Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Feb 13, 2015 14:10:09 GMT -6
deadline.com/2015/02/stan-chambers-dies-pioneering-l-a-tv-newsman-1201373081/
Stan Chambers Dies; Pioneering L.A. TV Newsman
Stan Chambers, the legendary TV newsman whose marathon live reporting on a little girl trapped in a well in 1949 was a watershed moment for the burgeoning medium, died today at his home in Holmby Hills, CA. He was 91. His career at KTLA Los Angeles spanned more than six decades and retired on his 87th birthday in 2010
Chambers starting working at KTLA in 1947 after a stint in the Navy. He broke into the business working behind the scenes but eventually found his way in front of the camera. In April 1949, he rushed to the scene to report on the effort to rescue 3-year-old Kathy Fiscus, who had fallen into a well while playing with her sister in San Marino. He and his colleague Bill Welsh spent the next 27 hours line on the air as rescuers tried to free the girl. There were only a few thousands TV sets in the LA area, but the coverage riveting those who watched.
“We had no idea of the impact that this was going to make,” Chambers said in an interview with KTLA decade later. “It really brought the city together. Los Angeles was a big city, but on this one weekend, it became a small town. Neighbors would visit neighbors they didn’t know very well. They’d sit in front of the set. They’d have dinner there. They’d go to sleep on the floor, really right up to the end. For the first time, they experienced the long form of television, that they were a part of this whole broadcast from the moment they started looking.”
Chambers worked on KTLA’s first daily newscast in 1962. During his 63 years at the station, he covered such riveting local stories as the 1965 Watts riots, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Rodney King beating and the O.J. Simpson trial.
“I like the idea of the live deadline of standing there with your mike in hand and 20 seconds to go waiting for the cue,” he said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television. “It’s a sensation that I do enjoy. I frankly just think that I’m there in the dark talking to the cameraman.”
Chambers is survived by his wife, Gigi, 11 children; 38 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.
Stan Chambers Dies; Pioneering L.A. TV Newsman
Stan Chambers, the legendary TV newsman whose marathon live reporting on a little girl trapped in a well in 1949 was a watershed moment for the burgeoning medium, died today at his home in Holmby Hills, CA. He was 91. His career at KTLA Los Angeles spanned more than six decades and retired on his 87th birthday in 2010
Chambers starting working at KTLA in 1947 after a stint in the Navy. He broke into the business working behind the scenes but eventually found his way in front of the camera. In April 1949, he rushed to the scene to report on the effort to rescue 3-year-old Kathy Fiscus, who had fallen into a well while playing with her sister in San Marino. He and his colleague Bill Welsh spent the next 27 hours line on the air as rescuers tried to free the girl. There were only a few thousands TV sets in the LA area, but the coverage riveting those who watched.
“We had no idea of the impact that this was going to make,” Chambers said in an interview with KTLA decade later. “It really brought the city together. Los Angeles was a big city, but on this one weekend, it became a small town. Neighbors would visit neighbors they didn’t know very well. They’d sit in front of the set. They’d have dinner there. They’d go to sleep on the floor, really right up to the end. For the first time, they experienced the long form of television, that they were a part of this whole broadcast from the moment they started looking.”
Chambers worked on KTLA’s first daily newscast in 1962. During his 63 years at the station, he covered such riveting local stories as the 1965 Watts riots, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Rodney King beating and the O.J. Simpson trial.
“I like the idea of the live deadline of standing there with your mike in hand and 20 seconds to go waiting for the cue,” he said in a 1998 interview with the Archive of American Television. “It’s a sensation that I do enjoy. I frankly just think that I’m there in the dark talking to the cameraman.”
Chambers is survived by his wife, Gigi, 11 children; 38 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.