Frances Horwich

Frances Rappaport Horwich
Horwich in 1955
Born	Frances Rappaport July 16, 1907 Ottawa, Ohio, US
Died	July 22, 2001 (aged 94) Scottsdale, Arizona, US
Alma mater	University of Chicago (S.B.) Columbia University (M.Ed.) Northwestern University (Ed.D.)
Occupation(s)	Television host Television executive Educator
Years active	1952–2001
Known for	Ding Dong School

Frances Rappaport Horwich (born Frances Rappaport, July 16, 1907 – July 22, 2001) was an American educator,

Horwich was born on July 16, 1907, in Ottawa, Ohio. She was the daughter of Samuel and Rosa Gratz Rappaport.^[1] Her father had emigrated from Austria and owned a general store in the town. Her mother had emigrated from Russia; she was the youngest of their children.^[2] Her mother taught her children various types of needlework and crafts. Her father taught his children how to relate to people by giving each of them a chance to work at the store counter when they were tall enough to see over it. He sent all of his children to college; her two brothers became pediatricians and her two sisters also entered the health care field.^[3] She attended grammar and high school in Ottawa.^[4] Horwich was a bright student and was allowed to skip grades during her education. She described it as "being thrown out" of school and said she was "a badly-adjusted 15 year old" when she entered the University of Chicago.^[5]

Horwich earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago in 1929; her first teaching assignment was a first grade class in Evanston, Illinois, from 1929 to 1932.^[1] She then became the supervisor of the Works Progress Administration's nursery schools in Chicago until 1935.^[1] She earned her master's degree in education at Columbia University in 1933 and directed junior kindergartens in Winnetka, Illinois, from 1935 to 1938. Horwich was named dean of education at Pestalozzi-Fröbel Teachers College in Chicago in 1938, where she worked until 1940.^[1]

She earned her doctorate at Northwestern University in 1942.^[1] While working toward her degree, Horwich was a counselor for students at Chicago Teachers College.^[1] She then left the Chicago area for a time, becoming the head of the Hessian Hills School at Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and teaching for two years at the University of North Carolina. When she returned to the Chicago area, she became the head of the department of education at Chicago's Roosevelt College beginning in 1946.^[6][7]

Horwich met her husband, Harvey, an attorney and Air Force historian, when both were religious school teachers at Chicago's KAM Temple.^{[2][8][9][10]} The two were married on July 11, 1931.^[1][11] The couple had no children.^[10]

Ding Dong School

Ding Dong School was developed by the show's producer, Reinald Werrenrath Jr., and

The development team made a list of people who seemed to be good candidates for the program. Horwich was one of those on the list; she was contacted and invited to audition for the show. Her only connection with television before this had been as part of discussion and panel shows which were televised. She was hesitant about being the only person on camera but agreed to audition. Horwich won the job and was still somewhat uneasy about being on television alone, but she decided to give it a try.^[13][9]

Initially the program was an experiment which was intended to air only once. Those watching the show's development and rehearsals were very skeptical about the venture.^[15] One station executive thought it was either the best or worst television show he had ever seen; another thought it would spell the end of television.^[16][9][17] The station's technical staff was also not encouraging. Two cameramen made remarks about the program when they believed they were out of earshot of Horwich. They did not realize that years of teaching in classrooms had made her a fine lip-reader.^[17][18]

Because it was felt that the show would be a terrible broadcasting mistake, it was decided to air it during the morning hours of October 2, 1952 with no publicity regarding it.^[16][19][17] No one was prepared for the 150 positive telephone calls the station received just after the show had aired or for the amount of viewer mail praising the program.^[16][19][9] The program was quickly scheduled for weekday morning local broadcast beginning in late 1952.^[19][16] Horwich was given two weeks to learn how to draw and paint as well as do puzzles upside down so they could be seen by the camera.^[20]

Each show began with the ringing of a hand-held school bell and the Ding Dong School song sung by Horwich.

