Title: Gunnar Back Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1931-1965

Creator:

• Back, Gunnar, 1907-1983

Call Number: U.S. Mss 210AF; Disc 66A; Audio 1226A; PH U.S. Mss 210AF; AC 731; AD 586; CB 984; SCA 482; MCHC76-057

Quantity: 1.0 cubic foot (3 archives boxes), 96 disc recordings, 6 tape recordings, 0.2 cubic feet of photographs (1 archives box), 0.4 cubic feet of negatives (2 negative boxes); plus 6 videorecordings, and 7 reels of film (16 mm)

Repository:

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

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

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

Abstract:

Fragmentary papers of Gunnar Back, a radio and television news broadcaster, including biographical clippings, photographs, scripts and other writings, publicity, photographs, sound and video recordings, and correspondence. Well documented programs include Cross Fire which includes recorded interviews with Chester Bowles, Paul Douglas, Charles A. Halleck, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther, Alexander Wiley, and others. Documenting Back's expertise in radio documentaries are transcripts, recorded broadcasts, and additional recorded interviews for a series on alcoholism and venereal disease. General news and entertainment scripts and newsletters document work for KFAB/KFOR in Lincoln, Nebraska, and WJSV in Washington, D.C. Individuals featured in the general reportage include William O. Douglas and Gen. Walter Bedell Smith; topics covered include Germany and Vietnam. The correspondence consists primarily of audience reactions to the cancellation of Cross Fire and Congress Today and to coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings. Also included are drafts and notes for articles about Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and Spencer Tracy written for the Collegiate Digest and other publications while a student at the University of Wisconsin. The photographs are primarily snapshots of Back broadcasting. Most are unidentified, but there are snapshots of him with Marian Anderson, Tom Ewell, Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, Robert Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, Nelson Rockefeller, and Robert Taft Jr., and at work at KFAB/KFOR in Nebraska, at WJNO in Florida, and in Germany. Two signed photographs of Obie Newcombe Jr. show marines fighting on Tarawa. Films and videotapes received with the collection including interviews with Marian Anderson, Pearl Buck, Jimmy Durante, Helen Hayes, Stan Musial, Richard Nixon, and Ed Wynn as part of These Are Americans (WFIL) are unprocessed.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-us0210af

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Radio and television news broadcaster Johan Gunnar Back, better known as J. Gunnar Back and later as Gunnar Back, was born in Escanaba, Michigan, on August 9, 1907, the son of John S. Back. After graduating from high school he taught at a rural school at Watson in the Upper Peninsula. Back later worked his way through the University of Wisconsin, in part by writing articles for the Collegiate Digest about Wisconsin. He completed his degree in 1931, and received an MA. in English in 1934.

After graduating, Back worked in radio in Madison (WHA and WIBA), Minneapolis (WTCN), Lincoln, Nebraska (head of continuity for KFAB-KFOR beginning in 1936); Palm Beach, Florida (WJNO); and Detroit before moving to Washington in 1939. During the next seventeen years he covered the Washington news scene first for WJVS (CBS) and later for WMAL (ABC). In these positions Back had contact with many world leaders and he covered national news such as President Roosevelt's Fireside Chats, the 1948 Presidential inauguration and the Army-McCarthy headings. While at WMAL Back served as moderator of the nationally-broadcast America's Town Meeting of the Air, and he was featured on nightly local radio and television news programs, as well as ABC broadcasts on a free-lance basis such as This Week Around the World, News of Tomorrow, and Crossfire. He was also the moderator for the latter program.

Early in his career Back developed a knack for interviewing and announcing special events, and he eventually established a reputation as a leader in the field of radio documentaries. At WMAL he produced The Undiscovered, an award-winning radio documentary about venereal disease. A subsequent series on the same subject, The Lonesome Road, was widely syndicated. Back produced another local series, also known as The Lonesome Roadabout alcoholism.

