Shana Alexander

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Shana Alexander (* 6. October 1925 as Shana Ager ; † 25. June 2005 in Hermosa Beach , California ) was an American journalist . She was a writer and columnist for Life magazine and the first woman in that position. Beyond that, however, she was better known for her debates at "Point-Counterpoint" in the news magazine 60 Minutes with the journalist James J. Kilpatrick, known as conservative .

Life

She was born as the daughter of the composer and pianist Milton Ager (for whom he wrote the song " Ain't She Sweet " in 1927 ) and the journalist Cecelia Ager .

Alexander graduated from Vassar College in 1945 with a major in anthropology . She got into writing through a vacation job at the New York newspaper PM , where her mother works. She was a freelance writer for Junior Bazaar and Mademoiselle magazine before working as a reporter for Life . There she wrote the column "The Feminine Eye" in the 1960s .

In 1962 she wrote the article "They Decide Who Lives, Who Dies: Medical miracle puts moral burden on small committe" (in German: You decide who lives and who dies: Medical miracle puts a moral burden on a small committee), which one sparked a major debate within the United States about the scarcity of dialysis machines .

From 1969, Alexander was the first editor of McCall’s monthly women's magazine . However, she left this post again in 1971, as she was found to have a fig leaf function in a sexist environment.

In 1975 she wrote columns for Newsweek and then switched to television. She replaced journalist Nicholas von Hoffman on 60 Minutes to debate with James J. Kilpatrick on Point-Counterpoint for the next four years. Though she downplayed that time herself, the debates with Kilpatrick were greatly perceived, so they were later parodied on Saturday Night Live , with Jane Curtin in the role of Alexander and Dan Aykroyd as Kilpatrick.

One of her articles was filmed in 1965 under the title The Slender Thread, starring Sidney Poitier and Anne Bancroft .

Shana Alexander died of cancer on June 23, 2005 at the age of 79. She was married twice, both marriages ended in divorce. Their only daughter committed suicide in 1987.

Books

  • Anyone's Daughter
  • Happy Days: My Mother, My Father, My Sister & Me (1995), autobiography
  • Very Much a Lady ( Edgar Award , Best Fact Crime book, 1984)
  • Very Much a Lady: The Untold Story of Jean Harris and Dr. Herman Tarnower (1983)
  • When She Was Bad
  • Nutcracker
  • The Astonishing Elephant (2000)

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Life 1962; 53: 102-25.
  2. ^ The Slender Thread. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  3. ↑ Shana Alexander, 79, Dies; Passionate Debater on TV from The New York Times, June 25, 2005, accessed April 27, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Alexander, Shana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ager, Shana (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist and book author
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , United States
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 2005
Place of death Hermosa Beach , California