[Good Night, and Good Luck, written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, adapted from their screenplay for the 2005 film distributed by Warner Bros. and based on the career of renowned newsman Edward R. Murrow, is scheduled to open on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre on 3 April (next Thursday). The play stars Clooney, who played Fred Friendly, a CBS executive, in the movie. It started previews on 12 March and is scheduled to end its limited engagement on 8 June.
[The one-act, intermissionless performance runs about 1 hour 40 minutes and the story takes place in 1954, when on 9 March, Murrow attacked Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade on the reporter’s television show, See It Now.
[The production is directed by David Cromer, a 2018 Tony- and 2017 Drama Desk-winner for direction of The Band’s Visit (2017). The scenic design is by Scott Pask, the costume design by Brenda Abbandandolo, the lighting design by Heather Gilbert, the sound design by Daniel Kluger, and the projection design by David Bengali.
[In addition to Clooney as Murrow, his first stage role since 1986 and his Broadway début, the cast includes Ilana Glazer as Shirley Wershba, a reporter and producer on See It Now; Glenn Fleshler as Fred Friendly, creator, with Murrow, of See It Now; Clark Gregg as Don Hollenbeck, a CBS newscaster and commentator, and associate of Murrow and Friendly; Mac Brandt as Colonel Anderson, a fictionalized CBS executive who’s pressured by McCarthy to silence Murrow; Will Dagger as Don Hewitt, the first director of See It Now; and Christopher Denham as John Aaron, a member of the production team of See It Now.
[Despite the limited engagement, the word is that there are seats available for the entire run. Center orchestra tickets are selling for as much as $775; however, there are $49 rush tickets available at the Winter Garden Theatre box office with a valid student ID, limited to two tickets per person (seats may be partial view) and a limited number of $49 tickets are also available through a digital lottery at Ticket Initiatives | Good Night, and Good Luck.
[A limited number of standing-room tickets will also be made available when a performance is sold out. These tickets can only be purchased in person at the box office on the day of the performance for $69 each and are limited to two tickets per person.]
“GEORGE CLOONEY
SPEAKS ABOUT HIS BROADWAY DEBUT
IN ‘GOOD NIGHT,
AND GOOD LUCK’”
by Dave Carlin
[This report was aired on CBS News New York (Channel 2 in New York City) on 7 February 2025]
NEW YORK - George Clooney [b. 1961] is getting ready to appear in
his first Broadway production.
In “Good Night, And Good Luck,” Clooney is making his Broadway debut, which is based on his movie. In it, he’ll play legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow [1908-65] in eight shows a week.
Clooney, one of the biggest stars in the world, co-wrote the show, and spoke about his personal connections to journalism, and about tackling big challenges on Broadway.
“[W]hat’s a part of it, is you want to hear Murrow, and those words are fun to hear,” Clooney said.
The play is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed 2005 film Clooney co-wrote, directed and appeared in. It’s about Murrow and CBS news in the 1950s, investigating Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s [1908-57; Republican U.S. Senator from Wisconsin: 1947-57] much-feared campaign to root out communists in America. Murrow and his team exposed lies.
“Journalism is always challenged. Power doesn’t like journalism. Never has, and didn’t like it when it was [Thomas] Jefferson [1743-1826; 3rd President of the United States: 1801-09] and [John] Adams [1735-1826; 2nd President of the United States: 1797-1801], and they don’t like it now,” Clooney said. “My father has been, was an anchorman for 40 years. And we really believe in the idea of holding truth to power.
[George Clooney’s father, Nick Clooney (b. 1934), is a former anchorman and television host, who started his broadcast career in 1958. In the early 1970s, he had great success with The Nick Clooney Show, a local morning show with a variety and talk-show format at Cincinnati, Ohio’s WKRC-TV (not to be confused with the fictional WKRP in the 1978-82 TV sitcom).
[Nick Clooney ran as a Democrat in the 2004 election for a seat in the House of Representatives representing Kentucky, his native state, but lost to the Republican candidate. He was also an activist, making a 2006 documentary film with his son in support of the people of the Darfur region of Sudan in its conflict with the government in Khartoum (TV special; A Journey to Darfur). In 2018, Clooney openly criticized the current owners of WKRC-TV, which he’d left in 1984, for their conservative viewpoints and their dictating certain coverage in the station’s newscasts, according to Cincinnati.com.]
