Nick Clooney
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nick Clooney | |
 Nick Clooney, 2006
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| Born | January 13, 1934 Maysville, Kentucky, U.S. |
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| Occupation | Journalist, Politician, Anchorman, Game Show |
| Spouse | Nina Warren (m. 1959, present) 2 children |
| Children | George Clooney and Ada Clooney |
Nicholas Clooney (born January 13, 1934) is an American television journalist, anchorman, game show and American Movie Classics host, as well as a politician from the state of Kentucky. He is the brother of singer Rosemary Clooney, and the father of actor/film director George Clooney.
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[edit] Early life
Clooney was born Nicholas Joseph Clooney in Maysville, Kentucky, the son of Frances Marie (née Guilfoyle) and Andrew Joseph Clooney.[1] After a stint in the Army where he achieved a non-commissioned rank of Corporal, he moved to California for a try at show business. When that did not work out, Clooney moved to Ohio, where he met his wife, Nina, when she was a contestant in a beauty pageant he was judging.
[edit] Broadcasting and Journalism Career
Clooney had a five-year stint as a news anchor in Lexington, Kentucky, then went to Ohio to host his own TV show, the "Nick Clooney Show", first in Columbus, Ohio for WLWC television in the late 60s, then for Cincinnati's WCPO Channel 9 in 1969, and finally with its greatest degree of success for Cincinnati's WKRC-TV Channel 12 through the early 70s. The "Nick Clooney Show" was a local morning show, with a variety and talk-show format. In 1974, he gained his first national fame by hosting the short-lived ABC daytime game show The Money Maze.
After the non-renewal of the Money Maze, Clooney became the news director and anchor for WKRC-TV, then an ABC affiliate, and the former home of his talk and variety show. As a journalist, he is probably best remembered for his hard-hitting coverage of the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire and its aftermath, which stretched for several years. Many people in the region first heard about the fire from Clooney when WKRC interrupted its popular ABC Saturday-night prime-time shows to broadcast news of the fire. Clooney pursued a hard news focus that was quite different from the sensationalism often seen on local TV. Under his leadership, WKRC-TV became a solid #1 in the local news ratings, dethroning the CBS affiliate that had controlled the ratings for more than a decade under the leadership of Al Schottelkotte, WCPO-TV. After leaving WKRC in 1984, Clooney worked in Los Angeles, California as the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. co-anchor at KNBC-TV, and Salt Lake City, Utah, as an anchor. he returned to WKRC-TV in the late 1980s, but by that time, the NBC affiliate, WLWT, was #1 in the late newscast with Jerry Springer as its main anchor; Clooney was not able to lead WKRC back to ratings leadership as he had done in the past.
Clooney entered print media in 1989 with a column in The Cincinnati Post, then in 1994 after a short stint as a local NBC affiliate's news anchor in Buffalo, New York, resurfaced nationally in television as a host and researcher for the cable channel American Movie Classics, where he introduced and presented backgrounds of classic movies, along with Bob Dorian. He also worked as a presenter on a Cincinnati oldies radio station, WSAI-AM.
[edit] Run for Congress in 2004
Clooney ran as a Democrat in the 2004 election for a seat in the House of Representatives representing Kentucky's 4th Congressional District. He challenged Republican Geoff Davis for the open seat. Clooney was highly recruited to run by Ken Lucas, the outgoing Democratic congressman who had held onto the conservative district with his moderate views. With his name recognition and well-publicized endorsement from Lucas, Clooney was a big favorite to keep the seat in Democratic hands.
Early in 2004, Davis fought through a (sometimes rough) three-way Republican primary to earn the chance to face off against Clooney. Because of Clooney's standing and name recognition, Clooney was up 16 percentage points to start the race—and this according to a poll sponsored by Davis himself.
The press began to use the phrase "Heartland vs. Hollywood" to describe the race. In the home stretch, Clooney's lead began to disappear. He was dealt a blow when both The Kentucky Enquirer and the Community Press newspapers endorsed Davis.
Clooney lost the election, gaining 44% of the vote to Davis's 54%. At his concession speech on election day, he said his short career in politics was over. He went back to writing a column for The Cincinnati Post three times a week, covering a wide range of topics, until the Post's discontinuation in 2008.
[edit] Recognition
The University of Kentucky announced that it would present Clooney with an honorary degree at its 2007 commencement.[2]
[edit] Post-Congressional Run
After Clooney made a trip to Sudan with his son, George, he became a strong activist for Darfur. He has done several open forums and speeches at local high schools in Ohio & Kentucky, and has participated in different rallys for Darfur.
On March 16, 2007, Clooney was awarded an honorary diploma from St. Xavier High School, the high school he attended in Cincinnati before moving to California.
On October 11, 2007, Clooney visited Turpin High School in Cincinnati to talk to students about Darfur.
[edit] References
- ^ Genealogy.com - Ancestry of George Clooney
- ^ Nick Clooney to be speaker at UK commencement. Lexington Herald-Leader (2007-03-06). Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
[edit] External links
- Nick Clooney at the Internet Movie Database
- Campaign finance data from 2004 Congressional race
- Nick Clooney archives. The Cincinnati Post. E. W. Scripps Company. Archived from the original on 2005-04-03.
- Clooney, Nick. "Game show days a dizzying maze", The Cincinnati Post, E. W. Scripps Company, 1998-07-22. Archived from the original on 2007-01-07. Nick Clooney describes "The Money Maze"
- Clooney inducted into University of Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame
- Nick Clooney biography written by his wife, Nina Clooney
- 1975 interview (from sister Rosemary Clooney's site)
