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Arthur Unger Audio Interview Collection

An inventory of the collection at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MRR
Date: unknown

Biographical History

Arthur Unger (1925-2004) was an American journalist, editor, and critic specializing in the entertainment industry.

Unger was born in Brooklyn on March 29, 1925. During World War II, he served in the Army as a cryptographer, afterwards entering Missouri University under the GI Bill from which he graduated in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He quickly found his niche in entertainment journalism, interviewing dozens of well-known and influential actors, entertainers, musicians, journalists, writers, and others over his career and even traveling with the Beatles for two years of their American tour.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Unger owned, edited and published a teen magazine called Datebook; later, he became the television critic for the Christian Science Monitor, where he worked until 1988. After retiring, he continued to contribute articles to Television Quarterly.

A large part of his success derived from his genuine interest in the life and character of celebrities rather than a focus on scandalous or flashy tabloid material. He also enjoyed children, though he had none of his own, and actively sought out ways to work with them. After his retirement he volunteered for a group called RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) and took particular enjoyment in visiting schools, talking with the students about social issues.

Arthur Unger died in 2004.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Arthur Unger Audio Interview Collection consists of 2042 audio cassettes, masters and copies, of interviews conducted by Arthur Unger, a television critic for the Christian Science Monitor and special correspondent for Television Quarterly that were used as his notebooks during this 1965-1997 years of writing articles for varios publications. The collection also includes a number of press conferences. Subjects include television shows, actors, comedians, entertainers, musicians, journalists, writers, and other well-known and influential personalities; in some cases there are several interviews with one person.

Tapes are sound cassettes, analog, 1 7/8 ips, mono.

Audio interviews in the collection feature interviews with a wide range of inidviduals such as actors (Alan Alda, Bette Davis, Jimmy Stewart), authors (Erma Bombeck, Ray Bradbury, Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut), comedians (Lucille Ball, Mel Brooks, Bob Hope, Smothers Brothers), dancers (Mikhail Baryshnikov, Martha Graham, Alexander Godunov, Isabelle Stevenson), journalists (David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, Pat Buchanan, Hodding Carter, John Chancellor, Walter Cronkite, Phil Donahue, Janet Flanner, Peter Jennings, Charles Kuralt, Barbara Walters), musicians (Beach Boys, Black Sabbath, The Jackson Five), political figures (Abba Eban, Henry Kissinger, Nancy Reagan, Jack Ruby press conference), and sports figures (Bud Grant, Joe Namath, O.J. Simpson). Included also are interviews with various celebrities from popular TV shows, like ABC News Sunday, Battlestar Galactica, Dallas, How the West Was Won, Laugh In, Love Boat, McNeil-Lehrer Report, T.J. Hooker, Taxi, Upstairs - Downstairs, and many more.

Unger also interviewed many unique or unusual people, including Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon, gourmet chef Julia Child, oceanologist Jacques Cousteau, chairman of the Royal Opera House Sir Denis Forman, protector of Anne Frank and her family Miep Gies, primate researcher Jane Goodall, explorer Sir Edmund Hillary, accused Soviet spy Alger Hiss, decathlete Bruce Jenner, television producer Norman Lear, philosopher and social critic Marshall McLuhan, soap opera creator Agnes Nixon, theatre producer Joseph Papp, Prince Rainier of Monaco, economic commentator Louis Rukeyser, astronomer Carl Sagan, historian and social critic Arthur Schlesinger, television executive Fred Silverman, feminist Gloria Steinem, publisher Jacobo Timerman, futurist Alvin Toffler, and French director Francois Truffaut.

Interviews are listed alphabetically by interviewee name in the finding aid below, except for press conferences which are listed under the name of the network or the TV show. In some cases, corrected spellings have been inserted in square brackets [ ]. The four-digit catalog number for each item appears in parenthesis ( ). Audio interview with catalog number 4315 is missing.

Arrangement of the Collection

The audio cassettes are arranged by four-digit catalog numbers. However, to simplify locating a particular interview, interviews are listed alphabetically by interviewee name in the finding aid below.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Access to audiovisual material requires advance notice to produce a use copy.

Use Restrictions:

No copies may be made without the permission in writing of Arhur Unger or his heirs. Literary rights, including copyright, may belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has a number of television-related collections. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing

NYPL has the same collection material and their Finding Aid was used as a reference source to identify some interviews .