The couple's lifestyle changed dramatically after Ding Dong School. Horwich rose at 4:30 AM on weekdays to go over her lesson plan for the day's broadcast and was in bed by 9 PM[9] She often spent the evening preparing props for the next day. A move from Evanston to an apartment on Chicago's near north side was necessary because of the 45 minute commuting time to Chicago's Loop.^[34] Neither Horwich nor her husband were prepared for the way the television show made Horwich a celebrity. Horwich's husband, Harvey, had been in Korea with the Air Force during the planning stages of Ding Dong School.^[35] When he arrived home, the couple planned a vacation in the Bahamas. Since Horwich did not like to repeat programs, she recorded kinescopes to be broadcast while she was away.^[36][37] When the couple boarded their flight to Miami, 14 young children were also on the plane with their families. The children recognized "Miss Frances" and sang the Ding Dong School song all the way to Miami. After arriving in the Bahamas, the couple believed they could now begin their holiday. On the second night of their stay in the hotel, the restaurant's calypso band began playing the Ding Dong School song as Horwich and her husband entered the dining room.^[38] Her husband viewed all of this with good humor, saying, "Just call me Mr. Frances".^[35]

Everyday life no longer had many routine aspects for Horwich after Ding Dong School. After she had been on the air for two weeks, Horwich stopped in a shop for a cup of coffee. Before she could take a sip, a woman came up and said loudly that she never thought her child would see Miss Frances drinking coffee. The store became silent. Horwich then greeted the woman's children and left the shop.^[20] On what might be considered an average day, she was stopped 17 times by both parents and children when walking a block down the street. Children were amazed to see her away from the television screen and would often poke her to make sure she was real. The couple's social life became restricted to Saturday evenings because of the early morning hours needed for the weekday program.^[9][13] Horwich made some personal appearances; when she did, the crowds were larger than those for many film stars. She stated that she shook 17,000 hands when making her first personal appearance.^[20] A personal appearance at a Boston department store drew 12,000 people—children and parents.^[39][a]

Children's programming

In 1954, Horwich was appointed Head of Children's Programming for the NBC television network, where she supervised all of NBC's children's programming.

Since Horwich owned the rights to Ding Dong School, she was able to sign with Chicago's

A month before her death, Horwich was inducted into the Silver Circle of the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of the Television Arts and Sciences on June 2, 2001.[56] The awards honor those who have worked 25 years or more in television and have made significant contributions to the local industry.^[57] In 2006, an Ohio Historical Marker commemorating her life was placed by the local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter in Ottawa.^[4]

Books by Frances Horwich

For parents

• Horwich, Frances R.; Werrenrath, Reinald Jr. (1956). Have Fun With Your Children. Prentice-Hall.
  OCLC 951928336
  .
• Horwich, Frances R. (1959). The Magic of Bringing Up Your Child. McGraw-Hill.
  OCLC 177617
  .

References

Sources cited

• Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. Penguin.
  ISBN 978-0-6700-1996-0
  .
• Gould, Lewis L. (2002). Watching Television Come of Age The New York Times Reviews by Jack Gould. University of Texas Press.
  Project MUSE
  .
• Hayes, Dade (2008). Anytime Playdate: Inside the Preschool Entertainment Boom, or, How Television Became My Baby's Best Friend. Simon & Schuster.
  ISBN 978-1-4165-6433-1
  .
• LoBrutto, Vincent (2017). TV in the USA: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas [3 volumes]. ABC-CLIO.
  ISBN 978-1-4408-2973-4
  .
• O'Dell, Cary (1997). Women Pioneers in Television: Biographies of Fifteen Industry Leaders. McFarland.
  ISBN 978-0-7864-0167-3
  . judith waller.
• Ohles, Frederik; Ohles, Shirley M.; Ramsay, John G. (1997). Biographical Dictionary of Modern American Educators. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 168.
  ISBN 978-0-3132-9133-3
  . frances horwich.
• Okuda, Ted; Mulqueen, Jack (2016). The Golden Age of Chicago Children's Television. Southern Illinois University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8093-3536-7
  .
• Roberts, Kate; Scher, Adam (2014). Toys of the 50s, 60s and 70s. Minnesota Historical Society Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8735-1941-0
  .

• Dr. Frances Horwich at
  IMDb
• Biography at Jewish Women's Archive