Person to Person

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Person to Person
Genre Interview
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Presented by Edward R. Murrow (1953-1959)
Charles Collingwood (1959-1961)
Country of origin  United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 8
Production
Producer(s) John Aaron
Jesse Zousmer
Charles Hill
Robert Sammon
Edward R. Murrow
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Picture format Black-and-white
Original run October 2, 1953September 8, 1961

Person to Person was a popular television program in the United States that ran from 1953 to 1961. Well-respected news reporter Edward R. Murrow hosted it until 1959, interviewing celebrities in their homes from a comfortable chair in his New York studio (his famous opening: "Good evening, I'm Ed Murrow. And the name of the program is 'Person to Person'. It's all live- there's no film"). The long list of guests included then-Senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, Elizabeth Taylor, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, Liberace, Sammy Davis Jr., Groucho and Harpo Marx, Margaret Mead, Harry Truman, Marilyn Monroe, W.C. Handy, Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, Fidel Castro, Bing Crosby, Leopold Stokowski, Kirk Douglas and John Steinbeck. In the last two years of its run, the host was Charles Collingwood.

Although Murrow is best remembered for his hard-hitting radio and television reporting on programs such as Hear It Now and See It Now and for publicly confronting Senator Joseph McCarthy, it should also be remembered that on Person to Person he pioneered the TV interview of a celebrity.

The program was not strictly scripted, but it had to be well planned, with as many as six cameras and TV lighting installed to cover the guest's moves through his home, and a microwave link to transmit the signals back to the network. The guests wore early wireless microphones to pick up their voices as they moved around the home or its grounds. It was done live, since the show premiered before the widespread use of videotape.[1] The two 15 minute interviews in each program were typically with very different types of people, such as a movie star and a scientist. Guests often used the appearance to promote their latest project or book.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ McMahon, Ed; David Fisher (2007) When television was youngThomas Nelson Inc,pp. 146-149ISBN 1401603270, 9781401603274 http://books.google.com/books?id=2uN_AkdwAioC&pg=PA146&dq=murrow+%22person+to+person%22&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES#PPA149,M1. Retrieved 25 January 2009 
  2. ^ Newcomb, Horace (2004) Encyclopedia of television (2 ed.)CRC Presspp. 1747-1748ISBN 157958411X, 9781579584115 http://books.google.com/books?id=CFXgj7a55agC&pg=PA1747&dq=murrow+%22person+to+person%22&lr=&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES#PPA1747,M1. Retrieved 25 January 2009 

The Best of Person to Person is distributed on DVD by Koch Vision.

[edit] External links