Title: Charles Collingwood Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1943-1985 (bulk 1952-1985)

Creator:

• Collingwood, Charles (1917-1985)

Call Number: U.S. Mss 4AF; PH 3686; PH 3687

Quantity: 5.0 c.f. (4 record center cartons, 2 archives boxes, 1 flat box) and photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers, mainly 1952-1985, documenting the career of Charles Collingwood, a prominent CBS news reporter and commentator. Included are scripts for Edward R. Murrow and the News, WCBS-TV Views the Press, Report to the West, and various CBS Reports specials such as “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” “Vietnam: How We Got In - Can We Get Out?,” “A Timetable for Vietnam,” and “Picasso is 90.” Of special note are small files concerning his handling of the blacklisting issue while president of the New York AFTRA local, interviews with Valerie Giscard d'Estang, Harold MacMillan, and Helmut Schmidt; and information as part of his coverage of political elections on the use of computers in predicting results in 1952. The special Emmy Award for WCBS-TV Views the Press is also included.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0004af

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Award-winning CBS news correspondent and analyst Charles Cummings Collingwood was born in Three Rivers, Michigan, on June 4, 1917. He spent his early youth in Ithaca, New York, where his father, G. Harris Collingwood was a professor of forestry at Cornell University. When young Collingwood was six his father accepted a position with the U.S. Forest Service, and the family moved to Washington, D.C. After graduation from Central High School, Collingwood attended Deep Springs School and graduated cum laude from Cornell University in 1939, with a major in philosophy. In his final year at Cornell, Collingwood won a Rhodes Scholarship, as well as a scholarship for the study of international affairs at Geneva, after which he intended to study law. However, after the outbreak of World War II, he abandoned his studies and went to work in 1940 for the United Press as a reporter in London.

One year later he was recruited by Edward R. Murrow, and he joined the CBS news staff. In subsequent months Collingwood broadcast on-the-scene news stories concerning the blitz, the Allied invasion of North Africa (for which he won a Peabody Award in 1942 for his coverage of the Darlan assassination), and the Normandy invasion, and he was one of sixteen reporters selected to witness the German surrender.

In 1946 Collingwood returned to the United States to become the chief CBS United Nations reporter, but soon after at his own request he worked as west coast correspondent. From 1949 to 1952 he was the network's White House correspondent. In 1952 he took a leave from this position to become special assistant to Mutual Security Director Averell Harriman. In 1954 Collingwood returned to the network as reporter and news analyst. Already well-known to the public for his wartime broadcasts, Collingwood became the regular summer replacement for Edward R. Murrow, and he was associated with many of the network's best public affairs series of the era: Adventure, Odyssey, and Chronicle, which dealt with art, science, and literature, and with acclaimed local program WCBS-TV Views the Press.

At the urging of John Henry Faulk and Orson Bean, in 1955 Collingwood ran as a moderate candidate and was elected president of the New York local of AFTRA. Although the anti-Communist hysteria was then at its height, Collingwood took a strong position against the blacklist to which some members of the local were being subjected.

In 1957 Collingwood was named chief of the London Bureau, from which post he returned in 1959 to succeed Murrow on Person to Person. In 1964 he was named chief foreign correspondent for CBS, and he continued to work in this capacity until 1975 when he returned to New York. Throughout his career Collingwood was associated with many award-winning news specials broadcast as part of the CBS Reports series. Among these were “A Timetable for Vietnam” (1969), “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” (1962) and “Picasso is 90” (1971).

From the early 1960s to the late 1970s Collingwood covered Vietnam, with his work resulting in many news specials on the subject. In 1968 Collingwood was the first American newsman to be admitted to North Vietnam. A novel, The Defector, published in 1970 was partially based on his observations and experiences in Vietnam. From 1975 through 1980 Collingwood worked in New York City, reporting and anchoring various CBS News specials and broadcasting on radio. He retired in 1982 and assumed special correspondent status.

Charles Collingwood was married to the actress Louise Allbritton. After her death in 1979, he married Tatiana Angelini Jolin. Charles Collingwood died of cancer on October 3, 1985.

During his career Collingwood was widely acclaimed as one of the best CBS newsmen and his work received a number of awards. In addition to the previously-mentioned Peabody Award, he also received the Headliners Awards in 1942 and 1948 and several awards from the Overseas Press Club.

