Walter Kiernan

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Walter J. Kiernan (25 January 1902, New Haven, CT – 8 January 1978, Daytona Beach, FL) was an American radio, television, and print journalist and author, as well as television game show host during the early days of the medium.

[edit] Career

Kiernan began as a journalist in New Haven in 1920, starting on local papers, and then moving on to the Associated Press and then to the International News Service. He also wrote for The Saturday Evening Post He started The Town Crier newspaper of West Haven, Connecticut in 1930. As a a staff correspondent for the International News Service, Kiernan wrote for them a syndicated column called "Manhattan Side Streets" which appeared in papers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Indiana and Texas. His column "One Man's Opinion" was nationally syndicated by INS. He covered the arrival home to New York of Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, as well as the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Mary to the US in 1939. He had a "Broadway" column in the Dallas Times Herald.

In 1942, he co-authored with Damon Runyon The Life Story of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.

"Kiernan's Korner" was a news analysis program hosted by Kiernan on ABC Radio in the 1940s. The Paley Center for Media (formerly The Museum of Television and Radio) contains recordings of Kiernan's excited reporting and analysis on V-E Day in 1945. On ABC Radio in 1948 he had a chat program called That Reminds Me, with former New Jersey Governor Harold Hoffman and "Uncle Jim" Harkins. He had an ABC radio chat show in 1951 called Family Circle. Among his guests was Winston Churchill's actress daughter Sarah.

Kiernan hosted Kiernan's Corner in 1948, Sparring Partners in 1949, What's the Story from 1951 to 1953, Who Said That from 1951 to 1954, I've Got a Secret in 1952 and Who's the Boss in 1954. His appearances on network television were infrequent after the mid-1950s, but Kiernan began co-hosting NBC Radio's news magazine Monitor. He served in this capacity from 1955 to 1960, when the program's format changed. Kiernan was a familiar voice on New York radio for many years with his commentary program on WOR Radio, "One Man's Opinion". In addition to his long radio career with WOR, Kiernan also was an anchor on WOR-TV's local everning news. He retired from journalism after covering the 1968 Republican Convention in Miami.