Aircheck Legends
Profile: Alistair Cooke: Born in Salford, Manchester on November 20th 1908 as Alfred Cook he was named after his parent's favourite Methodist minister. His father, Samuel was a local lay-preacher as well as a metal worker, and in his work outside the Ministry, was responsible for the design of a weather-vane used on civic buildings in Blackpool. His mother meanwhile descended from Protestant Irish immigrants. The connection with one of England's favourite seaside resorts came in 1917 when the entire Cooke household moved to the Lancashire town.
This is where Alfred made the link with the other side of the Atlantic, i.e. America. They were a group of soldiers, who lodged with the family and became best pals with Alfred. It was from this experience that the future radio star found a liking for the mannerisms of the land so far away. As he grew up, he established a high-level of schooling, at Jesus College in Cambridge, and closer to home in a Blackpool Grammar School, where he studied English and the works of Jacob Bronowski, Michael Redgrave and poet William Empson. It was under the tutorship of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch that he learnt the art of simple, precise and clear writing.
He particularly enjoyed his time in Cambridge, spending five years there, and in that time he launched what the first first University Drama group to allow the involvement of women, called 'The Mummers', as well as editing Granta - mural work which had a profound effect. Despite this, he could only manage low marks in his final examinations. Around this time, and following a suggestion from friends, he changed his name via deed poll to Alistair in 1930. His friends were never convinced that he would become a teacher as per the scholarship he took at Blackpool - they felt this way due to his talent for writing music along the lines of the great Noel Coward.
In 1932, he made the first trip to America, on a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship - and the link with America took a defining element of clarity in his life. Continuing his studies at the well-established houses of Yale and Harvard, he broke away for a short period to visit the bright lights of Hollywood. Here, he came across Charlie Chaplain who was so delighted by the young Englishman that he gave him a job on the lot as assistant director of the film 'Modern Times'. But this wasn't really in the plans with which Alistair had set his life out. Oliver Baldwin, son of the Prime Minister was about to give up his post as Film Critic for the BBC. This, Alistair felt, was the right job for him.
On 8th October 1934, Alistair Cooke went to air on the BBC for the first time stating: "I declare that I am a critic trying to interest a lot of people into seeing interesting films. I have no personal interest in any company. As a critic, I am without politics and without class." It was these morals that defined the broadcasting career of the man for the rest of his life. By this time, he'd married Ruth, a popular American model who was a great niece of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Alistair was unsettled in his career and was desperate to get back to work for the US, the country where he found so much happiness. Edward VIII abdicated from the throne in the UK, and it was this crisis in the Royal Family that Alistair covered for the US TV channel NBC. In a short space of 10 days, he's written and broadcast over 400,000 words via phone lines spanning the globe from the UK to the US - the wages for which paid for Alistair and Ruth to buy a house in New York. It was 1937 when he emigrated fully, taking full US citizenship in 1941.
Covering the Second World War, he acted as correspondent for both The Times and The Daily Herald, whilst also appearing regularly on the BBC as a commentator and a news reporter and chairing the Transatlantic Quiz, forerunner to the popular Radio 4 brain-busting Round Britain Quiz. In 1945, the inaugural meeting of the United Nations brought Alistair closer to home. The editor of the Manchester Guardian gave him a job as UN correspondent, and latterly as the paper's main correspondent for everything US-based. He held this post right the way through to 1972. During the 1940s, Cooke reported on the trials of Roosevelt's chief state official Alger Hiss, who was charged with providing US secrets to communists. It was Cooke who acknowledged and made well known the relevance of this news story. The editor of the Manchester Guardian gave Alistair copious amounts of what was actually rationed newspaper space to explain the story behind the story - the full details of which were reported in the 1950 book 'A Generation On Trial'. This trial, for which Alistair showed such instinct, preluded the McCarthy era and exuded his interest for everything American. It was back in 1932 that he began over 12 road trips around the country - a set which never included the winter wastelands of Alaska, something which always frustrated him. He wrote: "I covered everything from the public life of six presidents to the private life of the burlesque stripper, from the black market in beef to the Black Panthers, from Henry Kaiser's Liberty Ships to Francis Chichester's Gypsy Moth sailings into Staten Island, from the Marshall Plan to planned parenthood, from Senator Joseph McCarthy's last stand to the massacre of Muhammad Ali by Joe Frazier."
