Clifton Fadiman (1904 - 1999)

Clifton Fadiman was an intellectual, author, radio and television personality.
A native of Brooklyn and a graduate of Columbia University, Fadiman worked for Simon & Schuster for ten years, ending as its chief editor. He spent another ten years (1933-1943) in charge of The New Yorker's book review section and in 1944 became a judge for the Book of the Month Club. His eminently quotable witticisms and sayings were frequently printed in newspapers and magazines: "when you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before, you see more in you than there was before", was one of the better known.
Clifton Fadiman may be considered the prime example of the "witty intellectual" type that was popular on television in the 1950s.
Fadiman was already well known from radio where, from May 1938 until June 1948, he hosted its most popular quiz show, Information Please!, which he briefly revived for CBS-TV in 1952 as a thirteen-week summer replacement for the musical variety program The Fred Waring Show. During that June-September period, devoted fans of the departed radio program could finally not only hear, but also see Information Please! longtime panelists Franklin P. Adams and John Kieran who, like Fadiman himself, were literary figures and intellectuals. In fact, with the advent of TV, Fadiman gained in popularity, quickly establishing himself as the all-purpose, highly knowledgeable guest and host. At ease in front of the TV camera and experienced from his years in radio, he frequently appeared on talk shows and hosted a number of upscale quiz programs.
His longest-lasting TV program was This Is Show Business, which ran on CBS from July 15, 1949 to March 9, 1954. Called This Is Broadway during the first four months of its run, the show mixed song, dance and other musical entertainment, with information. In late September 1951, This Is Show Business became the first regular CBS series to be televised live from coast to coast.
Fadiman's first marriage was to Elizabeth Rush, with whom he had a son, Jonathan Rush. His second marriage was to Annalee Whitmore Jacoby, author and World War II foreign correspondent for Time and Life, who later used the name Annalee Jacoby Fadiman. Annalee died at age 85 due to suicide after suffering from breast cancer and Parkinsons disease. They had a son, Kim, and a daughter, Anne.
Clifton Fadiman died in 1999 of pancreatic cancer on Sanibel Island, Florida at the age of 95.


(Source: Wikipedia)