Hazam, Louis Jay, 1911-1983

Television producer and author.

Writer and producer for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Biographical Note

Louis J. Hazam, Television Writer and Producer, (1911-1983) was born in Norwich, Connecticut, on January 3, 1911 to George and Afifi (Habeeb) Hazam. He graduated from Columbia University in 1933 and after graduation wrote commercials for the J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency. Mr. Hazam married Ruby Gene Hymer in 1939. They had two children, Nancy Lynn and Chad Thomas.

From 1938 to 1945, Mr. Hazam was a scriptwriter for the U. S. Department of the Interior. By 1945 he was writing for radio and television and continued until 1949. He started his career in television in 1947 when he was hired as a consultant for NBC News. In this capacity he wrote and produced television productions for NBC's coverage of the 1952, 1956 and 1960 national political conventions.

After covering the inauguration of President Eisenhower, Mr. Hazam worked on the 1956 series, March of Medicine, which was the first program to show a surgical operation, the birth of a baby, and the first to visit a mental hospital. March of Medicine was the first television program to win an Albert Lasker Medical Journalism Award. Mr. Hazam's biography of Vincent Van Gogh, based on his letters, Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait, won both Peabody and Emmy awards in 1962.

Mr. Hazam's productions were known for their exotic locales and original locations. His production, Shakespeare: Soul of an Age, for instance, was filmed in England Scotland, Wales and France and The River Nile was filmed from the river's source in the Mountains of the Moon in Central Africa to its mouth at the Mediterranean. For Michelangelo: The Last Giant, film crews went to Florence, Siena, Bologna, Rome and Milan.

His productions were also noted for not employing actors. He is quoted as saying, "I don't believe in using actors in documentaries. It lends a note of falsity. A documentary is supposed to be a reflection of truth, of actuality as much as possible." He used many noted actors as narrators for his documentaries, including Sir Ralph Richardson, Sir Michael Redgrave, James Mason, Peter Ustinov, and Raymond Massey.

As producer and writer for NBC News, Mr. Hazam's television specials include: NBC coverage of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, (1953); March of Medicine (series) (1956); Way of the Cross, (1960); Vincent Van Gogh: A Self-Portrait, U. S. #1: American Profile, Japan: East Is West, (1961); The River Nile, Shakespeare: Soul of An Age, Polaris Submarine: Journal of an Undersea Voyage, (1962); Greece, The Golden Age, (1963); John F. Kennedy Remembered, Orient Express, American Spectacle, (1964); The Capitol: Chronicle of Freedom, (1965); Michelangelo, The Last Giant, part I, (1965), part II, (1966); The National Gallery of Art, (1967); The Art Game, (1968); Sahara, (1969); and Venice Be Damned, (1972).

Mr. Hazam won many awards during his career. They include the: Christopher Award, 1961; George Foster Peabody Award, 1962; Emmy Award, 1962 and 1972; bronze award, 1962, and first place documentary award, 1963, Venice Film Festival; Golden Gate Award, San Francisco International Film Festival, 1963, 1964, and 1966. He was decorated by King Constantine of Greece for his production, Greece: The Golden Age, in 1963.

Mr. Hazam died on September 6, 1983, at age 72, from heart and kidney ailments.