Feature
Story -The World
of Sam Donaldson-
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From the co-publisher/co-founder of TVI Magazine in 1956 --
to ABC's Legendary Newsman -- Sam Donaldson knows almost
everything and anything about News reporting.
"When Sam A. Donaldson
became part of ABC's roving television correspondents, no
one was sure what to expect.
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His immense impact on
his television audience was owed to the dynamism of his
personality and the upheavals at home and abroad that marked
his ability to report the news as it happened. His macho,
patrician features, leonine bearing and strong, resonant
voice all reflected his invincible self-assurance when he
would demand -- Hold on Mr. President". Click
For Sam Donaldson's First News Report, April 1956 article
"1939"
Biography: Sam
Donaldson ABC News Correspondent
Sam Donaldson Date of birth: March 11, 1934
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Samuel Andrew Donaldson,
Jr. was born in El Paso, Texas, and grew up just across the
state line in Chamberino, New Mexico. His father died before
he was born, leaving his mother and one older brother to run
the family's cotton and dairy farm. His mother drove 25
miles every morning and night to take him to school in El
Paso.
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He became interested in
broadcasting at an early age and, after graduating from New
Mexico Military institute, majored in telecommunications at
Texas Western. He immediately began working at local
stations as a disc jockey, announcer and interviewer. While
still in El Paso, he had his first taste of television,
working as an announcer in the region's first television
station.
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While attending graduate
school at the University of Southern California, Donaldson
met publisher Al Preiss, and they both formed
TELEvisionFILM
Magazine. Both seeing where the international televisiion
market was heading, the name was changed shortly thereafter
to Television International Magazine.
At that same time, an
enthusiastic young Republican, Donaldson travelled to El
Paso, to work for the Eisenhower campaign over the summer of
1956, arranging the El Paso stop of Vice President Nixon.
This was only the first of many encounters with the nation's
political leaders, but Donaldson's politics were to change
dramatically over the years to
come.
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The following autumn, Sam
Donaldson reported to Fort Bliss to fulfill his military
service as an ROTC commissioned second lieutenant of air
defense artillery. Although the defense cutbacks of that
year shortened Donaldson's obligation to six months, he
volunteered for another two years of active
duty.
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After receiving his honorable
discharge in the spring of 1959, he settled in Dallas and
found work as a television announcer at the local CBS
affiliate. At 26, he was restless and ambitious and, after
only a year in Dallas, left the Southwest for the first time
to seek his fortune in New York City. After initial setbacks
in New York, he found a job at WTOP, the CBS affiliate in
Washington, D.C. He has lived in the Washington area ever
since.
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He rose through the ranks of
WTOP's news department, and had just been promoted to
weeknight anchorman in 1967 when he accepted an offer from
ABC News. At the time, ABC's news division, chronically
underfunded and understaffed, ran a distant third among the
three networks. In his first decade at ABC, Donaldson's work
attracted little attention, but he persisted, covering the
presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater, Eugene McCarthy,
and Hubert Humphrey, as well as the Vietnam War and
Watergate.
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The turning point came in 1977,
when he was assigned to cover the incoming Carter
administration as ABC's Chief White House Correspondent.
Donaldson's aggressive style of questioning, much assisted
by his powerful speaking voice, quickly drew the attention
of the public and the immense irritation of the White House
staff.
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Later that year, the fortunes of
ABC's news operation took a precipitous turn for the better
with the appointment of Roone Arledge as head of the
division. Arledge, who had already revolutionized television
sports coverage, brought the same hard-driving approach to
the news operation. He expanded coverage, and lured
distinguished news personalities from the other networks
with unprecedented salary offers.
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Donaldson prospered too, and the
next change of administrations in Washington offered
Donaldson a perfect opportunity to make an impression on the
public. Although President Reagan held relatively few press
conferences, Donaldson took every opportunity to press
difficult questions on the new President. Television
audiences became familiar with the sound of Donaldson's
voice booming over the rest of the White House press corps,
even over the drone of the President's helicopter, as the
Chief Executive dashed across the South Lawn to escape his
relentless inquisitors.
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By 1981, in addition to his White
House duties, Donaldson was serving as anchor of World News
Sunday and taking an occasional turn as moderator of Issues
and Answers, a long-running Sunday morning political
discussion programs. Towards the end of 1981, a new program,
This Week with David Brinkley, replaced Issues and Answers
in the Sunday morning line-up. At first, Sam Donaldson only
appeared on the program on a rotating basis with other
correspondents, but he soon became a permanent member of the
panel, questioning guests for the first half of the program
and joining in the roundtable discussion with Brinkley and
newspaper columnist George Will for the second
half.
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After the 1988 presidential
campaign, Donaldson left the White House post. He continues
his duties on World News Sunday and, since 1989, as a
co-host of Prime Time Live. Since David Brinkley's
retirement, Donaldson and Cokie Roberts have co-hosted the
program, renamed This Week. Sam Donaldson lives in McLean,
Virginia with his third wife, television reporter Jan Smith.
He has four children from two previous
marriages.
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This
Biography and Video Clip was last revised on Feb 04, 2005 by
Achevment Academy
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03.
Special Feature
/ "1939" By - Sam
Donaldson, A reprint from TELEFILM Magazine, (Television
International Magazine), dated April 1956, cover on next
page.
The History of a
Great
Industry is Always Interesting.
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Not only is it extremely revealing from a purely factual
standpoint, it is usually a graphic tribute to a handful of
men who had the gift of foresight and believed in the
impossible. But, history tends to become confused with time,
events are all too quickly clouded if they are not recorded
as they happen. TELEvisionFILM Magazine, (Television
International Magazine) -- decided to trace video film back
to its very beginnings. We wanted to uncover the material
facts surrounding the first film series especially produced
for television.
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The task was not as simple as it might have been. Although
TV film is thought of as being something comparatively
recent the visionaries who pioneered the industry were hard
at work long years ago. Any history of the first film series
must also be divided into several categories. There was a
first series, a first sponsored series, a first children's
series, etc. In this brief account, then, we do not attempt
to include all of the many names and dates involved in tv
films family tree. We do sketch an accurate picture of the
progress from the cradle to the point where film put on its
first pair of long pants.
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The year was 1939. W6XAO, one of the nation's first
experimental stations, had recently gone on the air in Los
Angeles with transmitting facilities atop Mt. Lee. There
were only a few receiving sets, with postage stamp size
screens, in its limited coverage area. Live television was
getting its start, and at the same time television film was
beginning also.
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Patrick Michael Cunning, a young movie producer, had just
made a feature film entitled Stars For Tomorrow with a cast
and crew of 300 unknowns. After the premiere at the
Hollywood Pantages Theatre, Ray Coffin, then program
director of W6XAO, congratulated Cunning on his work with
these newcomers and advised him to take his troupe into
television. CLICK
FOR MORE "1939" STORY
