Jessica Savitch
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, one thousand nine hundred forty seven – October 23, 1983) was an American television news presenter and correspondent, best known for being the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News and daily presenter of NBC News updates during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savitch was one of the very first women to anchor an evening network news broadcast alone, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. She also hosted PBS’s public affairs documentary program Frontline from its January one thousand nine hundred eighty three debut until her death in an automobile accident later that year. [1]
( 1947-02-01 ) February 1, 1947
Dr. Donald Payne (March 1981–August Two, 1981; his death)
Shortly before her death in October 1983, Savitch also became known for her live broadcast of a brief NBC News update in which her delivery was erratic and she appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The incident caused widespread speculation that she was manhandling drugs. She died three weeks later by drowning when a car in which she was a passenger accidentally drove into a cave during a powerful rainstorm. No drugs and very little alcohol were present in her system at the time of her death.
Savitch was renowned for her audience appeal and her abilities as an on-camera news reader, albeit she drew criticism for her relative lack of news reporting practice. Prior to joining NBC News, she was a popular local anchorwoman in Philadelphia, and before that, while working at a Houston television station, she was the very first female news anchor in the South.
After her death, two biographies were written about her and she was the subject of a television film, Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, as well as television documentaries. The one thousand nine hundred ninety six feature film Up Close and Individual starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford was very loosely based on her life, with many details switched in order to produce a film more upbeat than Savitch’s troubled private life. Her practices as a pioneer female news anchor also helped inspire Will Ferrell to make the two thousand four film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. [Two]
Contents
Early life and career Edit
Savitch was born February 1, 1947, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, about thirty five miles west of Philadelphia. She was the eldest daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and her maternal grandmother was Italian American and Catholic. [Three] After her father died at age thirty three in 1959, her family moved to Margate City, Fresh Jersey (a suburb of Atlantic City). According to her two biographers, Gwenda Blair and Alanna Nash, Savitch was haunted via her life by her father’s untimely death, and pursued a career partly to compensate for the loss. [Four]
While in high school in Atlantic City, Savitch got a job co-hosting a demonstrate for teenagers on radio station WOND in Pleasantville, Fresh Jersey. She loved the work and soon became a news reader and disc jockey for WOND as well. She was the very first female disc jockey in that area.
Following high school, Savitch attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, Fresh York, as a communications major. According to Savitch, the school’s discriminatory attitudes against females prevented her from getting the practice she dreamed on the college-owned radio and television stations, so she sought opportunities in nearby Rochester, Fresh York. There, she did on-camera and voice-over commercial work, and while still attending college became a popular top forty disc jockey known as “Honeybee” at WBBF (now WROC-AM). She graduated from Ithaca College in 1968.
Local news career Edit
In 1969, Savitch was hired as an administrative assistant at WCBS, the CBS Radio flagship news station in Fresh York City, where she also did freelance production work. WCBS would not hire her as a reporter because she had no professional practice. She used the WCBS facilities to make a television casting gauze and sent copies to many TV stations around the country, seeking an on-air position.
Despite her lack of broadcast news practice, she was hired by KHOU-TV in Houston as the station’s very first female reporter. Dick John, the manager who hired her, said he did so because he was affected with her ambition and drive as well as her copywriting and speaking abilities. The station had also been ordered to hire a female reporter in order to avoid any legal challenge to its broadcast license based on gender discrimination. When Savitch arrived at KHOU, she was the only female working in the news department other than one secretary, and faced a work environment hostile to females, albeit some masculine colleagues did help her learn the basics of her job. Because KHOU was non-union, she participated in many aspects of production as well as reporting on camera. A few months after joining KHOU, she auditioned for and won a weekend anchor shift, becoming the very first female news anchor in the South and beginning to develop the severe, mannered style of news delivery for which she later became known. Her report on a train derailment and fire received national exposure on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
In 1972, she joined KYW-TV, the former NBC affiliate (now CBS) in Philadelphia, as a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor under a five-year contract. Unlike KHOU, KYW was unionized, so Savitch was not permitted to do work other than on-camera news reading and reporting. At the time KYW hired Savitch, it was under pressure from the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to place more women in then-non-traditional roles on the local news, or face a possible legal challenge to its broadcast license. When she was originally incapable to obtain a weeknight anchor shift, Savitch attempted to break her KYW contract and take a job suggested by CBS in Fresh York. KYW refused to release her from her contract, but agreed to raise her salary and (partly to sate NOW) make her a weeknight anchor. She soon began to anchor noon news broadcasts as well, and eventually became part of a popular team of three anchors with Mort Crim and Vince Leonard on the eleven pm news. Philadelphia viewers responded enthusiastically to her on-camera presence, which was perceived as “magical” and triggering an “almost emotional bond” with the audience.
While at KYW, Savitch also won recognition for her multi-part feature stories on unusual (for that time) subjects such as rape and childbirth, the latter of which featured a live television broadcast of a birth during the holiday season. Savitch often personalized her stories by becoming part of the story herself, such as completing the Philadelphia police academy training as part of a series on women in police work, and serving as an undercover decoy for two weeks as part of her series on rape. [1] Her rape series, entitled “Rape: The Ultimate Disturbance”, won a Clarion Award for excellence from Women in Communications, Inc., and helped bring about legislative switches in several states.
