Leavitt Joseph Pope, founder of WPIX-TV, dies at 83 (fwd)
danny burstein
Leavitt Joseph Pope, founder of WPIX-TV, dies at 83
April 19, 2007, 1:10 PM EDT
SCARSDALE, N.Y. (AP) _ Leavitt Joseph Pope, the broadcast pioneer who
co-founded the first independent television station in New York, has died. He
was 83.
Pope died Wednesday of natural causes at his home where he lived for nearly 50
years, said his daughter, Patricia Pope.
Leavitt Pope spent his career in media. He was one of the founders of WPIX-TV
television in 1948, which was one of the first independent stations in the
nation.
He worked at the station for 45 years and served as president and executive
officer from 1975 to 1993. The station became affiliated with the WB in 1995
and is now known as the CW Network _ with a signal that covers the New York
metropolitan area. It is also available via satellite and cable in the United
States and Canada.
During his tenure at the station, the station received a Peabody, several Emmy
Awards and New York State Broadcasters Awards.
He negotiated broadcast contracts with the Yankees, the New York Giants
baseball team, the Giants and Jets football teams for preseason coverage and
Madison Square Garden.
Born in 1924, Pope graduated from MIT with a degree in business administration
and electrical engineering. He spent four years in the Army during World War
II, and upon his return he worked at the New York Daily News.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Martha, 11 children and 24
grandchildren.
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Janice Busgal Brooks
> http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--obit-pope041...
It was 1968 when our cable in PA expanded to include the 3 NYC
independents. More cartoons and movies then one could want at age 10.
Brad Ferguson
Janice Busgal Brooks <Jbus...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> It was 1968 when our cable in PA expanded to include the 3 NYC
> independents. More cartoons and movies then one could want at age 10.
I grew up in NYC. Channel 11 was always in there trying. For
instance, somehow they'd gotten hold of an incredible (and probably
incredibly cheap) package of top-flight old British films, which they'd
show as specials now and then. The films included "Fire over England"
and "The Private Life of Henry VIII." They also showed the first
videos I ever saw, in a package called Continental Miniatures.
And, of course, there was the original Yule Log. A guy named Fred
Thrower (who I think was the station manager) came up with that. Fred
was also the guy who told the great Chuck McCann he couldn't dress up
as Little Orphan Annie anymore when he read the Sunday comics on air
because Fred was worried that Chuck was turning kids gay.
"What's your opinion? We'd like to know."
danny burstein
>I grew up in NYC. Channel 11 was always in there trying. For
>instance, somehow they'd gotten hold of an incredible (and probably
>incredibly cheap) package of top-flight old British films, which they'd
>show as specials now and then. The films included "Fire over England"
>and "The Private Life of Henry VIII." They also showed the first
>videos I ever saw, in a package called Continental Miniatures.
And... Officer Joe Bolton.
--
King Daevid MacKenzie
> I grew up in NYC. Channel 11 was always in there trying. For
> instance, somehow they'd gotten hold of an incredible (and probably
> incredibly cheap) package of top-flight old British films, which they'd
> show as specials now and then. The films included "Fire over England"
> and "The Private Life of Henry VIII." They also showed the first
> videos I ever saw, in a package called Continental Miniatures.
...in MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, Martin Scorsese says there was a New York TV
station in the late '40s and early '50s that would run Italian-language
movies, including many excerpted in that documentary. Would WPIX have
been that station, or by any chance would one of the other stations do
that?...
--
King Daevid MacKenzie.
No brag, just fact.
http://myspace.com/kingdaevid
http://groups.google.ca/group/hateradioboycott
"You're only entitled to your informed opinion." HARLAN ELLISON
AndrewJ
> In article <1177006934.192566.243...@y80g2000hsf.googlegroups.com>,
And WPIX sports mainstay Jerry Girard died just a few weeks ago.
The SEINFELD creators have always talked about how they were
influenced by WPIX's roster of comedies, namely THE HONEYMOONERS and
the Abbott & Costello films on Sunday morning.
Schizoid
> instance, somehow they'd gotten hold of an incredible (and probably
> incredibly cheap) package of top-flight old British films, which they'd
> show as specials now and then. The films included "Fire over England"
> and "The Private Life of Henry VIII." They also showed the first
> videos I ever saw, in a package called Continental Miniatures.
Not to mention that they carried the Yankee games for many years in the 70s.
--john
Brad Ferguson
<echoes...@charter.net> wrote:
> Brad Ferguson sez:
> > I grew up in NYC. Channel 11 was always in there trying. For
> > instance, somehow they'd gotten hold of an incredible (and probably
> > incredibly cheap) package of top-flight old British films, which they'd
> > show as specials now and then. The films included "Fire over England"
> > and "The Private Life of Henry VIII." They also showed the first
> > videos I ever saw, in a package called Continental Miniatures.
>
>
> ...in MY VOYAGE TO ITALY, Martin Scorsese says there was a New York TV
> station in the late '40s and early '50s that would run Italian-language
> movies, including many excerpted in that documentary. Would WPIX have
> been that station, or by any chance would one of the other stations do
> that?...
I think WPIX would have been that station, yes. WABD/WNEW Channel 5
would not have done that. WOR Channel 9 had a thing called Million
Dollar Movie that ran the same damn movie seven days a week, three
times every weekday and four on the weekends. "If you missed any part
of tonight's feature, or would like to see it again ... " I was ten or
eleven years old before I found out that the Million Dollar Movie theme
was the one from "Gone with the Wind." Million Dollar Movie didn't do
Italian films. It had stuff like "Rodan" and "Tom Brown at Culver."