“It’s actually a story about us at our best as Americans, which is holding ourselves accountable, which I think is good,” Clooney added.
So why do Broadway now?
“Well, it’s scary. But, you know, I haven’t done a play in 40 years, so it’s one of those things where, and I’ve never done the Broadway play, so I’m, of course, you know, petrified to do it. But it’s not such a bad thing being 63 and doing something that you don’t feel both your feet are firmly on the ground. That’s not such a bad thing to do,” Clooney said.
[Clooney made his stage début and his last appearance in a play in 1986 in a Los Angeles production of a play about Sex Pistols musician Sid Vicious entitled Vicious by Denis Spedaliere, in which he played Champ, a prostitute and dealer. The production was a revival at The Complex, a theater in Hollywood, of a 1984 première, also in LA. The play traveled to Chicago to play at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company from 4 June to 6 July 1986.]
[Dave Carlin has covered national news stories and events in the past four decades including Superstorm Sandy and its tri-state impacts, Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina, and Iniki on Kauai, Hawaii. He also covered the Space Shuttle Program; 1989 San Francisco Earthquake; numerous Southern California wildfires; the trial and execution of serial killer Ted Bundy in Florida; the 1994 police shooting death of Tyke, the escaped Cirus Elephant on the streets of Honolulu; 2009’s Miracle on the Hudson; the NYC Mayoral administrations of Michael Bloomberg through Eric Adams; and more.]
* *
* *
“GEORGE CLOONEY
SHARES THOUGHTS
ON MAKING HIS
BROADWAY DEBUT IN ‘GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK’”
by Joelle Garguilo
[On 7 February 2025, Eyewitness News (WABC; Channel 7 in New York City), broadcast the report below.]
MANHATTAN (WABC) – It was a movie that became a box office sensation and an awards season darling 20 years ago.
[Good Night’s worldwide box office total was $56.6 million, of which $31.5 million was made in the U.S. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Clooney and Heslov. Good Night also received nominations for six BAFTA’s, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Supporting Actor (Clooney); four Golden Globes; and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, among many others—including several wins.]
“Good Night and Good Luck” told the story of Edward R[.] Murrow and it was spearheaded by George Clooney.
Now Clooney is reimagining the movie and bringing it and himself to the Broadway stage.
Entertainment Reporter Joelle Garguilo caught up with Clooney to talk about his Broadway debut.
Clooney held an old-school style press conference to announce his cast and chat about the project.
Clooney is starring in the stage adaptation of the 2005 film that he co-wrote and directed as the legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow.
A role that hits close to home.
“How much of you doing this is almost a love letter to your dad in some way?” Garguilo asked.
“It really it is. My father was an Anchorman for 40 years, and he’s still feisty. You know, . . . he’s gonna come see the play, and I’m sure I’ll get some brutal notes about journalism from my dad. But yeah, I’m very proud of the person that my father has been his whole life and career. He taught me all the things that I believe in, and I’m and it’s, and it’s, I’m proud to represent his craft,” Clooney said.
“What do you remember about like being a kid and going to
visit him at work?” Garguilo asked.
“I used to run the teleprompter for him. . . . In the old days, and teleprompters in the old days was a camera on top of paper that was taped end to end, and you would run it underneath the camera with a big light on it, and then whenever they break, do a commercial break, they go[, “C]ut that segment,[”] and you had a giant paper cutter, and you cut it, and then you tape it back together. That’s how literally, that’s how old I am,” Clooney said.
The play follows Murrow’s historic confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy, a story Clooney says still resonates.
“Unfortunately, this is a story that has been relevant for 100 years and continues to be relevant. I think it’s a good time to always remind ourselves of us at our best. And Murrow was us at our best,” Clooney said.
Garguilo asked what making his Broadway debut means to him.
“It’s fear. It’s abject fear. Is what I have, the . . . wave of emotion. Yeah, I’m terrified. But, I mean, that’s not such a bad thing to be, you know, it’s a kind of a good thing in life to constantly be doing stuff that you don’t feel comfortable with and you don’t feel competent. And I love the story,” Clooney said.