Having referred to the fact he was "without politics" upon his first BBC broadcast, politics turned out to be the centre-point of his career, but not to intense levels. He knew the US Presidents by name alright, and knew them well, but only one to intimate levels, going beyond orders of his own reporting rule of "consorting with politicians beyond the bounds of acquaintanceship", in getting to know Adlai Stevenson, a Democrat with aims to reach the White House. In his links with the Presidency, Cooke came close to trouble when, in 1948, he led with a headline of 'Harry S Truman: a study in failure' which was more or less immediately followed by Truman's surprise victory over Democrat rival Thomas Dewey.
By 1944, he'd divorced Ruth, with whom he'd had a son, John, and married Jane Hawkes White, daughter of a New Jersey Senator, a painter by trade. He took on her two children Holly & Stephen, and a new daughter Susie. 1946 saw the launch of the feature with which he would become so well known - 'Letter From America', which began on March 24th of that year, originally planned as a thirteen week series. He aimed to focus on the "springs of American life, whose bubbles are the headlines." Each week for 14 minutes, he'd enthuse about anything which he took a distinct liking to, explaining "in the most vivid terms, the passions, manners and flavour of another nation's way of life." 1951 saw the continuation of his Guardian editorial, by now well established, but he also branched out into television, and had recorded 250 editions of 'Letter From America', the output for which he would become so well known. But if you thought that his feature had a high level of production, you'd be wrong. He sat at his trusty typewriter each Thursday morning without a thought in his head. The letters appeared on the paper only through recollections of what he'd been up to, what he'd seen, what he'd learnt, who he'd been speaking to from all walks of life - moments that were defining American history without necessarily clearly indicating so.
Despite this lack of apparent production, the end result was nothing short of a masterpiece, right down to the pregnant pauses, and 'smokers coughs and splutters' which interspersed his writings, which came out like they were tripping off the tongue rather than being read from script, and all from a BBC studio in New York. Having spent years smoking, and having laid down the reading, it was down to the editors to chop out the many audibly uncomfortable gaspings and wheezings who worked into the night whilst Alistair was relaxing at home.
At Broadcasting House, an occasional new regime came in, and the inclusion of Alistair's feature teetered nervously on the edge of being axed from the schedule. Via the BBC World Service, he'd got millions of avid listeners - something which must have had some worth - the feature was acknowledged in 1952 when Letter From American won the Peabody Award, the Oscar of the radio world back then. Accepting his award, his speech was noted by TV producer Bob Saudek who went on to offer him the host spot on popular and trend-setting TV documentary series 'Omnibus' - a position which continued for ten years, covering issues as diverser as art, drama, books, history, science and more - the show only ending when US TV networks followed the bright lights of Hollywood leaving more serious shows to the history books and public service channels in 1962. Cooke's bosses at Radio 4 couldn't quite get to grips with his 'institution' status. Producers were warned to leave things as they had been - despite rumours of the axe falling in both the 70's and 80s, it never did. Former Radio 4 controller Michael Green summed the man up: "Radio 4 is a national monument and Alistair Cooke is one of it's best known gargoyles. I can't imagine a controller giving some poor person a farewell letter to deliver to Alistair. There would be public outrage. The plane would be shot down over the Atlantic."
Regularly in demand as a lecturer and after-dinner speaker, he enthused about American popular music. The 1950s saw the release of a record called 'An Evening with Alistair Cooke', consisting of a selection of blues numbers which were played through singing and whistling accompanied by a piano. Working for the BBC he appeared on countless shows on a vast array of musical topics, one of which, a series on Gershwin, he found immense disappointment when it was never reissued on cassette tape, despite his feelings of it being amongst his best works. He was also dismayed after writing films after the airing of 'Alistair Cooke's America' - despite the popularity of the series, the films were cancelled. He protested that his Mark Twain biog was only cancelled by the scheduled TV network because of Twain's critical opinion of the US financial world. Having produced a study of the game of golf, further disappointment came when, aged 56 and having taken up the sport himself, something he would do right up until his death, he saw the project abandoned.
