David Susskind was a key "mover and shaker" in the television industry during the medium's "golden age" and continued to take a high profile as a media personality long after the gold turned to waste through some kind of reverse alchemy. In the process of leaving his mark on the histories of both live drama and television talk, Susskind would be honored with a Peabody Award, a Christopher Award, and 47 Emmy Awards.

     As Jack Gould observed in 1960, there were "virtually two Susskinds." One was a behind-the-scenes fig-ure who was a major force, perhaps the major force, in the East Coast branch of the television industry in the 1950s; the other Susskind was the public man who would first achieve celebrityhood as the moderator­ interviewer of Open End, a Sunday night discussion series aired by WNTA-TV in New York City. Some might say that his achievements were surpassed only by his arrogance. Described by his critics as "combative," "controversial," "blunt," and "endearingly narcissistic," Susskind once aspired to be "the Cecil B. DeMille of television." As a self-styled "iconoclast" and "rebel," Susskind cultivated a reputation as a television insider who was an outspoken critic of the medium and its mediocrity. According to Susskind, "Ninety-five percent of the stuff shown on it [TV] is trash."

     Susskind's ability to get things done, his genius as a logistician, was honed in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Serving as a communications officer aboard an attack transport, Susskind saw action at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. By the time he was discharged in 1946, he had given up his old ambition of landing a "job at Harvard as a teacher" and set his sights on show business. He actually went looking for his first job in his Navy uniform and quickly found a position as a press agent for Warner Brothers studios.

     It was as an agent, that most despised, parasitic, and necessary of show business professionals, that the behind-the-scenes Susskind would first encounter success. After a brief stint as a talent scout for Century Artists, Susskind worked his way into the Music Corporation of America's television program department, where he managed such personalities as Jerry Lewis and Dinah Shore. In the early 1950s, he came to New York and joined Alfred Levy to form Talent Associates, Ltd, an agency that would represent creative personnel rather than actors and specialize in packaging programs for the infant television industry. The new firm's first package sale was the Philco Television Playhouse, a live, one-hour drama series on which Susskind would later find his first job as producer, filling in for one of his clients, Fred Coe. After this heady experience, Susskind reinvented himself as a producer whose horizons extended far beyond the small screen, producing more than a dozen movies and more than half a dozen stage plays in his 40-year career. As for television, in addition to serving as a producer on The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The duPont Show of the Week, and Kraft Television Theatre (among others), he was also the executive producer of Armstrong Circle Theater. During this period, Talent Associates, Ltd, also thrived. In 1959, Susskind's company contracted for $9 million in live shows, more than the combined efforts of the three major television networks.

     From the 1960s to the 1980s, Susskind would come into his own. Open End, a forum that sometimes lasted for hours, went on the air in 1958. Called "Open Mouth" by Susskind's detractors, the show originally started at 11:00 P.M. and ran until the topics-or the participants-were exhausted. In 1961, the show was cut to two hours and went into syndication; in 1967, the title was changed to The David Susskind Show. Susskind's most significant interview by far was with Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev. Broadcast in October 1960, during the chilliest days of the Cold War, the interview dominated the headlines across the United States. Although station breaks featured a spot for Radio Free Europe depicting an ax-wielding Communist soldier smashing a radio set, most observers scored the event as a propaganda coup for the impish Krushchev. As Jack Gould put it, "The televised tete-a­ tete terminated in an atmosphere of Russian glee and Western chagrin."

     In his 29 years as a talk show host and moderator, the abrasive Susskind would often rub a guest the wrong way, resulting in what he termed "awkward moments." Tony Curtis even threatened to punch him "right on his big nose" after Susskind characterized Curtis as "a passionate amoeba." Susskind courted controversy by addressing such hot-button subjects as civil rights, abortion, terrorism, drugs, and a number of exotic or alternative lifestyles. His guests were as wide ranging as his discussion topics. The roster of people who accepted invitations to appear on his show includes Harry S. Truman, Richard M. Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Vietnam veterans, and even a ski-masked professional killer.

     Susskind continued to be intermittently involved as a producer of prestige programming, including Hedda Gabler (1961 ), The Price ( 1971 ), The Glass Menagerie (1973), and  Eleanor and  Franklin (1976). It is ironic, yet somehow fitting, that the grand impre­sario who introduced millions of television viewers to Willy Loman would himself suffer the death of a trav­eling salesman. Susskind died of a heart attack at the age of 66 in 1987.