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52 FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1989
Marlene Sanders Pioneered
Women's Broadcast Role
RUTH BAUM BIGUS
Special to The Jewish News
M
arlene Sanders'
name has become
synonymous with
the word "pioneer" when it
comes to any discussion of the
broadcasting field. The
Jewish woman with humble
beginnings in the eastern
suburbs of Cleveland made it
to the top of her chosen pro-
fession, but it wasn't easy.
Sanders blazed the trail for
women in a business that has
not been known to be full of
female opportunities.
Sanders recently described
her upward climb — to the top
position as correspondent/an-
chorwoman for ABC and CBS
News.
Those experiences are
chronicled in Sanders' book
Waiting for Prime Time —
The Women of Television
News.
Co-authored with Marcia
Rock, as assistant professor of
journalism at New York
University, Waiting for Prime
Time is an up front, open jour-
nal of what those early days
in broadcasting were like for
women.
"I loved it then," said
Sanders of her first years in
the broadcast business in the
mid-1950s. "I don't know
whether it was because I was
in my 20s or because it was a
very small group and we had
a really good feeling among
us. Everything was new."
Sanders, now 57 and host of
public affairs programs for
WNET Channel 13 in New
York, knew she wanted to do
something exciting in her life
even while growing up in
Shaker Heights, Ohio.
"I really fell in love with the
theater . . . it looked like a
really interesting and ex-
citing thing to do . . . and I
didn't want to do the other op-
tions that seemed to be open
— teacher, be a nurse or clerk.
What could you do with
that?" Sanders asked
rhetorically.
Sanders went to school at
Shaker Heights High School
in a community which today
is heavily Jewish. But back
then, Sanders said, she was in
the minority.
"There were very clear-cut
lines. There were segregated
sororities, segregated country
clubs. You knew exactly
.
.
Ruth Baum Bigus is the
managing editor of the
Kansas City Jewish
Chronicle.
Marlene Sanders
where you were, and socially
people did not mix that well
except in things like theater,"
she said.
After a stint in college at
Ohio State University,
Sanders moved to New York
to pursue a career in theater.
Following the breakup of an
earlier marriage and little
success in theater, Sanders
ventured around New
England, winding up as an
assistant to the producers of
Theater-by-the-Sea in
Matunuck, R.I.
It was there that her career
in broadcasting began.
Sanders began working with
Mike Wallace of CBS' "60
Minutes" fame. The two met
in the mid-1950s at the sum-
mer theater in Matunuck
where Wallace was producing
a play. "I immediately sensed
that she was first-rate," said
Wallace, who is also Jewish.
Sanders started as a secretary
on the "Mike Wallace and the
News" program, which aired
nightly on a New York televi-
sion station.
Shortly thereafter, Sanders
rose through the ranks,
becoming the show's pro-
ducer. Later she would
become associate producer of
Wallace's "Night Beat" pro-
gram, a show in which
Wallace made his mark for
his combative interview style.
It was during those early
years that Wallace and
Sanders developed a strong
friendship and a deep sense of
mutual respect that has
lasted more than 30 years.
"She is first-rate professional-
ly and first-rate personally,"
Wallace said.
Soon Sanders began climb-
ing the rungs of the broadcast
ladder, producing several suc-
cessful television programs
and venturing into radio news
.
before finally landing with
ABC News in 1964.
There were a lot of "firsts"
in Sanders' career. In 1964,
she became the first woman
to anchor a network newscast
and, just two years later,
Sanders was the first female
correspondent sent to cover
the Vietnam War for the
networks.
In 1976, Sanders was ap-
pointed vice president and
director of documentaries for
ABC News, becoming the on-
ly female to break into the
male-dominated manage-
ment ranks.
Yet there is one common
threat which has tied
together all of Sanders'
achievements: the difficulties
and sacrifices women face in
order to be a success.
Sanders was married to
Jerome Toobin, a public
broadcasting executive, for 25
years until his death five
years ago. The couple had one
son, Jeffrey a lawyer who has
been working with special
prosecutor Lawrence Walsh
on the Iran-contra
investigation.
While Sanders has netted a
string of successes, including
winning three Emmys and
numerous other awards for
her documentary work, she
has had 'unpleasant ex-
periences as well. Sanders
had to deal with some of the
big egos of her male counter-
parts, often finding herself in
"lesser" assignments or push-
ed aside for her male
colleagues.
She left ABC News in 1978
following a reshuffling of the
top brass. Sanders landed at
CBS News but departed in
1987 when a similar reshuf-
fling took place, leaving her
the option of working solely
in radio, a position she found
a blow to her ego.
While there were tough
times, Sanders said one thing
she has never encountered in
all her years in broadcasting
is anti-Semitism. "Partly
because I'm sort of Middle
Western-looking; I don't have
a Jewish name, I don't fit the
stereotype in appearance. So
when I would go around the
country, people wouldn't
know.
"But I have heard com-
ments made about others on
occasion out of the New York
area, so I know it's there,"
- Despite being "bumped
around" by an industry she
said is entrenched in a "star
system" where anchors are
overpaid, Sanders said she
loves the world broadcasting.
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