Murrow's Boys - The Original "Boys"

The Original "Boys"

The journalists most often cited as Murrow’s Boys are those who worked for and with him covering the war for the CBS Radio Network, and who set the highest standards for radio and later TV journalism. Murrow recruited most of them, and mostly from wire services. Their story is the subject of the 1996 book The Murrow Boys, by Stanley Cloud and Lynne Olson.

The original Boys, and some of their notable CBS beats during the war, included:

• William L. Shirer, who covered the rise of Nazi Germany for CBS from 1937 until the end of 1940 and later wrote a successful memoir about the years, Berlin Diary. His 1,245 page history, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, is still in print, based largely upon captured documents, the diaries of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and General Franz Halder. Additional major sources include testimony and evidence from the Nuremberg trials
• Eric Sevareid, who covered the fall of France and the Blitz of London, later covering the war's progress in Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Asia
• Tom Grandin, a scholar who covered the fall of France before abruptly leaving CBS in 1940
• Larry LeSueur, who covered the Blitz, the German battle against the Soviet Union, and key World War II fighting in France
• Charles Collingwood, who covered the Blitz and World War II fighting in North Africa and France
• Howard K. Smith, who covered Germany before Pearl Harbor and later reported from Switzerland and France
• Winston Burdett, who covered Eastern Europe, North Africa and Italy
• Bill Downs, who covered Russia, France and Germany
• Mary Marvin Breckinridge, the only woman among the first generation of Boys, who covered Great Britain, Scandinavia and the Low Countries
• Cecil Brown, who covered Rome, Eastern Europe, Singapore, North Africa
• Richard C. Hottelet, who covered Great Britain, France and Germany

Of the original Boys, Hottelet would end up having the longest career at CBS, joining the network in 1944 and continuing to work at the network until 1985. He is the lone surviving member of the original group.