CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's new syndicated interview show debuted this week. "Anderson" is being compared to "Oprah" because the daytime show hopes to win the audience that Winfrey left behind when her program went off the air earlier this year. And Cooper is going after many of the same kind of people that made "Oprah" so monumentally successful. This week's guests include Snooki and Sarah Jessica Parker.
But as an anchor who earned his credentials as a serious journalist, Cooper now has something else in common with that icon of early broadcast news, Edward R. Murrow. Murrow, who earned his reputation reporting World War II for CBS radio and anchoring "See in Now" for CBS television, had a soft side. Starting in 1953, Murrow hosted a popular interview show, "Person to Person." In many respects, Murrow pioneered interviewing celebrities on television.
During his six years as host, Murrow interviewed such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Bing Crosby, Marilyn Monroe, Harry Truman, John Steinbeck and Lauren Bacall. Smoking cigarette after cigarette, Murrow interviewed the guests in their home from his New York studio. The show was live and since the guests moved around their homes, they wore early wireless microphones. Murrow's guests often used the show to plug their latest project, something celebrities on "Anderson" no doubt also will be doing.