Frances Buss Buch (June 3, 1917 – January 19, 2010) was the first female

television director A television director is in charge of the activities involved in making a television program or section of a program. They are generally responsible for decisions about the editorial content and creative style of a program, and ensuring the pro ...

in the United States.

Career

Buch grew up in

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

, and attended

Washington University Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is ...

. In the early 1940s she relocated to New York City, where she had taken acting classes and appeared in some off-Broadway productions. In July 1941 she was hired by CBS for a temporary job as receptionist. She transferred to the fledgling

CBS Television CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

two weeks after the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisd ...

allowed commercial TV broadcasts in 1941. With

Gil Fates Joseph Gilbert Fates (September 29, 1914, Newark, New Jersey - May 1, 2000, New York City) was an American television producer. Fates was the executive producer of '' What's My Line?'' Fates produced the game show during its entire quarter-cent ...

as producer and host, she was scorekeeper on '' CBS Television Quiz'' the earliest U.S.

live television Live television is a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. In a secondary meaning, it may refer to streaming television over the Internet when content or programming is played continuously (not on deman ...

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...

. "I had seen TV at the

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

, but I had no idea this existed in New York. CBS was a radio network," Buch told a reporter from the '' Asheville Citizen-Times'' in 2008. Along with ''CBS Television Quiz'', she helped coordinate the CBS television news coverage of the attack on

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the ...

. When CBS live TV broadcasts were suspended in 1942, Buch began producing and directing U.S. Navy training films. She returned to CBS in 1944 when their live television broadcasts resumed and was promoted to director in 1945. On June 25, 1951, she directed the commercials on ''Premiere'', the first commercial

color TV Color television or Colour television is a television transmission technology that includes color information for the picture, so the video image can be displayed in color on the television set. It improves on the monochrome or black-and-white t ...

program to be broadcast in the United States. Later that same week she began the job of producer-director for the first two color TV series to be broadcast, '' The World is Yours'', and ''

Modern Homemakers ''Modern Homemakers'' was an early American television series, making its debut on June 27, 1951, on five stations of the CBS television network in the eastern United States. This half-hour daytime program (10:30-11:00 a.m., EDT) was broadca ...

''. She also directed the early television talk show, ''Mike and Buff'' (1951–1953), which featured

Mike Wallace Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...

and his then-wife Buff Cobb. In 1949 she married Bill Buch, whom she had met in Florida while making Navy training films. She resigned from CBS in 1954 to be a full-time homemaker.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Buch, Frances Buss 1917 births 2010 deaths American television directors American women television producers American women television directors People from St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis alumni Television producers from Missouri