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 analyst and close associate of

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 ...

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 research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Work At CBS

Radio

Calmer was hired by

to work for

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 ...

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 William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He wrote ''The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany that has been read by many and cited in scholarly w ...

, Richard C. Hottelet and

Larry LeSueur Laurence Edward LeSueur (June 10, 1909 – February 5, 2003) was an American journalist and a war correspondent during World War II. He worked closely with Edward R. Murrow and was one of the original Murrow Boys. Early life LeSueur was born on ...

. During his tenure at CBS Calmer also hosted the ''

CBS World News Roundup The ''CBS World News Roundup'' is the longest-running network radio newscast in the United States. It airs weekday mornings and evenings on the CBS Radio Network. It first went on-air on March 13, 1938, at 8 p.m. ET as a one-time special in res ...

''. The radio show began on March 13, 1938 in response to growing tensions in Europe. It was originally hosted by veteran newsman

Robert Trout Robert Trout (born Robert Albert Blondheim; October 15, 1909 – November 14, 2000) was an American broadcast news reporter who worked on radio before and during World War II for CBS News. He was regarded by some as the "Iron Man of Radio" for ...

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 Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was an American author and CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents who were hired by CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and nicknamed " Murrow's ...

, Charles Collingwood, Howard K. Smith,

Bill Lynch Bill Lynch (born June 12, 1954) is a former American football coach. He was most recently the head football coach at DePauw University, a position he held in 2004 and re-assumed in December 2012 until his retirement after the 2019 season. Lynch ...

and

Winston Burdett Winston Burdett (December 12, 1913 – May 19, 1993) was an American broadcast journalist and correspondent for the CBS Radio Network during World War II and later for CBS television news. During the war he became a member of Edward R. Mur ...

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 ...

'', 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 a ...

'' and the '' New York Herald.''

Books

Calmer was an accomplished writer and novelist in addition to his journalistic career. His first novel, ''Beyond the Street'', was published in 1934 by Little, Brown and Company. During his time in Paris, Calmer became a friend of Ernest Hemingway, 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