Ned Calmer (July 16, 1907—March 9, 1986)
[DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 47.] was a Chicago-born American journalist and writer. He was a long-time
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...
analyst and close associate of
Edward R. Murrow.
Early years
Calmer was born Edgar Calmer in Chicago, Illinois.
[Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s--A Biographical Dictionary''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 51.] He attended the
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...
.
Work At CBS
Radio
Calmer was hired by
Edward R. Murrow to work for
CBS in 1940. He worked abroad and in the United States as a member of the war time news team 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 ...
. Other notable members include
Charles Collingwood,
William L. Shirer,
Richard C. Hottelet
Richard Curt Hottelet (September 22, 1917 – December 17, 2014) was an American broadcast journalist for the latter half of the twentieth century.
Hottelet was the last surviving member of the Murrow Boys, a World War II-era team of war correspo ...
and
Larry LeSueur.
During his tenure at CBS Calmer also hosted the ''
CBS World News Roundup''. The radio show began on March 13, 1938 in response to growing tensions in Europe. It was originally hosted by veteran newsman
Robert Trout and included short wave reports from London, Paris, Vienna, Rome and Berlin.
In addition to Trout and Calmer several other notable Murrow's Boys and journalists hosted and rose to prominence through CBS World News Roundup. They include
Eric Sevareid,
Charles Collingwood,
Howard K. Smith
Howard Kingsbury Smith (May 12, 1914 – February 15, 2002) was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as th ...
,
Bill Lynch and
Winston Burdett.
Television
Calmer had a limited-run prime-time interview program, ''In the First Person'' in 1950, and he was the newsman on ''Good Morning'' in 1956–1957. He was also seen at times on ''CBS Views the Press'', ''
See It Now
''See It Now'' is an American newsmagazine and documentary series broadcast by CBS from 1951 to 1958. It was created by Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly, with Murrow as the host of the show. From 1952 to 1957, ''See It Now'' won four Emmy A ...
'', and ''
You Are There''.
[
]
Other work
From 1927 Calmer worked for seven years at various European publications. Those included the ''Paris Tribune'' and the Paris Herald which were the European editions of the ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' and the ''New York Herald
The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
His ...
.''[
]
Books
Calmer was an accomplished writer and novelist in addition to his journalistic career. His first novel, ''Beyond the Street
''Beyond the Street'' (german: Jenseits der Straße) is a 1929 German silent drama film directed by Leo Mittler and starring Lissy Arna, Paul Rehkopf, and Fritz Genschow.
The film is in the Weimar tradition of "street films", which examined the ...
'', was published in 1934 by Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
. During his time in Paris, Calmer became a friend of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fic ...
, who offered him advice on writing and also helped finance a trip back to the United States for Calmer and his wife and daughter. Calmer authored more than a dozen other books during his lifetime, including ''The Strange Land'' (1950), about combat in Europe, ''The Anchorman'' (1970), on the influence of television, and ''The Winds of Montauk'' (1980), a family story.
References
Sources
Obituary
''The New York Times''
Museum of Broadcast Communications
"CBS World News Roundup"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calmer, Ned
1907 births
1986 deaths
American reporters and correspondents
20th-century American non-fiction writers