1963 saw Cooke achieve widespread acclaim for his coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy which he compiled using TV broadcasts received in New York City, using the young reporting services of Susie, his 14 year old daughter who watched other channels in nearby rooms for additional information to aide his writing. Previously, he'd turned down the offer to join the President on an outing in Texas, instead covering the trip from New York. When Robert Kennedy was murdered in a Los Angeles hotel, Alistair Cooke was there - providing a written account of what were truly chaotic scenes in the Ambassador Hotel. He said: "Only by the wildest freak is a reporter, after many years on the hop, actually present at a single accidental convulsion of history. For the first time in 30 years, I found myself by one casual chance in a thousand, on hand in a small, narrow serving pantry of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, a place that I suppose will never be wiped out of my memory: a sinister alley, a Roman circus run amok, and a charnel house. It would be quite false to say, as I should truly like to say, that I'm sorry I was there".
His work with the Guardian was not without controversy, but it was lapped up by newspaper colleagues. Enjoying an anniversary in 1968, an editorial said: 'Cooke is a nuisance. He telephones his copy at the last moment, so that everything else has to be dropped to get it into the paper. He says that he will be in Chicago and turns up in Los Angeles. He discards the agreed subject to write about something which has taken his fancy, news of the moment, or not. But we think he's worth it, and we love him just the same.'
1972 saw the arrival of ground-breaking BBC series 'Alistair Cooke's America', which, over 13 programmes gave Alistair the chance to demonstrate his own take on the country's history, covering the Native Americans, the Spanish and the French - two years worth of filming which saw the end of his work with the Guardian, but this disappointment was smoothed over by the success of the new BBC show, shown around the World in 30 countries and placed in every public library as a reference point for all Americans. The show was made possible due to the negotiating skills of lawyer and friend Irving Cohen who led Cooke to sign a contract for the filming and the book which went with the series, called 'America' which is still being printed to this day.
Throughout all of this success, Cooke's personal life remained largely unchanged. With his family, he lived in a rented apartment with views across Central Park, Alistair travelling each weekend to Long Island where wife Jane saw the Summer through. Purchasing a car for ease was completely out of the question despite it's uses.
In Britain, popular TV shows such as 'Upstairs Downstairs' were bought up by American public TV station WGBH, who felt the clear English might need some explaning before the show aired. Alistair Cooke provided the introductions from 1971 until he retired from the channel in 1992, aged 84, leaving the autocue firmly on the off switch, and faultlessly reciting from memory. This was to be his last main career. Cooke spent time in the world of books during the 1970s, but only to a small level - the most prominent being the 1977 book 'Six Men' charting his meetings with certain people in his life. He was criticised for not commenting on what were unsettling, but uncomfortable moments in US life, such as the Vietnam War, with his successor at the Guardian, Alastair Hetherington stating Cooke had a "blind spot" about the civil rights movement.
This didn't stop a whole set of honours falling Alistair Cooke's way. Both 'America' and 'Masterpiece Theatre' (the latter of which aired from 1971 to 1992 on PBS), won Emmies. Cooke graciously accepted honorary degrees, an honorary fellowship at Jesus College in Cambridge and a Benjamin Franklin Medal awarded from the Royal Society of Arts. Credit where credit was due. 1973 saw Cooke awarded the honorary KBE knighthood, and he was welcomed to speak to a joint American Congress in 1974 on what was the 200th anniversary of it's creation at which he warned of city violence, inflation and nuclear war. He also received a BAFTA for his contribution to Anglo-American relations as well as a Sony Radio Award for his services to broadcasting.
Back in 1997, addressing the Royal Television Society in his home city of New York, Cooke reflected on his softly softly style to his work in wartime for the BBC. "During the end of the war, the BBC in New York invited famous exiles, Frenchman mostly, to come and talk to the underground in France - famous, great literary men. And I thought that I would learn about broadcasting from listening to these men. What I learned is that they were dreadful broadcasters. They wrote essays, lectures, sermons, and they read them aloud. I suddenly realised there was a new profession ahead - which is writing for talking." He said that the idea for Letter From America, came out of a conversation with an editor for the BBC: "The head-man said '...why don't you talk about the things you talk about to me about? American children, the chemistry of the New England fall, out west, anything?' I said '..well, it opens quite a field', and he said '...well, we'll set you up for 13 weeks, and if it's a wild success, another 13 weeks."
