The Mike Wallace collection covers Wallace's early television and newspaper work in the years 1956 to 1963. The collection does not yet include materials from his CBS News years, beginning in 1963 and continuing into the 1980s.
Mike Wallace was born May 9, 1918 in Brookline, Massachusetts the son of Russian Jewish immigrants as Myron Leon Wallace. He graduated from high school in 1935 then attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where he also worked as an announcer at the university radio division. After receiving his degree in 1939 he began his broadcasting career first in Grand Rapids, Mich. at WOOD-WASH radio station, and then at Detroit's WXYZ, where his work included newscasting as well as narration on The Green Hornet. In 1941 he was hired by the Chicago Sun's radio station as a newscaster, but his career was interrupted in 1943 by wartime service in the United States Navy.
In 1946 Wallace was discharged from the service and returned to Chicago. He worked on a variety of interview, news, and entertainment programs. In 1949 he teamed up with his actress-wife, Buff Cobb, in a local radio interview program. In 1951 the pair were put under contract by CBS, moved to New York City, and began a television interview series called Mike and Buff. Marked by frequent staged disagreements between the hosts, the show was a departure from the sugary banter of other husband and wife programs. The show ended in 1954 with the Wallaces' divorce.
Late in 1955 Wallace was hired as news anchor by WABD in New York. In October, 1956 WABD news director Ted Yates replaced the 11 o'clock news with Night Beat. Hosted by Wallace, the hour-long news and interview show featured a darkened set, piercing questions, and the use of prolonged close-ups that gave the show the feel of an interrogation. The sensation created by this show led ABC to pick it up in April, 1957. Renamed The Mike Wallace Interview, it ran only once a week for one-half hour. After losing its sponsor in 1958 the controversial show was picked up for a 19-week run by the Fund for the Republic as Survival and Freedom. Also during these years, Wallace began writing a daily interview column for the New York Post called "Mike Wallace Asks."
After his series at ABC ended in September 1958 Wallace worked briefly with Ted Yates as co-producer of another ABC interview show hosted by author Ben Hecht. In February 1959 Wallace and Yates were hired by New York's WNTA to anchor News Beat, New York's first one-half hour newscast, and to revive The Mike Wallace Interview. Though it ran for two years and was nationally syndicated, it was not as successful as its predecessor.
In the summer of 1960 Wallace also did some work for the Westinghouse Network as co-anchor of its political convention coverage. When he left WNTA, he joined Westinghouse full time as co-host of P.M. East, a talk show which began in June, 1961. In February, 1963 Wallace was hired by CBS News. There he anchored the CBS Morning News, worked as a correspondent, and in 1968 began his ongoing work as one of the reporters of the popular series 60 Minutes. Wallace continued to work on the show until 2006 leading it to the unprecedented rate of 23 seasons on the Nielsen annual top 10 list -- five seasons as the number-one program.
Throughout his career, Wallace has been the recipient of numerous broadcasting awards and honors. Among his prestigious awards are twenty one Emmy Awards, including a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Emmy (2003), the 2002 Fred Friendly First Amendment Award for journalistic contributions to free speech, five DuPont-Columbia Journalism Awards, five John Foster Peabody Awards, the Paul White Award (1991), a Robert E. Sherwood Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award grand prize and Television first prize (1996), among others. In June of 1991 he was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. In 1993 he was named the Broadcaster of the Year by the International Radio and Television Society. Part of his rich legacy includes the Knight-Wallace Fellowship and Mike and Mary Wallace House at the University of Michigan. Wallace's donations support this in-residence study program begun in 1994 for professional journalists seeking to improve their knowledge in a desired field or issue.
Wallace was elected a fellow of the Society of Professional Journalists, Sigma Delta Chi (November 1975) and was awarded a doctorate in humane letters, honoris causa, from the University of Massachusetts (1978). In May 1987 he received an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Michigan and, in 1989 an honorary doctorate of laws from the University of Pennsylvania.
Mike Wallace died at his home in Canaan, CT on April 7, 2012 at age 93.
