JOHN CHANCELLOR

'John William Chancellor' (born July 14, 1927, Chicago, Illinois; died July 12, 1996, Princeton, New Jersey) was a well-known American journalist, who spent most of his career associated with the NBC television network.

Contents

Early Career

Early Years, NBC/Voice of America

Anchor, ''NBC Nightly News''

Later Years, Post-''Nightly News''

External links

Early Career

Chancellor attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1949. Originally a reporter for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'', he first started his career in national television news as a correspondent on NBC's evening newscast, the ''Huntley-Brinkley Report''.

Early Years, NBC/Voice of America

Chancellor covered issues of national importance while on the Huntley-Brinkley Report, such as the 1957 integration of the Little Rock Central High School. He spent a number of years as a foreign correspondent in Europe, with postings in Vienna, London, Moscow, and Brussels (NATO Headquarters). In July 1961, he replaced Dave Garroway as host of ''The Today Show'', a role he filled for fourteen months. At the 1964 Republican National Convention, he was arrested for refusing to cede his spot on the floor to "Goldwater Girls," supporters of the Republican presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. When security came to get him, he was forced to sign off: "I've been promised bail, ladies and gentlemen, by my office. This is John Chancellor, somewhere in custody." A number of critics at the time interpreted the incident as Chancellor basically picking a fight. [1] He then became the director of the Voice of America in 1965, at the request of President Lyndon Johnson, a spot he held until 1967.

Anchor, ''NBC Nightly News''

However, he returned to NBC in 1968 and, two years later, became an anchor on the ''NBC Nightly News'', a spot he held from 1970 to 1982; this job became the defining point of his career. Inaugurating the name and setting the pace of the format of "NBC Nightly News," from 1970 to 1971, Chancellor, along with David Brinkley and Frank McGee, was one of three anchors who rotated in a co-anchor duo format, held over from the old ''Huntley-Brinkley Report.'' From 1971 to 1976, Chancellor became the sole anchor, stationed at the New York City NBC headquarters, with Brinkley continuing to contribute pre-recorded commentaries about two to three times per week. Facing serious competition from ABC News, and continued popularity of top-rated ''CBS Evening News'' with Walter Cronkite, ''NBC Nightly News'' returned to a co-anchor format from June 1976 until October 1979 with Brinkley resuming his old role at the NBC Washington desk; internal disputes within NBC management prompted the network to remove Brinkley from ''Nightly News,'' assigning him to occasional documentaries until his departure for ABC in 1981.

Although Chancellor was a respected, well-spoken journalist and noted author in his own right, his broadcast ratings were overshadowed by Walter Cronkite in the 1970s, when ''CBS Evening News'' had become the most popular of the three network weeknight broadcasts. Toward the end of Chancellor's tenure, ABC, for the first time ever, nudged into the top spot with its ''World News Tonight.''

Later Years, Post-''Nightly News''

He retired from his head anchor duties on April 2, 1982 and was succeeded by a co-anchor duo team of Roger Mudd and Tom Brokaw for two years, before Brokaw became solo anchor and Mudd went on to host ''Meet the Press'' and ''NBC Almanac'' (a short-lived news magazine). Chancellor continued to write (most notably "Peril and Promise," published in 1991) and give editorial commentaries on ''Nightly News'' before retiring from NBC and moving to New Jersey, where he died of stomach cancer in 1996, two days shy of his 69th birthday. Chancellor was married to the former Barbara Upshaw, his second wife; he had two daughters and a son.
Chancellor was also the voice of ''Baseball'', an award winning documentary by Ken Burns.

External links

★ Transcript, John Chancellor Oral History Interview, 25 April 1969, by Dorothy Pierce McSweeny, Internet Copy, LBJ Library. Accessed April 3 2005.

★ YouTube clip of Chancellor anchoring ''NBC Nightly News,'' July 24, 1973