“So, is Brad Pitt getting an invite to opening night?” Garguilo asks.
“No, he’s not. In fact, I don’t want him around. Apparently, we’re fighting. I saw some article the other day, we’re fighting. I don’t know, I don’t know what, where Brad is right now, he’s shooting a movie, so [h]e’s almost done, and then we’re gonna, we’re gonna do another film together soon,” Clooney said.
A strictly limited engagement of “Good Night and Good Luck begins previews March 12th and the show officially opens in April at the Winter Garden Theatre.
[Joelle Garguilo is an Emmy Award-winning entertainment reporter for WABC. A native New Yorker, she began her career in broadcast television 15 years ago at NBC, interviewing hundreds of stars of the screen and stage including Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise, George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Timothee Chalamet, Julia Roberts, Tony Bennett, Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, among others.
[Throughout her tenure, she held multiple roles across the network. Most recently, she worked as an on-air entertainment and features reporter for New York Live correspondent for E! News while contributing at the Today Show with Hoda & Jenna.
[Garguilo’s talents have earned her two Emmy Awards, one for the magazine program New York Live: Home for the Holidays and a second for Outstanding Entertainment: Program Features/Segment for New York Live Features/Segments.]
* *
* *
“GEORGE CLOONEY
MAKES BROADWAY DEBUT,
TELLING THE STORY
OF PIONEERING JOURNALIST EDWARD R. MURROW”
by Jon Wertheim
[John Wertheim presented this report on 60 Minutes, the CBS News magazine program, on 23 March 2025, while the play was still in previews. (The segment was recorded while Good Night was still in rehearsals.)]
Yes, in film, but even more so in theater, a sense of timing is essential. At age 63, George Clooney makes his Broadway debut this month, starring in an adaptation of the 2005 Oscar-nominated movie, “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Clooney co-wrote both the original screenplay and this play, telling the story of pioneering journalist Edward R. Murrow, who took on strong-arming Sen. Joseph McCarthy, all while withstanding pressure not to make waves at his own news network—this network—CBS. The plot revolves around themes of truth, intimidation, and courage in the face of corporate media. It is set in the 1950s. Clooney always meant for the story to echo today. He just didn’t realize how loudly it would.
Deep February, Winter Garden Theater in the heart of Broadway [Broadway at West 50th Street in Manhattan], the set still under construction — George Clooney arrives in character.
Ever the everyman, he doesn’t stand on ceremony; he hurdles over it. But now it can be told: Hollywood’s famously cool leading man has the jitters.
George Clooney: I mean, look at this place. This is proper old Broadway. And it’s exciting to be here, you know? Um –look– let’s not kid ourselves. It’s nerve-wracking and there’s a million reasons why it’s dumb to do.
George Clooney: Well, it’s dumb to do because you’re coming out and saying, “Well, let’s try to– get an audience to take this ride with you back to 1954.
The play brings to life the humming CBS newsroom of the 1950s—all typewriters and smoldering cigarettes. Having dyed his hair—upsetting that familiar salt-and-pepper ratio [Clooney is 63; Murrow would have been 45 at the time the play is set]—Clooney plays the protagonist Edward R. Murrow, host of the weekly television news program “See It Now.”
Jon Wertheim: You wrote the script to the film more than 20 years ago. You played Fred Friendly [1915-98].
George Clooney: Yeah.
Jon Wertheim: Murrow’s producer. You didn’t play Murrow.
George Clooney: No.
Jon Wertheim: Why did you not want to play him?
George Clooney: Murrow had a gravitas to him that at 42 years old I didn’t– I wasn’t able to pull off.
Murrow earned his gravitas during World War II, with eyewitness radio dispatches from London amid the Blitz [the series of air raids launched on cities in Great Britain by the German air force from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941; literal German meaning: ‘lightning’; from Blitzkrieg – ‘lightning war’]. His trademark signoff doubles as the play’s title. [“Good night, and good luck” was Murrow’s signature signoff for his London radio broadcasts; he brought it forward to TV back in the States after the war.]
Clooney wrote the story with his longtime friend and creative partner, Grant Heslov [actor, writer, and filmmaker; b. 1963].
Jon Wertheim: How does this partnership work? Who’s at the keyboard?
