Lawrence E. Spivak

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Lawrence Edmund Spivak (June 11, 1900 - March 9, 1994) was an American publisher and journalist who was best known as the host of NBC's Meet the Press from 1965 to 1975, a program he produced and co-created with original host Martha Rountree. Prior to his assuming the moderator's chair, he served on the panel, while Ms. Rountree, and later Ned Brooks, moderated.

When the program premiered in November 1947, Spivak was already fairly well-known as the publisher of The American Mercury, which was then a still relatively mainstream conservative publication best known as the literary home of H. L. Mencken rather than the radically racialist publication it was to become during its final, dying years. He also published Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He sold Meet the Press to NBC in 1955, keeping his roles as panelist and producer at a salary of more than $75,000 per year.

Spivak was distinguished by his rather dapper appearance, his wardrobe usually including a bowtie and heavy-rimmed glasses. He asked the first question of the Meet the Press guest and then handed off to the other journalists on the panel, which usually totalled four during his decade-long tenure as host of the program.

Spivak and his wife Charlotte lived in the Sheraton-Park Hotel in Washington. He died of congestive heart failure at Washington's Sibley Memorial Hospital.