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St. Petersburg Junior College

1935 - 1937, St. Petersburg, FL

After graduating from High School in 1935 (the so-called Million Dollar High School, the first in the nation to cost $1m) James F. Sirmons paid his own way into St. Petersburg Junior College with the idea of becoming a lawyer. But life had other plans: radio came into his life...

"Dad was a self made man. Nothing was ever handed to him as he grew up in a modest lifestyle. ... He was around 8 years of age when he delivered newspapers (probably the Saint Petersburg Times) in the local Northeast neighborhood areas where his parents and siblings lived. ... When Dad was a young teenager, he was a waiter (for a short time)...at the Saint Petersburg Yacht Club ... and put himself through College."
--Donna Sirmons, daughter

"The career of my grandfather was, like all careers, the net result of a series of mostly unanticipated choices. He navigated a path of circumstances that, along the way, surfaced talents or revealed interests. Choosing interesting opportunities -- not chasing goals -- controlled the destiny of Grandpa. He applied his talents to those opportunities and luck did the rest.

"It all began with Augusta B. Center who taught speech and drama courses at Saint Petersburg Junior college from 1934 to 1949. The best teachers don't just inform and test, they identify talent and give direction. This is what she did."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

(pictured: St. Petersburg Times, 5 Dec 1937)

"His first speech in class described a trip to the Ringling Museum. Apparently he did it in a fairly graphic way that appealed to Professor Center, who then assigned him to specific projects that would further exercise his public speaking. This included placing him on the debating team, and insisting that he become a member of the International Relations Society. He gave the commencement speech at the local Junior High School at her request.

"And throughout all of this it occurred to Grandpa that he was able to think on his feet and present a lucid argument without having to read a script. Professor Center particularly identified what she perceived to be debating skills, the ability to apply sound logic in response to debating questions."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

James Sirmons - High School Graduation - 1935

(pictured: St. Petersburg Times, 29 Jun 1936)

I thought well maybe the best way to use these skills is to think about being an attorney... I wanted to be a trial attorney, and I thought maybe someday even a Supreme Court judge. I was that foolish. But as I went along debating ... and in things like the Int'l Relations Club ... I became editor of the yearbook in Junior College. I began to realize that there is a thing out there called radio which Prof. Center had some connection with: the local radio station, WSUN.
The station asked her to put on a weekly half hour drama which would be scenes from great literature. ... Tale of Two Cities, we did for example... We did the scene with Charles Darnay alone in the cell and the French Revolution and I would be either the announcer or I would play a part. So I became aware of radio in 1936 and doing a good deal of it in 1937. I think that in all honesty probably that period was more important to me than any other single period in developing a self realization. That is: what I might be able to do, and what I can do better, than most other people - and what I was really interested in. I began to focus on talents and I began to get recognition.
At the same time I was active in the Presbyterian church and the young people's society there, which was called the Christian Endeavor Society. So I would go to these annual conferences for two or three years during that period and became the state president of that organization in 1937.
So I began to realize that I might have not only the ability to speak and organize my thoughts and present them logically but that I might possibly have some leadership qualities. All which I owe to Junior College and Prof. Center.
--James F. Sirmons

University of Florida

1937 - 1941, Gainesville, FL

So the next step was the University of Florida, and since we had no money - having 7 children in the family - I had to work my way through Junior College and it was pretty clear to me that I would have to work my way through the remainder of college. Even though my father was very interested and very supportive he was very limited as to what he could do.
So it occurred to me that as long as I was going to have to do that, I might as well see if I could work at the radio station there... Because it was a commercial station, although they didn't accept commercials, but they paid a salary to the students that worked at the station.
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa auditioned at the University of Florida radio station WRUF and originally they assigned him as a sports announcer but that wasn't the right fit for him. Ultimately the University of Florida experience was more confining and he didn't have as much time for extracurricular work. When the station started trying to sell advertising, Grandpa was asked to help with that a little, which gave him some good writing experience, though sales wasn't down his alley either."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

Major Garland Powell was the General Manager; an imposing figure to match the name. He welcomed me (I had auditioned for the Program Director a month or so earlier) and explained that I would be doing 20-25 hours of announcing and writing each week. And -- he asked -- could I ad lib? Was I interested in doing sports? How about news?
The thought of doing sports and following in the footsteps of Red Barber (who had left for Cincinnati a couple of years earlier) was exciting. My sports audition (dry run of football), however, was a disaster. It was no loss to the station. Dan Riss was doing a fine job of bridging the gap between Barber and Boggs.
My other ad lib assignment (Orange Grove String Band) was not much better. My writing was passable, though, and the announcing got by. As for news, Jim Walton was doing a good job on the featured evening news and I had no illusions about replacing him. I waas satisfied doing weekend news.
I am full of memories of my two years at WRUF. I learned about classical music from "The Hour with the Masters" (thanks to the Victor Book of the Symphony) and I learned about modern music from the big bands that were on records and transcriptions. Everything was written and edited. I enjoyed particularly putting together public affairs and documentary-type programs. Looking back on that experience I marvel at the standards we were held to.
There was a lot of talent on that staff and tremendous enthusiasm. Many of them stayed in the broadcasting field. At least one became a TV station manager. I ran across Fred Foste and Park Simmons in Cincinnati. Jim Walton visited from Louisville where he spent his entire career at WHAS. Red Barber and I were together during his years at CBS. Dan Riss became a Hollywood actor, what else!
--James F. Sirmons

