Don Hewitt Oral History

Object number2002.001.0038

Date11/09/2002

ClassificationsOral Histories

Oral history interview subject Don Hewitt

Oral history interviewer Jeff West

Oral history interviewer Stephen Fagin

ObjectOral history

Credit LineOral History Collection/The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza

MediumHi-8 videotape

Dimensions55 Minutes

Terms

Collections

DescriptionVideotaped oral history interview with Don Hewitt. Best known as the creator of the "60 Minutes" television series, Mr. Hewitt produced and directed the first televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960. In 1963, he was the executive producer of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite and was one of the producers coordinating CBS coverage of the assassination. Interview conducted at The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on November 9, 2002 by Jeff West and Stephen Fagin. The interview is fifty-five minutes long.

Curatorial Commentary

Mr. Hewitt passed away on August 19, 2009, just over a month after his friend and CBS colleague Walter Cronkite passed away on July 17, 2009.

Mr. Hewitt's autobiography, Tell Me A Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television, was published in 2001. He read excerpts from the book during this oral history interview. - Stephen Fagin, Curator