User:Remember/tunick

Irve Tunick
Born	Irve Tunick (1912-06-27)June 27, 1912 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	September 10, 1987(1987-09-10) (aged 75) Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Georgetown University New York University
Occupation	Screenwriter
Spouse(s)	Adele Lehnstul until 1981 Bea Greenberg
Children	Richard Tunick Carole Maxfield Lisa Sarasohn

Irve Tunick (June 27, 1912 – September 10, 1987) was an American scriptwriter and producer that was known for his contributions to radio, television, and film. Tunick was former president of the Eastern Region of the Television Writers of America. He is best know for writing scripts for radio, television, and movies including Freedom's People, Studio One, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Bold Ones, Bonanza, Ironside, Witness and The F.B.I. He is famously known for writing the script for Murder Inc., released in 1960, which earned an Academy Award for best actor nomination for Peter Falk.

Early life

Irve Tunick was born on July 27, 1912, in New York City. He later attended Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and later New York University in New York City

Writing career

Tunick first started his writing career writing for radio in the continuity department for the radio station WINS. In 1938, he left that position to work in the Office of Education for the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. While in Washington working for the Office of Education, Tunick wrote scripts for films for the Federal Government to support the US war effort in World War II. Tunick wrote for such radio programs that were supported by the government as The World is Yours (1936–1940), Democracy in Action (1939), Gallant American Women (1940), Freedom's People (1942).

The World Is Yours

Tunick first gained a reputation by working on "The World Is Yours." This radio program was sponsored by the Office of Education and the Smithsonian Institution and broadcast on CBS as a "weekly thirty-minute radio show that aired Sunday afternoons from June 7, 1936, to May 10, 1942, as part of the Educational Radio Project, funded by the Works Progress Administration.

TWIY was the first radio program produced by the Smithsonian Institution, in conjunction with United States Department of the Interior Office of Education and was one of the most successful educational radio programs of the 1930s. Out-of-work actors and musicians presented the 303 programs which covered various aspects of the Smithsonian's collections and research. Starting in 1939, the program came with additional print materials which could be requested for ten cents each. The program was incredibly popular, generating over half a million letters by 1941. Webster P. True, Chief of the Smithsonian Institution Editorial Division, was the manager of the project and described it in a presentation as, "not a classroom or direct instruction program – we think of it rather as collateral listening." Episodes were narrated by an explorer named Oldtimer, who gave dramatic lectures in travelogue style to tell people about topics in geography, natural history, science and the arts. Topics were popularized to bring learning to more Americans, but some curators at the Smithsonian were concerned that this approach "trivialized science and history and contributed to reductive stereotyping of complex civilizations." The Women's National Radio Committee awarded The World Is Yours a 'Best Adult Education Program' recognition on April 19, 1939.

Work on Freedom's people

In the early 1940s, Ambrose Caliver, a black official in the Office of Education, reached out to Tunick who was then "one of the most respected and successful scriptwriters in educational radio" to assist with creating Freedom's People, a broadcast by NBC from 1941 to 1942 that explored this history and culture of African Americans to further shore up support for Civil Rights. Although Tunick was not black and the show was focused on being a radio show that was produced and performed by blacks, his was still recruited because of his expertise in writing "inventive and lively scripts" and his "skills as a professional educational scriptwriter were superb."

Tunick wasn't clear on how to approach the subject of creating a radio broadcast that would showcase the history of Black Americans, their quest for Civil Rights, and supporting some themes of the show including Christianity and democracy. Tunick at times "struggled to work and help craft a story that included aspects with both ideas of slavery and Christian democracy."

At one point, early on there was a concern that Frank Wilson, who would be the narrator for the show, sounded too much like a white man and this would undercut the argument that the program was being produced and performed by blacks to high light achievements in black community. Locke stated "One of the most important ways to get over to the public that the program is Negro is to have a narrator whose voice is rich...I do not mean a cornfield voice, but certainly a different voice than Wilson’s...[The announcer must have "a characteristically Negro voice." Derricotte stated that "Since we do not have television we depend upon our ears and not our eyes."

Tunick helped coach Wilson Frank Wilson on how to sound more like a member of the black community and not "too much like a white man.". Tunick also helped integrate music into all of the programing and helped make it effective.