Without WRUF I would have gone on to law school and spent the rest of my life practicing law in Florida.
In the summer of 1939 I had an illness that put me in the infirmary there ... so I wasn't able to complete the end of the school year. I had an offer during the summer at WSUN as an announcer doing the evening news, which looking back on it I probably shouldn't have taken, I probably should've stayed and gone to summer school, but the idea was to go back in the Fall and finish [my] credits. I still had the idea that I was going to be a lawyer.
Ironically the studios at WSUN were at the Pier which we can see across from the house here [from Bay Point Drive]. Of course it's a different Pier today than it was then. But the studios were out there, and you could see across the bay, you could see the porpoises and all the fishing going on and it was a beautiful thing. Today I look out from this house that we own on Tampa Bay and I can see where I worked in 1939.
Toward the end of that summer I had a letter from a fellow announcer [Park Simmons] in Gainesville at the university who had the idea: "why don't we finish out the summer by taking a two week Greyhound bus trip, and just for the fun of it, we stop in at major radio stations going up from Florida to New York and then coming over to Cincinnati and down to Louisville and home, and for the fun of it we audition."
It seemed like a good idea to me at the time, mainly for fun, because I wasn't looking for a job. I was just curious to whether I might have a marketable skill. So we took a Greyhound bus up to Washington (where he later became the Presidential announcer) [and] I stayed at his place. I auditioned at a couple of radio stations there. They obviously weren't hiring - they auditioned as more of a courtesy than anything else because the Park family had some influence. I realized ... if I was going to be impressive at an audition, where you only had one shot at it, I really had to concentrate on certain things. Adlibbing was one of them. So I concentrated on those things and enjoyed the auditions in Washington.
We were going to stop in Philadelphia to audition at WFIL and WCAU but those fell through for some reason so we went on to New York. We tried to get auditions at CBS, couldn't do that. But we did get an audition at NBC. There was an old chief announcer there whose name was Pat Kelly, sort of a legendary figure in the early radio business. And Pat agreed to give us an audition, which we took.
--James F. Sirmons

The "Million Dollar" Pier as it looked when James Sirmons worked there for WSUN.

After the audition he took the time to give us his reaction. It wasn't a critique, it was more of a practical, 'Listen guys, this is what you're going to have to do to make it in the big time as an announcer.' Well, to begin with, I wasn't very interested in making it as an announcer. That isn't what I had in mind at that time.
Anyway New York was interesting, and the 1939 World's Fair was going on, so we went out to Queens one day to the World's Fair and low and behold they had the first television demonstration. They had television sets with cameras and so forth. I didn't know of course at that time how big a role that would play in my life, but it was very interesting.
Park went back to Washington, I went on to Cincinnati. I remember taking the bus out of New York City late at night - 8:00 or something like that - for an all night trip arriving at Cincinnati arriving at 6 in the morning or something like that. And I remember this trip vividly because I was a Florida kid... Except for the mountains I had seen on the way up from Florida to Washington I had not seen mountains before. It happened to be a brilliant full moon, and this was shining down on the mountains and the textures. It was just captivating. In fact it was so exciting to me that I really couldn't sleep, I just stayed awake and looked at this scenery... This almost ephemeral kind of scenery that the moon was creating on these mountains.
So when I got to the station [WCKY] in Cincinnati which was a 50,000 watt CBS basic affiliate, I had had no sleep. The audition was scheduled for something like 7:30 or 8:00 in the morning. So I went up to the station which was in a hotel, called the Gibson Hotel, and met the program director who was William Forman.
He said, "Well you know we do have an opening here. You haven't had very much experience. This opening is for a morning show... Kind of a personality on a morning show... And it's a very early show - beings at 5:00 and runs from 5-7 in the morning." And he explained that the station, because of the position on the dial - something like 1490 - had an extensive coverage...
So that didn't really strike me as something of great interest to me. But again I was very relaxed, because I didn't care whether I got a job or not. I wanted to make a good impression. I wasn't nervous at all, because if I didn't make it, so what? It was an interesting experience. So anyway he gave me the usual stuff - commercials, a couple of public service things, introductions to programs, a variety of copy, that ran about 7 or 8 minutes. Then he said, "Why don't you adlib."
And I said, "On any particular subject?"
And he said, "No, it doesn't matter, whatever comes to your mind."
So of course what came to my mind was this experience that I had gone through the previous night, in the mountains and the moon and the spectacular vistas and views and textures and shadings and things I had never experienced before. So I began to talk about it. And because it had such a strong impression on me, I found myself sort of dreaming along... I don't know how to describe it... I remember very well the exercise, it took maybe ten minutes.
When it was over he came out and said, "You know you are very good."
And I said, "Well, you have to understand I just experienced this and I'm still feeling the emotional reaction to something I had never seen before."
He said, "No, no I understand that. Your ability to phrase and present thoughts is very good. Do you suppose you would be interested in the morning show?"
I said, 'I don't really think so.'"
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa turned down the position so he could finish college, still thinking about going into law. He auditioned at a few other places, including WHAS in Louisville, a big CBS affiliate, but it had no consequence."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

Practically every day I got a telegram from this guy (whose name was Rex Davis), the program director at WCKY in Cincinnati. He began to offer me money offers, and offers got to the point where the money was more than what lawyers were making in those days, because it was a very tough time for lawyers. He was offering $50-$60 a week, which was a lot of money in those days. My father was making $35, and he had been working all his life.
There were things on the horizon that were troubling. Clearly war was a possibility. It didn't take a genius to see what Hitler was up to, and Mussolini. And so you kind of took a fatalistic approach to these things, I mean this fate. If you don't grab this opportunity with all the uncertainty and turmoil in the world you might not ever have another opportunity like this.
So I took the job...
--James F. Sirmons

WCKY

1940, Cincinnati, Ohio
James F. Sirmons, Radio Broadcaster

"Grandpa was only a semester away from graduating due to the delays, but was forced into making a life choice. Attending the university was supposed to help him find a career, but a career was already banging at his door, and so he took a chance. Without fully graduating, he packed up and moved out of his home state of Florida for the first time."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

In January of 1940 [after college] I left for Cincinnati. I bought an old car with borrowed money. It didn't have a heater because in Florida you didn't need a heater. I didn't realize how terrible a lack of a heater would be as I drove up to Cincinnati and I hit a cold wave where the temperature got down into the teens. I think it was as low as ten or twelve degrees. It seemed to me, a kid from Florida, like it was Alaska.
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa stayed with some friends who kept him awake at night a lot, and so he while he started his new job he was sleep deprived."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