George Clooney: Oh, you’re at the keyboard. (laugh)
Grant Heslov: He doesn’t know how to use a computer. He can barely–
George Clooney: No, I’m like this. I’m the luddite.
They met in LA in the early 80s, when both were struggling actors. Now they run a production company together. (Full disclosure: the three of us collaborated on an unrelated sports documentary out later this year.) Clooney and Heslov conceived of the story of “Good Night, and Good Luck” in the early 2000s, when the U.S. went to war in Iraq [Operation Iraqi Freedom began on 19 March 2003].
[According to The Hollywood Reporter (Rick Porter, “George Clooney to Produce Ohio State Abuse Scandal Docuseries,” 22 Feb. 2021), “George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures will produce a docuseries about a decades-long [sexual] abuse scandal in the athletic department at Ohio State University.”
[“The series, [which is currently in production by HBO with the working title of “Untitled Ohio State Scandal Project,”] is based on an October 2020 Sports Illustrated story by Jon Wertheim, which detailed a long list of allegations against former Ohio State sports doctor Richard Strauss and university officials’ lack of response,” the THR article continued. Clooney, Heslov, and Wertheim are listed among the executive producers, and Wertheim is credited as writer. No release date has been announced.]
George Clooney: You know, I just thought it was a good time to talk about when the press held government to account.
A show within a show, the play recreates the historic television face-off between Murrow and Joseph McCarthy [9 March 1954 on See It Now], with McCarthy essentially playing himself through archival footage.
At the height of the Red Scare, the Wisconsin senator led a crusade to weed out supposed communist infiltration of the U.S. government.
Murrow and his team overcame the climate of fear and intimidation to expose and help take down McCarthy with measured, fact-based editorials.
Jon Wertheim: Are you guys using McCarthyism as a parable for today?
Grant Heslov: Originally it wasn’t for today, today. But it’s– this is a story that stands the test of time. I think it’s a story that you can keep telling over and over. I don’t think it will ever– thematically get old.
At the table read in a downtown Manhattan studio, Clooney met the cast and wasted no time addressing what he sees as the parallels to today.
George Clooney: When the other three estates fail, when the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches fail us, the fourth estate has to succeed. Has to succeed – as 60 Minutes is here right now on our first day. (laugh)
[The term “fourth estate,” as Clooney is using it above, refers to the press and news media. It’s a relatively common expression but the other “three estates” are rarely invoked. The derivation of the terms is from the historical European concept of the “three estates of the realm”: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners.
[Clooney, however, is suggesting a slightly alternative use of the terms, implying that the press is a sort of “fourth branch” of the government, hence his reference to “the judiciary and the executive and the legislative branches” as the other three “estates,” since the U.S. has no nobility or commoners in the European sense, and the clergy in this country have no “temporal” (that is, “governmental”) authority.]
Kidding aside, Clooney made the point: these are chilling times for the news media.
George Clooney: ABC has just settled a lawsuit with the Trump administration. And CBS News is in the process . . .
[In Michael R. Sisak, “ABC agrees to give $15 million to Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle defamation lawsuit,” 14 Dec. 2024, the Associated Press reported: “ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million toward Donald Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over anchor George Stephanopoulos’ inaccurate on-air assertion that the president-elect had been found civilly liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll.” The trial in April and May 2023 concluded that Trump was liable for sexually abusing—but not raping—and defaming Carroll.]
The process he’s talking about: President Trump has lodged a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, making the unfounded allegation that 60 Minutes engaged in election interference. CBS has since filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit . . . all this as the network’s parent company, Paramount, is trying to close a merger deal, which requires approval from the Trump-appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
George Clooney: We’re seeing this idea of using government to scare or fine or use corporations – to make– journalists smaller. Governments don’t like– the freedom of the press. They never have. And– that goes for whether you are a conservative or a liberal or whatever side you’re on. They don’t like the press.
Jon Wertheim: What does this play tell us about the media’s ability or willingness to withstand this kind of pressure
George Clooney: It’s a fight that is for the ages. It will continue. You see it happening at the LA Times. You see it happening at the Washington Post, for god’s sake.
George Clooney: Journalism and telling truth to power has to be waged like war is waged. It doesn’t just happen accidentally. You know, it takes people saying, we’re gonna do these stories and you’re gonna have to come after us. And that’s the way it is.