Once it even did the silent version of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." I kid you
not.
danny burstein
>I think WPIX would have been that station, yes. WABD/WNEW Channel 5
>would not have done that. WOR Channel 9 had a thing called Million
>Dollar Movie that ran the same damn movie seven days a week, three
>times every weekday and four on the weekends. "If you missed any part
>of tonight's feature, or would like to see it again ... " I was ten or
>eleven years old before I found out that the Million Dollar Movie theme
>was the one from "Gone with the Wind."
Not to be confused with WCBS-tv's movie intheme "The Syncopated Clock"
--
Janice Busgal Brooks
danny burstein
>I forgot this was where I first saw The Adventures of Superman.
Speaking of which, there's an _Underdog_ movie
now being filmed.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/underdog/
Louis Epstein
: In <190420072309571649%thir...@frXOXed.net> Brad Ferguson <thir...@frXOXed.net> writes:
:
:>I think WPIX would have been that station, yes. WABD/WNEW Channel 5
:>would not have done that. WOR Channel 9 had a thing called Million
:>Dollar Movie that ran the same damn movie seven days a week, three
:>times every weekday and four on the weekends. "If you missed any part
:>of tonight's feature, or would like to see it again ... " I was ten or
:>eleven years old before I found out that the Million Dollar Movie theme
:>was the one from "Gone with the Wind."
:
: Not to be confused with WCBS-tv's movie intheme "The Syncopated Clock"
I discovered the GWTW link when NBC aired GWTW in the mid-70s.
But why doesn't Mr. Pope's obit mention the station's
ownership by the Tribune Company and link to their local
property the Daily News for some time?
11....Alive!
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Charlene
> danny burstein <dan...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> :
> :>I think WPIX would have been that station, yes. WABD/WNEW Channel 5
> :>would not have done that. WOR Channel 9 had a thing called Million
> :>Dollar Movie that ran the same damn movie seven days a week, three
> :>times every weekday and four on the weekends. "If you missed any part
> :>of tonight's feature, or would like to see it again ... " I was ten or
> :>eleven years old before I found out that the Million Dollar Movie theme
> :>was the one from "Gone with the Wind."
> :
> : Not to be confused with WCBS-tv's movie intheme "The Syncopated Clock"
One of our local stations used to use "The Syncopated Clock" during
their (unbelievably frequent) "technical difficulties". I think "Gone
With the Wind" might have been more accurate, since half the time the
station went out of order because the weather was messing up the
microwave feed. Sometimes it was a flock of birds, though.
A recording of "The Syncopated Clock" with a short preamble by its
writer can be found at:
http://media.pbs.org/ramgen/sleighride/Syncopated_Clock.rm
wd43
aka Bob
magnanimously proffered:
Thank God no one has decided to use that for telephone calls when one
is put on hold. What most ogranisations use is bad enough. This would
drive me bonkers - even on the speakerphone.
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brad Ferguson
<bobf...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
Unfortunately, "Syncopated Clock" (which, if you think about it, evokes
absolutely nothing about the movies) was picked for the movie theme by
CBS while Leroy Anderson was running hot circa 1950. (CBS-owned
stations in other cities also used "Syncopated Clock," although their
opening graphics differed. I guess the network had bought the rights
to the music for its owned-and-operated stations.)
WOR, perhaps playing catchup, used Anderson's "The Phantom Regiment"
for its afternoon movie show, The Big Preview, which I suppose was a
preview of the movie that would run fifteen times the following week on
Million Dollar Movie.
R H Draney
>>writer can be found at:
>>
>>http://media.pbs.org/ramgen/sleighride/Syncopated_Clock.rm
>
>Thank God no one has decided to use that for telephone calls when one
>is put on hold. What most ogranisations use is bad enough. This would
>drive me bonkers - even on the speakerphone.
Guy I work with is going to help me get my "music-on-hold" switched to something
new...I'm thinking "Paralyzed" by the Legendary Stardust Cowboy....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
Bill Schenley
> 70s.
Heh ... They carried the Yankee games for almost 50 years (1951-1998).
Nobody did Yankee baseball better than Phil Rizzuto, Bill White and Frank
Messer on WPIX. They made me laugh every game.
"Welcome to New York Yankee Baseball.
I'm Bill White... wait, no."
- Phil Rizzuto, reading off a teleprompter -
danny burstein
POPE-Leavitt J. of Scarsdale, NY on April 18, 2007.
Husband of Martha Pope. Father of Joseph, Daniel,
Patricia, Elizabeth, Nancy, Maria, Joan, Christopher,
Virginia, Matthew & Charles. Grandfather of 24.
Calling hours at the FRED H. MCGRATH & SON FUNERAL HOME,
Bronxville, between the hours of 2-4 & 7-9 P.M., Friday.
Mass of Christian Burial St. Pius X Church, Scarsdale,
on Saturday, April 21 at 11 A.M. In lieu of flowers,
contributions may be made to St. Pius X Church,
Secor Rd., Scarsdale, NY 10583.
--
Chuck Kopsho
station has a good programming line-up.
Cheers,
Chuck Kopsho
Oceanside, California