Alistair Cooke

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Alistair Cooke on March 18, 1974

Alistair Cooke KBE (born November 20, 1908 in Salford , Lancashire , † March 30, 2004 in New York ; born Alfred Cooke ) was a British-American journalist and presenter.

Early years as a journalist

After graduating in 1934, Cooke successfully applied as a BBC film critic. He took over the position of Oliver Baldwin, the son of the incumbent British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin . At the same time he worked as a London correspondent for the American broadcaster NBC. Under the title Londoner Briefe (Orig .: London Letter ) he produced a weekly 15-minute radio report about the British way of life for American listeners. In 1936 he reported extensively on Edward VIII's abdication. He was also a member of a public discussion panel chaired by George Bernhard Shaw on the correct pronunciation of English.

Emigration to the USA

In 1937 Cooke moved to the United States and applied for American citizenship. On December 1, 1941, six days before the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor and the USA entered the war, the application was granted.

Shortly after his departure, Cooke had suggested to the BBC that the London Letters be continued from America as information for British listeners about life in America. Under the title Neues aus Manhattan (Orig .: Mainly about Manhattan ), the BBC broadcast some episodes of the series in 1938, but dropped the idea again with the beginning of the Second World War. Instead, Cooke was commissioned to write an American Commentary on the war.

During this time Cooke made extensive trips across the country. He wanted to collect material on the living conditions of the "simple" Americans during the war. However, since his publisher found little interest in books about the war, the manuscript disappeared into the filing system. It was not rediscovered until 60 years later, shortly before Cooke's death in March 2004, and published as a book in the United States in 2006 under the title The American Home Front 1941–1942 .

The first letter from America ( renamed from American Letter to Letter from America in 1950 ) was sent on March 24, 1946. The series was only planned for thirteen weeks. Should it prove to be a huge success, it would be extended for another thirteen weeks, the BBC told him. Then it has to be over because the BBC has no money. But the letter from America became the longest, uninterrupted broadcast series, presented by a single author in the history of radio. After 58 years and 2869 episodes, the series was discontinued in March 2004 - Cooke was now 95 years old and suffered from heart problems.

Alistair Cooke also reported for the Manchester Guardian (later The Guardian) for 25 years. He became known and popular in the USA primarily through the series of Masterpiece Theater (Orig .: Masterpiece Theater ) broadcast by PBS (Public Broadcasting Service ). Cooke hosted and produced the series from 1971 to 1992. Both in the UK and in the US was moderated by him television series America: A Personal History of the United States (Orig .: America: A Personal History of the United States ). The series, broadcast for the first time in 1973, and the book of the same name became bestsellers.

It was not least the success of these series that prompted the US Congress to invite Cooke as a guest speaker at the United States' Bicentennial.

Old age and death

Alistair Cooke died of lung cancer on March 30, 2004 at the age of 95 in New York. His body was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in Central Park in New York at his own request. The celebration took place among close family and friends, under conspiratorial circumstances so as not to publicly violate a corresponding ban on funerals in the city of New York. On December 23, 2005, Cooke's daughter Susan confirmed a report in the New York Daily News that her father's body had been "surgically looted" prior to cremation. The prosecutor's investigation revealed that her father's body parts had been surgically removed and sold for transplantation by workers at Biomedical Tissue Services (BTS) in Fort Lee, New Jersey. This happened without the family's knowledge or consent.

The Cooke case was just the tip of the iceberg. The prosecution spoke of more than 1,000 bodies on which the BTS company had misconducted in New York and Pennsylvania between 2000 and 2005. On June 27, 2008, BTS chief Michael Mastromarino was sentenced to 18 to 54 years imprisonment by the Supreme Court of Brooklyn, New York, for a number of offenses including theft, grave opening and unlawful dissection. Five years later, on July 7, 2013, Mastromarino died in custody at the age of 49 of cancer.

Fonts

  • Douglas Fairbanks: The Making of a Screen Character. 1940.
  • Mencken. 1955.
  • A William March Omnibus: with an introduction by Alistair Cooke. 1956.
  • A Generation on Trial: The USA v. Alger Hiss. 1982, ISBN 0-313-23373-X .
  • The patient has the floor. 1986, ISBN 1-55504-214-7 .
  • Six Men. 1977, ISBN 0-370-30056-4 . New edition: 1995, ISBN 1-55970-317-2 .
    • Rebels: biographical notes on prominent contemporaries. Transferred from the American by Albrecht Joseph. Belser, Stuttgart / Zurich 1978, ISBN 3-7630-1186-2 .
  • Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements. 1996, ISBN 1-55970-327-X .
  • Memories of the Great and the Good. 2000, ISBN 1-55970-545-0 .
  • The American Home Front: 1941-1942. 2006, ISBN 0-87113-939-1 .
  • Alistair Cooke's American Journey: Life on the Home Front in the Second World War. 2006, ISBN 0-7139-9879-2 .

"America books"

  • Talk about America
  • Letter from America: The Early Years 1946-1968.
  • America Observed: From the 1940s to the 1980s / Ronald A. Wells.
  • Letters from America: The Americans, Letters from America and Talk About America.
  • One Man's America.
  • The Americans.
  • Alistair Cooke's America. 2002.
  • Letter from America: (1946-2004). 2004, ISBN 1-4000-4402-2 .
  • The Marvelous Mania: Alistair Cooke on Golf. 2007, ISBN 978-071399996-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alistair Cooke's bones 'stolen' BBC on December 22, 2005
  2. ^ Alistair Cooke's ashes scattered in Central Park The Daily Telegraph on May 30, 2004
  3. ^ Alistair Cooke's bones were stolen for implantation, his family says New York Times on December 23, 2005
  4. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/09/nyregion/michael-mastromarino...t-guilty-in-organ-scheme-dies-at-49.html Michael Mastromarino, dentist guilty in organ scheme , this at 49 , New York Times on July 8, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Cooke, Alistair
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cooke, Alfred (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American journalist and presenter
DATE OF BIRTH November 20, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Salford , Lancashire , United Kingdom
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2004
Place of death New York City , United States