Jul 17, 2009 8:25 pm US/Central
Cronkite: A Legend Emerged At Chicago Conventions
Word 'Anchorman' Coined For Cronkite At 1952 Republican National Convention
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Walter Cronkite anchors from the CBS News booth at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago.
CBS
It was in Chicago in 1952 where Walter Cronkite took his place as one of the first nationally-recognized television news reporters.
Cronkite was covering the Republican National Convention at the International Amphitheatre, which marked the first nationally-televised political convention coverage in history.
It was Cronkite at the convention for whom the word "anchorman" was coined, as he coordinated a group of field correspondents on the air.
Cronkite took over the CBS Evening News in 1962, and delivered his nightly broadcasts directly from the newsroom. He broke the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the nation. He was also in the CBS press box, again at the International Amphitheatre,
as unrest overtook the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Outside the convention hall, violent confrontations were breaking out in Grant Park between Chicago Police officers and anti-Vietnam War protesters. Inside, correspondent Dan Rather was roughed up by security guards on camera, prompting Cronkite to say on air, "I think we've got a bunch of thugs here, if I may be permitted to say so."
Cronkite also sat down with Mayor Richard J. Daley for a lengthy interview about the violence inside and outside the Amphitheatre. Daley complained that only police brutality was being shown on camera, and not attacks on police officers by protesters. But Cronkite became so angry at the convention that he said the treatment of the media "makes us want to pack up our cameras and go home."
But Cronkite returned to Chicago many times afterward, including several visits to CBS 2's old headquarters on McClurg Court. In the 1970s, when Bill Kurtis and Walter Jacobson were anchoring CBS 2's newscasts from the station's state-of-the-art working newsroom, Cronkite paid a visit and famously told them he had thought of the idea first.
Cronkite retired from the CBS Evening News in 1981.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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