When we dropped in on rehearsals, the mood was as light as the material was heavy.
Comedian and producer Ilana Glazer plays CBS news-writer Shirley Wershba [b. 1922].
Jon Wertheim: How is George Clooney doing– leading a troupe of stage actors?
Ilana Glazer: It’s shaky. It’s shaky, Jon. It’s tough. No, I’m just kidding.
Ilana Glazer: We’re all, like, so focused on this material, and it’s serious, and we’re trying to make it as honest as possible. So George really, like, will– let the– the tension release and break the tension with a joke at the right time.
One of Broadway’s most in-demand directors, David Cromer, is the man in charge.
Jon Wertheim: Your Murrow character is being portrayed by someone with– considerable star wattage. What challenge does that present to you?
David Cromer: It doesn’t present a challenge. It helps.
Jon Wertheim: Why–
David Cromer: Edward R. Murrow was a star. He was the most-trusted man in America. He had this very serious news show, but he also had this incredibly popular entertainment show, which was on Friday nights. It was called Person to Person . . .
David Cromer: And he went into Liberace’s house. And he went into all these people’s houses. [Pianist, entertainer, and showman Liberace (1919-87) appeared on Person to Person on 6 January 1956.]
David Cromer: If he were playing Willy Loman [lead character in Arthur Miller’s 1949 play, Death of a Salesman], that would be different, you know what I mean–
Jon Wertheim: A smaller figure than Murrow–
David Cromer: If he were playing– a little man. If he were playing a little man. He’s playing a great man. And he’s a great man who’s playing a great man.
As for the play’s setting, Clooney knows his way around a newsroom. His father Nick Clooney was a longtime journalist and anchorman.
George Clooney: When I was 12 years old, my dad was working at WKRC in Cincinnati. I would run the teleprompter. In those days, a teleprompter was– sheets of paper taped end-to-end with a camera pointed down. And you’d feed them like this, underneath the camera. And my dad would be able to read it on the teleprompter. And then at the commercial they’d say, “Okay, cut three minutes out of that story.” And you had at the end of it a paper cutter–
Jon Wertheim: Literally cut–
George Clooney: And you’d just go sh-dunk . . .
Grant Heslov: You really are old.
George Clooney: I’m old, man.
Clooney says he’s running for nothing, but he makes no secret of his politics. A lifelong Democrat, he made news last summer, when he wrote a pointed essay calling on Joe Biden not to seek reelection on account of his age [“I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee,” New York Times 11 July 2024, sec. A (news): 19].
Jon Wertheim: Looking back on that, happy you did it?
George Clooney: Yeah. I’ll make it kind of easy. I was raised to tell the truth. I had seen– the president up close for this fundraiser, and I was surprised. And so I feel as if there was– a lot of profiles in cowardice in my party through all of that. And I was not proud of that. And I also believed I had to tell the truth.
Truth: an increasingly elusive concept . . . Clooney says that for all the parallels between the play and these convulsive times we live in today, disinformation is one critical distinction . . . .
George Clooney: Here’s where I would tell you where we differ from what Murrow was doing. Although McCarthy would try to pose things that– he’d show up [with] a blank piece of paper and say, “I’ve got a list of names.” Okay, so it was– that was his version of– of fake news. We now are at a place where we’ve found that it’s harder and harder and harder to dis– to discern the truth. Facts are now negotiated.
Jon Wertheim: You and I can agree or disagree, but if we can’t reach a consensus that this chair is brown . . .
George Clooney: Yeah.
Jon Wertheim: We’re in trouble.
George Clooney: That’s right.
By March, rehearsals had moved into the theater. A big production issue on this day: the prop cigarettes.
George Clooney: The hardest part for me is smoking.
Jon Wertheim: What do you mean?
George Clooney: Well, he smokes a lot. And we smoke a lot in the play. Everybody smokes in the play, so the place is covered in smoke. And smoking in our family’s a big, you know, problem. We grew up in Kentucky.
A lotta tobacco farmers. And– almost all of my family members died of– of lung cancer. My father’s– sister, Rosemary [Clooney (1928-2002)], died of it. She was a wonderful singer, died of it. And my dad’s 91 because he didn’t smoke. So smoking has always been– it’s a hard thing to do.