WCKY Hot Coffee Club
1940

(left-to-right:
Jim Sirmons, Bill Robbins, Rex, Davis, Al Bland, Bernie Johnson, Jack Foster, Park Simmons)

I began doing this 5-7 am show on WCKY which was called the Hot Coffee Club. I didn't even drink coffee. I didn't really enjoy the show. And of course getting up at 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning wasn't my idea of heaven either.
--James F. Sirmons

WCKY publicity photo (Jim Sirmons on far left)

[WCKY] was owned by a gentleman named L. B. Wilson, who was a midget - he was about four feet tall - a real showman, and an entrepreneuer. He was somebody who had taken a small station in Cullington, Kentucky across the river, moved it to Cincinnati, badgered the FCC into giving him 50,000 watts, and took away the CBS affiliation from the station in Cullington that it had been affiliated with for many years - WCPO. The station in Cincinnati was in a hotel... And the offices were former hotel rooms scattered up and down the hallway. ... It was a very impressive set of moves on his part, but that's what kind of guy he was.
But it was just not for me. Although the show did quite well and they did quite a bit of publicity on it - that is, putting out press pieces, none of which I kept (I wish I had). The most significant thing was that there was a show that followed mine called The Bland Wagon, and was named after the Bland Brothers. One of whom, Lee Bland, became a very close friend. ... Al was an exceptional writer, Lee was very creative. I learned a lot from them.
--James F. Sirmons

WCKY Publicity Photo
Aug 1940

(left-to-right: George Damerel, Myrtle Vail, Jim Sirmons)

George Damerel and Myrtle Vail were originally a vaudeville act. Myrtle would become famous for writing and acting in a hit radio show called Myrt & Marge. Later in life, through her grandson, screenwriter Charles B. Griffith (who collaborated with famed movie director Roger Corman), she starred in A Bucket of Blood and the original Little Shop of Horrors.

I got to meet some of the CBS people who came through because the station was doing a weekly series for the Cincinnati Conservatory and Lee was doing some writing on that. ... But that was my first contact with CBS.
--James F. Sirmons

I was in Cincinnati from January of 1940 to November 1940. Toward the beginning of Fall, Lee had been offered the opportunity to run a radio station in Youngstown, Ohio that had been put together by the owner of the Youngstown Vindicator whose name was William F. Maag, Jr. So with a total lack of modest, he called the station WFMG and built a state of the art facility with three or four very modern, well equipped studios, including one that would accommodate maybe 120 people in a live audience type of program.
Now you have to remember in these days all programming was live. There was no such thing as a recorded program. You had no practical means of doing that, you still only had the acetate recording method. You could pre-record a show but you had no ability to edit. There was no incentive for pre-recording because you couldn't change it.
Anyway, Lee was contacted by Mr. Maag who had heard of him and his creative abilities and offered him this job to run WFMJ, which was just getting started. It was an ABC affiliate. He had very big ideas on what he wanted to produce at the station. He didn't want to just take the stuff that came down the line, he wanted to produce original programming.
He talked Lee into joining him to do a lot of original programming. And Lee began to campaign with me to go with him as a production manager and chief announcer. So we talked about it for a couple of months. I did not like my situation in Cincinnati because of the hours and the type of program, and clearly didn't see myself as a personality, as a character... I simply was not that. And trying to force myself to be one every morning on the air Monday through Saturday was really taking its toll, and I wanted to get out of that.
The station liked what I was doing and wouldn't reassign me. So when Lee got this offer and began to talk to me about helping him come up with live programs, some of which would be audience programs, it appealed a great deal and so I accepted the job.
--James F. Sirmons

WFMJ

1940 - 1942, Youngstown, Ohio
James F. Sirmons, Announcer & Production Manager.

WFMJ Cast (Jim on far right)

I went up there in November of 1940. I did some announcing work, not a regular shift on the air, but a special program. It was not as big a station as the one in Cincinnati in terms of power but it had facilities and a physical setup that was far superior. Mr. Maag was a totally different individual [than Mr. Wilson], not a showman at all. He had a concept that he wanted to give the community, a really meaningful experience with a live production. But he himself only had a general idea of what that would be.
--James F. Sirmons

So we did live interview shows, we did some of the first quiz and game and audience participation shows, we did a lot of live interview and documentary shows at WFMJ. And we tried to develop a news department that was really on top of what was going on at that time. And what was going on was that war in Europe had started, the invasion of Poland was taking place. Though Roosevelt was constantly stating that America would not enter the war under any circumstances, it was pretty clear that there was a possibility that could happen, because we were losing a lot of ships to the Nazi U-Boats and the public's attitude was rapidly changing. Although there was that very strong support for no direct involvement of our armed forces in the war. In any eent it was a time that was very difficult to live in with kind of a normal life. You always thought that six months from now you're going to be at war. So you made plans and you did things that you probably wouldn't do ordinarily.
There was no serious armament in terms of manpower but there was very big industrial activity in building material for the war effort to support the allies, Britain primarily.
--James F. Sirmons

A national aluminum drive was held from July 21-25, 1941. Here, Jim Sirmons is on site reporting for WFMJ on the collection of pots and pans for the war effort.

The automotive manufacturing companies began to make tanks, we began to develop military aircraft. The whole atmosphere was very foreboding. ... So all of us were kind of living on the edge so to speak during that period. But the station was doing very well. I thought Lee did an exceptional job.
I'll never forget the 1940 presidential campaign. Both Wilke, who was running against Roosevelt (who had been talked into a 3rd term), [and Roosevelt] visited Youngstown. And so I had the opportunity to be physically close to them, and describe the parade that they had for Roosevelt down main street. I remember standing on top of the building describing the Roosevelt car and the procession and all the security that he had around him. And doing a man-on-the-street interview show with people that just wanted to talk, asking questions about Roosevelt and the war and Wilke. It was a very interesting time.
--James F. Sirmons

Jim Sirmons (far right) working with singer Bob Crosby (far left)
Bob Crosby was a brother of Bing Crosby. The woman in the middle is not identified at this time.

