Margaret Santry (July 9, 1904 - September 7, 1975) was an American journalist and radio host.
Early years
The daughter of Swedish parents, Santry was born in
Woodcliff, New Jersey, and majored in journalism at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, the ...
.
Career
As publicity director for a New York
YWCA
The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries.
The World office is currently based in Geneva, Swi ...
,
soon after she graduated from college Santry promoted welfare workers' efforts on radio, becoming "one of the first to use radio to publicize a 'worthy cause.'"
[ During one span, she set a record by interviewing 165 people in 165 days.]The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' and was director of radio programs for the ''New York Evening Journal
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
''.
On radio, Santry specialized in three-minute interviews of celebrities and socially prominent people, with topics ranging from decorating bathrooms to international politics. A 1933 article in ''Radio Fan-Fare'' magazine reported that she had interviewed nearly 1,000 people. Through her interviews, she sought to dispel the ''Social Register
The ''Social Register'' is a semi-annual publication in the United States that indexes the members of American high society. First published in the 1880s by newspaper columnist Louis Keller, it was later acquired by Malcolm Forbes. Since 2014, it ...
'' mindset, shifting the concept of "society" from "a group of aloof and fabulous personalities" to people with "character, personality, and a desire to live more than to exist."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 Entertainmen ...
.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 ...
.White Plains, New York
(Always Faithful)
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, but she decided that her talents lay elsewhere. In the summer of 1935, she was in charge of promotion and publicity for the County Theatre.
Personal life
Santry was the third wife of cartoonist and writer Joseph Patrick McEvoy. The two met when he was a guest on her radio program. After they married, they sometimes worked as a team covering news events.
Papers
The Joseph Patrick McEvoy and Margaret Santry papers are housed at the University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santry, Margaret
Journalists from New Jersey
American radio hosts
New York University alumni
American publicists
American actresses
People from Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey
1904 births
1975 deaths
20th-century American women