Marilyn Beck (journalist)
Encyclopedia
Marilyn Beck is a syndicated Hollywood columnist who rose to prominence on the heels of such predecessors as Hedda Hopper
and Louella Parsons
. Beck's hard news reporting approach to celebrity journalism
arrived in sharp contrast to newspaper and fan magazine celebrity stories of the '50s and '60s, and served as a precursor to such current-day celebrity news publications as PEOPLE and US.
, Beck moved with her parents, older brother and younger sister to Los Angeles
as a young child and studied journalism at the University of Southern California
.
She married a newspaper reporter, Roger Beck (later divorced), and they became parents of a son and a daughter, Mark (now an attorney) and Andrea (Andee, a former journalist, who worked alongside Beck in the late 1970s). Beck started writing stories professionally following Andee's entry into kindergarten.
on San Quentin's death row, shortly before he was executed. She wrote her first column for Bell McClure syndicate in 1967. Three years later, she was named Sheilah Graham's successor for the North American Newspaper Alliance
.
Marilyn Beck’s Hollywood column moved to the New York Times Special Features in 1972 as she reported on the doings of stars the likes of Elvis Presley
, Natalie Wood
, Robert Redford
, Jane Fonda
, Marlon Brando
, Elizabeth Taylor
and Richard Burton
. She became affiliated with Tribune Media Services
in 1980, and a decade later moved to Creators Syndicate
.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, her column was seen in papers with a combined readership upwards of 25 million, maintaining a large print readership through the evolving Internet era of the ‘90s and ‘00s. Beck established an early-day web presence in the mid-‘80s, via Prodigy and CompuServe
, and later on E! Online and AOL
. She authored the Grapevine column in TV Guide
from 1989 to 1992.
Beck began her partnership with newspaper and magazine writer Stacy Jenel Smith, a former protégé, in 1990. The column became Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive. Among Beck/Smith’s innovations (under the auspices of CompuServe and Entertainment Drive) was live online reporting with user questions being relayed to winners at the Academy Awards
, beginning at the 1994 Oscars show. They did regular on-camera streamed video reports on the web via AENTV beginning in 2000.
Beck’s five-decade run has seen her and Smith’s column featured in hundreds of outlets ranging from France and Mexico to Cleveland and Milwaukee. Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive continues through Creators Syndicate.
" and shows hosted by Barbara Walters
, Dinah Shore
, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin
. She hosted NBC “Marilyn Beck’s Hollywood Outtakes” specials in 1977 and 1978, featuring the likes of Sylvester Stallone
, William Holden
and Robert Evans
providing commentary for amusing outtake footage from their films. George Burns
co-hosted the second special.
She was the featured Hollywood interviewer on the syndicated "PM Magazine
" show from 1983 to 1988, logging on-air chats with such celebrities as Farrah Fawcett
, Harrison Ford
, Lucille Ball
, Michael Landon
, George Burns
, Warren Beatty
, Dustin Hoffman
, Christopher Reeve
and Luciano Pavarotti
.
Beck and Smith were among the media personalities reporting their celebrity stories on E! Entertainment’s 1993-1999 “The Gossip Show,” occasionally squaring off in lighthearted Point-Counterpoint-style debates.
Beck authored "Marilyn Beck's Hollywood," a 1972
hard-cover book about the industry; also the 1988 Berkeley novel about Hollywood, "Only Make Believe". She is one of the authors of the 1995 book, "Unfinished Lives...What if?"
Brigham Young University
features a collection of Marilyn Beck works, including published columns from 1963 to 1993, videotapes, photographs, research files, celebrity correspondence, publicity material and drafts of her books.
Hedda Hopper
Hedda Hopper was an American actress and gossip columnist, whose long-running feud with friend turned arch-rival Louella Parsons became at least as notorious as many of Hopper's columns.-Early life:...
and Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
. Beck's hard news reporting approach to celebrity journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
arrived in sharp contrast to newspaper and fan magazine celebrity stories of the '50s and '60s, and served as a precursor to such current-day celebrity news publications as PEOPLE and US.
Early life
Born Hanna Marilyn Mohr in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Beck moved with her parents, older brother and younger sister to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
as a young child and studied journalism at the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
.
She married a newspaper reporter, Roger Beck (later divorced), and they became parents of a son and a daughter, Mark (now an attorney) and Andrea (Andee, a former journalist, who worked alongside Beck in the late 1970s). Beck started writing stories professionally following Andee's entry into kindergarten.
Career
Beck began working as a newspaper and magazine writer in the early 1960s. One of her first interviews was with notorious “Red Light Bandit” serial rapist Caryl ChessmanCaryl Chessman
Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber and rapist who gained fame as a death row inmate in California. Chessman's case attracted worldwide attention, and as a result he became a cause célèbre for the movement to ban capital punishment.-Crime and conviction:Born in St...
on San Quentin's death row, shortly before he was executed. She wrote her first column for Bell McClure syndicate in 1967. Three years later, she was named Sheilah Graham's successor for the North American Newspaper Alliance
North American Newspaper Alliance
The North American Newspaper Alliance was a large newspaper syndicate that flourished between 1922 and 1980.Founded by John Neville Wheeler, NANA employed some of the most noted writing talents of its time, including Grantland Rice, Joseph Alsop, Michael Stern, Lothrop Stoddard, Dorothy Thompson,...
.
