Career
Upon graduating college, Kupcinet was signed by the Philadelphia Eagles football team in 1935. His football career was cut short due to a shoulder injury, which led him to take a job as a sports writer for the Chicago Daily Times (now known as the Chicago Sun-Times) in 1935.
While writing his sports column, Kupcinet also wrote a short "People" section which became officially known as "Kup's Column" in 1948, after The Chicago Sun and the Daily Times merged to form the Chicago Sun-Times. "Kup's Column" chronicled the nightlife of Chicago, along with celebrity and political gossip. The column would eventually be distributed to more than 100 newspapers around the world.
In 1952, Kupcinet became a pioneer in the television talk show genre when he landed his own talk show. In 1957, he was one of the set of hosts who replaced Steve Allen on The Tonight Show, before Jack Paar was brought in to change the program's format. Kupcinet's own series ran from 1959 until 1986 and was, at one point, syndicated to over 70 stations throughout the United States. The series garnered 15 Emmy Awards along with a Peabody Award.
In addition to writing his newspaper column and talk-show hosting duties, Kupcinet provided commentary for radio broadcasts of Chicago Bears football games with Jack Brickhouse (and was affectionately mocked for the signature phrase, "Dat's right, Jack"). He made cameo appearances in two movies — 1959's Anatomy of a Murder and the 1962 drama Advise and Consent.
In 1982, Kupcinet was elected to Chicago's Journalism Hall of Fame.
In 1988, Kupcinet published his autobiography, Kup: A Man, an Era, a City.
Read more about this topic: Irv Kupcinet
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