to go to a doctor, who diagnosed Wallace with clinical depression. He was prescribed an antidepressant and underwent psychotherapy. Out of a belief that it would be perceived as weakness, Wallace kept his depression a secret until he revealed it in an interview with Bob Costas on Costas' late-night talk show, Later. In a later interview with colleague Morley Safer, he admitted having attempted suicide circa 1986.

Wallace received a pacemaker more than 20 years before his death, and underwent triple bypass surgery in January 2008. He lived in a care facility the last several years of his life. In 2011, CNN host Larry King visited him and reported that he was in good spirits, but his physical condition was noticeably declining.

Wallace considered himself a political moderate. He was friends with Nancy Reagan and her family for over 75 years. Nixon wanted him for his press secretary. Fox News said, "He didn't fit the stereotype of the Eastern liberal journalist." Interviewed by his son on Fox News Sunday, he was asked if he understood why people feel a disaffection from the mainstream media. "They think they're wide-eyed commies; liberals," Mike replied, a notion he dismissed as "damned foolishness."

Death

Wallace died at his residence in New Canaan, Connecticut, from natural causes, on April 7, 2012, a month and two days before his 94th birthday. The night after his death, Morley Safer announced his death on 60 Minutes. On April 15, 2012, a full episode of 60 Minutes aired which was dedicated to remembering his life.

Awards

In 1989, Wallace was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania. Wallace's professional honors included 21 Emmy Awards, among them a report just weeks before the September 11 attacks for an investigation on the former Soviet Union's smallpox program and concerns about terrorism. He also won three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three George Foster Peabody Awards, a Robert E. Sherwood Award, a Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Southern California School of Journalism and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award in the international broadcast category. In September 2003, Wallace received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy, his 20th. Most recently, on October 13, 2007, Wallace was awarded the University of Illinois Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Journalism.

Fictional portrayals

Wallace was played by actor Christopher Plummer in the 1999 feature film, The Insider. The screenplay was based on the Vanity Fair article, "The Man Who Knew Too Much" by Marie Brenner, which was about Wallace caving in to corporate pressure to kill a story about Jeffrey Wigand, a whistle-blower trying to expose Brown & Williamson's dangerous business practices. Wallace, for his part, disliked his on-screen portrayal and maintained he was in fact very eager to have Wigand's story aired in full.

Wallace was played by actor Stephen Rowe in the stage version of Frost/Nixon, but he was omitted from the screenplay of the 2008 film adaptation and thus the movie itself. In the 1999 American broadcast television movie, Hugh Hefner: Unauthorized, Wallace is portrayed by Mark Harelik. In the film A Face in the Crowd (1957), Wallace portrayed himself.

Biographies

  • Rader, Peter. Mike Wallace: A Life. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2012. ISBN 0-312-54339-5.

Autobiographies

  • Close Encounters: Mike Wallace's Own Story. New York: William Morrow, 1984. ISBN 0-688-01116-0 (co-written with Gary Paul Gates).
  • Between You and Me: A Memoir. New York: Hyperion, 2005 (co-written with Gary Paul Gates).