In 1956 Back moved to Philadelphia to head the WFIL news and special events team. In this capacity he continued to interview many national leaders, and he visited Germany, Russia (with Vice President Richard Nixon in 1959), and Vietnam. Back retired during the mid-1970s and died on November 27, 1983.

The papers, which consist of scripts, recordings, background information, photographs, and correspondence, provide episodic rather than complete coverage of Back's career in broadcasting. The incomplete nature of the collection is partially compensated for by the presence of explanatory notes prepared by Back. As a result, the value of the collection lies primarily in the events Back covered rather than its biographical information. The documentation primarily relates to Back's work in Lincoln, Nebraska, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. In addition, there is strong documentation, both textual and recorded, concerning his radio documentaries on alcoholism and venereal disease. The photographs are similarly spotty in coverage. The majority show Back at work or posed with various prominent individuals. Most are unidentified, but there are snapshots of Back with Marian Anderson, Tom Ewell, Hubert Humphrey, Estes Kefauver, Robert Kennedy, Henry Cabot Lodge, Nelson Rockefeller, and Robert Taft Jr., and at work at KFAB-KFOR in Nebraska, WJNO in Florida, and in Germany. Two signed photographs of Obie Newcombe Jr. show marines fighting on Tarawa. An additional 60 negatives are unidentified, but it is likely they document his life before or shortly after he became a student at the University of Wisconsin. Two of these snapshots show Camp Randall. The collection includes strong, but unprocessed, visual documentation of his biographical WFIL program, These Are Americans and sound documentation of Cross Fire.

The papers are arranged alphabetically by subject, with the topics in the file including program and station names and genre. The genre files include biographical clippings and personal miscellany, correspondence, a notebook, and miscellaneous writings.

The correspondence is very incomplete, consisting primarily of listener mail received after the cancellation of Congress Today in 1952 and Cross Fire in 1953. One brief letter from ABC explains the reasons for the cancellation. A substantial number of listener letters concern his coverage of the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954. Particularly interesting among these letters is from one from fellow correspondent “j.e. [Jim]” about the hearings and related news. The collection includes a carbon of Back's reply. Another of the few pieces of correspondence written by Back in the collection is a 1955 exchange with “Betty” concerning America's Town Meeting of the Air for which Back had been a moderator. An interesting 1955 letter indicates Back's dissatisfaction with ABC management decisions, a dissatisfaction that probably contributed to his move to WFIL in Philadelphia. The early correspondence from the 1930s also contains a few exchanges with Modern Screen magazine and J. Clark Graham, dean of Ripon College, concerning a draft article about Spencer Tracy. (The papers include separately foldered drafts of articles about Don Ameche and Tom Ewell, but not the Tracy article.)

Among the programs with which Back was associated, the collection includes recorded transcripts of Crossfire, the ABC radio news interview program dating from the early 1950s which featured such prominent individuals as Chester Bowles, Paul Douglas, Charles A. Halleck, Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther, and Alexander Wiley. The recorded programs are arranged chronologically by date, but an alphabetical list of guests appears as an appendix to this finding aid. About Congress Today, Back's nightly WMAL broadcast, there is a folder of transcripts dating from 1954 and one item dating from 1950. America's Town Meeting of the Air, for which Back was a moderator, is represented by background information and publicity. An extensive file of printed transcripts of this program received with the papers has been transferred to the SHSW Library where it is catalogued by title. The collection also includes several printed transcripts for Americans at Work, which was produced by CBS in 1939. Back's contribution to this program is not obvious from internal evidence, but it is presumed that he was associated with the program because of its inclusion in the donation to the Historical Society.

The collection also includes recordings of The Lonesome Road, a radio documentary about alcoholism, as well as raw tape interviews apparently used in editing the broadcast. There are typed transcripts for a similarly titled 1949 series that concerned venereal disease. The Officers Conference material represents an interview program about world affairs that was aired by the military broadcast network. Back hosted and produced several of these programs on a free-lance basis during the early 1950s. The files include transcripts and handwritten notes for these programs. Among the notable guests are William O. Douglas speaking on the conflict between communism and democracy in Southeast Asia and General Walter Bedell Smith.