One of the things that happen during that time ... was the music publishing business underwent a major upheaval. ASCAP was really the licensing agent for all of those composers, and licensed the radio stations to use their product on the air. ASCAP decided that it would increase the license fees by some huge amount and the radio stations reacting to that got together and had a meeting in Detroit. Which Mr. Maag wanted to be present at, but no one could go. And he sent me. So I went to the meeting in Detroit of radio stations around the country to form what was known as BMI – Broadcast Music Incorporated I represented our station. That was the beginning of the split of the licensing of ASCAP and BMI.
So we used as much BMI music as we could in order to put pressure on ASCAP. This pressure between ASCAP and BMI went on for many years. The only reason I mention it is because that was the birth of BMI, and -- for reasons which really don't relate to anything I had ever done -- I found myself there. I didn't contribute anything, I just listened. I went back and made a report. Since later on at CBS all the musicians reported to me – including the conductors and the various others at one stage in my career – it suddenly tied together.
--James F. Sirmons

"It was at this point that my grandparents met and fell in love during a talent show."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

In the Fall or Winter of 1940 ... RCA put on a tour around the country: What they called talent search for television talent. Now you understand no one had a television. This was all promotion for what they perceived to be a potential market. There were no television stations on the air except for a couple of experimental stations in major cities. For some reason [WFMJ station owner] Mr. Maag decided that we would participate in this talent search – it was obviously a promotion thing but he thought it would get the station some attention. And so we had a series in the end of 1940, not long after I had arrived at the station, [where people would] audition in anticipation of this television group coming in with a ... presentation in one of the auditoriums later on. We were screening talent for television...
One of the individuals we auditioned was a beautiful young lady named Virginia Gorgas. When I saw her and talked to her it didn't matter to me how much talent she had. All of the sudden it was a different proposition. She read poetry, and she read it very well. I managed to see that she got it past the first round.
I declared her the winner of her group. And she in fact made it to the event itself. I was the master of ceremonies at the event, so I was in a position to make it easier on my future wife.
So ... we dated about 5-6 months and got married in June of 1941.
--James F. Sirmons

Right after or just before Pearl Harbor, Lee had received an offer from CBS to become a Production Supervisor for the network. He decided -- he and Jerry -- that that was a good step up for them, because he knew the CBS people (having worked with them in Cincinnati). So he took that job. Mr. Maag brought in another manager, a very nice guy, whose name I can't recall, but he didn't have the drive to put on the kind of programming that Lee did.
So for me it was kind of downhill, and of course I had met Virginia at about that time so life was changing rapidly for me. ... We left Youngstown in February of 1942, and we went to New York again because of Lee at the invitation of CBS to become a production supervisor.
--James F. Sirmons

CBS

1942 - 1949, New York, New York
James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor

There was a production manager and three production supervisors. I was the third Production Supervisor.
--James F. Sirmons

James Sirmons, Production Supervisor, CBS

These openings were obviously caused by people going off to war or being drafted, because in December of '41 when Pearl Harbor happened there was a declaration of War against the Japanese and the Nazis. And I fully expected that it wouldn't be long before I would be drafted as well. My number, however, which was drawn on a random basis, was way down the list, and it seemed to me that if I accepted the CBS offer -- even though I was sure I was going to be drafted later on -- I had least had established I could come back to a job that could get me out of the performing end, which I didn't really want to be in.
By this time I had been doing it for several years along with some creative management stuff and writing, and realized that I was really not going to be an outstanding performer. And I really didn't want to be an outstanding performer, or any type of performer. So I was anxious to get into the programming end of it.
This job at CBS was a night job. It was five nights a week, coming in at four o'clock and working until one a.m., supervising the operation of the network for those hours. All the people that were doing shows during your shift had to coordinate through you. That is it was: sort of an overall coordination of network product for a given evening.
Working with an operations sheet, there were a lot of people that reported to you – production people, announcers, directors, and people that were doing shows – were subject to your coordination. So you [were] a sort of coordinator involved in what the shows were doing, and assigning people where there was a change of any kind, making judgements about those assignments and getting to know some of the best and well-known stars and producers that were around at that time.
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa did many things in his operations days at CBS. One of them was announcing. He would often be the voice that simply said, 'This is the CBS Radio Network,' broadcast coast-to-coast. He often would announce talent for a live audience. One of the stories Grandpa told me years ago was when he introduced Frank Sinatra. As Frank entered the stage to take the mike from Grandpa, Grandpa accidentally kicked him in the shin. Anyone who has been struck hard in the shin knows that the pain is dramatic. Frank had to endure it and perform as usual while he no doubt bled into his shoe. Years later when Grandpa met Frank Sinatra again, Frank told him he still had the scar from that night. He called it the 'Sirmons scar.'"
--Chris Haviland, grandson

Frank Sinatra at CBS
(40's)

D-Day, in those early years ... springs out in my mind, because I was on the night schedule… We were expecting D-Day but we didn't know where it was going to be – nobody did. We waited until after midnight before we knew they landed in Normandy. And so we stayed on the air until 9:30 the next morning.
--James F. Sirmons

OCTOBER, 1946:
1) James F. Sirmons, CBS Production Supervisor
2) Edward R. Murrow, Vice President of CBS News
3) Wells "Ted" Church, Editor in Chief of CBS News

