Studs Terkel | |
|---|---|
 Terkel in 1979 | |
| Born | Louis Terkel (1912-05-16)May 16, 1912 New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Died | October 31, 2008(2008-10-31) (aged 96) |
| Pen name | Studs Terkel |
| Occupation |
|
| Education | University of Chicago (PhB,JD) |
| Years active | 1934–2008 |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, 1985 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | |
| studsterkel | |
Louis "Studs"Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008)[1] was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 forThe Good War and is best remembered for hisoral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.
Terkel was born toRussian Jewish immigrants, Samuel Terkel, a tailor, and Anna (Annie) Finkel, a seamstress, inNew York City.[2] At the age of eight, he moved with his family toChicago,Illinois, where he spent most of his life. He had two brothers, Meyer (1905–1958) and Ben (1907–1965). He attendedMcKinley High School.[3]
From 1926 to 1936, his parents ran arooming house called the Wells-Grand Hotel that also served as a meeting place for people from all walks of life. Terkel credited his understanding of humanity and social interaction to the tenants and visitors who gathered in the lobby there and the people who congregated in nearbyBughouse Square.
In 1939, he married Ida Goldberg (1912–1999), and the couple had one son. Although he received his undergraduate degree in 1932 and aJ.D. degree from theUniversity of Chicago in 1934 (and was admitted to the Illinois Bar the following year), he decided that, instead of practicing law, he wanted to be aconcierge at a hotel, and he soon joined a theater group.[4]
A politicalleftist, Terkel joined theWorks Progress Administration'sFederal Writers' Project, working inradio, doing work that varied from voicingsoap opera productions and announcingnews andsports to presenting shows of recordedmusic and writing radio scripts and advertisements. In the late 1940's he voiced characters inWMAQ'sDestination Freedom series, written byRichard Durham.[5] His own well-known radio program, titledThe Studs Terkel Program, aired on 98.7WFMT Chicago between 1952 and 1997.[6] The one-hour program was broadcast each weekday during those 45 years. On this program, he interviewed guests as diverse asMartin Luther King Jr.,Leonard Bernstein,Mort Sahl,Bob Dylan,Alexander Frey,Dorothy Parker,Tennessee Williams,Jean Shepherd,Alan Watts,Frank Zappa, andBig Bill Broonzy.
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, Terkel was also the central character ofStuds' Place, an unscripted television drama about the owner of agreasy-spoon diner in Chicago through which many famous people and interesting characters passed. This show,Marlin Perkins'sZoo Parade,Garroway at Large, and the children's showKukla, Fran, and Ollie are widely considered canonical examples of theChicago School of Television.
Terkel published his first book,Giants of Jazz, in 1956. He followed it in 1967 with his first collection oforal histories,Division Street: America, with 70 people talking about the effect on the human spirit of living in an American metropolis.[7][8][9]
He also served as a distinguished scholar-in-residence at theChicago History Museum. He appeared in the filmEight Men Out, based on theBlack Sox Scandal, in which he played newspaper reporterHugh Fullerton, who tries to uncover the White Sox players' plans to throw the1919 World Series. Terkel found it particularly amusing to play this role, as he was a big fan of theChicago White Sox (as well as a vocal critic of major league baseball during the 1994 baseball strike), and gave a moving congratulatory speech to the White Sox organization after their2005 World Series championship during a television interview.
Terkel received hisnickname while he was acting in a play with another person named Louis. To keep the two straight, the director of the production gave Terkel the nicknameStuds after the fictional character about whom Terkel was reading at the time—Studs Lonigan, ofJames T. Farrell's trilogy.
Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserveAmerican oral history. His 1985 book"The Good War": An Oral History of World War Two, which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won thePulitzer Prize. ForHard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, Terkel assembled recollections of theGreat Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, fromOkies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book,Working, in which (as reflected by its subtitle)People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, also was highly acclaimed.Working was made into a short-livedBroadway show of the same title in 1978 and was telecast onPBS in 1982. In 1995, he received theChicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member ofThe American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received theGeorge Polk Career Award in 1999.