As a result of her KYW work, Savitch became a local celebrity in Philadelphia, and was sometimes mobbed walking down the street. Masculine viewers schemed to meet her, and female viewers copied her hairstyle. Despite her local acclaim, Savitch aspired to leave local news and become a network correspondent. In 1976, Savitch came to the attention of NBC executives while reporting from a Presidential campaign debate inbetween President Gerald Ford and Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter held in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre. An audio line failed, delaying the debate and leaving Savitch to pack twenty seven minutes of air time before the audio could be restored. Affected with her spectacle, NBC suggested her a three-year contract kicking off in September one thousand nine hundred seventy seven as a Washington, D.C. correspondent and anchor. Savitch did her last newscast for KYW in August 1977.
Savitch got along well with some members of the KYW staff, including her regular location shooting squad and her co-anchor Mort Crim. Crim later admitted that he was originally “not nice to her” due to his own masculine chauvinism, but the two later became good friends. (Crim delivered the eulogy at her memorial service after her death.) However, other staff members found her difficult, especially towards the end of her KYW contract when she was planning to leave the station for her next job at NBC. Shortly before she left KYW, Savitch exploded in an angry tantrum during a commercial break because the pages of her news script had been provided out of order. The team recorded it without sound, added background music from Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance”, and circulated the resulting gauze to industry contacts, causing the gauze of Savitch’s tantrum to arrive at NBC before she began her fresh job and present her in a negative light to her fresh colleagues.
National news career Edit
NBC Edit
In 1977, when her contract with KYW expired, Savitch joined NBC News as a weekend news anchor and U.S. Senate reporter. Savitch spent most of her national news career with NBC News, becoming best known as a popular anchor of weekend news broadcasts and brief news update segments.
In order to counter criticism that Savitch had been hired for her looks and picture and promoted ahead of skilled journalists, NBC also assigned her to do reporting work, including a brief stint as U.S. Senate correspondent. Savitch was an enormously competent anchor, but she had relatively little reporting practice and struggled as a network reporter. By one thousand nine hundred seventy nine she was demoted from the Senate assignment due to poor spectacle (see NBC reporter). Thereafter, albeit she was a general assignment reporter and helped to cover the one thousand nine hundred eighty Republican and Democratic national conventions, she was primarily known as an anchor.
She was the network’s 2nd woman to anchor a weekend national newscast; Catherine Mackin had previously anchored NBC’s Sunday evening newscast beginning in December 1976, before she left for ABC News the following year. Savitch later became the very first woman to anchor the weeknight NBC Nightly News, periodically substituting for the regular anchors John Chancellor and David Brinkley. She was also assigned to anchor brief NBC news updates (originally called “NBC News Update”, later called “NBC News Capsule” and “NBC News Digest”) that ran approximately one minute and aired in inbetween regular prime time programs each evening, thus drawing a high number of viewers.
As a network anchor, Savitch had a charismatic presence on camera and an extreme rapport with viewers, and became very popular with network affiliates and the viewing public. A one thousand nine hundred eighty two TV Guide poll named her the fourth most trusted news anchor in the country, above many of the most established masculine anchors of the era. [Five] Another one thousand nine hundred eighty two poll named her the “sexiest” female anchor in the country. Affiliates agreed to run the NBC News update segments largely because she would be presenting them. Her success influenced numerous aspiring female newscasters to model themselves after her look and delivery. In 1980, she was one of the twelve most popular speakers in the United States. Savitch’s ambition was to substitute John Chancellor as regular weeknight anchor, a objective she never achieved, partly because of backlash over her lack of reporting abilities. [ citation needed ]
Savitch permanently worked on improving her news reading delivery, using a voice coach and other technics. Network executives and colleagues praised her skillful narration of film showcasing the murders of Congressman Leo Ryan and several others in a mass shooting by members of the Peoples Temple at Jonestown. There had not been time to view the film prior to its broadcast, so Savitch had to improvise her narration while viewing the graphic film for the very first time.
In addition to her regular anchor work on weekend news broadcasts and daily news updates, Savitch appeared on many other NBC News programs over the years. She served as a regular panel member on Meet The Press and contributed to the news magazine programs Prime Time Saturday and Prime Time Sunday. She substituted as anchor on the Today and Tomorrow shows. She was suggested the anchor position for an early-morning news program Early Today (which later became NBC News at Sunrise), but turned it down. She also contributed commentary to NBC Radio Network and worked on a one thousand nine hundred eighty one espionage documentary called The Spies Among Us. Following her death, the network’s decision to make Savitch a reporter was criticized on the basis that her abilities were best suited to the news presenter role for which she had primarily been hired.
Despite her competence and success as an anchor, Savitch was criticized for her relative lack of competence as a reporter, and faced troubles in her private life. By 1983, Savitch was anxious about her job and demonstrating signs of emotional instability, and NBC was beginning to shift its concentrate to other anchors, particularly the freshly hired Connie Chung. In June 1983, NBC liquidated Savitch from her regular Saturday evening anchor slot and substituted her with Chung, who also accepted the Early Today anchor position that Savitch had rejected. From then until her death in October 1983, Savitch’s only regular appearances on NBC were on the NBC News update segments. [1]
On October Three, 1983, approximately three weeks before her death, Savitch delivered a live 43-second NBC News update segment in which she was incoherent and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the air. The incident sparked rumors that Savitch had a drug manhandle problem, albeit she and her agent denied it.
PBS anchor Edit
In January 1983, in addition to her work for NBC, Savitch began hosting a fresh public affairs documentary program on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Frontline. She continued as host until her death later that year, at which time Judy Woodruff took over as host.
NBC reporter Edit
Savitch’s hiring by NBC was part of a controversial trend for networks to hire high-profile news presenters, including physically attractive women, who appealed to the viewing public but lacked significant past reporting practice. Correspondents with many years of reporting practice in broadcast and/or print media were often overlooked for promotion in favor of the fresh “performer” model of anchor. Some critics viewed this as emphasizing picture over substance and awarding lucrative anchor positions to persons who had not earned them. Savitch was perceived as having been hired and promoted beyond her capability based on her looks, and treated more like a Hollywood starlet than a reporter, as evidenced by her contract’s inclusion of individual service perks, such as limousine service, a hairdresser, and a secretary, that were not normally present in contracts for network correspondents. Savitch’s time at NBC also coincided with a period of upheaval for NBC News marked by declining ratings and four switches of management, creating an unstable work environment.
To counter criticism, NBC determined to build Savitch’s reporting abilities, and primarily assigned her as the regular Senate correspondent on a part-time basis in addition to her anchor duties, a position formerly held by Savitch’s predecessor at NBC, Catherine Mackin. However, Savitch’s main practice and skill set was as a news reader; she had relatively little reporting practice and no background in U.S. national politics. NBC did not provide her with help to learn these areas, and also scheduled her for many marketing and publicity events, causing her to be frequently absent from Capitol Hill and impeding her capability to develop stories. Consequently, her Senate reporting was poorly received and she was liquidated from the Senate assignment in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine and substituted with senior correspondent Tom Pettit.
After her demotion to general assignment reporter, Savitch’s reporting continued to be mixed. She was banned from reporting for the weeknight NBC Nightly News after filing a poor quality story on the May one thousand nine hundred seventy nine Canadian election, for which she had been assigned to substitute NBC’s regular Canada reporter so the network could showcase her. Despite these issues, she was still featured as a very visible podium reporter at the one thousand nine hundred eighty Republican and Democratic conventions due to her popularity with viewers. Albeit she obtained some off the hook interviews, including being the only reporter to speak with President Jimmy Carter as he left the podium at the Democratic convention, NBC again substituted her with Tom Pettit before the end of the Democratic convention, causing her to feel abjected and “devastated”.
After Savitch’s death, her biographers and other sources wrote that her reporting assignments were poorly matched with the news presenter skill set for which she was hired, and unfairly compelled her to contest with experienced correspondents. However, Savitch’s hiring has also been cited as an example of masculine news executives choosing a female hire based primarily on her visual appeal to them, rather than on her journalism abilities.
October Trio, one thousand nine hundred eighty three live broadcast incident Edit
On October Trio, 1983, during a live NBC news update, Savitch was incoherent on the air, slurring her speech, deviating from her script and ad-libbing her report. She performed a later update the same evening without issues. Her flawed delivery fueled speculation that she was using drugs, specifically cocaine. However, Savitch blamed the problems on a teleprompter malfunction, while her agent said it was due to the effects of ache and medication from her latest facial reconstructive surgery following a boating accident.
While some of her NBC colleagues said they had seen evidence of drug use, other friends and associates voiced skepticism that she had a drug problem. [6] [7] NBC correspondent Linda Ellerbee later said that she had asked network management to intervene, telling them, “You have to do something. This woman [Savitch] is in trouble.” Ellerbee said that a network vice president responded, “We’re afraid to do anything. We’re afraid she’ll kill herself on our time.” When management failed to act, Ellerbee and other correspondents had attempted to reach out to Savitch, who died before anything could be done.
Albeit Savitch biographer Gwenda Blair wrote that Savitch’s poor spectacle on the October three update effectively ended her network career, [8] a People magazine article published after her death said that her NBC contract had actually been renewed (albeit the renewal was for just one year rather than her previous three-year contracts), that she would have reclaimed a spot as a substitute Sunday anchor in January 1984, and that she was set to show up on another season of Frontline. [6]
Savitch was married twice and had no children. Her very first marriage in one thousand nine hundred eighty to Philadelphia advertising executive Melvin “Mel” Korn ended in divorce after eleven months. [1] [9] Korn reportedly divorced her after learning that she had a significant drug problem. [Four]
Her 2nd marriage in March one thousand nine hundred eighty one to Dr. Donald Payne, her gynecologist, lasted only a few months. It ended when Payne, who had substance manhandle problems and suffered from depression (attributed to liver disease), committed suicide by dangling in their Washington, D.C. townhouse. [6] [Ten] Savitch, who was in Fresh York on business at the time, found his bod when she returned to the house. Albeit she was upset by his death, she returned to her work at NBC just three weeks later.
Savitch had a long-term intermittent relationship over many years with TV news executive Ron Kershaw. Kershaw had substance manhandle problems and physically manhandled Savitch during their relationship. [11] [12] In the early 1970s, while she was working for CBS in Fresh York City, Savitch also had a romantic relationship with CBS News journalist Ed Bradley, who was then a WCBS radio reporter. According to Bradley, after the relationship ended they continued to have a “non-romantic, social and professional relationship” until her death. [7] [13]
She suffered from health problems across her life and was hospitalized several times. She reportedly had anorexia and had several pregnancies that ended early, albeit sources [ citation needed ] differ on whether she miscarried or had abortions.
According to her two biographers Gwenda Blair and Alanna Nash, Savitch was a driven perfectionist who permanently battled insecurities about her appearance and capability, suffered from social anxiety, and tended to isolate herself from network colleagues, including other female broadcasters whom she viewed as competition. Both biographers also wrote that Savitch had a cocaine manhandle problem that eventually affected her career. [14] Her biographers and some other sources have also alleged that Savitch was bisexual and had romantic relationships with women as well as boys. [Four] [14] [15] These allegations were disputed by Savitch’s family and some of her friends after her death. [Four] [7] [16]
Savitch’s friend, WNBC anchor Sue Simmons, said in a two thousand thirteen retrospective article marking the 30-year anniversary of Savitch’s death, “When the books and the movie came out [after her death], they made her out to be this troubled character. Nobody ever talked about her big heart, her loyalty, her sense of humor, and her fabulousness as a person.” [ citation needed ]
On October 23, 1983, approximately three weeks after her problematic NBC broadcast, Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice president of the Fresh York Post, in Fresh Hope, Pennsylvania. Savitch and Fischbein had been dating for a few weeks. After eating at the restaurant Chez Odette, they began to drive home about 7:15 p.m., with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a mighty rainfall. He drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant, and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Cave’s Delaware Division on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Sea. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the colon. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inwards as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein’s assets was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the back seat. [17]
After autopsies, the Bucks County coroner ruled that both Savitch and Fischbein had died from asphyxiation by drowning. Neither Savitch nor Fischbein had any drugs in their system at the time of death, and they had consumed only puny amounts of alcohol — about half a glass of wine each. [Legitimate] According to the Fresh Hope police chief, a similar death had occurred at the same spot some years before. [1] [17]
Savitch’s family and a group of her friends later sued the Fresh York Post (whose insurance covered the leased car Fischbein was driving), Fischbein, Chez Odette, and the state of Pennsylvania for damages in Savitch’s death. The suit was lodged for $8 million, most of which was paid by the Fresh York Post. Some of the money was used to establish scholarships for women studying for careers in broadcasting or journalism at Ithaca College and other colleges. [Nineteen]
In 1979, Savitch received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Ithaca College, her alma mater. She was elected to the college’s Board of Trustees in 1980. [20]
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Savitch into their Hall of Fame in 2006. [21]
Jessica Savitch published her own autobiography, Anchorwoman, in 1982. After her death, two posthumous biographies were written about her. According to The Washington Post, each of her biographers interviewed over three hundred people in order to write their respective books. [Four] Albeit both biographies contain similar material, Savitch’s family and friends have challenged as untrue portions of the books regarding her reporting abilities and controversial aspects of her individual life (see Private life). [Four]
The very first biography, Almost Golden: Jessica Savitch and the Selling of Television News (Simon & Schuster, 1988) by Gwenda Blair, told Savitch’s story within the broader context of the history of network news. [22] It was later made into a Lifetime Network made-for-TV movie starring Sela Ward, called Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. [23] When very first aired, Almost Golden earned the second-highest rating ever for a cable television film up to that point. [15] The television film was criticized for omitting or downplaying controversial aspects of Savitch’s life and career that were discussed at length in Blair’s book. [24] [25]
The 2nd, Golden Dame: The Story of Jessica Savitch (Dutton, 1988) by Alanna Nash, became the basis of the one thousand nine hundred ninety six theatrical film Up Close and Private starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford. Up Close and Private was originally intended as a biographical film about Savitch. However, the plot of the movie was substantially switched to become a love story fairly different from Savitch’s life. According to Nash and John Gregory Dunne (who worked on the screenplay and wrote the book Monster: Living Off the Big Screen about the making of the film), this was because the filmmakers, including The Walt Disney Company that was financing the film, considered Savitch’s life story too downbeat to be popular at the box office. [15] [26] [27]
Savitch’s life was also examined in several television documentaries. The A&E series Biography featured an gig about Savitch, which inspired Will Ferrell to make Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (basing the Ron Burgundy character on Savitch’s friend Mort Crim). [Two] [28] Lifetime also aired a documentary entitled Intimate Portrait: Jessica Savitch that was based on the perspectives of Savitch biographer Alanna Nash. [23]
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Savitch
Jessica Beth Savitch (February 1, one thousand nine hundred forty seven – October 23, 1983) was an American television news presenter and correspondent, best known for being the weekend anchor of NBC Nightly News and daily presenter of NBC News updates during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Savitch was one of the very first women to anchor an evening network news broadcast alone, following in the footsteps of Marlene Sanders of ABC News and Catherine Mackin of NBC News. She also hosted PBS’s public affairs documentary program Frontline from its January one thousand nine hundred eighty three debut until her death in an automobile accident later that year. [1]
( 1947-02-01 ) February 1, 1947
Dr. Donald Payne (March 1981–August Two, 1981; his death)
Shortly before her death in October 1983, Savitch also became known for her live broadcast of a brief NBC News update in which her delivery was erratic and she appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The incident caused widespread speculation that she was manhandling drugs. She died three weeks later by drowning when a car in which she was a passenger accidentally drove into a cavern during a mighty rainstorm. No drugs and very little alcohol were present in her system at the time of her death.
