Frederick Ziv - Early Years

Early Years

Ziv was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to William and Rose Ziv. His parents were Jewish immigrants; his father came to the United States in 1884 from Kaunas, Lithuania (at the time part of the Russian Empire), and his mother from Bessarabia in 1887. His father was a manufacturer of button holes for overalls. Ziv had one sister, Irma.

Although he earned a law degree from the University of Michigan, Ziv chose not to practice law and opened an advertising agency. Cincinnati was an important center for radio in the 1920s; the nation's largest radio sponsor, Procter & Gamble, and one of its most powerful radio stations, WLW, were both based there. Ziv and writer John L. Sinn (who later became his son-in-law) founded the Frederick W. Ziv Company. They produced pre-recorded radio shows such as Boston Blackie and The Cisco Kid and occasionally bought old shows for new syndicated rerun broadcast. (The best known was the serial comedy Easy Aces in 1945).