[Murrow was a chain smoker all his life; he smoked about three packs a day. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and had a lung removed in October 1963. He died about two years later, on 27 April 1965, two days after his 57th birthday.
[On Broadway, the actors, including Clooney, are using herbal cigarettes on stage to portray the heavy-smoking characters to lessen the health risks associated with real tobacco.]
It’s easy to forget, George Clooney has been an A-lister for 30 years now.
In 2003, he was a bachelor living with a pet pig when 60 Minutes profiled him.
Jon Wertheim: You were in the Sexiest Man of the Year– phase. [Clooney was named the “Sexiest Man Alive” by People magazine in 2006.]
George Clooney: Sure, that was a big time for me. I was very–
Jon Wertheim: Not– not that you’re not sexy now.
George Clooney: That’s okay. I’m not hurt, Jon.
He’s married now. His wife and their two kids left the home they keep in Europe to spend this spring run with him in New York. Clooney is also in a different phase of his life professionally.
George Clooney: Look, I’m 63 years old. I’m not trying to compete with 25-year-old leading men. That’s not my job. I’m not doing romantic films anymore.
Opening night set for April 3rd, George Clooney’s turn on Broadway puts him a few feet from his audience.
Jon Wertheim: They can see you, you– you can see them too.
George Clooney: I’m not looking at them. I’m putting my wife in the very, very, very back.
Jon Wertheim: You– you wish you had done this earlier in your career?
George Clooney: I don’t know that I could’ve. I wasn’t– I didn’t do the work required to get there.
Jon Wertheim: But I saw the smile when you came out here . . .
George Clooney: Oh, yeah. It’s cool.
Jon Wertheim: and– looked out here.
George Clooney: –Anybody who would deny that would just be a liar. I mean, there isn’t a single actor alive that wouldn’t have loved to have, you know, been on Broadway. So that’s– that’s the fun of it. It’s– it’s trickier the older you get. But why not?
[This program was produced by Nathalie Sommer and Kaylee Tully with broadcast associates Elizabeth Germino and Mimi Lamarre. Edited by Sean Kelly.
[L. Jon Wertheim is an accomplished journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent.
[I don't entirely get why George Clooney keeps insisting that he's "old." He's only 63—advanced middle age! He’s not even old enough to remember Murrow (who died a little under four years after Clooney was born). I’m a little over fourteen years Clooney’s senior—I’m legitimately an old man—and Murrow died when I was over 18, so I knew the name and the renown.
[I vaguely remember seeing Edward R. Murrow on television when I was a boy. See It Now was on from 1951 to 1958, when I was between 4 and 11. It was a news show, so I wouldn’t have been watching it for most of its run, but maybe by the time I was 10, I might have watched it when it ran on Sunday evenings at 5, but probably not often. The McCarthy shows would have been beyond me (though I do remember being aware of the turmoil of those years. I was only 7 when the 9 March 1954 showdown aired, and 10 when McCarthy died.
[On the other hand, Person to Person ran from 1953 to 1961, when I was between 6 and 14, and I’m pretty sure I watched some of the later shows when Murrow would send cameras into the homes of celebrities. I sort of remember watching some of the personalities from Hollywood and other fields as they sat in their living rooms as Murrow, back at the studio, interviewed them.
[Murrow was my dad's first boss at the U.S. Information Agency back in the early 1960s. (I’ve blogged about that time of my life in “An American Teen in Germany” [9 and 12 March 2013].)
[I’ve told the story of my father taking up President Kennedy’s challenge to “ask what you can do for your country” in his inaugural address in 1961. JFK appointed Murrow Director of USIA in January 1961 and Dad applied in May. He went on active duty as a Foreign Service Officer in July ’62. I have no idea if the two ever actually met, but Murrow was the first director of USIA under whom Dad served.
[Dad went overseas in
October 1962 and didn’t return to the States until sometime in September 1963,
when his father died. Murrow resigned in
’64 due to illness and died of lung cancer in '65. (Dad served until 1968 under two successors
to Murrow: Carl Rowan (1925-2000), a well-known journalist, 1964-65, and
Leonard Marks (1916-2006), a communications lawyer, 1965-68.)]