46 Facts About Frances Horwich

Frances Horwich was born on July 16,1907, in Ottawa, Ohio.

Frances Horwich was the daughter of Samuel and Rosa Gratz Rappaport.

Frances Horwich's father had emigrated from Austria and owned a general store in the town.

Frances Horwich's mother had emigrated from Russia; she was the youngest of their children.

Frances Horwich's mother taught her children various types of needlework and crafts.

Frances Horwich's father taught his children how to relate to people by giving each of them a chance to work at the store counter when they were tall enough to see over it.

Frances Horwich sent all of his children to college; her two brothers became pediatricians and her two sisters entered the health care field.

Frances Horwich was a bright student and was allowed to skip grades during her education.

Frances Horwich described it as "being thrown out" of school and said she was "a badly-adjusted 15 year old" when she entered the University of Chicago.

Frances Horwich earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago in 1929; her first teaching assignment was a first grade class in Evanston, Illinois, from 1929 to 1932.

Frances Horwich then became the supervisor of the Works Progress Administration's nursery schools in Chicago until 1935.

Frances Horwich earned her master's degree in education at Columbia University in 1933 and directed junior kindergartens in Winnetka, Illinois, from 1935 to 1938.

Frances Horwich was named dean of education at Pestalozzi-Frobel Teachers College in Chicago in 1938, where she worked until 1940.

Frances Horwich earned her doctorate at Northwestern University in 1942.

Frances Horwich then left the Chicago area for a time, becoming the head of the Hessian Hills School at Croton-on-Hudson, New York, and teaching for two years at the University of North Carolina.

Frances Horwich met her husband, Harvey, an attorney and Air Force historian, when both were religious school teachers at Chicago's KAM Temple.

Frances Horwich was one of those on the list; she was contacted and invited to audition for the show.

Frances Horwich was hesitant about being the only person on camera but agreed to audition.

Frances Horwich won the job and was still somewhat uneasy about being on television alone, but she decided to give it a try.

Frances Horwich was given two weeks to learn how to draw and paint as well as do puzzles upside down so they could be seen by the camera.

Toward the end of the program, Frances Horwich would ask her students to find mother and bring her to the television set.

Frances Horwich then discussed what lessons and activities were done today and what supplies would be needed for future programs.

Frances Horwich had a number of rights in her contract with NBC.

Frances Horwich had the right of refusal of program sponsors.

Frances Horwich was named Woman of the Year in Education by the Associated Press for 1953.

Frances Horwich was the author of many Ding Dong School branded books for children; the network produced Ding Dong School merchandise such as pencils and coloring books.

Frances Horwich only endorsed items which were not expensive and were educational.

Frances Horwich rose at 4:30 AM on weekdays to go over her lesson plan for the day's broadcast and was in bed by 9 PM She often spent the evening preparing props for the next day.

Since Frances Horwich did not like to repeat programs, she recorded kinescopes to be broadcast while she was away.

The children recognized "Miss Frances Horwich" and sang the Ding Dong School song all the way to Miami.

Frances Horwich's husband viewed all of this with good humor, saying, "Just call me Mr Frances".

Frances Horwich then greeted the woman's children and left the shop.

Frances Horwich made some personal appearances; when she did, the crowds were larger than those for many film stars.

Frances Horwich stated that she shook 17,000 hands when making her first personal appearance.

In 1954, Frances Horwich was appointed Head of Children's Programming for the NBC television network, where she supervised all of NBC's children's programming.

Frances Horwich moved to New York in early 1955 and Ding Dong School was then broadcast from New York.

Frances Horwich resigned from NBC in protest of the commercialism of children's education.

Frances Horwich refused to advertise products a child could not use or that appeared to glorify violence.

Frances Horwich was asked to accept a sponsor whose product was BB guns; when Horwich refused, Ding Dong School was canceled.

Frances Horwich resigned from her position, but the network refused to accept her resignation.

Since Frances Horwich owned the rights to Ding Dong School, she was able to sign with Chicago's WGN-TV to broadcast the show beginning in August 1958; the program had been off the air since being canceled by NBC.

In 1965, Frances Horwich was hired as the Director of Children's Programming for the new UHF television station in Chicago, WFLD.

In 1970, Frances Horwich discovered she was two quarters of work short of qualifying for her American Federation of Television and Radio Artists pension.

Frances Horwich was hired to do some specials on education by WMAQ-TV.

Frances Horwich moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1973 because of her husband's health; Harvey died in 1974.

Frances Horwich died of congestive heart failure on 22 July 2001 at the age of 94.