Howard Smith (director)
| Howard Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
December 10, 1936 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | May 1, 2014 (aged 77) New York, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | journalist, film director |
| Known for | producer and director of the 1972 Oscar-winning documentary film Marjoe; long-time columnist for The Village Voice newspaper; WPLJ-FM radio show host |
| Spouse(s) | Susan Calder Smith (divorced) |
| Children |
Cass Calder Smith Zachary Charles Smith |
| Parent(s) | Charles Smith Sadie Heitner Smith |
Howard Smith (December 10, 1936 – May 1, 2014) was an American Oscar-winning film director, producer, journalist, screenwriter, actor and radio broadcaster.
Howard Smith was born in Brooklyn in 1936 and raised in Newark, New Jersey where his parents, Charles and Sadie (née Heitner) Smith, owned a cigar store. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. He was interested in inventions when he was a youngster. He attended Pace College in New York City but left to write poetry. Smith started his career as a photographer. His work appeared in Life, Newsweek and many other national publications.
Several years later, Smith pursued journalism from another perspective and became a writer for more than thirty years. His articles appeared in newspapers and magazines ranging from Playboy to The New York Times; from the Ladies Home Journal to The Village Voice.
He wrote regularly for the New York City based weekly newspaper, The Village Voice, in the 1960s and 1970s. One of his regular columns was "Scenes". Smith was hired by Village Voice co-founder Dan Wolf and continued to write for them until 1989.
During the Village Voice's early and formative years, his column, "Scenes", with its reporting on the emerging counterculture, became a part of the paper's groundbreaking new journalism. The column ran weekly for twenty years and became known for its cutting edge coverage and innovative short-form critiques. His work for the Village Voice is frequently cited as one of the highly influential examples of the new participatory journalism that made less rigid the distinction between the observer and the observed.
At the peak of the historic Stonewall Riots in New York City in 1969, he managed to get inside the now famous bar with his Village Voice reporter's police credentials. He was the only journalist who reported about the siege from that dangerous vantage point. He was later interviewed on this first-hand reporting in the 2010 documentary film, Stonewall Uprising.
...
Wikipedia