“Television's Closet Revolutionary”: Mary Jane Odell and Her Fight for Public Affairs Programming

Abstract

Mary Jane Odell was a mainstay in Midwestern television for thirty years as the host of a variety show in Des Moines, Iowa, and a two-time Emmy Award winner for her public affairs programs in Chicago. Acclaimed for her in-depth interviewing, Odell rose to become Iowa's secretary of state, contributing an important voice to the broader debate over television content and women's roles in the media. Three distinct phases in her career are identified—tradition, experimentation, and confrontation—which align with her work in commercial, community, and public television. These narrative themes illustrate how gender both constrained a notable woman's opportunities and expanded her definition of high-quality television to include diversity in the range of perspectives heard in the public discourse.

Notes

1 Joe Campbell, “TV: The Medium Odell Loves to Hate,” Iowa City Mainline, 1976, Box 3, Folder 3, Mary Jane Odell Papers, Iowa Women's Archives, University of Iowa Libraries, Iowa City, Iowa (hereafter cited as Odell Papers).

2 Vice President George H. W. Bush to Mary Jane Odell, 30 November 1982, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

3 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy no. 32, Box 1, Folder 1, Odell Papers, p. 6.

4 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy, 5.

5 Marlene Sanders and Marcia Rock, Waiting for Prime Time: The Women of Television News (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 51.

6 Maurine Beasley and Sheila J. Gibbons, Taking Their Place: A Documentary History of Women and Journalism, 2nd ed. (State College, PA: Strata Publishing, 2003), 118, 132.

7 Mike Conway, The Origins of Television News in America: The Visualizers of CBS in the 1940s (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 51.

8 Conway, Origins of Television News, 153; Bruce Weber, “Frances Buss, Pioneer of Early Television, Dies at 92,” New York Times, February 3, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/arts/television/04buss.html?_r=0.

9 Donna L. Halper, Invisible Stars: A Social History of Women in American Broadcasting (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001), 106; David Hosley and Gayle K. Yamada, Hard News: Women in Broadcast Journalism (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987), 42.

10 Hosley and Yamada, Hard News, 75–77.</FN10>

11 Ibid., 87–90.

12 Sanders and Rock, Waiting for Prime Time, 51; Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming, Women and Journalism (London: Routledge, 2004), 133–134.

13 Marilyn S. Greenwald, Pauline Frederick Reporting: A Pioneering Broadcaster Covers the Cold War (Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2014), 6, 25, 87–88.

14 Cynthia M. Lont, “Television News: Women on the Front Line,” in Women and Media: Content, Careers, and Criticism, ed. Cynthia M. Lont (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1995): 219–227, 221–222.

15 Conway, Origins of Television News, 217–218.

16 Hosley and Yamada, Hard News, 36–37.

17 Hosley and Yamada, Hard News, 94–95.

18 Sarah Sullivan, “Marciarose Shestack: A Broadcaster Who Happens to Be a Woman,” in Indelible Images: Women of Local Television, ed. Mary E. Beadle and Michael D. Murray (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 2001), 166–177.

19 Joanne M. Lisosky, “Jean Enersen: A Woman of Roots and Wings,” in Beadle and Murray, Indelible Images (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 2001), 38–48.

20 Craig Allen, “Gender Breakthrough Fit for a Focus Group: The First Women Newscasters and Why They Arrived in Local TV News,” Journalism History 28, no. 4 (2003): 154–162.

21 Lana F. Rakow and Kimberlie Kranich, “Women as Sign in Television News,” Journal of Communication 41, no. 1 (1991): 8–23; Cynthia Lont, “Television News: Women on the Front Line,” 222.

22 Caroline Isber and Muriel Cantor, Report of the Task Force on Women in Public Broadcasting (Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1975), p. 11.

23 Ibid., 21.

24 Ibid., 11.

25 Ibid., 51.

26 Ibid.

27 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy, 3.

