Barbara Frum

Name	Barbara Frum, OC
Caption	Barbara Frum
Birthname	Barbara Rosberg
Birth date	September 08, 1937
Birth place	Niagara Falls, New York, USA
Death date	March 26, 1992
Death place	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Show	As It Happens
Network	CBC Radio
Show2	The Journal
Network2	CBC Television
Country	Canada
Spouse(s)	Murray Frum
Children	David FrumLinda FrumMatthew Frum

Barbara Frum, OC (September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992) was a Canadian radio and television journalist, acclaimed for her interviews for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Personal life

Born Barbara Rosberg in Niagara Falls, New York, Frum grew up across the river in Niagara Falls, Ontario. She studied history at the University of Toronto. In 1957, she married Toronto dentist Murray Frum, who later became a real estate developer. They had two children and adopted a third.

Career

After her graduation, Frum worked as a radio commentator and magazine writer. In 1971, she joined CBC Radio as one of the first hosts of As It Happens, a newsmagazine program which used the telephone to conduct live interviews with newsmakers and other witnesses to news events, as well as quirky human interest stories. Frum's skills as a tough, incisive and well-informed interviewer quickly made the program one of CBC Radio's most popular and enduring programs (it still airs today, in virtually the same format), and she continued to host until 1981.

Between October 1974 and July 1975, she hosted her own self-titled talk show.

Frum won the National Press Club of Canada Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Journalism in 1975. She was named to the Order of Canada in 1979. and Nelson Mandela.

She angered many in 1989 when she refused to acknowledge that the École Polytechnique massacre by a killer who proclaimed as he shot and stabbed women, "I hate feminists!" was an attack on women and feminism. "Why do we diminish it by suggesting that it was an act against just one group?" Frum said December 7, 1989 on The Journal.

Frum was frequently parodied on CODCO by Greg Malone, whose portrayal involved the recurring catchphrase "But are you bitter?" Frum and Malone (in his Frum drag) also presented a Gemini Award together.

She was also the inspiration for the muppet "Barbara Plum", host of "The Notebook", on Canadian Sesame Street (later reworked as Sesame Park). In the Canadian animated series The Raccoons, Frum herself portrayed a reporter called "Barbara LaFrum", who interviewed Cyril Sneer after his pigs told her of his unsavoury business practices.

Death

Frum died of leukemia on March 26, 1992. That evening, virtually the entire broadcasts of both The National and The Journal were a tribute to her and a retrospective of her career. Among the many tributes to her was an editorial cartoon depicting her at the gates of heaven with a reporter's notebook, insisting on interviewing God. Several other editorial cartoons simply depicted The Journal's set with an empty anchor chair.

Following her death, instead of hiring a new host for The Journal the CBC radically revamped its entire approach to news programming, The National and The Journal were merged into a new program called Prime Time News.

Legacy

Frum's three children were David, Linda and Matthew. Her son David was a presidential speech writer for George W. Bush and was recently fired from his position as a researcher with the American Enterprise Institute. Her daughter Linda is the author of a biography of her mother and in August 2009 was appointed to the Senate by Prime Minister Harper.

The atrium in the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto was named in Frum's honour.

Shortly after her death, the North York Public Library branch (now Toronto Public Library) at 20 Covington Rd was named in honour of Barbara Frum for her accomplishments as a distinguished broadcaster and journalist.

References

External links

Order of Canada Citation

CBC Digital Archives - Barbara Frum: Pioneering Broadcaster

AV Trust MasterWorks recipient 2005 AV Trust MasterWorks recipient 2005

Images from the Historic Niagara Digital Collections at Niagara Falls Ont. Public Library

Category:1937 births Category:1992 deaths Category:Canadian Jews Category:American immigrants to Canada Category:Canadian television news anchors Category:Cancer deaths in Ontario Category:Deaths from leukemia Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Niagara Falls, New York Category:People from Niagara Falls, Ontario Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Canadian radio journalists Category:Canadian talk radio hosts Category:CBC Radio hosts