Sioussat, Helen Johnson, 1902-1995

Helen Johnson D''Oyle Adams Brooks Sioussat (b. 1902, Baltimore, Md.-d. Dec. 2, 1995, Washington, D.C.) was the daughter of Maurice and Helen Sioussat. She attended Goucher College in 1921, but left to take a 30-day business course, securing a job 2 days before the course was finished. Taking a year off from the business world, she spent ten months touring on stage, headlining with partner Raphael Sanchez, as a Spanish Adagio dance team. Ending up in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927, she began a career in business. Returning east to Washington, D. C. in 1935, she became Assistant to the Treasurer of the Planning & Coordinating Committee for the Petroleum Industry, during the last year of the National Recovery Act (NRA). In Washington she met Phillips H. Lord, actor and producer of many popular radio programs such as Gang Busters, Seth Parker and Mr. District Attorney. She became Washington D. C. manager for his radio program G-Men , which was the forerunner of the well-known Gang Busters . To help facilitate getting official information from closed files upon which the radio series was based, Miss Sioussat was given an office next to J. Edgar Hoover in the Department of Justice. Her friendship with Mr. Hoover lasted for many years and she kept up a correspondence with Mr. Hoover until his death in 1972. Later, she transferred to New York City and became manager of all Lord productions. In 1936 she decided to try employment at one of the radio networks, and on her way to NBC for an interview, stopped off at the CBS offices to see if any jobs were available. She was told the new director of Public Affairs, Edward R. Murrow, was looking for an assistant. She was hired two days later and became Assistant Director of the Talks and Public Affairs Department. The following year when Murrow went overseas to become chief of CBS''s foreign correspondents (and subsequently to cover world War II), Miss Sioussat took over his job as Director. As Director, Miss Sioussat was responsible for arranging the network''s public affairs programming. In this capacity she scheduled broadcasts (often numbering more than 300 per year) by an incredible array of speakers on topics of current interest. Spokespersons for these programs came not only from politics and government, but from education, labor, industry, religion, civil rights, international affairs and other related areas. She also took part in formulating policy for all CBS public service programs. In 1941 she created, produced and hosted one of the first round-table discussion programs on television, Table Talk with Helen Sioussat . She was CBS liaison with the White House and Congress and attended political conventions of both parties. In 1945 she led the CBS delegation to the San Francisco Conference that heralded the formation of the United Nations. Miss Sioussat was promoted to the Executives Offices of CBS in Washington in 1958, where she served primarily as a liaison between the network, Congress and federal agencies. She continued in this capacity until her retirement in 1962. An acknowledged expert on speech techniques, Miss Sioussat was in great demand as a lecturer and author. In addition to numerous articles and pamphlets, she wrote Mikes Don''t Bite (L. B. Fischer, 1943) a collection of amusing anecdotes from her radio career. Miss Sioussat received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Foundation Award in the category of the Best Educational Program of 1954. This was for the CBS series "Man''s Right to Knowledge". Miss Sioussat was also the composer of four songs: "Unathletic Me" (recorded by Julie Wilson as one of her ten favorites), "My Beloved", "Meet Me at the Waldorf", and "Beautiful Cat Cay".

From the description of Sioussat, Helen Johnson, 1902-1995 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10678274

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