After Tunick drafted the scripts, they would be reviewed by members of a Advisory Committee in Washington D.C. that included Ambrose Caliver along with "Wesley, Brown, Locke, and Arthur D. Wright of the Southern Education Foundation", "local school principal Elise Derricotte and Joseph Houchins, “specialist in Negro statistics” at the Census Bureau. Caliver would also solicit the opinion of his friends like "Reddick" as well. This advisory committee that contained "black intellectuals and leaders" that helped "research and review the scripts...served to authenticate that it was indeed by and about 'Negro Americans,' as its publicity claimed." Having blacks be involved in the production of the radio show "distinguished the series at a time when it was rare for blacks to appear in roles other than as featured acts on white-dominated programs."

Caliver believed that it was important to have a popular first show in order to sustain the series so he decided to focus on "black contributions to music (rather than science and discovery as originally proposed)." Tunick wrote the first script for the show and it "exceeded the expectations of many committee members." Some were "pleasantly surprised at the social punch of the script" and impressed with the fact that the show had "'much more social value' than anything he had ever heard on the air." The first show was broadcast in November 1941 and would run until 1942.

Work after leaving the government

In 1942, Tunick left the government and organized a production company with Robert L. Cotton. After World War II, Tunick returned to New York City. Tunick then began writing scripts for the television industry. Tunick founded the Eastern Region of the Television Writers of America.

After leaving the government, Tunick wrote on such radio programs as: Towards a Better World (1943–1944). The American School of the Air (1944–1945), CBS Is There (1947–1948), The Eternal Light (1947–1950), You are There (1947–1950) and Cavalcade of America (1949–1953)."

Television

Transitioning to television in the 1950s, Tunick wrote for several series, including Armstrong Circle Theatre (1955–1963), Studio One (1951–1952), and Combat! (1966). He created and wrote The Witness, a series that dramatized the lives of notorious figures through simulated hearings before a fictional committee.

Film

In 1960, Tunick co-wrote the screenplay for Murder, Inc., a film depicting the rise and fall of a notorious crime syndicate.

Works

Tunick wrote the following scripts. Tunick wrote for Studio One, Armstrong Circle Theatre, The Bold Ones, Bonanza, Ironside, Witness and The F.B.I.

Tunick also wrote Murder Inc. in 1960.

Awards

Tunick won the Robert E. Sherwood and George Foster Peabody Awards for achievements in the scriptwriting field.

Personal life

Tunick married twice. He married Adele Lehnstul, who died in 1981.

He married his secone wife. Bea Greenberg.

He had a son Richard Tunick and two daughters Carole Maxfield and Lisa Sarasohn. He had 8 grandchildren.

Death

At the age of 75, Irve Tunick died from a cerebral hemorrahage at Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel, New York on September 5, 1987.

Works

Writer

• Police Woman (1974) - 1975 - one episode - TV Series written by (as Irving Tunick)
• Walt Disney in The Magical World of Disney (1954) - TV Series - one expisode 1972
• The High Chaparral - three episode 1969-1970
• Daniel Boone - 4 episodes - 1968-1970
• The Bold Ones: The New Doctors - 1 episode - 1969
• Ironsides - 2 episodes - 1969
• ZIP Code with the Swingin' 6 (1967) - short
• The Virginian - 1 episode - 1967 -
• Jericho - 2 episodes 1966
• Combat! (1962) - 1 episode - 1966
• World War One (1964) - TV Series - 1964
• East Side/West Side (1963) - 1 episode - 1963
• Armstrong Circle Theatre (1950) - 16 episodes - 1954-1963
• The Witness - creator/written by- 9 episodes 1960-1961
• Murder, Inc. (1960) - screenplay 1960
• High Hell (1958) - screenplay - 1958
• Lady of Vengeance (1957) - Writer
• The Big Story (1949) - TV Series - writer 1 episode - 1957
• Matinee Theatre (1955) - 1 episode 1956
• Cavalcade of America (1952) - TV series - 1 episode
• You Are There (1953) - TV Series - 2 episodes - 1953-1955
• The Lie (1954) - TV Movie - story editor - 1954
• The Black Forest - TV Movie - WRITER - 1954
• Omnibus (1952) - TV Series - 1 EPISODE 1953
• Studio One (1948) - TV Series - 1951–1953 - 6 episodes
• Portrait by Rembrandt - TV Movie - original teleplay - 1952
• Crime Syndicate - TV Series - writer - 1951 - 1 episode

Producer

• The Witness - TV Series - associate producer - 1960–1961 - 4 episodes

Additional Crew

• Story editor - East Side/West Side (1963) 1 episode
• story editor - TV movie - Eight Witnesses (1954)
• Story editor - TV Movie - The Sergeant and the Spy (1954)

Professional Affiliations

Tunick served as the president of the Eastern Region of the Television Writers of America, advocating for writers' rights and industry standards.

