Walter J. Kiernan (25 January 1902, New Haven, CT – 8 January 1978, Daytona Beach, FL) was an American radio, television, and print journalist and author, as well as television
game showA game show is a type of television program in which members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering questions or solving problems usually for money and/or prizes. On some shows contestants compete against other players or another team while...
host during the early days of the medium.
Career
Kiernan began as a journalist in New Haven in 1920, starting on local papers, and then moving on to the Associated Press and then to the International News Service. He also wrote for
The Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. While the publication traces its historical roots to Benjamin Franklin and The Pennsylvania Gazette first published in 1728, The Saturday Evening Post, rechristened under new ownership in 1821 as a four-page newspaper, eventually became...
He started
The Town Crier newspaper of West Haven, Connecticut in 1930. As a staff correspondent for the International News Service, Kiernan wrote for them a syndicated column called "Manhattan Side Streets" which appeared in papers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Indiana and Texas. His column "One Man's Opinion" was nationally syndicated by INS. He covered the arrival home to New York of
Douglas "Wrong Way" CorriganDouglas Corrigan was an American aviator born in Galveston, Texas. He was nicknamed "Wrong Way" in 1938. After a transcontinental flight from Long Beach, California, to New York, he flew from Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, New York, to Ireland, though his flight plan was filed to return to Long...
, as well as the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Mary to the US in 1939. He had a "
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
" column in the
Dallas Times HeraldThe Dallas Times Herald, founded in 1888 by a merger of the Dallas Times and the Dallas Herald, was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and two George Polk Awards, for local and regional reporting...
.
In 1942, he co-authored with
Damon RunyonDamon Runyon was a newspaperman and writer.He was best known for his short stories celebrating the world of Broadway in New York City that grew out of the Prohibition era. To New Yorkers of his generation, a "Damon Runyon character" evoked a distinctive social type from the Brooklyn or Midtown...
The Life Story of Captain Eddie RickenbackerEdward Vernon Rickenbacker was an American fighter ace in World War I and Medal of Honor recipient. He was also a race car driver and automotive designer, a government consultant in military matters and a pioneer in air transportation, particularly as the longtime head of Eastern Air Lines.-Early...
.
"Kiernan's Korner" was a news analysis program hosted by Kiernan on ABC Radio in the 1940s. The Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio) contains recordings of Kiernan's excited reporting and analysis on V-E Day in 1945.
On ABC Radio in 1948 he had a chat program called
That Reminds Me, with former New Jersey Governor Harold Hoffman and "Uncle Jim" Harkins. He had an ABC radio chat show in 1951 called
Family Circle. Among his guests was
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
's actress daughter Sarah.
Kiernan hosted
Kiernan's Corner in 1948,
Sparring Partners in 1949,
What's the StoryWhat's the Story was an American television game show broadcast on the DuMont Television Network from July 25, 1951 to September 23, 1955 and was originally hosted by Walter Raney. The series aired in eleven different time slots during its four-year run....
from 1951 to 1953,
Who Said That from 1951 to 1954,
I've Got a SecretI've Got a Secret is a weekly panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?. The original version of the show premiered on June 19, 1952...
in 1952 and
Who's the Boss in 1954. His appearances on network television were infrequent after the mid-1950s, but Kiernan began co-hosting NBC Radio's news magazine
Monitor. He served in this capacity from 1955 to 1960, when the program's format changed. Kiernan was a familiar voice on New York radio for many years with his commentary program on WOR Radio, "One Man's Opinion". In addition to his long radio career with WOR, Kiernan also was an anchor on WOR-TV's local everning news. He retired from journalism after covering the 1968 Republican Convention in Miami.
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