Most important from Back's television work at WFIL are the unprocessed videotapes and sketchy background research materials for These are Americans, a biographical interview program dating from the 1960s that featured Marion Anderson, Pearl Buck, Jimmy Durante, Helen Hayes, Stan Musial, Richard Nixon, and Ed Wynn.

Among the stations represented in the collection are KFAB/KFOR in Lincoln, Nebraska and WJSV in Washington, D.C. The KFAB/KFOR files include representative scripts Back wrote for news and entertainment programs and for advertising. He also saved ten copies of Flash, the illustrated station newsletter. Similar broadcast script materials exist for WJSV, as well as that station's newsletter for 1942. For WTOP, also in Washington, D.C. there are mimeographed scripts by Back for Whatever Happened To, a series of biographical features about formerly prominent individuals. Additional writings arranged alphabetically by title include articles written by Back during the 1930s about motion picture actors from Wisconsin such as Don Ameche, Ralph Bellamy, and Spencer Tracy. There is also background information for coverage of the 1948 Presidential inauguration and a 1948 feature on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The miscellaneous writings category contains unidentified scripts; impressions of a 1965 trip to Vietnam; a manuscript, photographs, and an unprocessed film relating to two trips to Germany; and editorials about national wartime news in 1942.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Gunnar Back, Paoli, Pennsylvania and Anders Back, Penn Wynne, Pennsylvania, 1957, 1976-1990. Accession Number: MCHC76-78, MCHC77-44, MCHC81-82, M90-193, M90-314, M90-238

Processing Information

Processed by Carolyn Mattern, 2001.