When compared with his reputation as one of the most distinguished journalists at CBS, the Collingwood papers are a disappointing collection. There is no information in the papers for his early career as a war correspondent and his association with Edward R. Murrow or for his coverage of the United Nations. Furthermore, although there is documentation for many of the later news projects on which he worked, for only a few is the documentation more extensive than final broadcast scripts. The correspondence in the collection includes exchanges with professional associates, friends, and with the public, but it too is disappointing, for it is spotty and includes little information on actual coverage of the news, planning and development for news specials, or the innerworkings of CBS. Scripts are the most extensive part of the collection; they best document his work on WCBS-TV Views the Press, various CBS Reports, and as a regular substitute for Edward R. Murrow during the 1950s.

The collection is arranged as personal and biographical files, speeches and writings, scripts, correspondence, and background files.

PERSONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL FILES consist of biographical clippings, documentation concerning his presidency of the New York AFTRA local and his longtime interest in art collecting, expense statements and miscellaneous financial records, letters of condolence written to his widow, transcripts of a few letters written by his father and other members of the Collingwood family, and publicity photographs. The Awards file includes his special Emmy.

CORRESPONDENCE consists of general professional exchanges, audience mail, and a few special subject files. The coverage of the professional correspondence is incomplete, primarily covering 1952 and 1957-1985. For the period that is documented the letters seldom relate to the most important aspects of his work. More interesting, although brief, is the correspondence written in his capacity as president of the New York AFTRA chapter. The viewer mail primarily concerns the specials “A Timetable for Vietnam,” “The Mystery of Stonehenge,” and a program on Winston Churchill.

SPEECHES AND WRITINGS consists of speeches, articles, typewritten notes, drafts, and a copy of The Defector. Separately filed because of their extent are Collingwood's radio and television SCRIPTS. For each broadcasting media, the scripts are arranged alphabetically by series title or format name. Most extensive are scripts for the acclaimed local program WCBS-TV Views the Press, CBS Reports, Report to the West, and Edward R. Murrow and the News. The CBS Reports files include information on some of his best-known broadcasts such as “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” “Vietnam: How We Got In - Can We Get Out?,” “A Timetable for Vietnam, and “Picasso is 90.” The Edward R. Murrow and the News scripts concern Collingwood's regular summertime substitution for Murrow during the early 1950s. These files include his regular “Think” pieces, perhaps the best documentation in the papers of his work as a news commentator.

BACKGROUND FILES include extensive information for the CBS Reports program on Picasso including shot lists, interviews, and various technical information; interview transcripts (taped for “A Timetable for Vietnam”), handwritten notes, and research on Vietnam (including a file of photographs labelled “Vietnam atrocities”); transcripts of interviews with Valerie Giscard d'Estang, Harold MacMillan, and Helmut Schmidt; detailed statistics and information used in reporting on the national elections in 1956 and 1960, as well as a scrapbook of information concerning the function of Univac in predicting the results of the 1952 election.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Charles Collingwood and Tatiana Collingwood, New York City, New York, 1957-1987. Accession Number: MCHC76-23, MCHC82-53, MCHC87-53. Portions accessioned without a number.

Processing Information

Processed by Hans Kaiser and Carolyn J. Mattern, 1987.