Subject Headings

Persons

Alda, Alan, 1936-
Ali, Muhammad, 1942-2016.
Asimov, Isaac, 1920-1992.
Baddeley, Hermione, 1908-1986.
Ball, Lucille, 1911-1989.
Baryshnikov, Mikhail, 1948-
Bombeck, Erma.
Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012.
Bridges, Lloyd.
Brinkley, David.
Brokaw, Tom.
Brooks, Mel, 1926-
Buchanan, Patrick J. (Patrick Joseph), 1938-
Burns, George, 1896-1996.
Carnarvon, Henry Howard Molyneux, Earl of, 1831-1890.
Carter, Hodding, 1907-1972.
Chancellor, John, 1927-1996.
Child, Julia.
Clavell, James.
Cousteau, Jacques, 1910-1997.
Cronkite, Walter.
Curry, Tim.
Curtis, Tony, 1925-2010.
Davis, Bette, 1908-1989.
Donahue, Phil.
Douglas, Michael, 1944-
Eban, Abba Solomon, 1915-2002.
Flanner, Janet, 1892-1978.
Flexner, James Thomas, 1908-2003.
Forman, Denis, 1917-2013.
Foxx, Redd, 1922-1991.
Fraser, Antonia, 1932-
Funt, Allen, 1914-1999.
Gies, Miep, 1909-2010.
Godunov, Alexander, 1949-1995.
Goodall, Jane, 1934-
Gould, Elliott.
Graham, Martha.
Grant, Bud.
Grier, Rosey.
Grossman, Larry.
Haley, Alex.
Hamner, Earl, Jr.
Hartley, Mariette.
Hayes, Helen, 1900-1993.
Hepburn, Katharine, 1907-2003.
Hillary, Edmund, 1919-2008.
Hitchcock, Alfred, 1899-1980.
Hoffman, Dustin, 1937-
Hope, Bob, 1903-2003.
Jackson, Michael, 1958-2009.
Jacobi, Derek.
Jennings, Peter, 1938-2005.
Karnow, Stanley.
Kissinger, Henry, 1923-2023.
Koplovitz, Kay.
Kuralt, Charles, 1934-1997.
Kyros, Peter N.
Lear, Norman.
Léaud, Jean-Pierre, 1944-
McCullough, David G.
McLuhan, Marshall, 1911-1980.
Menotti, Gian Carlo, 1911-2007.
Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005.
Moore, Mary Tyler, 1936-2017.
Moyers, Bill D.
Mudd, Roger, 1928-2021.
Namath, Joe Willie, 1943-
Newman, Edwin.
Nixon, Agnes, 1922-2016.
O'Connor, Carroll.
Osmond, Donny.
Pacino, Al, 1940-
Papp, Joseph.
Poitier, Sidney.
Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, 1923-2005.
Rather, Dan.
Reagan, Nancy, 1921-2016.
Robards, Jason.
Ruby, Jack.
Rukeyser, Louis.
Sagan, Carl, 1934-1996.
Salisbury, Harrison E. (Harrison Evans), 1908-1993.
Schlesinger, Arthur M. (Arthur Maier), 1917-2007.
Silverman, Fred, 1937-2020.
Simpson, Orenthal James, 1947-2024.
Steinem, Gloria.
Stevenson, Isabelle, 1915-2003.
Stewart, James, 1908-1997.
Susskind, David, 1920-1987.
Thomas, Danny.
Timerman, Jacobo, 1923-1999.
Toffler, Alvin.
Truffaut, François.
Unger, Arthur, 1924-2004.
Vonnegut, Kurt.
Walters, Barbara, 1929-2022.
Wambaugh, Joseph.
West, Mae.

Corporate Bodies

Beach Boys.
Black Sabbath (Musical group)
Captain & Tennille (Musical group)
Carpenters (Musical group)
Gladys Knight and the Pips.
Jackson Five (Musical group)
Monkees (Musical group)
Pips (Musical group)
Sly & the Family Stone (Musical group)
Smothers Brothers

Associated Titles

Christian Science monitor.
Television quarterly.

Subjects

Entertainers -- Interviews.
Popular culture -- United States.
Television -- United States.
Television actors and actresses -- Interviews.
Television broadcasting of news.
Television journalists -- United States.
Television producers and directors -- Interviews.

Genres and Forms

Audiocassettes.
Interviews.
Press conferences.
Sound recordings.

Occupations

Journalists.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Arthur Unger Audio Interview Collection,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Arthur Unger, 1998.

Table of Contents

Audio interviews

Inventory