28 Jeff Stein, Making Waves: The People and Places of Iowa Broadcasting (Cedar Rapids, IA: WDG Publishing, 2004), 83.

29 Patty Miller, “Frivol's Questionnaire,” Frivol, May 1945, Box 1, Folder 6, Odell Papers.

30 “Biography: Mary Jane Chinn,” KRNT Radio and Television, Spring 1964, Box 1, Folder 2, Odell Papers.

31 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy, 1.

32 Ibid.

33 Jessie Ash Arndt, “Mary Jane Chinn Stars on TV, at Home,” Christian Science Monitor, December 26, 1961, Box 3, Folder 1, Odell Papers.

34 Advertising pamphlet, Senneff Travel Service, n.d., Box 1, Folder 13, Odell Papers.

35 Arndt, “Mary Jane Chinn Stars on TV.”

36 Her interview subjects included John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson, Barry and Peggy Goldwater, Gen. Carlos P. Romulo, Nelson D. Rockefeller, Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, Nina Khrushchev, Ronald Reagan, Harold Hughes, Henry Fonda, Hedda Hopper, Jimmy Stewart, Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Glenn Ford, Vincent Price, Charlton Heston, Carol Burnett, Art Linkletter, Jonathan Winters, Steve Allen, Louis Nye, Arthur Godfrey, Bob Newhart, Johnny Carson, and J. C. Penney.

37 Mary Jane Odell interview with Steve Allen, transcript, KCCI-TV, n.d., Box 1, Folder 1, Odell Papers.

38 Clarence Petersen, “Chicago's Local TV Sparkles with Iowa's Former Mary Jane Chinn,” Des Moines Sunday Register, August 15, 1971, p. 49.

39 Robert Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich? No, Says Odell, and She's Glad,” Des Moines Sunday Register, February 20, 1977, p. 6.

40 Micki Van Deventer, “Matrix Table Speaker Focuses on Controversial Topics,” Stillwater (OK) News-Press, April 8, 1973, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers.

41 Cris Douglass, personal interview with the corresponding author, November 12, 2014, Des Moines, IA.

42 Douglass, interview with the author.

43 Ruth Ratny, “Broadcast Profile: Mary Jane Odell,” Backstage, September 8, 1972, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers.

44 Erik Barnouw, The Image Empire: A History of Broadcasting in the United States, Volume III—from 1953 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), 196–201, 271–303.

45 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy, 2.

46 “Mary Jane Neville Chinn Odell Siegler,” résumé in the hand of Mary Jane Odell, Box 1, Folder 1, Odell Papers; Mary Jane Odell to Eugene and Madge Neville [ca. June–July 1968], Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

47 John J. P. Odell to Yale Roe, 13 August 1970, Box 1, Folder 6, Odell Papers.

48 Ron Powers, “Will Success Spoil the Fun at Ch. 44?” Chicago Sun-Times, December 10, 1970, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers, p. 108; Clifford Terry, “So, Who Needs Big Ratings?,” TV Guide, December 11, 1971, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers, pp. 6–9.

49 John Odell to Yale Roe, 13 August 1970.

50 Powers, “Will Success Spoil the Fun at Ch. 44?”

51 Ron Powers, “Ambitious New Leader of Ch. 44,” Chicago Sun-Times, February 23, 1972, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers, p. 48.

52 Yale Roe, memo to Channel 44 staff, 5 April 1972, Box 1, Folder 6, Odell Papers.

53 Ron Powers, “Bright, Experienced and Pushing 50,” Chicago Sun-Times, October 17, 1974, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers, p. 100.

54 The show's guests included, among others, Jane Fonda, Woody Allen, R. Crumb, Abbie Hoffman, Mick Jagger, the Hells Angels, Donald Sutherland, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Joan Baez, and Buffy Sainte-Marie. For examples of footage, see Howie Samuelsohn, “Underground News TV Preview,” accessed December 3, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry4HnrI4bjA#t=151. The program also claimed to be the first to broadcast the Zapruder film of President Kennedy's assassination.

