Lucy Jarvis

In her two-and-a-half-hour interview, Lucy Jarvis (1917-2020) chronicles her early years and how a degree in home economics led to her work at McCall's magazine in the 1940s. She speaks about how her criticism of a woman's show produced by David Susskind provoked him to request that she write a critical essay about it, which ultimately led to her first jobs in television. She discusses her work at NBC's Capitol Close-Up, where she served as co-producer (with Meet the Press creator Martha Rountree), a rarity at that time. She discusses her work on the public affairs series, The Nation's Future, and on coverage of the 1960 presidential election. Jarvis reminisces about her acclaimed documentary The Kremlin and becoming the first Westerner to film there. She recalls her documentary, The Louvre, and serving as the first producer of the first ABC Barbara Walters specials. Throughout the interview, Jarvis outlines her philosophy on good documentary production and how the roles of women have grown in the television industry. Jane Altschuler conducted the interview in a joint venture with New York Women in Film & Television on September 18, 2006 in New York, NY.