John Chancellor
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| John William Chancellor | |
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| Born | July 24, 1927 Chicago, Illinois |
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| Died | July 12, 1996 (aged 68) Princeton, New Jersey |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | journalist |
John William Chancellor (July 14, 1927 – July 12, 1996) was a well-known American journalist, who spent most of his career associated with the NBC television network. His most famous career achievement was anchoring the NBC Nightly News from 1970 to 1982.
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[edit] Early career
Chancellor graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949. Originally a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, he first started his career in national television news as a correspondent on NBC's evening newscast, the Huntley-Brinkley Report.
[edit] Early Years, NBC/Voice of America
Chancellor covered issues of national importance while on The Huntley-Brinkley Report, such as the 1957 integration of the Little Rock Central High School. He spent a number of years as a foreign correspondent in Europe, with postings in Vienna, London, Moscow, and Brussels (NATO Headquarters). In July 1961, he replaced Dave Garroway as host of The Today Show, a role he filled for fourteen months. At the 1964 Republican National Convention, he was arrested for refusing to cede his spot on the floor to "Goldwater Girls," supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. When security came to get him, he was forced to sign off: "I've been promised bail, ladies and gentlemen, by my office. This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody." He then became the director of the Voice of America in 1965, at the request of President Lyndon Johnson, a spot he held until 1967.
[edit] Anchor, NBC Nightly News
However, he returned to NBC in 1968 and, two years later, became an anchor on the NBC Nightly News, a spot he held from 1970 to 1982; this job became the defining point of his career. Inaugurating the name and setting the pace of the format of Nightly News, from 1970 to 1971, Chancellor, along with David Brinkley and Frank McGee, was one of three anchors who rotated in a co-anchor duo format, held over from the old Huntley-Brinkley Report. From 1971 to 1976, Chancellor became the sole anchor, stationed at the New York City NBC headquarters, with Brinkley continuing to contribute pre-recorded commentaries about two to three times per week. Facing serious competition from ABC News, and continued popularity of top-rated CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, NBC Nightly News returned to a co-anchor format from June 1976 until October 1979 with Brinkley resuming his old role at the NBC Washington desk; internal disputes within NBC management prompted the network to remove Brinkley from Nightly News, assigning him to occasional documentaries until his departure for ABC in 1981.
Although Chancellor was a respected, well-spoken journalist and noted author in his own right, his broadcast ratings were eclipsed by Walter Cronkite in the 1970s, when CBS Evening News had become the most popular of the three network weeknight broadcasts. Toward the end of Chancellor's tenure, ABC, for the first time ever became competitive with NBC and CBS with its World News Tonight. Chancellor does have the distinction of creating the idea of using colors to represent the states won by presidential candidates in presidential elections. For the 1976 presidential election Chancellor suggested to his network's engineers that they create a large electronic map of the USA and place it in the network's election-night news studio. If Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate, won a state it would light up in red; if Gerald Ford, the Republican candidate, carried a state it would light up in blue. The feature proved to be so popular that all three television networks would use the color scheme in future presidential elections, although the colors used to represent both parties would eventually be reversed.
[edit] Later Years, Post-Nightly News
He retired from his head anchor duties on April 2, 1982 and was succeeded by a co-anchor duo team of Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw for two years, before Brokaw became solo anchor and Mudd went on to host Meet the Press and NBC Almanac (a short-lived news magazine). Chancellor continued to write (most notably "Peril and Promise," published in 1991) and give editorial commentaries on Nightly News before retiring from NBC on July 9, 1993 and moving to New Jersey, where he died of stomach cancer in 1996, two days shy of his 69th birthday. Chancellor was married to the former Barbara Upshaw, his second wife; he had two daughters and a son.
Chancellor was also the voice of Baseball, an award winning documentary by Ken Burns.
John Chancellor Award for Excellence in Journalism[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Transcript, John Chancellor Oral History Interview, 25 April 1969, by Dorothy Pierce McSweeny, Internet Copy, LBJ Library. Accessed April 3, 2005.
- YouTube clip of Chancellor anchoring final five minutes of NBC Nightly News, July 4, 1972
| Preceded by Dave Garroway |
Today Show Host 1961–1962 |
Succeeded by Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters |
| Preceded by Chet Huntley and David Brinkley The Huntley-Brinkley Report |
NBC Nightly News Anchor August 1, 1970 - April 2, 1982 (with David Brinkley and Frank McGee until August 15, 1971, solely until June 6, 1976, and again with Brinkley until October 4, 1979. Worked alone until his retirement.) |
Succeeded by Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw |
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