Dan's Papers - October 27, 2006

Lynn Sherr, television journalist for forty years, came out of her East Hampton home and to BookHampton recently, to talk about her latest book, Outside the Box. This new memoir chronicles her exciting life as one of the first women to break into the major TV networks during the 1960s.

Charline Spektor, owner of BookHampton, introduced Sherr before a crowd of about 40 people, saying, "She's my personal hero. As a correspondent with ABC News for several decades, she has inspired many younger women to get where they need to go."

Sherr explained that her new book is "a metaphor for my life and the box that dominates our lives." She began by telling how she got into the field of journalism, and proceeded to talk about the many world events she covered in her long career, like the NASA Space Program. Sherr devotes a chapter to her first role model in the reporting field - the famous cartoon character Brenda Star.

"She had such an exciting life, with adventures and a mystery man - she was glamorous and independent - she was one of the first role models for women of the 50s and 60s era," said Sherr. "In high school, I knew that this is what I wanted to do, but back then, women were marrying careers, not having them." Nevertheless, Sherr attended Wellesley College, where she majored in Greek classics, and during her years there, she entered the Mademoiselle magazine "Guest Editorship" contest by writing an essay. She won a guest editorship, and was one of a handful of other female students who were sent to Rome. But when she graduated from college in 1963, she found a bleak job market for female journalists.

"Back then, all doors were shut in New York City," she said. "Editors said they didn't hire girls, and Time and Newsweek said we could only be hired at the clip desk. But it never dawned on us girls to complain."

Sherr finally decided to take a job at Mademoiselle, where she had made some connections through the contest. "I liked working at Conde Nast, but I got bored writing about women's fashion and lifestyles," said Sherr. "I left and finally got a job at Associated Press, where I did more hard news reporting, and loved it."

Then her life changed again in 1972, when she heard that another woman journalist, Pia Lindstrom (Ingrid Bergman's daughter) was pregnant and leaving her job at Channel 2, WCBS. "I decided to audition, and I quickly discovered that every woman on the news desk was blonde, like me," she said. "I also learned that I had to get used to getting recognized on the street, because up until then I had only a byline." She joined ABC in 1977, and has worked at 20/20 for the past 20 years, specializing in investigative reports and social change.

In her book, Sherr also writes about how she had to get used to the intimacy of television. "When I came on 20/20 at 10 p.m., I was being seen in people's bedrooms, and was part of their lives," she said. "At first, it was very strange."

In her years on TV, Sherr has covered everything from the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in 1986, to microsurgery operations at New York hospital, to shows on anorexia, to the big Millennium New Year's Eve celebration in Bombay, India, "with 10,000 screaming Indians." She worked with some of the best TV journalists, including the late Peter Jennings of Bridgehampton.

"I became a reporter to tell the truth, to take complicated stories and explain them to people, and to make sense out of our sometimes rather disoriented world," she said. "At its best, TV journalism is energizing and humbling, and I really liked getting the bad guys. My forte was not the celebrities, but the ordinary people.

"As a TV reporter, I've had breakfast with giraffes, been mistaken for Geraldine Ferraro, and flown in a simulator space missile," she said. "I've done shows on all the things that can kill you - lettuce, the sun, raw shellfish, sex, and cosmetic plastic surgery. I chronicled a revolution, including the women's movement, and saw the rules change in society."

For example, she said that in 1953, there was only one female newswoman, Pauline Fredericks. "Then came Marlene Sanders, on ABC News. And myself in 1972. By 1974, there were a dozen women on air at three networks," said Sherr. "By 1977, there were 25 women on air, and by 1979, there were 39 women at the networks.

"By then, there were also more women behind the scenes - finally someone from whom I could borrow a hair dryer," quipped Sherr. She added, "Having women in the newsroom enabled the stations to cover all aspects of life, such as rape, abusive husbands, breast cancer, and women's issues."

In her book, Sherr also writes candidly about her personal struggles, with her husband's death from cancer, and her own bout with the disease. She writes about the struggles to keep the news honest, and of the constant pressure in television to make money. Sherr writes with honesty, compassion and humor.

Tall and blonde, Sherr laughingly compares herself to being giraffe-like, and actually wrote about these "wonderful creatures" in her other book, Tall Blondes: A Book About Giraffes, inspired by a safari where she was captivated by giraffes. Admitting that she only writes books about that which she is "passionate," Sherr has also penned America The Beautiful: The Stirring True Story Behind Our Nation's Favorite Songs; and Failure is Impossible: Susan B. Anthony in Her Own Words. Her book is available at BookHampton and other stores.