In 2004, Terkel received theElijah Parish Lovejoy Award as well as an honoraryDoctor of Laws degree fromColby College. In August 2005, Terkel underwent successfulopen-heart surgery. At the age of 93, he was one of the oldest people to undergo this form of surgery and doctors reported his recovery to be remarkable for someone of that advanced age. Terkel smoked two cigars a day until 2004.[citation needed]
On May 22, 2006, Terkel, along with other plaintiffs, includingQuentin Young, filed suit in federal district court againstAT&T Inc., to stop the telecommunications carrier from giving customer telephone records to theNational Security Agency without a court order.[10]
Having been blacklisted from working in television during theMcCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When the government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far.
The lawsuit was dismissed by JudgeMatthew F. Kennelly on July 26, 2006. Judge Kennelly cited a "state secrets privilege" designed to protect the government from being harmed by lawsuits.
In an interview inThe Guardian celebrating his 95th birthday, Terkel discussed his own "diverse and idiosyncratic taste in music, fromBob Dylan toAlexander Frey,Louis Armstrong toWoody Guthrie".[11]
Terkel published a new personal memoir entitledTouch and Go in fall 2007.[12]
Terkel was a self-describedagnostic,[13] which he jokingly defined as "a cowardly atheist" during a 2004 interview withKrista Tippett onAmerican Public Media'sSpeaking of Faith.[14]
One of his last interviews was for the documentarySoul of a People onSmithsonian Channel. He spoke about his participation in theWorks Progress Administration.
At his last public appearance, in 2007, Terkel said he was "still in touch—but ready to go".[1] He gave one of his last interviews on theBBCHARDtalk program on February 4, 2008.[15] He spoke of the imminent election ofBarack Obama as President of the United States, and offered him some advice, in October 2008.[16]
Terkel died in his Chicago home on Friday, October 31, 2008, at the age of 96. He had been suffering since a fall in his home earlier that month.[17]
| External audio | |
|---|---|
 Louis Daniel Armstrong talks with Studs Terkel on WFMT; 1962/6/24, 33:43,Studs Terkel Radio Archive[18] | |
| Poet Laureate Gwendolyn Brooks talks with Studs – Poetry Month; 1967, 45:01,Studs Terkel Radio Archive[19] | |
| Studs Terkel's Music Interviews, includes excerpts of interviews withBob Dylan,Janis Joplin,Oscar Petersen, andMemphis Slim.Library of Congress[20] |
From a donation by Terkel, theChicago History Museum,Library of Congress, andWFMT created theStuds Terkel Radio Archive[1], digitally preserving his entire interview archive − "a remarkably rich history of the ideas and perspectives of both common and influential people living in the second half of the 20th century," per the Library of Congress.
"For Studs, there was not a voice that should not be heard, a story that could not be told," said Gary T. Johnson, Museum president. "He believed that everyone had the right to be heard and had something important to say. He was there to listen, to chronicle, and to make sure their stories are remembered."[21]On September 5, 2019, podcastThe Radio Diaries, produced byRadiotopia onPRX, released an episode called "The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel." In it, Terkel's taped interviews with working people are played and examined.[22]
In 1982, Terkel was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago.[23]
In 1985, Terkel received thePulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for his bookThe Good War.
Bill Clinton, then thePresident of the United States, awarded Terkel theNational Humanities Medal in 1997.[24]
TheNational Book Foundation awarded Terkel the 1997 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.[25]
In 2001, Terkel was made an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters byNorthwestern University.[26]
In 2001, Terkel was inducted into theChicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame as a Friend of the Community.[27]
In 2004, Terkel was inducted as a Laureate ofThe Lincoln Academy of Illinois and awarded theOrder of Lincoln (the State's highest honor) by the Governor of Illinois in the area of Communications.[28]
In 2006, Terkel received the Lifetime Achievement Award from theDayton Literary Peace Prize, the first and only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace.[29][30]
In 2010, Terkel was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.[31]
Terkel was a recipient of the 1999George Polk Career Award[32] and theNational Book Critics Circle 2003Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award.[33]
Terkel, despite not beingblack, was inducted intoChicago State University's National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the insistence of ProfessorHaki Madhubuti.[34][35]
American prize-winning author Studs Terkel dead at 96 atWikinews
Media from CommonsNews from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
