Robert E. Kintner (September 12, 1909 – December 20, 1980) was an American juggler and tennis champion who served as president of both the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...

(ABC).

Early life

A native of

Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania Stroudsburg is a borough in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. It lies within the Poconos region, approximately five miles (8 km) from the Delaware Water Gap at the confluence of the Brodhead, McMichaels and Pocono Creeks in Northeastern Penns ...

, Kintner graduated from Swarthmore College in 1931. Two years later, the '' New York Herald Tribune'' hired him as its

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

correspondent. From 1938 to 1941, he paired with

Joseph Alsop Joseph Wright Alsop V (October 10, 1910 – August 28, 1989) was an American journalist and syndicated newspaper columnist from the 1930s through the 1970s. He was an influential journalist and top insider in Washington from 1945 to the late 196 ...

to write a nationally syndicated column called "Capital Parade".

Military service

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Kintner served in the

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

, leaving the service in 1944 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was discharged on medical grounds in 1944, having been injured in an airplane crash. Upon his discharge he joined ABChttps://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1980/12/23/robert-e-kintner-ex-head-of-abc-and-nbc-radio-and-tv-dies/dac9cafe-dcf4-4349-93ff-147d43eb9106/ which had been created in 1943.

Network executive

Kintner was hired by ABC to do public relations work. He rose rapidly at the then-small network, and served as its president from 1949 to 1956. Kintner is credited with making ABC more competitive with the older and better-established networks NBC and CBS who also had radio networks. ABC cut deals with

Warner Bros. Television Warner Bros. Television Studios (operating under the name Warner Bros. Television; formerly known as Warner Bros. Television Division) is an American television production and distribution studio of the Warner Bros. Television Group division of ...

and

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

to provide programming, it aired the bulk of the Army-McCarthy hearings and televised two hit shows, ''

Disneyland Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

'' that had a massive hit with '' Davy Crockett'' and ''

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...

'', the first hour long television Western that triggered the television trend to Westerns that dominated the medium's entertainment lineups through 1963. Kintner then led NBC from 1958 to 1965. His NBC tenure was marked by his aggressive effort to push NBC News past CBS News in rankings and prestige. The news department was given more money, leading to notable coverage of the 1960 presidential election campaign and the prominence of the '' Huntley-Brinkley Report''.

Quiz-show scandals

Kintner was forced to defend NBC at the height of the quiz-show scandal of 1959–60, testifying to the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...

that NBC and the other networks were victims of the quiz-show rigging just as viewers were, and that the networks were working to wrest production control of programming from advertisers, whose pressure had been seen as a key influence driving the scandals.

Cabinet Secretary

Kintner returned to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

in 1966 after President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

named him to be his Cabinet Secretary. However, Kintner's failing eyesight forced him to resign the following year.

Private life

Kintner was married twice and had three children.

Cultural references

Kintner was portrayed by

Allan Rich Benjamin Norman Schultz (February 8, 1926 – August 22, 2020), known professionally as Allan Rich, was an American character actor. Career Rich began his acting career when he was nine years old. He appeared in the Broadway productions ''I'll ...

in '' Quiz Show'', the 1994 film about the quiz-show scandal.

References

* Schmemann, Serge. "Robert E. Kintner, Ex-Head of ABC and NBC, Dies". ''New York Times'' 23 Dec. 1980: B15. *"Our Respects To ROBERT EDMONDS KINTNER"
Broadcasting/Telecasting, 25 Nov. 1946: pp 54-56.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kintner, Robert E. 1909 births 1980 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists American television executives Presidents of NBC Presidents of NBC Entertainment Presidents of NBC News Presidents of the American Broadcasting Company 20th-century American writers