Selected Works

• The World Is Yours (radio series, 1937–1941)
• Towards a Better World (radio series, 1943–1944)
• Armstrong Circle Theatre (television series, 1955–1963)
• Studio One (television series, 1951–1952)
• The Witness (television series, 1960–1961)
• Murder, Inc. (film, 1960)

old

Sources

• NY Times obituary
• book link
• book link
• another link
• link

Source to incorporate

• [1]
• [2]

• [3]
• NY Orbi

Done links

• Tunick link

Bibliography

• Ellett, Ryan (2017). Radio Drama and Comedy Writers, 1928-1962. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. ISBN 978-1-476-62980-3.

• Savage, Barbara Dianne (1999). Broadcasting Freedom: Radio, War, and the Politics of Race, 1938-1948. UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-0-807-84804-3.

Need to add

Need to add stuff from this link - [4]

Stuff to add from other articles

In 1938, Margaret Cuthbert, pioneer radio woman and head of the women's division at NBC Radio, pitched the idea that the Women's Archives could sponsor radio programs about women in history. Beard agreed to collaborate on the project believing it would bring more knowledge about women's diverse contributions to history, as long as the credits recognized the involvement of the Women's Archives. The two programs developed, Women in the Making of America and Gallant American Women ran weekly throughout 1939 and 1940. Journalist Eva vom Baur Hansl, a member of the Women's Archives and writer for such newspapers as The New York Times and New-York Tribune, developed the plotlines and then sent drafts to Beard and scriptwriter Jane Ashman for development. The team also consulted with J. Morrice Jones and Irve Tunick from the Office of Education and others like suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt; Eleanor Flexner, a woman's historian; and Eugenie Leonard, prior dean of women at Syracuse University.

Filmography OF OTHER PERSON FOR TEMPLATE

• The True Glory (1945) (uncredited)
• As Young as You Feel (1951) (story)
• Marty (1955)
• The Catered Affair (1956)
• The Bachelor Party (1957)
• The Goddess (1958)
• Middle of the Night (1959)
• The Americanization of Emily (1964)
• Paint Your Wagon (1969) (adaptation)
• The Hospital (1971)
• Network (1976)
• Altered States (1980) (as "Sidney Aaron")

Television and stage plays

Television (selection)

• 1950–1955 Danger
• 1951–1952 Manhunt
• 1951–1960 Goodyear Playhouse
• 1952–1954 Philco Television Playhouse
• 1952 Holiday Song
• 1952 The Reluctant Citizen
• 1953 Printer's Measure
• 1953 Marty
• 1953 The Big Deal
• 1953 The Bachelor Party
• 1953 The Sixth Year
• 1953 Catch My Boy On Sunday
• 1954 The Mother
• 1954 Middle of the Night
• 1955 The Catered Affair
• 1956 The Great American Hoax

Stage

• No T.O. for Love (1945)
• Middle of the Night (1956)
• The Tenth Man (1959)
• Gideon (1961)
• The Passion of Josef D. (1964)
• The Latent Heterosexual (originally titled The Accountant's Tale or The Case of the Latent Heterosexual) (1968)

Novels

• Altered States: A Novel (1978)

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Film	Result
1955	Best Adapted Screenplay	Marty	Won
1958	Best Original Screenplay	The Goddess	Nominated
1971		The Hospital	Won
1976		Network	Won

To do

Sources

• [5]
• [chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-TV-Radio-Age/60s/60/TVRA-1960-08-08.pdf]

kink

https://books.google.com/books?id=SrjQBQAAQBAJ&pg=PT155&dq=%E2%80%9CIrve+Tunick%E2%80%9D&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_q-_CrduLAxVyF1kFHcG0LwYQ6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CIrve%2520Tunick%E2%80%9D&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=h193K3ZyyEAC&q=%E2%80%9CIrve+Tunick%E2%80%9D&dq=%E2%80%9CIrve+Tunick%E2%80%9D&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwikj6qwr9uLAxU1FVkFHfyCEVo4WhDoAXoECAsQAw#%E2%80%9CIrve%2520Tunick%E2%80%9D

https://books.google.com/books?id=Zgw35KTLOVoC&pg=PT391&dq=%E2%80%9CIrve+Tunick%E2%80%9D&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_q-_CrduLAxVyF1kFHcG0LwYQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=%E2%80%9CIrve%2520Tunick%E2%80%9D&f=false

