Jerome Kuehl (widely known as Jerry Kuehl) was a television producer and historian who made substantial contributions to three landmark series ''
The Great War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
'', ''
The World at War
''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. Produced in 1973 at a cost of around £880,000 (), it was the most expensive factual series ever made at the time. ...
'', and ''
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
'', as well as serving as a director of the production company
Open Media
Open Media is a British television production company, best known for the discussion series ''After Dark (TV series), After Dark'', described in the national press as "the most original programme on television".
The company was founded in 1987 ...
from 1986 until his death in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
in 2018.
Birth and academic background
Born in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
in 1931, Kuehl read Philosophy and History at the
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the Methodi ...
in Connecticut where he developed an interest in the history of newsreels. After studying at the
Sorbonne he moved to the UK in the late 1950s as a post-graduate at
St Antony's College
St Antony's College is a colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1950 as the result of the gift of French merchant Sir Antonin Besse of Aden, St Antony's specialises in intern ...
, Oxford.
Film and TV
After tutoring at the University of Oxford and teaching intellectual and German history at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
Kuehl joined the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
in 1963 as a historical adviser for its documentary series ''
The Great War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
''. His subsequent television production career was primarily in the field of film archive research. Kuehl worked for the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
European Unit in the 1960s and wrote the documentary ''Chicago Blues'' for director
Harley Cokeliss
Harley Cokeliss (born Harley Louis Cokliss, February 11, 1945) is an American director, writer and producer of film and television.
Early life
Originally brought up in Chicago, he moved to Britain in 1966 to study at the London Film School ...
in 1970. He was then to specialise in writing and producing what he called "visual history" on television. As well as his work on ''
The Great War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and th ...
'', ''
The World at War
''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. Produced in 1973 at a cost of around £880,000 (), it was the most expensive factual series ever made at the time. ...
'' and ''
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
'', he made significant contributions to, among many other programmes, ''
Auschwitz: The Nazis and 'The Final Solution''' and ''
Vietnam: A Television History''. The ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' dubbed him “Officer Commanding Archive Integrity”. For
France 3
France 3 () is a French free-to-air Public broadcasting, public television network. The second flagship network of France Télévisions, it broadcasts a wide range of general and specialized programming.
France 3 is structured as a Region ...
he wrote and co-produced ''La Grande Aventure de la Presse Filmée'' (The Great Adventure of Newsreels).
In 1982
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
began transmission of the first of three series of his programme ''Today's History'', described as looking at "official newsfilm and discover(ing) discrepancies between the way events have been presented and accounts of what actually happened". These programmes - which ran until 1984 - were a co-production between the magazine ''
History Today
''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...
'' and
Visnews
{{nofootnotes, date = March 2016
Visnews was a London-based international news agency. It began as the British Commonwealth International Newsfilm Agency (BCINA), which was setup with help from The Rank Organisation when that company closed its cin ...
, with Kuehl as the executive producer. Subjects featured in the first series included: Poland (with
Neal Ascherson
Charles Neal Ascherson (born 5 October 1932) is a Scottish journalist and writer. In his youth he fought for the British in the Malayan Emergency. He has been described by Radio Prague as "one of Britain's leading experts on central and easte ...
), Women (with
Juliet Gardiner) and
Marx
Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
(with
Stuart Hall). Each month ''History Today'' carried a supplement in the magazine linked to the programme.
An intriguing series produced by Kuehl was his follow-up to ''The World At War'' called ''The World At War: Another Look'', a Channel 4 series re-examining the original programmes with the benefit of a decade's hindsight. Transmitted at the end of 1983 and early 1984 - one episode a month - it features a number of academic historians and news cameramen who were responsible for filming some of the archive footage used in ''World At War''. The first episode was described in ''The Times'' as dealing “with the political, ethical and strategic pressures on cameramen covering war, and asks how much we should believe of what we are shown.”
''After Dark''
Kuehl made a considerable contribution to the British television discussion series ''
After Dark'' between 1987 and 2003. As one of his responsibilities as director of the production company responsible,
Open Media
Open Media is a British television production company, best known for the discussion series ''After Dark (TV series), After Dark'', described in the national press as "the most original programme on television".
The company was founded in 1987 ...
, he prepared a job description for potential staff. They would require, he wrote, “considerable experience of current affairs television, versatility, good humour and, above all, sympathy with and knowledge of many different viewpoints and people, not all of them sympathetic.” The historian
Taylor Downing commented:
Other work and later life
He was Head of General Studies at the
National Film School from 1979 to 1981 and extended his work to write about the role of the television historian, for instance in ‘History on the Public Screen’ in ''The Historian and Film'' (1976) and in the first edition of the ''
History Workshop Journal
The ''History Workshop Journal'' is a British academic history journal published by Oxford University Press. ''History Workshop'' was founded in 1976 by Raphael Samuel and others involved in the History Workshop movement. Originally sub-titled " ...
''.
In 1998 the ''
Observer
An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment.
Observer may also refer to:
Fiction
* ''Observer'' (novel), a 2023 science fiction novel by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress
* ''Observer'' (video game), a cyberpunk horr ...
'' newspaper quoted Kuehl on what he called the misuse of archive film in British television:
He was a member of the consortium that bought the magazine ''
History Today
''History Today'' is a history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it presents authoritative history to as wide a public as possible. The magazine covers all periods and geographical regions and publishes articles of tradit ...
'' from
Pearson, acting as a director from 1981. In 1986 he was a co-founder of the television production company
Open Media
Open Media is a British television production company, best known for the discussion series ''After Dark (TV series), After Dark'', described in the national press as "the most original programme on television".
The company was founded in 1987 ...
. For many years he was a Council member of
IAMHIST, the organisation that publishes the ''
Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television''. In 2004 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by
FOCAL International
FOCAL International is the trade association representing stock footage companies, post-production facilities and individuals involved in the use of footage, still images and audio in all forms of media production. It represents more than 300 ...
, the Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries.
He died in London on 16 September 2018, aged 86 and was buried on the eastern side of
Highgate Cemetery
Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in North London, England, designed by architect Stephen Geary. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East sides. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for so ...
.
The Office Cat
In his long-running column "The Office Cat", he wrote:
Juliet Gardiner said of his work: "Jerry stuck firmly to his creed of popularisation without vulgarisation. His mission (was) to make scholarly history accessible."
Publications
Kuehl wrote for many historical, media and general interest publications, including
*''
Broadcast
Broadcasting is the data distribution, distribution of sound, audio audiovisual content to dispersed audiences via a electronic medium (communication), mass communications medium, typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), ...
''
*''
Cineaste''
*''
International Affairs
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
''
*''
International History Review
''The International History Review'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the history of international relations and the history of international thought published by Routledge. It was established in 1978 by Edward Ingram, Gordon Martel a ...
''
*The ''Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists''
*The ''Journal of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts''
*''Journal of War and Culture Studies''
*''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...
''
*''
TLS''
New book by Jerome Kuehl
', Sebastian Cody, IAMHIST, 26 October 2021, accessed 7 January 2022
References
External links
Kuehl's Reels short online lectures by Jerry Kuehl
*
Lies About Real People', Jerry Kuehl, 1996 (later published in ''Why Docudrama'', edited by Alan Rosenthal, Southern Illinois University Press, 1999)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuehl, Jerome
1931 births
2018 deaths
Burials at Highgate Cemetery
People from Milwaukee
20th-century British historians
20th-century American historians
21st-century British historians
21st-century American historians
Alumni of the University of Oxford
British television producers
Wesleyan University alumni
University of Paris alumni