Barbara Frum

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Barbara Frum
Barbara Frum

Barbara Frum, OC, BA, LL.D (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was a journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

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[edit] Personal life

Born Barbara Rosberg in Niagara Falls, New York, Frum grew up across the river in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She studied history at the University of Toronto. She married Toronto dentist Murray Frum (1957) who later became a real estate developer. They had two children and adopted a third.

[edit] Career

After her graduation, Frum worked as a radio commentator and magazine writer. In 1971, she joined CBC Radio as one of the first hosts of As It Happens, a newsmagazine program which used the telephone to conduct live interviews with newsmakers and other witnesses to news events, as well as quirky human interest stories. Frum's skills as a tough, incisive and well-informed interviewer[1] quickly made the program one of CBC Radio's most popular and enduring programs (it still airs today, in virtually the same format), and she continued to host until 1981.

Between October 1974 and July 1975, she hosted her own self-titled talk show.

Frum won the National Press Club of Canada Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Journalism in 1975. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1979.[1]

In 1981, CBC Television created The Journal, a newsmagazine series which would follow The National each night at 10:22 p.m., and Frum and Mary Lou Finlay were hired as the show's hosts. On January 11, 1982, The Journal debuted as a showcase for features which delved more deeply into the day's news than the traditional newscast format of The National.

The show included field reports, short documentaries, public forums, debates, business, sports, and arts and science news, but Frum's interviews were the show's centrepiece, and made it one of Canadian television's most popular programs. After the first year, Frum became the sole host of the program, although Finlay continued to be associated with the program as a reporter and documentarian. Frum interviewed many notable people, including British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher[2] and Nelson Mandela.

She angered many in 1989 when she refused to acknowledge that the École Polytechnique massacre by a killer who proclaimed as he shot and stabbed women, "I hate feminists!" was an attack on women and feminism. "Why do we diminish it by suggesting that it was an act against just one group?" Frum said Dec. 7, 1989 on The Journal. [1]

Frum was frequently parodied on CODCO by Greg Malone, whose portrayal involved the recurring catchphrase "But are you bitter?" Frum and Malone (in his Frum drag) presented a Gemini Award together. She was also parodied on Sesame Park (the Canadian version of Sesame Street), with a round, purple muppet named "Barbara Plum", host of "The Notebook". Additionally, in the Canadian animated series The Raccoons, Frum portrayed a reporter, called "Barbara LaFrum" who interviewed Cyril Sneer after his pigs told her of his unsavory business practices.

[edit] Death

Frum died of leukemia on March 26, 1992. That evening, virtually the entire broadcasts of both The National and The Journal were a tribute to her and a retrospective of her career. Although some cultural commentators have suggested that the CBC using an entire newscast to pay tribute to one of its own hosts could be seen as excessive, it was in fact one of the highest-rated individual programs in Canadian television history.[citation needed]

Among the many tributes to her was a editorial cartoon depicting her at the gates of heaven with a reporter's notebook, insisting on interviewing God. Several other editorial cartoons simply depicted The Journal's set with an empty anchor chair.

[edit] Legacy

Frum's three children were David, Linda and Matthew. Her son David was a presidential speech writer for George W. Bush and is currently a researcher with the American Enterprise Institute. Her daughter Linda is the author of a biography of her mother.

The atrium in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto was named in Frum's honour.

Shortly after her death, the North York Public Library branch (now Toronto Public Library) at 20 Covington Rd was named in honour of Barbara Frum for her accomplishments as a distinguished broadcaster and journalist.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Lamontagne, Manon. FRUM, BARBARA. The Museum of Broadcast Communications. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.
  2. ^ Margaret Thatcher: Britain's Iron Lady. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved on 2008-04-24.

[edit] External links

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