Need to get - Relation of the Writer to Television

Freedom's people

• “Caliver engagement Irve Tunick, one of the most respected and successful scriptwriters in educational radio. Tunick, who was white, had written inventive and lively scripts for the long-running and very popular science and natural history series The World Is Yours, which the Office of Education and the Smithsonian Institution had sponsored on CBS. The show was the one series that had been spared the congressional attacks on federal funded radio. Although it was not at all clear how he would approach a series about a more political and potentially controversial subject, Tunick’s skills as a professional educational scriptwriter were superb.”
• Tunick helped integrate music into all of the programing and helped make it effective.
• Tunick struggled to work and help craft a story that included aspects with both ideas of slavery and Christian democracy.
• Tunick helped coach Wilson Frank Wilson on how to sound more like a member of the black community and not "too much like a white man."
• "Although riddled with contradictions, the show succeeded in making a powerful moral argument that equated the perpetuation of racial inequality with sin. The early parts of the broadcast were very confusing because even a scriptwriter as skilled as Tunick found it difficult to craft a coherent historical narrative that included both slavery and Christian democracy. After strains of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” the opening narration linked the search for truth with the quest for freedom. The scene shifted to a shielded allusion to the Civil War as “a fierce struggle,” yielding the truth in “four short lines of print—the 13th Amendment.” A dramatization portrayed Lincoln as a “religious, God-inspired man” who suffered with the slaves and “looked to the same God as they did.” “One God, one people, one nation” seemed to be about as strong an argument as this section could muster."
• "Because he had no funds for travel or consultant fees, Caliver relied on a smaller group of members of the Advisory Committee mosdy based in Washington, D.C., to provide research and review the scripts that Tunick drafted. The composition of the group varied from month to month, but aside from Caliver himself, its most steadfast and influential members were Wesley, Brown, Locke, and Arthur D. Wright of the Southern Education Foundation. Others who attended most of the meetings were local school principal Elise Derricotte and Joseph Houchins, “specialist in Negro statistics” at the Census Bureau. Caliver frequendy solicited research materials and comments on scripts from other members and friends, particularly Reddick. This association of prominent black intellectuals and leaders with the program served to authenticate that it was indeed by and about “Negro Americans,” as its publicity claimed. This distinguished the series at a time when it was rare for blacks to appear in roles other than as featured acts on white-dominated programs.34 Concern about claiming ownership over the program and making it an identifiably African American production was foremost in the minds of many of the members of the Advisory Committee when they met to review the first script scheduled for broadcast. Indeed, the first subject they raised was whether the narrator’s voice was going to be a “colored” voice. Caliver and Tunick reassured the group that black stage actor Frank Wilson would narrate the show in a “fine, rich, mellow voice.” The actual question being raised was how to make race visible, or more accurately, audible, on the air in a way consistent with the show’s intended political aims. After hearing Wilson’s voice on the radio, members of the committee regretted that he sounded too much like a white man. Ironically, many black radio actors often complained during that time that they were only able to secure radio parts if they agreed to sound “Negro” enough to satisfy a white producer’s ear. But here the panel’s underlying concern was how the race would be represented and what kind of “Negro” would be portrayed—specifically, what class of African American, since they most wanted to avoid presenting the “class” of African Americans that had been created by radio itself. “One of the most important ways to get over to the public that the program is Negro is to have a narrator whose voice is rich,” Locke argued; “I do not mean a cornfield voice, but certainly a different voice than Wilson’s.” He argued persistendy that the announcer had to have “a characteristically Negro voice.” The other panelists agreed, and Derricotte urged Tunick to encourage Wilson to emphasize the deeper qualities of his voice: “Since we do not have television we depend upon our ears and not our eyes.” Tunick reassured the group that Wilson had a rich voice but that he was “deliberately playing it down” in order to convey a serious dramatic tone without sounding like a “soap-box opera.” Tunick’s subsequent coaching raised the committee’s evaluation of Wilson, but toward the end of the series, other black male actors such as Canada Lee and Juan Hernandez who were thought to have “richer” voices shared the narration and announcing duties."

