John Rosenfield

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Max John Rosenfield, Jr. (born April 5, 1900 in Dallas , Texas , † November 26, 1966 ) was an American journalist , columnist and cultural critic . He worked for the Dallas Morning News and was considered the most influential critic in the American Southwest.

Life

Rosenfield was born in Dallas in 1900 to Jennie Lind (Kramer) and Max John Rosenfield, Sr. His father, of German descent, emigrated to New York in 1865. He worked for many years in accounts receivable management at the department store chain Sanger Brothers in Dallas. The mother was from Louisville , Kentucky .

Rosenfield, Jr. attended Forest Avenue High School through 1917; he was interested in history and languages, and he also took piano lessons. He attended concerts and operas in New York City at an early age. After graduating from high school, he began studying at the University of Texas at Austin and graduated from the United States Army Officers' Training School. As a junior reporter, he first worked for Dallas Morning News .

After the First World War , he continued his Bachelor of Arts studies at Columbia University in New York, with the Metropolitan Opera (Met) becoming an important stop in his spare time. Rosenfield published first short stories and a contribution to the New York Herald . He was also an assistant to Burns Mantle for the New York Evening Mail and became one of New York's first film critics . For a short time he worked as an advertising specialist for Paramount Pictures on Long Island , New York, where he made many contacts in the film industry. He later also wrote articles for the New York Times .

Instead of accepting an offer in the public domain of the Met, his company transferred him to Dallas in 1923 at his own request. That same year, the baseball fan joined the sports section of the Dallas Morning News . Due to his one-sided sports knowledge, he switched to the entertainment department in 1925 in exchange with Chauncey Brown, which he expanded and headed from then on. The film played a major role in this part of the newspaper. So he promoted u. a. the actresses Ginger Rogers , Ann Sheridan and Linda Darnell . From 1926 to 1928 appeared in the Dallas Morning News Comics , which became known under the name Texas History Movies . In it, Rosenfield and his cartoonist Jack Patton dedicated themselves to the history of Texas. The Southwest Press first published the comics in bound form in 1928. Rosenfield was also the author of The Passing Show column . His successor as music critic was John Ardoin .

As a cultural journalist, he achieved a great reputation in the southwestern United States . The news magazine Newsweek portrayed him twice. The magazines Look , Life and Harper’s also deal with him. He has been repeatedly invited to the Metropolitan Opera Quiz radio program . In the 1940s he was instrumental in the revival of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra . He helped determine the program and the conductors from Paul van Katwijk to Paul Kletzki . He was also instrumental in founding the Theater '47 (1947), the Dallas Theater Center (1954) and the Dallas Opera (1957).

In 1955 and 1960 he received the annual award of the Southwest Theater Conference and in 1956 the Critics' Award of the Directors Guild of America for his film reviews . In 1960 he was awarded the Service to Music in Dallas by Sigma Alpha Iota . In 1965 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas . In 1966 he received an award from the Big "D" Chapter of the B'nai B'rith Women.

Rosenfield was a member of the Temple Emanu-El Reformed Church in Dallas. In 1923 he married Claire Burger, whom he had met in New York. His son John Max Rosenfield (1924–2013) was an art historian. He died in 1966 at his home in Park Cities , Dallas County .

Posthumously (1967) the School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University established a John Rosenfield Scholarship in Drama.

Lore

Archives about John Rosenfield are in the John Rosenfield Collection in the Dallas History & Archives Division of the Dallas Public Library .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mike Zambrano, Jr .: Texas History Movies . In: Handbook of Texas Online , uploaded January 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ Laurie E. Jasinski: Ardoin, John . In: Handbook of Texas Online , uploaded May 8, 2014; changed on August 30, 2014.
  3. ↑ Helen Sheehy: Jones, Margaret Virginia . In: Handbook of Texas Online , uploaded June 15, 2016; changed on July 26, 2017.
  4. ↑ Laurie E. Jasinski: Dallas Opera . In: Handbook of Texas Online , uploaded June 26, 2014; changed on November 1, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Rosenfield, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rosenfield, Max John junior (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist, music and culture critic
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Dallas , Texas
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1966
Place of death Dallas , Texas