55 Mary Jane Odell to Madge Neville and family, 19 October 1970, Box 1, Folder 6, Odell Papers.

56 Mary Jane Odell to Madge Neville, 12 November 1970, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

57 Mary Jane Odell to Madge Neville, 23 October 1970, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers, p. 1.

58 Powers, “Bright, Experienced and Pushing 50.”

59 Powers, “Ambitious New Leader of Ch. 44.”

60 Petersen, “Chicago's Local TV Sparkles.”

61 “The Big Story: Topics from August 23, 1971, to Present,” undated, unsigned, typewritten note, Box 1, Folder 14, Odell Papers.

62 Powers, “Ambitious New Leader of Ch. 44,” 48.

63 Ron Powers, “Ratings Woes Cut into Ch. 44's Big Story,” Chicago Sun-Times, January 18, 1973, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers, p. 30.

64 Powers, “Ratings Woes Cut into Ch. 44's Big Story.”

65 “Mary Jane,” AHS Bullpuppy, 2.

66 Mary Jane Odell, “Personal Commentary,” 11 May 1972, Box 1, Folder 14, Odell Papers; Ted Cox to Mary Jane Odell, 12 May 1972, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

67 Mary Jane Odell, “Erosion of the First Amendment,” speech to Chicago Fortnightly Club, 7 February 1973, Box 3, Folder 11, Odell Papers.

68 Helen Malter to Mary Jane Odell, 23 March 1974, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

69 Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich?,” 6.

70 Powers, “Bright, Experienced and Pushing 50,” 100.

71 Ibid.

72 Edward Morris, letter to Mary Jane Odell, 21 July 1975, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers, p. 1.

73 Susan Caba, “Mary Jane Odell: Friendly, Funny, Tough,” Ottumwa (IA) Courier, 24 August 1977, Box 4, Folder 1, Odell Papers.

74 Caba, “Mary Jane Odell.”

75 “IEBN Presents Mary Jane Odell,” n.d., Box 2, Folder 2, Odell Papers.

76 Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich?,” 6.

77 Connie Schnockelen to Mary Jane Odell, 24 March 1976, Box 1, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

78 Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich?”

79 Caba, “Mary Jane Odell.”

80 Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich?,” 6.

81 Rod Thole, memo to Mary Jane Odell and Sara Ivey, 4 April 1979, Box 2, Folder 2, Odell Papers.

82 Mary Jane Odell to Rod Thole [copy], 23 October 1979, Box 2, Folder 3, Odell Papers.

83 Mary Jane Odell, memo to Rod Thole, 15 November 1979, Box 2, Folder 3, Odell Papers.

84 Mary Jane Odell to Brad Chinn and Madge Neville, 23 November 1980, Box 2, Folder 12, Odell Papers.

85 Mary Jane Odell to Rod Thole, 15 November 1979.

86 Mrs. Herbert Hays, handwritten note on membership card to Iowa Public Television [copy], 12 November 1979, Box 2, Folder 4, Odell Papers.

87 Molly Samore to Rod Thole [copy], 29 October 1979, Box 2, Folder 4, Odell Papers.

88 Hullihan, “Will Dick Go to Israel? Will Mary Jane Get Rich?,” 6.

89 Mary Jane Odell to Brad Chinn and Madge Neville, 23 November 1980.

90 Ibid., 2.

91 David Westphal, “Iowan Bypassed,” Des Moines Register, September 23, 1987, Box 2, Folder 7, Odell Papers.

92 Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet, “Think Practically and Look Locally: Language and Gender as a Community-based Practice,” Annual Review of Anthropology 21 (1992): 461–490.

93 “Television Gets the Axe,” Beacon-News (Aurora, IL), April 13, 1975, Box 3, Folder 2, Odell Papers.