• "Caliver knew that the fate of the entire series rested on the reception and response to the first show. In order to attraçt a large opening audience and allay the network’s fears about political controversy, the show’s creators decided to focus the first episode on black contributions to music (rather than science and discovery as originally proposed). Tunick’s work on the first script exceeded the expectations of many committee members. Sterling Brown confessed that he “was pleasantly surprised at the social punch of the script,” which had “much more social value” than anything he had ever heard on the air. Some members raised concerns about the use of dialect in the section on slavery, but Brown reassured them that black actors on a live show could be trusted to avoid any potentially offensive language. Still, this show would establish the standard features of the series, so committee members concentrated on perfecting the opening and closing narratives.36"

• "The first episode to make a direct reference to segregation and an outright appeal to black patriotism was on black athletic achievement, broadcast in November 1941. Members of the Advisory Committee saw the sports arena as the perfect metaphor on which to build a case for fair play and equal opportunity for blacks in the general society. Locke argued for framing a constructive argument around athletics, in which the accomplishment of the African American “is symbolic of what he can do in any field where he is given a chance.” Brown also wanted the script to demonstrate that generally “Negroes do not get a clean break.” Discussions about this episode spotlighted the balancing act that the shows creators performed to try to attract and please both a black and a white audience. For example, Tuskegee Institute president F. D. Patterson cautioned that timing would be important in making their arguments: “In the early moments of a program, if you start talking about or inferring the injustices done the Negro, click, off goes the radio.” In order to appeal to black middle-class listeners, there was a consensus that the show needed to emphasize the sports achievements of black college men and women, despite Tunick’s insistence that “the college sport angle will not mean a great deal to white people.” But in a discussion about which boxers to mention, members agreed that the general listening public would probably not be “particularly anxious to hear about Jack Johnson,” who had, among other transgressions, violated racial taboos by marrying a white woman.72

The sports show packed a powerful punch. After the standard introduction, the strains of “Climbing Jacobs Ladder” provided the backdrop for an opening vignette about the need to give everyone “an equal chance to play: rich, poor, black, white, Jew, Gentile.” A brief segment quoted Joe DiMaggio as saying that black base- balls legendary Satchel Paige was one of the greatest pitchers he had ever faced. “Too bad he isn’t in the Big Leagues,” the narrator commented. NBC’s technical sophistication allowed Freedom’s People to make effective use of live pickups from several cities. In a long live interview, Jesse Owens recounted his thrill at hearing the “Star- Spangled Banner” and saluting the American flag from the victor’s podium at the 1936 Olympics in Munich. The program’s segment on black boxers ended with a live interview with Joe Louis from Los Angeles."

• "Locke and other members of the Advisory Committee, including federal officials Mary McLeod Bethune, Joseph Houchins, and Campbell Johnson, sent a telegram to the president urging him to appear on the show to help lift the low morale prevalent among African Americans and to strengthen national unity and race relations. But these and other pleas had litde effect because White House officials had decided some time ago against a presidential appearance, although no one informed Caliver until a few days before the broadcast. At that point, White House officials offered Caliver a letter from the president that was to be read during the final broadcast.90

Caliver’s appeal to the president via Eleanor Roosevelt disclosed information that may have deepened the political implications of an appearance about which the president and his advisers already had strong reservations. In January, a BBC official based in New York City had approached Caliver about rebroadcasting the phonograph recordings of the series throughout “the British Empire,” which at that time, of course, included large numbers of Africans and people of African descent and other peoples of color.91 It seems that by the time of Caliver s plea to t^ie president, he had made such an arrangement with the BBC. Caliver enthusiastically reported the plan and suggested that the program also be sent via shortwave to all Allied nations and to South America as well. When Advisory Committee members contacted the president, they also emphasized thata “forthright statement” from him would bolster “the morale of Negroes in our own country and our colored allies throughout the world.” At a time when worries about people of color at home were deepening, the prospect of making a worldwide speech on the subject of racial equality may have inadvertendy increased the administration’s reluctance to engage the issue direedy. Calivers personal appearance on the final show of the series revealed no signs of the disappointment he must have felt when the president reneged on his commitment. All along, that promise had been Caliver’s ace in the hole, and the president s refusal to lend his personal prestige and radio presence to the show denied the series its coup de grâce—a long-awaited personal radio appeal from the president himself on the question of racial equality." Page 98 --- From footnote 92 on page 311 - "In the Advisory Committee meeting about this show, Caliver seemed confident that the president would agree to appear despite Tunick’s doubts. Caliver also believed that if the president did not agree to appear, Mrs. Roosevelt would, but I have found nothing that indicates that such a request was ever made, perhaps because of the lateness of the president’s final answer. “Minutes of Meeting of Radio Project Advisory Committee,” March 9,1942, ibid. (footnote 92 on page 311)

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