U.S. Mss 4AF	Series: Personal and Biographical Files
Box   1 Folder   1	AFTRA, 1955-1956
Box   1 Folder   2	Art files, 1958-1981
Box   1 Folder   2A	Awards
Box   7	Special Emmy Award, 1961-1962
Box   1 Folder   3	Biographical clippings and résumés, 1943-1980
Box   1 Folder   4-6	CBS Reports clippings, 1962-1963
Box   1 Folder   8	Chronicle clippings, 1963-1964
Box   1 Folder   7	WCBS-TV Views the Press clippings, 1961-1962
Box   1 Folder   9	Condolence letters, 1985
Box   1 Folder   10	Deep Springs School, undated
Box   1 Folder   11	Family letter transcripts, 1914, 1958 (transcribed, circa 1958)
Box   1 Folder   12	Financial miscellany, 1962-1964
Box   1 Folder   13	Miscellany, undated
Box   2 Folder   1	Oxford-Cambridge dinner, 1962
PH 3686	Photographs Scope and Content Note: Photographs related to the CBS television coverage of the 1952 presidential election and “WCBS-TV Views of the Press,” Collingwood's time as a correspondent during the Vietnamese Conflict, and publicity photographs.
U.S. Mss 4AF	Series: Speeches and Writings	⇧
Box   2 Folder   2	Miscellaneous notes, undated
Box   2 Folder   3	The Defector, 1970
Box   2 Folder   4-5	Speeches, speech notes, and early drafts, 1951-1984
Box   2 Folder   6	Articles and book reviews, 1945, undated
	Series: Correspondence	⇧
Box   3 Folder   1	AFTRA, 1955-1962
Box   3 Folder   2	Deep Springs art collection, 1961-1964
Box   3 Folder   3-12	General, 1952, 1958-1985
Box   3 Folder   13	Oxford-Cambridge dinner, 1961-1964
Box   3 Folder   14-17	Personal, 1950-1985
	Viewer/listener mail
Box   3 Folder   18-26	1946, 1952, 1955-1965
Box   4 Folder   1-2	1965-1983
	Series: Scripts	⇧
	Television
Box   4 Folder   3	CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite (excerpts), 1964
	CBS Reports
Box   4 Folder   4	“Ds + dQ/T and You,” 1961 April 2
Box   4 Folder   4	“First Man in Space,” 1961 April 12
Box   4 Folder   4	“Berlin: Act of War?” , 1961 August 18
Box   4 Folder   4	“Death of a Hope,” 1961 September 18
Box   4 Folder   4	“Death in the City Room,” 1962 January 25
Box   4 Folder   5	“A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” 1962 February 14
Box   4 Folder   5	“The Flight of John Glenn,” 1962 February 20
Box   4 Folder   5	“What The Election Means,” 1962 November 7
Box   4 Folder   6	“Where We Stand: Ten Years After Stalin,” 1963 March 6
Box   4 Folder   6	“Walter Lippmann: 1963,” 1963 May 1
Box   4 Folder   6	“The Press and the Race Issue,” 1963 August 21
Box   4 Folder   6	“Four Dark Days: From Dallas to Arlington,” 1963 November 25
Box   4 Folder   6	“Vietnam: The Deadly Decision,” 1964 April 1
Box   4 Folder   6	“Vietnam: How We Got In - Can We Get Out,” 1965 January 11
Box   4 Folder   6	“Henry Moore” Man of Form,” 1965 October 5
Box   4 Folder   7	“Charles Collingwood's Report from Hanoi,” 1968 April 6
Box   4 Folder   11	“A Timetable for Vietnam,” 1969 December 2
Box   4 Folder   8	“Picasso is 90,” 1971 October 21
Box   4 Folder   8	Vietnam broadcast, undated
Box   4 Folder   9	Chronicle, 1964
Box   4 Folder   12	Miscellaneous broadcasts, undated
Box   4 Folder   10	Portrait, 1963-1964, 1961
Box   4 Folder   13-17	WCBS-TV Views the Press, 1961-1962
	Radio
Box   4 Folder   18-19	Dimensions, 1964
	Edward R. Murrow and the News
Box   4 Folder   20	, 1953 (Think pieces only)
Box   4 Folder   21-22	1954
	1955
Box   4 Folder   23	July
Box   5 Folder   1	August
Box   5 Folder   2-4	1956
Box   5 Folder   5-8	1957
Box   5 Folder   9	Morning reports from Saigon, 1969
Box   5 Folder   10-11	Newsbreak, P.M., 1975-1976
Box   5 Folder   12-15	Report to the West, 1952-1953
Box   5 Folder   16-18	Short newsbreaks and features, 1977-1980
	Sunday analyses
Box   5 Folder   19-29	1957-1958
Box   6 Folder   1	1959
	Series: Background Files	⇧
	CBS Reports, “Picasso is 90,” 1971
Box   6 Folder   2	Notes, lists, quotations
Box   6 Folder   3	Narration script, prologue, shot lists, index of material tape rolls
Box   6 Folder   4-7	Shot lists, technical information, interview transcripts
	Election coverage
Box   6 Folder   8	Univac scrapbook, 1952
Box   6 Folder   9	District statistics and information, 1956, 1960
Box   6 Folder   10-11	“The Maze Project,” 1972
	Miscellaneous interviews
Box   6 Folder   12	Helmut Schmidt, 1974 and undated
Box   6 Folder   12	Valerie Giscard d'Estang, 1974
Box   6 Folder   13	Harold MacMillan, undated
	Vietnam material
Box   6 Folder   14	Transcripts for “A Timetable for Vietnam,” 1969
Box   6 Folder   15-20	Research material and handwritten notes, 1966-1968, undated
PH 3687	Vietnamese atrocities photographs Scope and Content Note: Graphic photographs of atrocities against civilians during the Vietnamese Conflict.