Edward R. Murrow was the number one voice of broadcasting during the war, and for a number of years after, had tremendous influence in Washington and in the broadcasting industry. He and I worked together quite a bit. He bought a place up in Pawling, New York. Which was on the Pawling Country Club. And he took up golf. Whenever that guy took up anything he went all out.
So when day we were on a project together and he said, "Do you play golf?" And I said, "Well I play occasionally but I'm not very good at it. I used to have a handicap of 11 but it's probably 18 or 19." He said, "Well how would you like to come up to my place and we'll try a round?" So I went up to his place in Pawling and we played a round of golf. Lowell Thomas was one of his neighbors, and Ed said, "Let me call Lowell and see if he wants to join." This was a day no one was working, it was a holiday.
So the second round I played with Murrow and Lowell Thomas. And it was very interesting. Both of them were trying to tell me how to play golf, and I was the best one of the three.
[As for Walter Cronkite, he] wasn't a golfer, he was a sailor.
--James F. Sirmons

1) James F. Sirmons, CBS Production Supervisor
2) Eric Sevareid, CBS News Journalist

1948 Presidential Election Night, CBS

"In 1948, Grandpa managed the CBS production of the first nationally televised presidential election on voting day (Truman vs Dewey). The following photos of the 1948 Presidential Election from the James F. Sirmons Estate.

"In these photos you will see some of the most famous news journalists of the time, including Edward R. Murrow, John Daly, Eric Sevareid and and Lowell Thomas. You will see CBS President and Co-Founder Dr. Frank Stanton. Also in attendance were celebrity spectators including David O. Selznick, executive producer producer of King Kong (1933) and producer of Gone With the Wind (1939) and Rebecca (1940), and his 2nd wife, Jennifer Jones, actress in Duel in the Sun (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), and A Farewell to Arms (1957).

"Identifications courtesy in large part to Mrs. Shirley Wersbha (also pictured) who supplied the photos years ago.

"The excitement of this day, as well as a similar long night waiting for news on D-Day (6 Jun 1944), were some of Grandpa's most vivid memories of the time period."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

1) James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor
2) Dr. Frank Stanton, President & Co-Founder of CBS
3) Shirley Lubowitz (Mrs. Joseph Wershba), News Producer
4) Beth Zimmerschied, News Producer

5) Richard C. Hottelet, Journalist
6) George Herman, Journalist
7) John Charles Daly, Journalist
8) Edward R. Murrow, Journalist
9) Eric Sevareid, Journalist

1) James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor
2) Dr. Frank Stanton, President & Co-Founder of CBS
3) Shirley Lubowitz (Mrs. Joseph Wershba), News Producer

4) Beth Zimmerschied, News Producer
5) Wells "Ted" Church, Editor in Chief of CBS News
6) Helen Sioussat, Assistant Director of Talks and Public Affairs

"The radio network United Independent Broadcasters, Inc., (as the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System) debuted 27 Sep 1927. It struggled to survive until the Congress Cigar Company invested in it, managed by the Paley family. Eventually, young William S. Paley was given the job to run the business, who changed the name to the Columbia Broadcasting System (acronym CBS). He made programming changes and other decisions, but the network was not national and was faced with financial challenges to compete with the faster growing National Broadcasting Company (NBC, which had been national since 1927, fed by its owner, RCA). He landed a major deal with an investor named Don Lee, owner of a chain of Cadillack auto dealerships on the West coast to help expand his network nationally. With that extension, Paley eventually outpaced NBC and grew the network to become the most powerful in the world.

"In 1935 Paley hired Frank Stanton originally as a research assistant, but Frank quickly climbed the ranks to become president in 1946. They hired Edward Klauber and Paul White to assemble a news team, and brought in Edward R. Murrow, Douglas Edwards, William Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Robert Trout, John Daly and various others. Stars such as Phil Harris, Fred Allen, Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Freeman Gosden, Charles Correll (of Amos 'n' Andy fame), Edgar Bergen, George Burns & Gracie Allen, and Jack Benny. Grandpa worked with all of them in one form or another until 1957 when he was promoted out of operations into the labor department. Walter Cronkite replaced Douglas Edwards as anchor of CBS Evening News in 1962, and for a long time Walter's office was down the hall from James. They became long-time friends.

"CBS became a pioneer in international shortwave broadcasting, FM modulation and early television broadcasting. One of the company's big milestones was introducing LP phonograph records under its Columbia Records division, a format which still has a following even today. By 1950 there were 3,000 employees and an annual sales of over $100 million."

--Chris Haviland, grandson (paraphrasing RadioWorld.com & Britannica.com)

1) James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor
2) Helen Sioussat, Assistant Director of Talks and Public Affairs
3) Shirley Lubowitz (Mrs. Joseph Wershba), News Producer
4) Beth Zimmerschied, News Producer

5) Jennifer Jones, Film Actress
6) David O. Selznick, Film Producer
7) Ed Bliss, Journalist
8) Richard C. Hottelet, Journalist
9) George Herman, Journalist

1) James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor
2) Helen Sioussat, Assistant Director of Talks and Public Affairs
3) Jennifer Jones, Actress
4) David O. Selznick, Film Producer
5) Shirley Lubowitz (Mrs. Joseph Wershba), News Producer
6) Ed Bliss, Journalist
7) Wells "Ted" Church, Editor in Chief of CBS News

8) Lee Otis, Journalist
9) Lou Cioffi, Journalist
10) Richard C. Hottelet, Journalist
11) George Herman, Journalist
12) John Charles Daly, Journalist
13) Edward R. Murrow, Vice President of CBS News
14) Beth Zimmerschied, News Producer

1) Lee Bland, Production Supervisor (brother of Al Bland and James Sirmons' colleague from WCKY and WFMJ)
2) Davidson Taylor, Vice President of Public Affairs
3) Theodore F. "Ted" Koop, Journalist; President of the National Press Club
4) Helen Sioussat, Assistant Director of Talks and Public Affairs
5) Wells "Ted" Church, Editor in Chief of CBS News

1) Jerry Maulsby, Production Supervisor
2) Shirley Lubowitz (Mrs. Joseph Wershba), News Producer
3) Beth Zimmerschied, News Producer

1) John Charles Daly, Journalist
2) James F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor

CBS

1949 - 1957, New York, New York
James F. Sirmons, Operations Manager

James F. Sirmons, Operations Manager, CBS 1949

Later on that department was changed. It still did exactly the same thing, but it was changed from production department to operations department which was a more accurate title than it had before. It had in it a scheduling for all the facilities for the shows...
All the musical instruments... the operations sheet that was used throughout the network... the coordination with the traffic department that set up all the lines and the network cables and so forth... the supervision of the production people, and the announcers that worked directly out of that department... and general coordination with all the producers that were doing shows during your shift... directors... any special problems.
The clearance of music very often had a place. The network sensor would come in and at the beginning of the shift tell you what problems he or she – it was always a he in those days – he had with the material during your shift. 'Don't let Fred Allen get away with saying this... If anybody calls from that show to look at that script, these lines had been taken out... Don't reverse anything, don't let him say those things.'
Well those were very interesting questions. I had never been involved with anything like that – or dealing with stars like Fred Allen who no matter what you tell him he did it his way anyway. It was very exciting and very heavy stuff.
--James F. Sirmons

Jim Sirmons working the 1956 Democratic Convention for CBS, with master control room operator Dwight McPeek.

"When I was 21 years old I took an outstanding education course in broadcasting, which was my life's dream. The course was brilliantly taught by one James Sirmons.

"A few months later, I bumped into Mr. Sirmons on a street in New York. I asked him, 'If I want to break into Broadcasting, where should I go? What should I do?' This dapper, handsome gentleman with the great voice said, 'Try Miami. People there are either on the way up or on the way out.'

"I tried Miami. And the rest, let's say, is history. I will be forever indebted to Jim, whom I often think about. What if, what if, I hadn't met him that day?"
--Larry King, radio & television talkshow host

"Larry retold his meeting with Grandpa in several of his autobiographies, beginning with When You're In Brooklyn, Everything Else is Tokyo and later in My Remarkable Journey. The story was then republished by other authors such as in From the Superstar Syndrome: The Making of a Champion by Myra S. White and Inspiration from the Lives of Famous People by Azhar Saleem Virk, as well as various online blogs and articles. He repeated the story in a congratulatory letter to Grandpa when he retired from AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds as chairman of the board, and later recorded a video "Happy Birthday" greeting for Grandpa's 100th birthday party in December 2017" which I played for him.
--Chris Haviland, grandson

CBS Golf Tournament

Sirmons - Hazard - Hamilton - Klazer

Jun 1952

1) David Schoenbrun, Journalist CBS
2) James Sirmons, Operations Manager CBS
3) Wells "Ted" Church, Editor in Chief CBS News

CBS

1957 - 2000, New York, New York
James F. Sirmons, Industrial Relations

Executive Milestones

1957: Promoted to Assistant Director of Labor Relations at CBS
1961: Promoted to Director of Labor Relations at CBS
1968: Elected to Board of Directors at AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds
1969: Promoted to Vice President of Employee Relations at CBS
1970: Elected Chairman of the Board at AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds
1971: Promoted to Vice President of Personnel and Labor Relations at CBS
1981: Promoted to Senior Vice President of Industrial Relations at CBS
1992: Honored by CBS for 50 Years of Service
1994: Promoted to Executive Vice President of Industrial Relations at CBS
2000: Retired from CBS (after 58 years)
2001: Resigned as Chairman of the Board at AFTRA H&R
2009: Resigned Board of Directors at AFTRA H&R (after 42 years)

"Grandpa was promoted out of operations into the role of Assistant Director of Labor Relations in 1957, reporting to the first person to ever run that department: Vice President of Labor Relations William C. Fitts."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

1957 is when I got talked into switching over from operations to the labor relations department, and I wasn't at all sure it was a good idea. [Vice President of Television] Larry Lowman and [CBS President] Frank Stanton and Jim Seward and Bill Fitts -- who was head of the department -- conspired to talk me into it. And God bless them. For me, it's turned out to be a perfect job. Whatever ability I had, I could use. I'm adversarial by nature, I guess, I don't know. But there's something that appeals to me about the kind of problems that this job brings.
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa was promoted subsequently to Director of Labor Relations in 1961, the title he held when I was born in 1965. He joined the Board of Directors for the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds in 1968. In 1969 he became Vice President of Employee Relations at CBS and in 1970 was elected Chairman of the Board in the AFTRA H&R. In 1971 he was promoted to Vice President of Personnel and Labor Relations at CBS. In 1981 he became Senior Vice President of Industrial Relations."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

At that point in the development of television we had gotten past a lot of the great live stuff… Now we were entering the video tape era, and believe me we thought this was going to be great...
More problems you can even dream of with tape!
For one thing, you can play it back. And you can have reruns. Before, all you had was motion picture film that you can rerun and kinetoscopes which were lousy. … So now we could play these things back, and that created major problems for negotiators. Not only developing rerun formulas but all of the things that spin off from that. So that was a fascinating period.
[In] the 1960 Hollywood group of strikes … there was an impasse in the industry over what to pay the performers and the writers and the directors and the musicians when you released a motion picture into television. From '48 on they've been arguing about this, and it came to a head in 1960 -- a whole series of strikes. I talked Bill Fitts into letting me go out there just to be an observer because the Hollywood community wasn't about to let us sit in the bargaining tables. I sat in the back.
And I observed Ronald Reagan and Lew Wasserman and people of that sort… And Charlie [Borham] – my first exposure to the AMPTP – the Association of Motion Picture Television Producers of that time – I thought I was participating at least as an observer only to discover the deals were being made across town. That was a valuable lesson.
--James F. Sirmons

The '72 IBEW strike… that was the breakthrough in the coverage of news, the so-called hand-held camera that we couldn't lift and the conversion from film news coverage to taped news, and from that point on technology never stopped. They never let us up for a minute, every three months there was another new thing that made the last thing obsolete and made it essential that you re-negotiate. Terrible situation. I keep hoping that somehow a way will be found to stop technology. Fortunately I have [CBS Vice President of Technology] Joe Flarity to explain it to me. Without Joe I'd know even less about what I'm doing.
--James F. Sirmons

