GRAHAM, 86, PIONEER OF TV TALK SHOWS.Byline: Judie Glave Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. Virginia Graham Virginia Graham (4 July 1912, Chicago - 14 December 1998, New York City) born Virginia Komiss was a daytime TV talk show host from the mid-1950s to the mid-1970s. She started in the 1930's as host of the radio show Weekday. , hostess of talk shows in the 1950s to 1970s that are considered forerunners to today's daytime television Daytime television is the general term for television shows produced that are intended to air during the daytime hours. While some shows are identified as "daytime TV shows", "daytime television" is not a genre per se. , has died of complications from a heart attack. She was 86. Graham suffered a heart attack Dec. 11 and died in the hospital Tuesday night, her granddaughter, Jan Bohrer, said Wednesday. Graham started in radio in the 1930s as host of ``Weekday.'' She was best known for the nationally syndicated television talk shows, ``Girl Talk'' on ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. from 1963 to 1969 and ``The Virginia Graham Show'' from 1970 to 1972. In recent years, she made television appearances on the ``Roseanne,'' ``Rosie O'Donnell'' and ``Tom Snyder'' shows. ``She just lived so large and loved being a star,'' Bohrer said. ``She loved when people came up to her and recognized her.'' She was a hostess on the syndicated ``Food for Thought'' from 1956-61. Her ``Girl Talk'' blended news, entertainment, celebrity interviews and female-oriented features much like the current ABC show ``The View.'' Sy Presten, publicist for ``Girl Talk,'' called Graham ``the sharpest woman I ever met in my life. She had no cue cards. She had no TelePrompTers.'' ``60 Minutes'' correspondent Mike Wallace, who worked with Graham on ``Weekday,'' said he often played tricks to get her laughing during broadcasts. Once, she got her revenge by cursing at him when he believed they were on the air. Technicians, in on the joke, were actually airing a taped piece. ``I really thought that I was with somebody who was freaking freak·ing adv. & adj. Slang Used as an intensive: Traffic was a freaking nightmare. [Alteration of frigging, present participle of frig.] out,'' Wallace said. ``She was shrewd in a lovely way.'' Graham also was a frequent substitute host on NBC NBC in full National Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. commercial broadcasting company. It was formed in 1926 by RCA Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), and Westinghouse and was the first U.S. company to operate a broadcast network. shows including ``Strike It Rich,'' ``The Big Payoff,'' ``Today,'' and ``The Jack Paar Show.'' The 5-foot-8-inch Graham once described herself as ``a big blonde'' - an apt description of the elegant, larger-than-life television personality, who was known for her lacquered hair, red fingernails and no-nonsense attitude. ``She went to the hospital with a full manicure and pedicure,'' Bohrer said. ``We joked that if she knew we had to take off some of her nail polish, she would be furious.'' Born Virginia Komiss in Chicago in 1912, Graham graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in anthropology at age 18 and went on to get her masters in journalism at Northwestern University. Graham married theatrical costumer Harry Guttenberg, who died at age 80 in 1980. The two moved to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , where Graham became a script writer and radio voice of cooking specialist ``Betty Baker,'' a subsidiary of Betty Crocker. In 1947, she and 13 other women started the Cerebral Palsy cerebral palsy (sərē`brəl pôl`zē), disability caused by brain damage before or during birth or in the first years, resulting in a loss of voluntary muscular control and coordination. Foundation. Graham also starred in a Chicago production of Neil Simon's ``Barefoot in the Park Barefoot in the Park is a play by Neil Simon. Its focus is on newlywed couple Corie and Paul Bratter, who are setting up house in a minuscule fifth-floor walkup apartment in a downtown-Manhattan brownstone. ,'' and wrote several books, including ``Life After Harry: My Adventures in Widowhood'' and the yet-to-be-published ``I Love Antiques but I Don't Want to Be One.'' In addition to Bohrer, Graham is survived by her daughter, Lynn Bohrer, who has a cable-access show in New York, and a grandson, Stephen Bohrer. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: GRAHAM |
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