Marilyn Beck’s Hollywood column moved to the New York Times Special Features in 1972 as she reported on the doings of stars the likes of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
, Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
, Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
, Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...
and Richard Burton
Richard Burton
Richard Burton, CBE was a Welsh actor. He was nominated seven times for an Academy Award, six of which were for Best Actor in a Leading Role , and was a recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe and Tony Awards for Best Actor. Although never trained as an actor, Burton was, at one time, the highest-paid...
. She became affiliated with Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services
Tribune Media Services is a syndication company owned by the Tribune Company.The company has two divisions, "News and Features" and "Entertainment Products"...
in 1980, and a decade later moved to Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate
Creators Syndicate is an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers. It was founded in 1987 by Richard S. Newcombe, and is based in Los Angeles. Creators was one of the first syndicates to allow its clients to maintain creative control of their material...
.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, her column was seen in papers with a combined readership upwards of 25 million, maintaining a large print readership through the evolving Internet era of the ‘90s and ‘00s. Beck established an early-day web presence in the mid-‘80s, via Prodigy and CompuServe
CompuServe
CompuServe was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of services such as AOL with monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates...
, and later on E! Online and AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
. She authored the Grapevine column in TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
from 1989 to 1992.
Beck began her partnership with newspaper and magazine writer Stacy Jenel Smith, a former protégé, in 1990. The column became Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive. Among Beck/Smith’s innovations (under the auspices of CompuServe and Entertainment Drive) was live online reporting with user questions being relayed to winners at the Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
, beginning at the 1994 Oscars show. They did regular on-camera streamed video reports on the web via AENTV beginning in 2000.
Beck’s five-decade run has seen her and Smith’s column featured in hundreds of outlets ranging from France and Mexico to Cleveland and Milwaukee. Beck/Smith Hollywood Exclusive continues through Creators Syndicate.
Other media
Beck was heard regularly on local Los Angeles radio station KFI, and was seen regularly on local (KABC) and national television. She appeared on programs including "NightlineNightline
Nightline, or ABC News Nightline is a late-night news program broadcast by ABC in the United States, and has a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. It airs weeknights, usually for 31 minutes. Created by Roone Arledge, the program featured Ted Koppel as its main...
" and shows hosted by Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters
Barbara Jill Walters is an American broadcast journalist, author, and television personality. She has hosted morning television shows , the television newsmagazine , former co-anchor of the ABC Evening News, and current contributor to ABC News.Walters was first known as a popular TV morning news...
, Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
, Mike Douglas and Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
. She hosted NBC “Marilyn Beck’s Hollywood Outtakes” specials in 1977 and 1978, featuring the likes of Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
, William Holden
William Holden
William Holden was an American actor. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1954 and the Emmy Award for Best Actor in 1974...
and Robert Evans
Robert Evans
Robert Evans may refer to:*Bob Evans , American football and basketball coach*Robert Harding Evans*Robert Wilson Evans, archdeacon and author*Bob Evans , Welsh international football goalkeeper...
providing commentary for amusing outtake footage from their films. George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
co-hosted the second special.
She was the featured Hollywood interviewer on the syndicated "PM Magazine
PM Magazine
PM/Evening Magazine was a television series with a news and entertainment format. It was syndicated to stations throughout the United States...
" show from 1983 to 1988, logging on-air chats with such celebrities as Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett
Farrah Fawcett was an American actress and artist. A multiple Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominee, Fawcett rose to international fame when she first appeared as private investigator Jill Munroe in the first season of the television series Charlie's Angels, in 1976...
, Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American film actor and producer. He is famous for his performances as Han Solo in the original Star Wars trilogy and as the title character of the Indiana Jones film series. Ford is also known for his roles as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner, John Book in Witness and Jack Ryan in...
, Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
, Michael Landon
Michael Landon
Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is widely known for his roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza , Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie , and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven...
, George Burns
George Burns
George Burns , born Nathan Birnbaum, was an American comedian, actor, and writer.He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, film, radio, television and movies, with and without his wife, Gracie Allen. His arched eyebrow and cigar smoke punctuation became...
, Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty
Warren Beatty born March 30, 1937) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter and director. He has received a total of fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning one for Best Director in 1982. He has also won four Golden Globe Awards including the Cecil B. DeMille Award.-Early life and...
, Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman is an American actor with a career in film, television, and theatre since 1960. He has been known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and vulnerable characters....
, Christopher Reeve
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...
and Luciano Pavarotti
Luciano Pavarotti
right|thumb|Luciano Pavarotti performing at the opening of the Constantine Palace in [[Strelna]], 31 May 2003. The concert was part of the celebrations for the 300th anniversary of [[St...
.
Beck and Smith were among the media personalities reporting their celebrity stories on E! Entertainment’s 1993-1999 “The Gossip Show,” occasionally squaring off in lighthearted Point-Counterpoint-style debates.
Beck authored "Marilyn Beck's Hollywood," a 1972
hard-cover book about the industry; also the 1988 Berkeley novel about Hollywood, "Only Make Believe". She is one of the authors of the 1995 book, "Unfinished Lives...What if?"
Awards and recognition
Beck has won honors from the Los Angeles City Council, the Southern California Motion Picture Council and the ICG Publicists Guild of America She is listed in Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in America, Who's Who of American Women and Who's Who in Entertainment.Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University is a private university located in Provo, Utah. It is owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , and is the United States' largest religious university and third-largest private university.Approximately 98% of the university's 34,000 students...
features a collection of Marilyn Beck works, including published columns from 1963 to 1993, videotapes, photographs, research files, celebrity correspondence, publicity material and drafts of her books.