See also

References

  1. TruthTube1111 (25 May 2011). "Ayn Rand First Interview 1959 (Full)" – via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Tim Weiner (April 8, 2012). "Mike Wallace, CBS Pioneer of '60 Minutes,' Dies at 93". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-04-08.
  3. Times of Israel: "CBS reporter Mike Wallace dead at 93 - Son of Jewish Russian immigrants had a career that spanned 60 years" by Ilan Ben Zion April 8, 2012
  4. H.W. Wilson Company (1978). Current biography yearbook. H. W. Wilson Co. p. 418. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  5. Brozan, Nadine. "Chronicle", The New York Times, March 16, 1993. Retrieved February 5, 2008. "Mike Wallace is lending a hand to his old school, Brookline High School, at a benefit -- unusual for a Massachusetts public school -- in New York tomorrow evening. Mr. Wallace, class of '35, will interview the school's acting headmaster, Dr. Robert J. Weintraub, at a cocktail party that is expected to draw 60 or so Brookline graduates to the University Club on West 54th Street."
  6. "Home - Zeta Beta Tau". Zeta Beta Tau.
  7. "Interlochen Center for the Arts". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2017-05-09.
  8. ^ John Dunning (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. p. 482. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.
  9. "U.S. and Iraqi Forces Launch Operation Swarmer; Interview With Mike Wallace". CNN. March 16, 2006.
  10. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–present. Ballantine Books. 2003. p. 1116. ISBN 0-345-45542-8.
  11. Joseph, Peniel E. (2006). Waiting 'til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America. New York: Henry Holt and Company. pp. 21–23. ISBN 0-8050-7539-9.
  12. ^ "Barbra Streisand Archives - TV - P.M. East with Mike Wallace 1961-1962". barbra-archives.com.
  13. Rebroadcast on CNN, Larry King Live during an interview with Mike Wallace.
  14. "'The Homosexuals': Mike Wallace's controversial 1967 CBS report gets second viewing online".
  15. ^ Alwood, Edward (1996). Straight News. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN 0231084374.
  16. Openureyez45 (5 August 2015). "Minister Farrakhan on 60 mins with Mike Wallace" – via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  17. "The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television". www.museum.tv.
  18. "Michigan Newsman Apologizes for Racist Remarks". Miami Herald: 13A. 1987-05-04.
  19. Thomas, Cal (1990-02-19). "In Andy Rooney Case, CBS Loses Enthusiasm for Free Speech". St. Paul Pioneer Press: 11A.
  20. "Group Protests Mike Wallace as Commencement Speaker". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: C/3. 1987-04-16.
  21. Morganfield, Robbie (1987-05-01). "Veteran Journalist Mike Wallace, Calling Remarks He Made Six Years Ago "Arguably Racist," Plans To Apologize Saturday When He Speaks at the University of Michigan's Spring Commencement". USA Today.
  22. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/08/06/les-moonves-and-cbs-face-allegations-of-sexual-misconduct
  23. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/60-minutes-chief-jeff-fager-steps-down-1132722
  24. Mike Wallace Retiring From 60 Minutes, Broadcasting & Cable, March 14, 2006.
  25. "Iranian Leader Opens Up – 60 Minutes". CBS News. 2006-08-13. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  26. "Clemens drowns in hopelessness – MLB – Yahoo! Sports". Sports.yahoo.com. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  27. "Mike Wallace, on the Comeback". U.S. News & World Report. 2008-06-06. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  28. "The one big interview Mike Wallace never landed". USA Today. Associated Press. March 22, 2006. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
  29. Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish By Abigail Pogrebin retrieved March 30, 2013
  30. Katie Couric. "Mike Wallace, man of the hour". msnbc.com. March 14, 2006.
  31. Nelson, Valerie (July 22, 2010). "Buff Cobb dies; actress, theatrical producer was once married to Mike Wallace". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
  32. ^ Mike Wallace, "Mike Wallace Battles Depression" Guideposts Magazine, January 2002 (republished, 2012)
  33. "Mike Wallace Admits Suicide Attempt - Hollywood.com". 25 January 2013. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  34. "Reactions to the death of correspondent Mike Wallace". Fox News. April 8, 2012.
  35. "Famed CBS journalist Mike Wallace dies at 93". Fox News. April 8, 2012.
  36. Safer, Morely. "Remembering Mike Wallace". CBS News. Retrieved April 8, 2012.
  37. Tanglao, Leezel. "Mike Wallace Dies".
  38. Hayes, Ashley (April 9, 2012). "Veteran newsman Mike Wallace dead at 93". CNN.
  39. Silver, Stephen. "60 Minutes Says Goodbye to Mike Wallace". EntertainmentTell. www.technologytell.com. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
  40. "1989 U. of Pennsylvania graduation program" (PDF). Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  41. "Paul White Award". Radio Television Digital News Association. Retrieved 2014-05-27.

External links

Television Hall of Fame Class of 1990
Categories: