Huntley (left) and Brinkley, covering a political convention together
October 29, 1956: NBC debuts its new evening news program, The Huntley-Brinkley Report. With the Suez Crisis beginning that day (I have a separate entry for that event), the Hungarian Revolution, and a Presidential election campaign entering its final stages, the timing was excellent.
NBC decided that Chet Huntley and David Brinkley had worked so well together at the recent Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and then at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco, that they should work together on the evening news.
Except they don't actually work together -- at least, not at the same desk, or even in the same city: Huntley, a 44-year-old former radio announcer from Montana, reports from the NBC studios at the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York, also used by WNBC-Channel 4 (then WRCA); while Brinkley, a 36-year-old North Carolinian who was veteran of United Press International and NBC's White House correspondent, reports from the NBC studios in Northwest Washington, also used by WRC-Channel 4.
The Report is remembered for its signoff: Huntley saying, "Good night, David." And then Brinkley saying, "Good night, Chet." Brinkley later said, "We both despised it. Two grown men saying good night to each other on the air struck me as rather dubious." It became a national joke, though both men were highly respected.
And so, while ABC was frequently changing anchors, including taking on the man that Huntley and Brinkley replaced, John Cameron Swayze, NBC had Huntley-Brinkley (usually referred to with just the 2 men's names, not the full title), while CBS had Douglas Edwards until 1962, and then Walter Cronkite until 1981.
For 14 years, they covered every major news story, including 4 Presidential elections, civil rights milestones, the Cold War including the Vietnam War, political assassinations, urban riots, and the space race from the 1st satellite to "Man on the Moon." They remained together until Huntley's health began to fail, and their last broadcast together was on July 31, 1970.
The following Monday, August 3, the current NBC Nightly News format began. John Chancellor anchored it until 1982, then Tom Brokaw until 2005, then Brian Williams until 2015, and Lester Holt since then. (UPDATE: Tom Llamas succeeded Holt in 2025.)
Huntley died in 1974, from smoking-related cancer, only 62 years old. Brinkley remained with NBC until 1981, signing with ABC and taking over their Sunday morning news program. Formerly Issues and Answers, it was renamed This Week with David Brinkley, keeping the This Week name after he retired in 1996. He died in 2003.
From 1978 to 1983, ABC World News Tonight took the Huntley-Brinkley format one man and one place further: Frank Reynolds would be the main anchor, from their studio in Washington; Max Robinson, thus becoming the 1st black evening news co-anchor long before Holt could become the 1st black evening news solo anchor, manned "the national desk" in Chicago; and Peter Jennings was at "the foreign desk" in London. This format ended in 1983, when, like Huntley, Reynolds died from the effects of smoking. Robinson was also in failing health, and Jennings soon became the sole anchor.
*
October 29, 1956 was a Monday. Baseball season was over. There was no Monday Night Football in those days, nor were any college football games played. The NBA and NHL seasons had just started, but there were no games scheduled for this day in either league. So there were no scores on this historic day.
Boxer Wilfredo Gómez was born on that day. The Puerto Rican known as "Bazooka" was the Super Bantamweight Champion from 1979 to 1983, the Featherweight Champion in 1984, and the Super Featherweight Champion in 1985 and 1986.
No comments:
Post a Comment