Savitch was renowned for her audience appeal and her abilities as an on-camera news reader, albeit she drew criticism for her relative lack of news reporting practice. Prior to joining NBC News, she was a popular local anchorwoman in Philadelphia, and before that, while working at a Houston television station, she was the very first female news anchor in the South.
After her death, two biographies were written about her and she was the subject of a television film, Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story, as well as television documentaries. The one thousand nine hundred ninety six feature film Up Close and Private starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford was very loosely based on her life, with many details switched in order to produce a film more upbeat than Savitch’s troubled individual life. Her practices as a pioneer female news anchor also helped inspire Will Ferrell to make the two thousand four film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. [Two]
Contents
Early life and career Edit
Savitch was born February 1, 1947, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, about thirty five miles west of Philadelphia. She was the eldest daughter of Florence (née Goldberger), a navy nurse, and David Savitch, who ran a clothing store. Her father and maternal grandfather were Jewish, and her maternal grandmother was Italian American and Catholic. [Trio] After her father died at age thirty three in 1959, her family moved to Margate City, Fresh Jersey (a suburb of Atlantic City). According to her two biographers, Gwenda Blair and Alanna Nash, Savitch was haunted via her life by her father’s untimely death, and pursued a career partly to compensate for the loss. [Four]
While in high school in Atlantic City, Savitch got a job co-hosting a demonstrate for teenagers on radio station WOND in Pleasantville, Fresh Jersey. She liked the work and soon became a news reader and disc jockey for WOND as well. She was the very first female disc jockey in that area.
Following high school, Savitch attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, Fresh York, as a communications major. According to Savitch, the school’s discriminatory attitudes against females prevented her from getting the practice she wished on the college-owned radio and television stations, so she sought opportunities in nearby Rochester, Fresh York. There, she did on-camera and voice-over commercial work, and while still attending college became a popular top forty disc jockey known as “Honeybee” at WBBF (now WROC-AM). She graduated from Ithaca College in 1968.
Local news career Edit
In 1969, Savitch was hired as an administrative assistant at WCBS, the CBS Radio flagship news station in Fresh York City, where she also did freelance production work. WCBS would not hire her as a reporter because she had no professional practice. She used the WCBS facilities to make a television casting gauze and sent copies to many TV stations around the country, seeking an on-air position.
Despite her lack of broadcast news practice, she was hired by KHOU-TV in Houston as the station’s very first female reporter. Dick John, the manager who hired her, said he did so because he was affected with her ambition and drive as well as her copywriting and speaking abilities. The station had also been ordered to hire a female reporter in order to avoid any legal challenge to its broadcast license based on gender discrimination. When Savitch arrived at KHOU, she was the only female working in the news department other than one secretary, and faced a work environment hostile to females, albeit some masculine colleagues did help her learn the basics of her job. Because KHOU was non-union, she participated in many aspects of production as well as reporting on camera. A few months after joining KHOU, she auditioned for and won a weekend anchor shift, becoming the very first female news anchor in the South and beginning to develop the severe, mannered style of news delivery for which she later became known. Her report on a train derailment and fire received national exposure on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
In 1972, she joined KYW-TV, the former NBC affiliate (now CBS) in Philadelphia, as a general assignment reporter and weekend anchor under a five-year contract. Unlike KHOU, KYW was unionized, so Savitch was not permitted to do work other than on-camera news reading and reporting. At the time KYW hired Savitch, it was under pressure from the Philadelphia chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) to place more women in then-non-traditional roles on the local news, or face a possible legal challenge to its broadcast license. When she was originally incapable to obtain a weeknight anchor shift, Savitch attempted to break her KYW contract and take a job suggested by CBS in Fresh York. KYW refused to release her from her contract, but agreed to raise her salary and (partly to please NOW) make her a weeknight anchor. She soon began to anchor noon news broadcasts as well, and eventually became part of a popular team of three anchors with Mort Crim and Vince Leonard on the eleven pm news. Philadelphia viewers responded enthusiastically to her on-camera presence, which was perceived as “magical” and triggering an “almost emotional bond” with the audience.
While at KYW, Savitch also won recognition for her multi-part feature stories on unusual (for that time) subjects such as rape and childbirth, the latter of which featured a live television broadcast of a birth during the holiday season. Savitch often personalized her stories by becoming part of the story herself, such as completing the Philadelphia police academy training as part of a series on women in police work, and serving as an undercover decoy for two weeks as part of her series on rape. [1] Her rape series, entitled “Rape: The Ultimate Disturbance”, won a Clarion Award for excellence from Women in Communications, Inc., and helped bring about legislative switches in several states.
