American journalist
William Job "Bill" Stout
(September 4, 1927 ? December 1, 1989) was an American journalist and sometime actor, known for his radio and television broadcasting career with
CBS News
.
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Stout was born in
Chicago, Illinois
on September 4, 1927.
[2]
He attended the
University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA), majoring in English. He enrolled when he was 16, and started classes as he turned 17. In college he edited the college newspaper and was active politically, advocating other students to join the
picket lines
at
Warner Bros.
following
Hollywood Black Friday
in October 1945.
[3]
[4]
Stout advocated racial justice in a college newspaper editorial,
[5]
and, in 1946, he represented UCLA in
Prague
at the founding meeting of the
International Union of Students
[6]
Career
[
edit
]
Newspaper
[
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]
Stout left UCLA in June 1947 at the age of 19 and t obtained work at the rival paper,
The Minneapolis Times
, alongside freshman reporter
Harry Reasoner
who would later attain fame as a television commentator. Stout continued at the
Times
, later shifting to work for the
Associated Press
news agency. He married Helen Larson in 1949 and they moved to Los Angeles in 1950 with her son Craig, who he later adopted.
[1]
Broadcasting
[
edit
]
Stout's first broadcast journalist work was for
CBS
-owned
KNX (AM)
radio in Los Angeles, working as a reporter starting in 1950. In 1953, he moved to the affiliated television station KNXT, taking the roles of reporter, researcher and writer. KNXT broadcast on channel 2, and Stout worked for the channel's investigative news show
Special Assignment
.
[2]
(In 1984, KNXT changed to
KCBS-TV
.)
[1]
Stout interviewed
Richard Feynman
in 1959 for KNXT; the conversation, with its questions about the intersection of science, religion and society, is preserved as a chapter in Feynman's book,
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From The Beaten Track
.
[7]
In 1960, Stout left CBS for three years to work for rival
KTLA
inside an
old Warner Bros. sound stage
, under the same roof as
Paramount Pictures
.
[1]
Stout moderated
Richard Nixon
's press conference following his defeat in the
California governor's race in 1962
. Stout hosted a half-hour TV series,
Line of Sight
, in which he aired his commentaries on current news topics. The series was produced by
Irwin Rosten
at KTLA for Paramount.
In 1963, Stout returned to CBS as the Los Angeles correspondent of
CBS News
. The
Los Angeles Times
later observed that Stout's changes of employment during his early years were probably due to the argumentative attitude he displayed to his superiors and peers. He wrote occasional newspaper articles, and he was a popular speaker at parties and fundraisers.
[2]
In 1972, he rejoined Channel 2 KNXT. In 1978 on his
Perspectives
segment, he began delivering gruff commentaries with a rumpled, balding appearance akin to actor
Ed Asner
portraying
Lou Grant
.
[8]
Stout was dismissive of newscasters chosen for their attractive appearance.
[2]
At KNXT, he was known as a highly regarded
investigative reporter
and
political commentator
who preferred to ignore partisan ideologies and divisions.
In 1978, Stout unwittingly contributed to the loss by
Mervyn Dymally
to
Mike Curb
in the race for
Lieutenant Governor of California
. A week before the election, Stout announced on the radio that Dymally was soon to be indicted for an unspecified crime. He said, "I have read it. You have heard it. Dymally knows it."
[9]
Dymally had been leading by six points in polls, but this unanswerable accusation ruined his chances. The rumor was later traced to Bob Fairbanks, a political reporter from the
Los Angeles Times
who was hostile to Dymally. Fairbanks had inquired of the
California Attorney General
's office about a rumored indictment of Dymally, and the deputy attorney general Michael Franchetti wrote a memo about the rumor inquiry. A version of the memo with the rumor part erased was given to Curb's office where Stout's wife Margaret worked. Margaret passed the memo to Stout and he read it aloud on the radio as if it were fact. Dymally heard the broadcast and immediately ceased campaigning, knowing his bid was shattered.
[9]
As part of his commentary at KNXT, Stout regularly chose a person or entity as the winner of his "Golden Turkey of the Month." One of these was Judith Belushi, widow of TV-movie comic
John Belushi
; the subject was the 1984 biography
Wired: The Short Life and Fast Times of John Belushi
by
Bob Woodward
. Judith Belushi complained that Woodward's book was unfair in that it did not say that "drugs can be fun". Contrasting that sentiment with John Belushi's death by drug overdose, Stout awarded Judith the Golden Turkey, saying her comment was "an all-time low in widows' tributes".
[
citation needed
]
On February 3, 1988, Stout received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
for his work in the television industry. In a ceremony conducted at the star's location (1500
Vine Street
.
[10]
[11]
), Police Chief
Daryl Gates
said that Stout was "one of the few remaining real reporters in the city".
[1]
Death
[
edit
]
In 1987, Stout survived a serious heart attack. He spent six months off the air in recovery.
[2]
Stout's final television appearance was November 28, 1989, on KCBS's
Action News at 6
. Two nights later, Stout was admitted to
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
in Los Angeles, with flu-like symptoms. He died the next morning from
cardiac arrest
at the age of 62. Stout was survived by his wife, Margaret, her five children and three children from his second marriage. He was briefly married to a fellow UCLA student.
[1]
[2]
He is interred at
Forest Lawn Memorial Park
in the
Hollywood Hills
of Los Angeles.
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Buck, Jerry (December 1, 1989).
"Noted Broadcast Newsman Bill Stout Dies"
.
Associated Press
. Retrieved
October 25,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Folkart, Burt A. (December 2, 1989).
"KCBS Commentator Bill Stout, Newscasting Pioneer, Dies at 62"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
ISSN
0458-3035
. Retrieved
October 25,
2020
.
- ^
"UCLA Student Defies Committee"
.
Los Angeles Times
. November 16, 1945. p. 2 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"2 Students Tell Strike Roles"
.
The San Francisco Examiner
. November 16, 1945. p. 4 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Kemper, Kurt Edward (2000).
Reformers in the Marketplace of Ideas: Student Activism and American Democracy in Cold War Los Angeles
(LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses). Louisiana State University
. Retrieved
October 25,
2020
.
- ^
"Youth Rally to Present Film Stars"
.
Valley Times
. North Hollywood, California. November 12, 1946. p. 3 – via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Feynman, Michelle (2005).
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From The Beaten Track, The Letters of Richard P. Feynman
. New York: Basic Books.
ISBN
0-7382-0636-9
.
- ^
Rojas, Aurelio (December 1, 1989).
"KCBS-TV newsman Bill Stout dies"
.
United Press International
. Retrieved
October 25,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Carr, Elston L. (1997). "Oral History Interview with Mervyn M. Dymally". California State Archives. State Government Oral History Program, Volume 1.
- ^
"Bill Stout | Hollywood Walk of Fame"
.
www.walkoffame.com
. Retrieved
2016-10-06
.
- ^
"Bill Stout - Hollywood Star Walk - Los Angeles Times"
.
projects.latimes.com
. Retrieved
2016-10-06
.
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