Sirmons inspecting new equipment
Washington, D.C., 1972

One of the most interesting experiences I had [around the mid-to-late 70's], was a major negotiation in the industry covering film, tape, live, and all the talent… And so we had this big pre-negotiation meeting [with] all the heads of the network companies, the motion picture companies, the big independent producers… I knew what would happen because I'd been through that before. The film companies – the big studios – would dominate the reasoning and form the resolution of the issue. So [representing CBS] I knew I had to take a more active role.
[One of them] said, "Ladies and gentlemen we need to make a major decision that will probably contribute to our success or failure." I didn't know what he was going to say. What he said was, "Our committee recommends that we appoint a committee of company presidents to negotiate the industry deal. And the others will be available on call. That way we will show them we are serious, and that we have the power to deliver what we're saying. Because we'll be heads of the major companies."
And I'm listening to this, and I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, what you just heard may sound logical to you. And it was presented very effectively. But it's the wrong way to approach this negotiation. Because company presidents tend to make their judgments – as we have found over the years – on the most major project they have going at the time. It may not conform to the problems and immediate production challenges that the other companies have." And I said, "For example, in 1950 we had an industry-wide musicians negotiation. And I'll never forget what happened, and how it came out. Because the industry decided to be represented by their presidents."
And I said, "That is a terrible mistake, as we have found in the past. The one I referred to is a good example. We had a strike. In order to solve the strike we agreed to an eight-year package which guaranteed employment in certain segments in the industry." And I said, "I think we're about to make a major mistake. And I strongly recommend we reject it."
Well I thought, "Go to hell, Jim" would be their answer.
The president of Warner Brothers asked me in front of all the other guys, "Would you take this position if [the top CBS executives, including Paley] were here, Jim?" And I said, "I would say exactly the same thing, it is based on fact. It is a very risky way to go."
All the presidents got up and left without saying another word.
[Later] they sent a committee to New York from Hollywood comprising of about eight or ten presidents of the companies and they met with Mr. Stanton and Mr. Paley and they laid it out. ... They were the heads of each studio… Lew Wasserman and people like that. They didn't tell me they were going to do this.
They said, "We resent very much the implications of what was said, and we'd like you to call Mr. Sirmons into a meeting and either: one, fire him, or two, have him change his position in front of the rest of the industry committee."
So anyway what happened was Paley and Stanton turned them down.
But they wouldn't tell me. He didn't even call me and say, "I have done this for you." [My] career certainly would have been over at CBS. From that point on, Paley was a supporter of mine. I've had major issues with the other division presidents, and when it got to Paley he pretty much supported my position. I didn't know that Paley was that much of a supporter of mine...
They went my direction, and we made a reasonable deal, which of course made them easier to convince in the future.
--James F. Sirmons

"This photo hung in a conference room in the Industrial Relations offices at CBS for years. Taken by his staff during near Phoenix, AZ during an IBEW negotation, his staff thought the context would be amusing for him to stand near a sign that said, 'Poisonous snakes and insects inhabit the area.' Grandpa never understood the joke."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

50 Year Anniversary

James F. Sirmons Employed at CBS 1942-1992

"On 29 Mar 1992, Grandpa was honored for his 50 years at CBS where many past and current colleagues converged to offer him their tributes. Sir Howard Stringer, then president of CBS, awarded him one of the original S letters that used to be mounted on the side of the old CBS Broadcasting building in New York."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

Columbia Broadcasting System Building

485 Madison Ave., New York, NY - Sep 1941

The letters mounted on several sides of the building were placed into storage in later years, and one "S" was mounted in a plaque (pictured below) and given to James Sirmons for his 50th Anniversary with the network.

1) Sir Howard Stringer, President, CBS
2) James F. Sirmons, Senior Vice President of Industrial Relations, CBS
3) Dan Rather, News Anchor, CBS

1) James F. Sirmons, Senior Vice President of Industrial Relations, CBS
2) Laurence Tisch, CEO, CBS
3) Eric Ober, President of CBS News

That's the old RCA – what they called a "Velocity" microphone. It's a 77-B. Which is the one they all used in those days. That was probably used by most of the famous people that were in the company.
--James F. Sirmons

1940's Radio Journalists using the Velocity 77-B microphones

1) Eric Sevareid
2) Charles Collingwood
3) Paul White

4) Bill Downs
5) Richard C. Hottelet
6) Edward R. Murrow

James Sirmons speaking (for a long, long time) at his 50th Anniversary at CBS

One of the things you have to mention in connection with this job is appreciation for the families of these people to give up their nights and their weekends and their holidays and their vacations for whatever the challenge is and the rewards are for doing of this job. My wife solved the problem long ago by moving to Florida.
Good friends, challenging problems, strong adversaries, good health – I've had very good health and I'm blessed for that – a lot of energy, and I'm a sucker for an impossible problem which is what probably keeps me going.
Somebody asked me the other day, "What's the secret of your health?" And I said, "Moderation." He kind of looked at me like he couldn't believe that. If you said that to Bruce York, he probably would say, "Moderation? Twenty six straight hours of negotiating? You call that moderation?" That's what we did just a few weeks ago. We made a deal.
--James F. Sirmons (from his CBS 50th Anniversary Speech)

"I've heard that you're about to celebrate your 50th anniversary with CBS and could not let the occasion pass without a few words. Congratulations on your enumerable accomplishments on behalf of CBS. So many of which also benefited our industry as a whole. You have much of which to be proud. One can only wonder what the next 50 will bring."
--Barry Dillar

(Chairman and Senior Executive of InterActiveCorp and Expedia Inc. Former executive at Paramount, Fox Network, 20th Century Fox, and founder of USA Broadcasting)

James F. Sirmons
Executive Vice President, Industrial Relations, CBS
Black Rock (19th floor)

"In 2000 after 58 years and 5 months with the company, grandpa resigned CBS. On 30 Aug 2000, one day before his last day with CBS, I was working for Mail.com down at 11 Broadway off the Bowling Green in lower Manhattan, and I took some time off and traveled up to his office at Black Rock at 51 West 52nd Street with a video camera and interviewed him and his staff."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

James Sirmons' Staff at CBS in New York
30 Aug 2000 (one day before his retirement)

1) Ed Yergeau
2) Leon Schulzinger
3) Linda Driss
4) Mary Gera

5) Joe Gerstner
6) Mary Truisi Kenney
7) James F. Sirmons

"[Jim] is an incredible resource on the history of collective bargaining in our industry, and he's been on the forefront of almost every major issue we ever had. He's got an enormous reservoir of history that no one else in our industry has."