As a result of her KYW work, Savitch became a local celebrity in Philadelphia, and was sometimes mobbed walking down the street. Masculine viewers schemed to meet her, and female viewers copied her hairstyle. Despite her local acclaim, Savitch aspired to leave local news and become a network correspondent. In 1976, Savitch came to the attention of NBC executives while reporting from a Presidential campaign debate inbetween President Gerald Ford and Democratic nominee Jimmy Carter held in Philadelphia at the Walnut Street Theatre. An audio line failed, delaying the debate and leaving Savitch to pack twenty seven minutes of air time before the audio could be restored. Amazed with her spectacle, NBC suggested her a three-year contract kicking off in September one thousand nine hundred seventy seven as a Washington, D.C. correspondent and anchor. Savitch did her last newscast for KYW in August 1977.
Savitch got along well with some members of the KYW staff, including her regular location shooting team and her co-anchor Mort Crim. Crim later admitted that he was primarily “not nice to her” due to his own masculine chauvinism, but the two later became good friends. (Crim delivered the eulogy at her memorial service after her death.) However, other staff members found her difficult, especially towards the end of her KYW contract when she was planning to leave the station for her next job at NBC. Shortly before she left KYW, Savitch exploded in an angry tantrum during a commercial break because the pages of her news script had been provided out of order. The team recorded it without sound, added background music from Aram Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance”, and circulated the resulting gauze to industry contacts, causing the gauze of Savitch’s tantrum to arrive at NBC before she began her fresh job and present her in a negative light to her fresh colleagues.
National news career Edit
NBC Edit
In 1977, when her contract with KYW expired, Savitch joined NBC News as a weekend news anchor and U.S. Senate reporter. Savitch spent most of her national news career with NBC News, becoming best known as a popular anchor of weekend news broadcasts and brief news update segments.
In order to counter criticism that Savitch had been hired for her looks and photo and promoted ahead of skilled journalists, NBC also assigned her to do reporting work, including a brief stint as U.S. Senate correspondent. Savitch was an utterly competent anchor, but she had relatively little reporting practice and struggled as a network reporter. By one thousand nine hundred seventy nine she was demoted from the Senate assignment due to poor spectacle (see NBC reporter). Thereafter, albeit she was a general assignment reporter and helped to cover the one thousand nine hundred eighty Republican and Democratic national conventions, she was primarily known as an anchor.
She was the network’s 2nd woman to anchor a weekend national newscast; Catherine Mackin had previously anchored NBC’s Sunday evening newscast beginning in December 1976, before she left for ABC News the following year. Savitch later became the very first woman to anchor the weeknight NBC Nightly News, periodically substituting for the regular anchors John Chancellor and David Brinkley. She was also assigned to anchor brief NBC news updates (primarily called “NBC News Update”, later called “NBC News Capsule” and “NBC News Digest”) that ran approximately one minute and aired in inbetween regular prime time programs each evening, thus drawing a high number of viewers.
As a network anchor, Savitch had a charismatic presence on camera and an extreme rapport with viewers, and became very popular with network affiliates and the viewing public. A one thousand nine hundred eighty two TV Guide poll named her the fourth most trusted news anchor in the country, above many of the most established masculine anchors of the era. [Five] Another one thousand nine hundred eighty two poll named her the “sexiest” female anchor in the country. Affiliates agreed to run the NBC News update segments largely because she would be presenting them. Her success influenced numerous aspiring female newscasters to model themselves after her look and delivery. In 1980, she was one of the twelve most popular speakers in the United States. Savitch’s ambition was to substitute John Chancellor as regular weeknight anchor, a objective she never achieved, partly because of backlash over her lack of reporting abilities. [ citation needed ]
Savitch permanently worked on improving her news reading delivery, using a voice coach and other technologies. Network executives and colleagues praised her skillful narration of film demonstrating the murders of Congressman Leo Ryan and several others in a mass shooting by members of the Peoples Temple at Jonestown. There had not been time to view the film prior to its broadcast, so Savitch had to improvise her narration while viewing the graphic film for the very first time.
In addition to her regular anchor work on weekend news broadcasts and daily news updates, Savitch appeared on many other NBC News programs over the years. She served as a regular panel member on Meet The Press and contributed to the news magazine programs Prime Time Saturday and Prime Time Sunday. She substituted as anchor on the Today and Tomorrow shows. She was suggested the anchor position for an early-morning news program Early Today (which later became NBC News at Sunrise), but turned it down. She also contributed commentary to NBC Radio Network and worked on a one thousand nine hundred eighty one espionage documentary called The Spies Among Us. Following her death, the network’s decision to make Savitch a reporter was criticized on the basis that her abilities were best suited to the news presenter role for which she had primarily been hired.
Despite her competence and success as an anchor, Savitch was criticized for her relative lack of competence as a reporter, and faced troubles in her private life. By 1983, Savitch was anxious about her job and displaying signs of emotional instability, and NBC was beginning to shift its concentrate to other anchors, particularly the freshly hired Connie Chung. In June 1983, NBC liquidated Savitch from her regular Saturday evening anchor slot and substituted her with Chung, who also accepted the Early Today anchor position that Savitch had rejected. From then until her death in October 1983, Savitch’s only regular appearances on NBC were on the NBC News update segments. [1]
On October Trio, 1983, approximately three weeks before her death, Savitch delivered a live 43-second NBC News update segment in which she was incoherent and appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol on the air. The incident sparked rumors that Savitch had a drug manhandle problem, albeit she and her agent denied it.
