1. Dorothy Fuldheim was an American journalist and anchor who spent the majority of her career at The Cleveland Press and WEWS-TV, both based in Cleveland, Ohio.
14 Facts About Dorothy Fuldheim
1. 2.
Dorothy Fuldheim is credited with being the first woman in the United States to anchor a television news broadcast as well to host her own television show, a role she held at WEWS for 37 years.
3.
Dorothy Fuldheim, an American of Jewish descent, was born in Passaic, New Jersey.
4.
Dorothy Fuldheim entered broadcasting with the debut of a weekly program over Cleveland radio station WTAM on December 12,1929, and added a daily program over the NBC Red Network on August 28,1933, that WTAM originated.
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Dorothy Fuldheim traveled internationally and visited interwar Europe on an annual basis, notably interviewing Engelbert Dollfuss two days before his assassination, and Adolf Hitler in 1932 shortly before his rise to power.
6.
WJW radio, based in Cleveland, began airing daily news commentaries by Dorothy Fuldheim starting in June 1944 as part of their Newspaper of the Air program.
7.
Dorothy Fuldheim was hired by WJW based on her reputation as a public speaker, a career that continued unabated.
8.
In 1959, Dorothy Fuldheim, who had been with the station before it even went on air, began to formulate her own newscast in response to the new Eyewitness News on KYW, which was the first half-hour newscast in the country.
9.
Dorothy Fuldheim centered her newscast around her interviews, a general overview of the news, and her commentaries.
10.
Dorothy Fuldheim was the first woman in the United States to have her own television news analysis program.
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At this same time, Dorothy Fuldheim was frequently lampooned and skewered on WJW-TV's Shock Theater with Ghoulardi.
12.
Dorothy Fuldheim was not shy about supporting unpopular causes, nor in voicing her opposition if she disagreed with a guest.
13.
In 1980, Dorothy Fuldheim was inducted in the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame and covered major 1980s events: She traveled to London to cover the 1981 royal wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, the funeral of assassinated Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and to Northern Ireland to interview the family of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.
14.
In 2003, Dorothy Fuldheim was posthumously awarded an Ohio Historical Marker for her contributions to journalism, which is displayed in front of the WEWS studios.