--Joe Gerstner

"[Jim] is an incredible resource on the history of collective bargaining in our industry, and he's been on the forefront of almost every major issue we ever had. He's got an enormous reservoir of history that no one else in our industry has."

--Ed Yergeau

Congratulations, James, on an extraordinary career. Maybe we'll meet again someday and I'll give you some advice.
--Larry King, radio & television show host

"I asked Grandpa what his last week was like... How did he fill his day... What was his workload..."

--Chris Haviland, grandson

Primarily it's going through the loose ends, all the things that need to be wrapped up or handed over to somebody else. And do a little explaining. Calling old friends. I talked to a number of people in the last two or three days that I've worked with for many, many years, like Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, and the producer of Sixty Minutes, Don Hewitt. People of that sort, that are close friends, that I've been with for many years.
There's also the question of who's going to do what, in terms of the various projects that I've been working on. So there's the process of orienting those people, and making sure that we know who's responsible, and that sort of thing."
--James F. Sirmons

"I asked grandpa if someone was replacing him here..."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

There is a replacement… It's been decided that he'll be stationed on the West coast instead of here. Ed Yergo will run the Eastern operation, and the new individual, Harry Isaacs, will run the Western part, and have overall responsibility.
--James F. Sirmons

"Grandpa would remain as a consultant to CBS for a few years after his retirement. In 2001 he resigned as Chairman of AFTRA Health & Retirement funds, and lastly resigned from their Board of Directors altogether in 2009. And in 2010 he discontinued his official capacity as a consultant to the industry."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

Accepting a plaque at a ceremony for his resignation from the AFTRA H&R Funds
June 2010

James F. Sirmons Conference Room

Headquarters of the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds

261 Madison Ave (btween 40th & 41st), New York, NY

So named in 2002 in commemoration of his service.

"His 58 year tenure at the network is longer than all but two others at CBS. ... After Jim was asked to take over CBS talent contract negotiations, he spent the next three decades or so negotiating and administrating contracts with AFTRA, SAG, the Director's Guild, the Writer's Guild, and the American Federation of Musicians. He negotiated many of the most important contracts in the entertainment industry, and he was responsible for over two hundred labor agreements in broadcasting. Each of which had to be renegotiated every few years. He negotiated 61 contracts with AFTRA, during which time four AFTRA chief executives and seven national presidents resigned from office....

"Jim was elected Chair of the Employer Trustees on January 11, 1972. Re-elected annually, he remained Employer Chair through December 31, 2003... A period of 32 years. Jim worked closely with trustees representing both AFTRA and the industry helping to create and maintain collegial and effective working relationships between the trustees, and between trustees and the H & R staff. One shared goal was expanding the flow of information to and from the participants.

"Jim will be the first to tell you that he alone is not responsible for all of the fund's achievements during his many years of service. But his colleagues insist that Jim certainly didn't stand on the sidelines as retirement benefits were increased ten times during the 1990s. He wasn't an innocent bystander when the health plans were created. He wasn't in the locker room when the wellness program or the coverage of same-sex partners came to pass. Jim was also very involved in establishing the industry substance abuse program many years ago, a program which later became a part of the AFTRA health plan. Of course Jim didn't accomplish these and many other things all by himself. But working with his industry and AFTRA colleagues, Jim was an indispensable architect in building a consensus that made good things possible.

"During negotiations, Jim always weighed his words with great care. A former negotiator, who over the course of many years represented several organizations in negotiations with Jim, still marvels at his memory. 'He knew every period and every comma in every contract he ever negotiated,' he recalls. 'He was a tough negotiator, but a wonderful man.'

"Jim Sirmons is also a very private person. He doesn't talk much about himself. If you had to depend on Jim to discuss his achievements or to persuade other folks to brag about him, you would think that Jim Sirmons had never done anything at all. He was a very retiring man."

--American Federation of Television & Radio Artists

"St. Petersburg College (formerly St. Petersburg Junior College) offers an annual Outstanding Alumnus Award. Granpda was honored with that award in 2008. They made a short documentary about him, -- a school promotional trailer -- and gave him a plaque."
--Chris Haviland, grandson

1) Tom Sirmons, former News Broadcaster & Documentary Writer at KNX and others (son of James)
2) James F. Sirmons, former Executive Vice President, CBS
3) Madelyn Healty (friend of James)
4) Ray Sirmons, former executive with Florida Power Inc. (brother of James)
5) Paul Sirmons, movie director / producer and former Florida State Film Commissioner (son of Ray)

James Franklin Sirmons, age 99
Christmas 2019
St. Petersburg, FL

Career

St. Petersburg Junior College

1935 - 1937, St. Petersburg, FL

University of Florida

1937 - 1941, Gainesville, FL

WCKY

1940, Cincinnati, OhioJames F. Sirmons, Radio Broadcaster

WFMJ

1940 - 1942, Youngstown, OhioJames F. Sirmons, Announcer & Production Manager.

CBS

1942 - 1949, New York, New YorkJames F. Sirmons, Production Supervisor

Douglas Edwards

Edward R. Murrow

Paul White

Robert Trout

Eric Sevareid

Lowell Thomas