PBS anchor Edit
In January 1983, in addition to her work for NBC, Savitch began hosting a fresh public affairs documentary program on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Frontline. She continued as host until her death later that year, at which time Judy Woodruff took over as host.
NBC reporter Edit
Savitch’s hiring by NBC was part of a controversial trend for networks to hire high-profile news presenters, including physically attractive women, who appealed to the viewing public but lacked significant past reporting practice. Correspondents with many years of reporting practice in broadcast and/or print media were often overlooked for promotion in favor of the fresh “performer” model of anchor. Some critics viewed this as emphasizing picture over substance and awarding lucrative anchor positions to persons who had not earned them. Savitch was perceived as having been hired and promoted beyond her capability based on her looks, and treated more like a Hollywood starlet than a reporter, as evidenced by her contract’s inclusion of private service perks, such as limousine service, a hairdresser, and a secretary, that were not normally present in contracts for network correspondents. Savitch’s time at NBC also coincided with a period of upheaval for NBC News marked by declining ratings and four switches of management, creating an unstable work environment.
To counter criticism, NBC determined to build Savitch’s reporting abilities, and primarily assigned her as the regular Senate correspondent on a part-time basis in addition to her anchor duties, a position formerly held by Savitch’s predecessor at NBC, Catherine Mackin. However, Savitch’s main practice and skill set was as a news reader; she had relatively little reporting practice and no background in U.S. national politics. NBC did not provide her with help to learn these areas, and also scheduled her for many marketing and publicity events, causing her to be frequently absent from Capitol Hill and impeding her capability to develop stories. Consequently, her Senate reporting was poorly received and she was liquidated from the Senate assignment in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine and substituted with senior correspondent Tom Pettit.
After her demotion to general assignment reporter, Savitch’s reporting continued to be mixed. She was banned from reporting for the weeknight NBC Nightly News after filing a poor quality story on the May one thousand nine hundred seventy nine Canadian election, for which she had been assigned to substitute NBC’s regular Canada reporter so the network could showcase her. Despite these issues, she was still featured as a very visible podium reporter at the one thousand nine hundred eighty Republican and Democratic conventions due to her popularity with viewers. Albeit she obtained some off the hook interviews, including being the only reporter to speak with President Jimmy Carter as he left the podium at the Democratic convention, NBC again substituted her with Tom Pettit before the end of the Democratic convention, causing her to feel abased and “devastated”.
After Savitch’s death, her biographers and other sources wrote that her reporting assignments were poorly matched with the news presenter skill set for which she was hired, and unfairly coerced her to contest with experienced correspondents. However, Savitch’s hiring has also been cited as an example of masculine news executives choosing a female hire based primarily on her visual appeal to them, rather than on her journalism abilities.
October Trio, one thousand nine hundred eighty three live broadcast incident Edit
On October Trio, 1983, during a live NBC news update, Savitch was incoherent on the air, slurring her speech, deviating from her script and ad-libbing her report. She performed a later update the same evening without issues. Her flawed delivery fueled speculation that she was using drugs, specifically cocaine. However, Savitch blamed the problems on a teleprompter malfunction, while her agent said it was due to the effects of agony and medication from her latest facial reconstructive surgery following a boating accident.
While some of her NBC colleagues said they had seen evidence of drug use, other friends and associates voiced skepticism that she had a drug problem. [6] [7] NBC correspondent Linda Ellerbee later said that she had asked network management to intervene, telling them, “You have to do something. This woman [Savitch] is in trouble.” Ellerbee said that a network vice president responded, “We’re afraid to do anything. We’re afraid she’ll kill herself on our time.” When management failed to act, Ellerbee and other correspondents had attempted to reach out to Savitch, who died before anything could be done.
Albeit Savitch biographer Gwenda Blair wrote that Savitch’s poor spectacle on the October three update effectively ended her network career, [8] a People magazine article published after her death said that her NBC contract had actually been renewed (albeit the renewal was for just one year rather than her previous three-year contracts), that she would have reclaimed a spot as a substitute Sunday anchor in January 1984, and that she was set to show up on another season of Frontline. [6]
Savitch was married twice and had no children. Her very first marriage in one thousand nine hundred eighty to Philadelphia advertising executive Melvin “Mel” Korn ended in divorce after eleven months. [1] [9] Korn reportedly divorced her after learning that she had a significant drug problem. [Four]
Her 2nd marriage in March one thousand nine hundred eighty one to Dr. Donald Payne, her gynecologist, lasted only a few months. It ended when Payne, who had substance manhandle problems and suffered from depression (attributed to liver disease), committed suicide by suspending in their Washington, D.C. townhouse. [6] [Ten] Savitch, who was in Fresh York on business at the time, found his figure when she returned to the house. Albeit she was upset by his death, she returned to her work at NBC just three weeks later.
