America's history through the lens of 20th century broadcast media
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Eric Sevareid
Born in Velva, North Dakota in 1912, Arnold Eric Sevareid attended college at the University of Minnesota. After graduating in 1935, he worked as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal (1936-37), which had hired him as a cub reporter in 1930. He then worked at the New York Herald Tribune in the Paris bureau until Edward R. Murrow recruited him to join CBS as a news correspondent to cover the outbreak of World War II in Europe (1939).
As one of "Murrow's Boys," Sevareid was the last American to broadcast from Paris and the first to listenannounce [Click for Sound] that France was poised to surrender to the Germans (1940). After fleeing Paris with his wife and newborn twin sons, he joined Murrow in London to broadcast during the Battle of Britain bombing raids.
He rotated with Murrow and Larry Leseuer, among others, in broadcasting regularly from London on the war and its impact on the English. In late 1940 he returned to the United States until 1943, when he was assigned to the Far East, where he had to parachute from a plane in China and navigate his crew out of Japanese-controlled jungles.
Like many other CBS news reporters, Sevareid soon moved to television where he eventually became the respected news commentator on the nightly news with Walter Cronkite anchoring. Both on radio and television, Sevareid's insightful and intelligent analysis of the day's events were listened to by many. Of all the original Murrow's Boys, Sevareid was the one who inherited the cloak of respect as the number one news analyst.
He died on July 9, 1992.
Sources
Sevareid, Eric, Not So Wild a Dream; University of Missouri; Reprint edition (June 1, 1995).
Cloud, Stanley & Olson, Lynne, The Murrow Boys, New York, Houghton-Mifflin, 1996.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Courtesy: Old Time Radio otr.com
As one of "Murrow's Boys," Sevareid was the last American to broadcast from Paris and the first to listenannounce [Click for Sound] that France was poised to surrender to the Germans (1940). After fleeing Paris with his wife and newborn twin sons, he joined Murrow in London to broadcast during the Battle of Britain bombing raids.
He rotated with Murrow and Larry Leseuer, among others, in broadcasting regularly from London on the war and its impact on the English. In late 1940 he returned to the United States until 1943, when he was assigned to the Far East, where he had to parachute from a plane in China and navigate his crew out of Japanese-controlled jungles.
Like many other CBS news reporters, Sevareid soon moved to television where he eventually became the respected news commentator on the nightly news with Walter Cronkite anchoring. Both on radio and television, Sevareid's insightful and intelligent analysis of the day's events were listened to by many. Of all the original Murrow's Boys, Sevareid was the one who inherited the cloak of respect as the number one news analyst.
He died on July 9, 1992.
Sources
Sevareid, Eric, Not So Wild a Dream; University of Missouri; Reprint edition (June 1, 1995).
Cloud, Stanley & Olson, Lynne, The Murrow Boys, New York, Houghton-Mifflin, 1996.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Courtesy: Old Time Radio otr.com