U.S. Mss 210AF Box   1 Folder   1	AFRA, 1945
Box   1 Folder   2	Ameche articles, circa 1936
Box   3 Folder   2	Americans at Work transcripts, 1939
Box   1 Folder   3	America's Town Meeting of the Air, 1953
Box   1 Folder   4	Bellamy article, undated
Box   1 Folder   5	Biographical miscellany
1226A/1	“Back is Going” farewell party as JGB leaves Washington, D.C., for Philadelphia, 1956
1226A/6	JGB at home with family, also mock interview and fragments of 1950s radio program featuring high school choirs, undated
U.S. Mss 210AF Box   1 Folder   6	Clippings
Box   1 Folder   7	Collegiate Digest, 1935-1936
Box   1 Folder   8	Congress Today (WMAL), 1954
Box   1 Folder   9	Correspondence, 1931-1957, undated
Disc 66A/1-92	Cross Fire recordings, 1952-1953
U.S. Mss 210AF Box   1 Folder   10	Ewell article, circa 1956
Box   1 Folder   11	Germany (incomplete film narration), circa 1960
Box   1 Folder   12	Inauguration, 1948
	KFAB
Box   1 Folder   13	Scripts, 1936-1938
Box   1 Folder   14	Publications
Box   1 Folder   15	KFOR scripts, 1936-1937
	Lonesome Road (National Committee on Alcoholism), 8 programs regarding alcoholism
Disc 66A/93-96	Recordings
1226A/2-5	Interviews with alcoholics presumably used for “Lonesome Road,” undated
U.S. Mss 210AF Box   1 Folder   16	Lonesome Road (previously named The Undiscovered, WWDC), Scripts for eleven programs on venereal disease, 1949
Box   2 Folder   1	Miscellaneous writings
Box   2 Folder   2	Notebook, circa 1952
Box   2 Folder   3	Officers Conference, 1954-1955
Box   2 Folder   4	Once Over Lightly, 1947
Box   2 Folder   5	These Are Americans (WFIL: 1964-1966), background material, 1964-1965
Box   2 Folder   6	This Week Around the World (TWAW), 1951
Box   2 Folder   7	Unknown Soldier coverage, 1948
Box   2 Folder   8	Vietnam (WFIL), 1965
	WJSV (CBS)
Box   2 Folder   9	Scripts, 1941-1942
Box   2 Folder   10	Publications, 1942
Box   2 Folder   11	Whatever Happened To (WTOP), 1947-1948
Box   3 Folder   1	Woman's World, undated
	Visual Materials
PH U.S. Mss 210	Photographs
Box   1 Folder   1	Back conducting interviews for CBS and WTOP
Box   1 Folder   2	Nebraska
Box   1 Folder   3	Germany
Box   1 Folder   4	Florida
Box   1 Folder   5	Back conducting interviews
	Negatives
Box   2 Folder   1-2	Camp Randall
Box   2 Folder   3-43	Back as a UW student and family photographs
Box   3 Folder   44-60	Back as a UW student and family photographs
Box   3 Folder   61	KFOR-blind, unprinted
Box   3 Folder   62	KFAB, unprinted
Box   3 Folder   63	Aerial Broadcast Booth, printed, West Palm Beach
Box   3 Folder   64	Aerial interview, woman, printed, West Palm Beach
Box   3 Folder   65	Unprinted
Box   3 Folder   66	Unidentified
Box   3 Folder   67	Nixon
Box   3 Folder   68	Unprinted
Box   3 Folder   69	Man with violin
Box   3 Folder   70	Unidentified
Box   3 Folder   71	Unprinted
Box   3 Folder   72	Lincoln
	Glass plate negatives
Box   3 Folder   73-74	Berlin Gate
Box   3 Folder   75-76	Unidentified
Box   3 Folder   77	Rocket launcher
Box   3 Folder   78	Berlin Hilton
Box   3 Folder   79	Hotel?
Box   3 Folder   80	Building
Box   3 Folder   81	Street scene
Box   3 Folder   82	West Berlin
	Videotapes and films
AC 731	18th Air Transport, 1611th ATW Eastaf Squadron C-13, Rhein Main Airforce Base, Germany
AD 586	A Threat to Freedom (incomplete)
CB 984	Air evac footage
	Interviews
SCA 482	Interviews of various people, late 1950s Physical Description: 4-16 mm film reels in one can  Note: Including interviews with Warren Randolph Burgess, Senator Edward Martin, and Senator John F. Kennedy.
MCHC76-057 Video   1	Helen Hayes
Video   2	Richard Nixon
Video   3	Ed Wynn
Video   4	Jimmy Durante
Video   5	Stan Musial
Video   6	Pearl S. Buck

• Bowles, Chester, 1953 May 13
• Douglas, Paul, 1953 February 4
• Flanders, Ralph E., 1953 September 16
• Halleck, Charles, 1953 July 15
• Hickenlooper, B., 1953 May 27
• Hill, Lister, 1953 April 4
• Humphrey, Hubert, 1953 January 7
• Jackson, Donald, 1953 July 8
• Jackson, Henry, 1953 January 21 and May 20
• Krekeler, Helen L., 1953 September 25
• Long, Russell, 1952 November 12
• Mitchell, Stephen, 1952 October 22, and 1953 June 10
• Mundt, Karl, 1953 March 25
• Murphy, Robert, 1953 August 5
• Peterson, Val, 1953 August 12 and October 29
• Porter, Charles, 1952 November 19 and 1953 July 22
• Price, Melvin, 1953 September 30
• Pyon, Yon Tai, 1953 September 9
• Reuther, Walter, 1953 April 29
• Root, Orrin, 1952 October 8
• Saltonstall, L., 1953 February 2
• Short, Dewey, 1953 March 4
• Velde, Harold H., 1953 February 25
• Wiley, Alexander, 1953 September 2
• Williams, Walter, 1952 October 15, November 5 and 1953 June 17