Savitch had a long-term intermittent relationship over many years with TV news executive Ron Kershaw. Kershaw had substance manhandle problems and physically manhandled Savitch during their relationship. [11] [12] In the early 1970s, while she was working for CBS in Fresh York City, Savitch also had a romantic relationship with CBS News journalist Ed Bradley, who was then a WCBS radio reporter. According to Bradley, after the relationship ended they continued to have a “non-romantic, social and professional relationship” until her death. [7] [13]
She suffered from health problems across her life and was hospitalized several times. She reportedly had anorexia and had several pregnancies that ended early, albeit sources [ citation needed ] differ on whether she miscarried or had abortions.
According to her two biographers Gwenda Blair and Alanna Nash, Savitch was a driven perfectionist who permanently battled insecurities about her appearance and capability, suffered from social anxiety, and tended to isolate herself from network colleagues, including other female broadcasters whom she viewed as competition. Both biographers also wrote that Savitch had a cocaine manhandle problem that eventually affected her career. [14] Her biographers and some other sources have also alleged that Savitch was bisexual and had romantic relationships with women as well as fellows. [Four] [14] [15] These allegations were disputed by Savitch’s family and some of her friends after her death. [Four] [7] [16]
Savitch’s friend, WNBC anchor Sue Simmons, said in a two thousand thirteen retrospective article marking the 30-year anniversary of Savitch’s death, “When the books and the movie came out [after her death], they made her out to be this troubled character. Nobody ever talked about her big heart, her loyalty, her sense of humor, and her fabulousness as a person.” [ citation needed ]
On October 23, 1983, approximately three weeks after her problematic NBC broadcast, Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice president of the Fresh York Post, in Fresh Hope, Pennsylvania. Savitch and Fischbein had been dating for a few weeks. After eating at the restaurant Chez Odette, they began to drive home about 7:15 p.m., with Fischbein behind the wheel and Savitch in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Fischbein may have missed posted warning signs in a mighty rainfall. He drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant, and up the towpath of the old Pennsylvania Cavern’s Delaware Division on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware Sea. The car veered too far to the left and went over the edge into the shallow water of the ass-pipe. After falling approximately fifteen feet and landing upside down, the station wagon sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inwards as water poured in. A local resident found the wreck at about 11:30 that night. Fischbein’s bod was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the back seat. [17]
After autopsies, the Bucks County coroner ruled that both Savitch and Fischbein had died from asphyxiation by drowning. Neither Savitch nor Fischbein had any drugs in their system at the time of death, and they had consumed only petite amounts of alcohol — about half a glass of wine each. [Eighteen] According to the Fresh Hope police chief, a similar death had occurred at the same spot some years before. [1] [17]
Savitch’s family and a group of her friends later sued the Fresh York Post (whose insurance covered the leased car Fischbein was driving), Fischbein, Chez Odette, and the state of Pennsylvania for damages in Savitch’s death. The suit was lodged for $8 million, most of which was paid by the Fresh York Post. Some of the money was used to establish scholarships for women studying for careers in broadcasting or journalism at Ithaca College and other colleges. [Nineteen]
In 1979, Savitch received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Ithaca College, her alma mater. She was elected to the college’s Board of Trustees in 1980. [20]
The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia posthumously inducted Savitch into their Hall of Fame in 2006. [21]
Jessica Savitch published her own autobiography, Anchorwoman, in 1982. After her death, two posthumous biographies were written about her. According to The Washington Post, each of her biographers interviewed over three hundred people in order to write their respective books. [Four] Albeit both biographies contain similar material, Savitch’s family and friends have challenged as untrue portions of the books regarding her reporting abilities and controversial aspects of her individual life (see Private life). [Four]
The very first biography, Almost Golden: Jessica Savitch and the Selling of Television News (Simon & Schuster, 1988) by Gwenda Blair, told Savitch’s story within the broader context of the history of network news. [22] It was later made into a Lifetime Network made-for-TV movie starring Sela Ward, called Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story. [23] When very first aired, Almost Golden earned the second-highest rating ever for a cable television film up to that point. [15] The television film was criticized for omitting or downplaying controversial aspects of Savitch’s life and career that were discussed at length in Blair’s book. [24] [25]
The 2nd, Golden Dame: The Story of Jessica Savitch (Dutton, 1988) by Alanna Nash, became the basis of the one thousand nine hundred ninety six theatrical film Up Close and Individual starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Robert Redford. Up Close and Private was originally intended as a biographical film about Savitch. However, the plot of the movie was substantially switched to become a love story fairly different from Savitch’s life. According to Nash and John Gregory Dunne (who worked on the screenplay and wrote the book Monster: Living Off the Big Screen about the making of the film), this was because the filmmakers, including The Walt Disney Company that was financing the film, considered Savitch’s life story too downbeat to be popular at the box office. [15] [26] [27]
Savitch’s life was also examined in several television documentaries. The A&E series Biography featured an scene about Savitch, which inspired Will Ferrell to make Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (basing the Ron Burgundy character on Savitch’s friend Mort Crim). [Two] [28] Lifetime also aired a documentary entitled Intimate Portrait: Jessica Savitch that was based on the perspectives of Savitch biographer Alanna Nash. [23]
