Women Pioneers in Television

Nearly everyone is familiar with Lucille Ball’s work on screen, but few realize her influence behind the scenes. Fewer still are aware that Judith Waller developed television’s first all-education children’s show, “Ding Dong School.”
Since its beginnings television has been heavily influenced by women, but their contributions are sometimes missing from histories of the medium. In this work, the lives and careers of 15 television broadcasting pioneers (Mildred Freed Alberg, Ball, Gertrude Berg, Peggy Charren, Joan Ganz Cooney, Faye Emerson, Pauline Frederick, Dorothy Fuldheim, Betty Furness, Frieda Hennock, Lucy Jarvis, Ida Lupino, Irna Phillips, Waller, and Betty White) are covered. The focus is on their work in the medium, but there is also discussion of the obstacles they were forced to overcome to reach positions of influence in the industry.

Cary O’Dell is with the film, video and recorded sound division of the Library of Congress. He has worked as an archivist for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago and for the Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland. He lives in Culpeper, Virginia.

Cary O’Dell
Foreword by Sally Jessy Raphaël
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 264
Bibliographic Info: 14 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009 [1997]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4074-0
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v

Foreword by Sally Jessy Raphaël      1

Introduction      3

MILDRED FREED ALBERG      7

LUCILLE BALL      21

GERTRUDE BERG      41

PEGGY CHARREN      53

JOAN GANZ COONEY      67

FAYE EMERSON      81

PAULINE FREDERICK      93

DOROTHY FULDHEIM      105

BETTY FURNESS      119

FRIEDA HENNOCK      135

LUCY JARVIS      149

IDA LUPINO      165

IRNA PHILLIPS      181

JUDITH WALLER      195

BETTY WHITE      207

Appendix: Other Notable Women      223

Bibliography      227

Index      241

“recommended”—Choice; “this book is well-written, it is easy and delightful to read and it is meticulously documented”—Journalism Educator; “detailed, chronologically presented biographical information about subjects whose lives remain relatively undocumented…quick and useful…clearly presented”—Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television; “after each essay…a most helpful chronology”—Classic Images.