Edwin Newman

Edwin Harold Newman (January 25, 1919 – August 13, 2010)

Early life and education

Newman was born on January 25, 1919, in New York City to Myron, a credit manager, and Rose (née Parker) Newman.^[4] His older brother was M.W. Newman, a longtime reporter for the Chicago Daily News.^[2] His grandparents were all Russian-Jewish immigrants.^[5] Newman married Rigel Grell (1923–2020) on August 14, 1944. They had one daughter, Nancy, who was born on October 6, 1945, and who married the political scientist and university fund-raiser Henry Drucker (1942–2002) in 1975. Nancy died in Oxford on December 8, 2020, aged 75.

After graduating from

He served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1945 as a signal officer, stationed first in Trinidad and then at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.^[6] Following the war Newman worked as a reporter for United Press (1945–1946, primarily reporting about the State Department), before moving to the CBS News radio division (1947–1949) as assistant to Eric Sevareid.

1950s

Between 1949 and 1952 Newman worked as a

Between 1961 and 1984, Newman participated in a wide variety of NBC programs, primarily for

From 1960 to 1984 Newman played a central role in NBC's coverage of the Republican and Democratic national conventions, when gavel-to-gavel coverage was the norm. In 1964 and 1968, he, John Chancellor, Frank McGee, and Sander Vanocur (dubbed "The Four Horsemen") were fitted with state-of-the-art backpacks enabling them to roam the convention floor and conduct live interviews with delegates.^[7]

Newman specialized in reporting breaking news. In 1963, he made the first announcement on NBC Radio of President

Newman was the only radio journalist to interview Emperor Hirohito (Emperor Shōwa) of Japan. The interview took place in September 1975 at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, shortly before Hirohito's diplomatically delicate visit to the United States. For his program Speaking Freely, he conducted more than 250 hour-long interviews with leading figures of the day between 1967 and 1976. Among interviewees were director Ingmar Bergman, zoologist Konrad Lorenz, classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, founder of Transcendental Meditation Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, boxer Muhammad Ali, and the first and fourth prime ministers of Israel, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir. The series was broadcast on Sunday mornings by local New York station WNBC, and syndicated to other stations.^{[citation needed]}

Newman moderated two presidential debates, both of which demanded the calm and courtesy for which he was known. The 1976 debate, between incumbent Gerald Ford and Georgia governor Jimmy Carter, was the first presidential debate since 1960 and was marred by a 27-minute loss of audio (during which the candidates stood silently by their lecterns). In 1984, President Ronald Reagan faced former Vice President Walter Mondale; when Reagan overran the time limit for his closing statement, Newman was obliged to cut off Reagan's remarks.

Newman participated in a number of documentaries at NBC, including Japan: East is West (1961); Who Shall Live? (about kidney dialysis, 1965); Pensions: The Broken Promise (1972); Violence in America (1977); Land of Hype and Glory (1977); Spying for Uncle Sam (1978); Reading, Writing and Reefer (1978); Oil and American Power (1979); and The Billionaire Hunts (1981).

Other work

Newman enjoyed music and hosted summer

Newman spent his final years quietly, moving with his wife to England in 2007 to be nearer their daughter. He died of pneumonia in Oxford on August 13, 2010. The public announcement of his death was delayed for a little over a month (until September 15), to allow a period of private mourning for his family. Newman was survived by his wife and daughter.^[2] Rigel Newman died in May 2020, shortly followed by their daughter in December 2020 aged 75, following years of ill health.

Humor and publications

Newman had a blend of seriousness and humor. For a 1964 documentary he traveled from Paris on the Orient Express, talking to people along the way and ending up in a bubble bath in Istanbul. Newman enjoyed puns: when he worked on The Today Show, his doggerel poem reviewing each year's events would end "Happy Noo Year to Yoose from Edwin Newman NBC Noose". On several occasions, he placed a whoopie cushion on the chair of Roger Mudd, Washington correspondent for NBC News. Around the time Newman left NBC in 1984, he twice hosted Saturday Night Live; on one occasion, to the delight of the audience, he sang "Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone" as part of the opening monologue. On both occasions, as well as for a third special guest appearance on the show later in the season, he hosted the Saturday Night News faux newscast.^[8] Newman also briefly anchored a faux newscast based on the tabloid newspaper Weekly World News for the USA Network in 1996.

In 1974 Newman's first book, Strictly Speaking: Will America be the Death of English? reached #1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. A Civil Tongue followed in 1976, Sunday Punch (a comic novel) in 1979, and I Must Say in 1988. The latter (a collection of his syndicated columns for

Filmography

References

Bibliography

• Strictly Speaking: Will America be the Death of English? by Edwin Newman (1974)
  ISBN 978-0-88365-795-9
• A Civil Tongue by Edwin Newman (1976)
  ISBN 978-0-446-30758-1
• Sunday Punch by Edwin Newman (1979)
  ISBN 978-0-425-04671-5
• I Must Say by Edwin Newman (1988)
  ISBN 978-0-446-39099-6
• Reading, Writing and Reefer (1978) National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Reg No. PA0000070833 / 1980-03-18
• The Billionaire Hunts (1981) National Broadcasting Company, Inc. Reg No. PA0000110525 / 1981-07-24

• Commission on Presidential Debates.
• Southern Center for International Studies.