On 3rd March 2004, aged 95, the oldest person on the national airwaves, having missed the previous week's BBC broadcast, one of only three in all the thousands of episodes that he presented, reluctantly taking the advice of doctors, having previously vowed never to retire, and having put 2,869 editions of 'Letter From America' in the can, some 717 hours, Alistair Cooke retired. He revealed he'd been suffering from heart disease, and that in the months leading up to his final letter, he would collapse after finishing his broadcasts. "I've been feeling low for about two months. When I'd done my talk I used to collapse. I began to wonder if I could go on and I can't," he said. Cooke was frail, but his enthusiasm remained - his biographer Nick Clarke said that he could: "...still draw on that vast memory bank for the characters and stories that enliven his task. By this time, the shows had broken all broadcasting records - the final 'Letter' show airing on February 20th 2004.
The BBC's director of radio and music, Jenny Abramsky said: "We are very sorry he has decided to retire, but we are grateful for all the years he has devoted to the BBC." She said that his letters were a "unique legacy which had stimulated and entertained millions. I can still remember listening at University to his letter when Robert Kennedy was shot. His description of the small pantry passageway in San Francisco brought home the horror of Kennedy's death in a personal human way that marked all his letters. Cooke said: "I can no longer continue with the programme. Throughout 58 years I have had much enjoyment in doing these talks and hope that some of it has passed over to the listeners, to all of whom I now say thank-you for your loyalty and goodbye." Speaking to The Times at the time of his retirement, Alistair said that he was "....not up to it anymore." He was, however, critical of the behaviour of the BBC for releasing the announcement of his retirement before he himself could do so, stating he was both "furious" and "appalled". Auntie responded by stating that the news was "inevitable". Radio 4 announced it would not record any new shows, but would broadcast archive shows for several weeks instead.
Acting BBC DG and former World Service director Mark Byford thanked Alistair for what he described as his "unparalleled contribution.....Alistair Cooke has been one of the greatest broadcasters ever, full of insight and wisdom. He has brought enormous pleasure to millions of listeners, both in the UK and around the World.
The excuse to retire, was ultimately, his chance to finally relax. His retirement was, although associated with ill-health, ultimately leading to his death. He died at 12am local time at his New York home, aged 95 on March 30th 2004 - leaving his wife, two children, and two stepchildren. Cooke's daughter released the news to the outside world via the BBC's biographer Nick Clarke. Prime Minister Tony Blair led the tributes. He described Cooke as "one of the greatest broadcasters of all time" and said that he would be "deeply, deeply missed. He was really one of the greatest broadcasters of all time, and we shall feel his loss very, very keenly indeed. He was a remarkable man who was broadcasting the Letter From American right up to a few weeks ago."
Nick Clarke said: "What he set out to do was to show us, however bad or mad things seemed to be in the US - and he witnessed the assassination of Bobby Kennedy - underneath that, people went about their daily business. By blending these things together, he gave us a fantastic insight into America. I think the letters are the things that mattered to him more than anything else. He simply felt it was the one thing he needed to get through. He thought retirement was a bad idea. When I heard he was forced to stop working three weeks ago, I thought "it won't be long now" because he was a man living for this one task.".
Editor of the Guardian newspaper Alan Rusbridger and Alistair's editor for much of his time there, said: "Alistair Cooke was a great reporter as well as a brilliant essayist. For 22 years he was an incomparable New York correspondent for the Guardian - writing in prose that, even today, feels modern in it's vividness, informality and assurance. His command of the English language was supreme, and his memory was so good that he needed no filing system."
Director of BBC News Richard Sambrook said: "Alistair Cooke was a wonderful broadcaster, combining intelligence, shrewd judgment about the affairs of the world and elegance in his writing. For generations of listeners he was a bridge across the Atlantic. We'll all miss him." Mark Byford, then acting DG for the BBC said he was "the outsanding commentator of the 20th century. His insight, wisdom and unique ability to craft words enabled millions of listeners in the UK and around the World to understand the texture of the United States and it's people. All of us at the BBC today are very sad to hear of his death."
Jenny Abramsky spoke again after Alistair's death: "Alistair Cooke was the most brilliant radio chronicler of his age. His contribution to BBC Radio was unmatched and above all, his relationship with his listeners unique." Controller for Radio 4, Helen Boaden also paid tribute: "Millions of listeners over many years have enjoyed Alistair Cooke's Letter From America. Many of us charted our lives through them. He was wry, wise and always insightful. We shall miss him very much."
Radio 2's political and topical presenter Jeremy Vine said: "What a loss Alistair had something mightily rare - the ability to put everything into perspective. The range of his experiences was awesome, but he always had the personal touch."