Cecil Brown (September 14, 1907 – October 25, 1987) was an American journalist and war correspondent who worked closely with

Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broadcasts from Europe f ...

during World War II. He was the author of the book ''Suez to Singapore'', which describes the sinking of in December 1941. He also has a star on the

Hollywood Walk of Fame The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...

for his contribution to radio.

Background and early career

Brown was born September 14, 1907, in

New Brighton, Pennsylvania New Brighton is a borough in north-central Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, located along the Beaver River northwest of Pittsburgh. The population was 5,719 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. Histor ...

. After graduating from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1929, Brown left the United States for the Mediterranean and Black Seas where he worked as a seaman. He eventually returned to the United States where he worked as a journalist at several small newspapers. By 1937 he was back in Europe working as a freelancer.

Career at CBS

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

hired Brown in 1940 as their correspondent in Rome, where he openly criticized the regime of Benito Mussolini. In 1941 the Italian government cited Brown's "continued hostile attitude" and expelled him from the country. After his expulsion from Italy, CBS sent Brown to Singapore. In December 1941, while Brown was in Singapore, he was invited to join the Royal Navy battlecruiser and her consort, the brand-new battleship as they sailed to counter-attack Japanese invasion forces threatening Malaya, attempting to intercept and destroy convoys. On December 10, 1941, at 03:13 GMT (11:13 SGT), the capital ships of

Force Z Force Z was a British naval squadron during the Second World War, consisting of the battleship , the battlecruiser and accompanying destroyers. Assembled in 1941, the purpose of the group was to reinforce the British colonial garrisons in the ...

were subjected to a sustained aerial attack by land-based Japanese bomber aircraft. ''Repulse'' was sunk at 04:33 GMT (12:33 SGT), followed by the crippled ''Prince of Wales'' at 05:13 GMT (13:18 SGT), less than sixty hours after the commencement of the

Attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

. Of 1309 sailors on board ''Repulse'', Brown was one of only 513 survivors. His experiences in his long journey and dealings with Italian, British, and other censorship authorities led him to write ''Suez to Singapore'' which was published in 1942. His criticism of the British in Singapore caused him to have his "war corresponent" credentials revoked and made him a persona non grata. He narrowly escaped from Singapore before its fall to the Japanese. He was part of a larger group of reporters known as

Murrow's Boys The Murrow Boys, or Murrow's Boys, were the CBS radio broadcast journalists most closely associated with Edward R. Murrow during his time at the network, most notably in the years before and during World War II. Murrow recruited a number of newsm ...

. In September 1943, Brown resigned from CBS after being rebuked by CBS news director Paul White for expressing an editorial opinion during an August 25 news broadcast. Brown had stated that "a good deal of the enthusiasm for this war is evaporating into thin air." Announcing his resignation Brown said that he could not subscribe to what he characterized as CBS' policy of "non-opinionated" news.White, Paul W., ''News on the Air''. New York:

Harcourt, Brace and Company Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City an ...

, 1947

Career after CBS

After leaving CBS Brown covered the rest of the war at home, in the United States, for the

Mutual Network The Mutual Broadcasting System (commonly referred to simply as Mutual; sometimes referred to as MBS, Mutual Radio or the Mutual Radio Network) was an American commercial radio network in operation from 1934 to 1999. In the Old-time radio, golden ...

. When World War II ended, Brown continued to work in broadcast journalism as a correspondent for Mutual,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

. He retired from broadcasting in 1967 and went to work as a professor of

communication arts ''Communication Arts'' is the largest international trade journal of visual communications.Au ...

Cal Poly Pomona California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona, CPP, or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in San Luis Obispo. See the ''name'' section of this article for more infor ...

where he worked until he died in 1987.

Honors

Overseas Press Club The Overseas Press Club of America (OPC) was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member, as was the war correspondent Peggy Hull. The club seeks to maintain ...

: Best Reporter Award *1941:

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

for Outstanding Reporting of the News * 1965: Alfred I. duPont AwardAll duPont–Columbia Award Winners
,

Columbia Journalism School The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is located in Pulitzer Hall on the university's Morningside Heights campus in New York City. Founded in 1912 by Joseph Pulitzer, Columbia Journalism School is one of the oldest journalism s ...

. Retrieved 2013-08-06.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Cecil 1907 births 1987 deaths American radio reporters and correspondents American male journalists CBS News people Peabody Award winners American war correspondents of World War II People from New Brighton, Pennsylvania

Background and early career

Career at CBS

Career after CBS

Honors

Further reading

References