Unger, Arthur - Social Networks and Archival Context (original) (raw)

Arthur Unger was born in Brooklyn on March 29, 1925. During World War II, he served in the Army as a cryptographer, afterwards entering Missouri University under the GI Bill from which he graduated in 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He quickly found his niche in entertainment journalism, interviewing dozens of well-known and influential actors, entertainers, musicians, journalists, writers, and others over his career and even traveling with the Beatles for two years of their American tour.

During the 1960s and 1970s, Unger owned, edited and published a teen magazine called Datebook ; later, he became the television critic for the Christian Science Monitor, where he worked until 1988. After retiring, he continued to contribute articles to Television Quarterly .

A large part of his success derived from his genuine interest in the life and character of celebrities rather than a focus on scandalous or flashy tabloid material. He also enjoyed children, though he had none of his own, and actively sought out ways to work with them. After his retirement he volunteered for a group called RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) and took particular enjoyment in visiting schools, talking with the students about social issues.

Arthur Unger died in 2004.

From the guide to the Arthur Unger Audio Interview Collection, ca. 1970-1988, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)

Arthur Unger was the TV critic for the Christian Science Monitor . He taped his interviews with television personalities and used those tapes as his notebooks for writing articles for various publications.

From the guide to the Arthur Unger collection of recorded interviews [sound recording], (The New York Public Library. Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound.)

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