Highlights Archives
Edward R. Murrow Photos Reveal Unexpected Wisconsin Connection
Recently uncovered photos of legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow reveal a Wisconsin connection beyond his epic clash with our state's most notorious Senator, Joseph McCarthy, now featured in George Clooney's new film "Good Night, and Good Luck." Society archivists recently found photos of Murrow on a 1957 fishing trip to Northern Wisconsin in records from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. With an ever-present cigarette in hand, Murrow fished and dined with some of the state's leading politicians of the era, including then President Pro-Tempore of the state Senate Frank Panzer, father of former Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer of West Bend.
Chronicling the events leading up the famous March 9, 1954, broadcast in which Murrow exposed the lack of evidence behind McCarthy's claims, Clooney's film brings to life a period of history richly documented in the various holdings of the Wisconsin Historical Society archives.
The newly discovered Murrow photos reflect just one small part of the vast entertainment industry-related material housed in the Wisconsin Historical Society archives. Established in 1955, the Society's Mass Communications History Collection (MCHC) holds the papers of hundreds of individuals, corporations and professional organizations in journalism, broadcasting, advertising and public relations, documenting the importance of the mass media on both the national level and in Wisconsin. Among the center's Murrow and McCarthy-related collections are the papers of reporter Charles Collingwood, recruited to CBS by Murrow, the papers of writer Richard Rovere, known for his book "Senator Joe McCarthy," and the papers of journalist Gordon Kahn, blacklisted for his book "Hollywood on Trial."
Besides the work of pioneering journalists, the Society archives also contains other materials on McCarthy and McCarthyism. McCarthy's political career is documented in collections relating to Wisconsin's Democratic and Republican parties. Of particular note are two oral history interviews with longtime McCarthy friend Urban P. Van Sustern, an Outagamie County Judge. Anti-McCarthy collections, both in Wisconsin and nationally, are even more numerous. Notable Wisconsin collections include those of William T. Evjue, founder and editor of The Capital Times in Madison, an early opponent of McCarthy, and Sauk City newspaperman LeRoy Gore, leader of the "Joe Must Go" movement. Nationally, the collections include papers from Senators Ralph Flanders and William Benton, leaders in the move to have McCarthy censured by the Senate.
Other important McCarthy manuscripts are in the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR), a cooperative effort of the Society and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, that maintains more than 300 manuscript collections from outstanding playwrights, television and movie writers, producers, actors, designers, directors and production companies. The WCFTR has collections related to the hearings on the entertainment industries instituted by the House Un-American Activities Committee, including papers from six of the "Hollywood Ten," screenwriters blacklisted for alleged communist sympathies, and the papers of their lawyers, the Hollywood Democratic Committee. Also of note are interviews, drafts and film footage from Emile De Antonio's 1964 documentary on the Army-McCarthy hearings, "Point of Order."
:: Posted October 5, 2005
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