Tom Ellis makes an impeachable mistake (1980). (was Re: Tom Ellis departure 1982)

["Peter Q. George" <radiojunkie3@yahoo.com>]

Needless to say, the Ellis/Jacobson pairing was doomed
almost from the start.  The real tip of the iceburg
was when, in 1980, Tom Ellis mentioned live on the air
during their 11:00 PM newscast that "congratulations
are in order" as Natalie was "expecting".  The look on
her face was classic!!  She was p**sed!! Apparently,
she did not want to announce the "visit from the
stork", until SHE was ready to do so. It became the
biggest story in Boston TV.  Not the fact that Tom
took it onto himself to announce the happy news, but
the fact that Natalie was going to have a baby.  By
the next morning, after Tom made the "boo-boo",
everybody and his mother wanted to know everything
about Natalie's pregnancy. We of course knew by then,
that Tom was on "borrowed time" at WCVB-TV.  Natalie
was Channel 5's Star Attraction.  Eventually,
Natalie's (then) husband, Chet Curtis, joined her at
the anchor desk, sometime later.  Tom joined the new
Channel 7 (WNEV-TV) some 18 months later.


Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts


--- Kevin Vahey <k-vahey@attbi.com> wrote:
> I was mistaken I had forgotten Ellis went directly
> from 5 to 7
> 
> here are snippets from the Boston Globe at the time
> 
> 
>      Ellis, WCVB-TV's premier evening news coanchor,
> will switch to 
> WNEV-TV, perhaps as early as August. He resigned
> from WCVB yesterday 
> after four highly successful years in which Channel
> 5 moved past Channel 
> 4 into first place in news for the first time.
> 	
> Natalie Jacobson, his Ch. 5 coanchor during the
> station's rise to the 
> ratings leadership, was as stunned as anyone. "I'm
> surprised," she said 
> just before going on camera for the 6 p.m. news.
> "I've enjoyed working 
> with Tom the past four years. I wish him well."
> Sources at Ch. 5 said 
> the relationship between Jacobson and Ellis was
> never cordial. They said 
> Ellis frequently communicated with her by memo
> rather than speak to 
> her.
> 
>     In an interview with Boston magazine in October
> 1979, Jacobson said 
> of Ellis, "He puts great emphasis on the details.
> What he looks like, 
> his hair, his clothing and so forth.
> 
>     "To me, it's like washing the dishes - just one
> of the things you 
> have to do in life."
> 
>     When Ellis came to Boston and Ch. 4 in 1968, he
> reportedly was signed 
> to a healthy contract, which got fatter in two
> renegotations, reportedly 
> reaching $170,000 a year in the early '70s. In 1975,
> when his salary 
> demands reportedly became too big for Westinghouse
> and Ch. 4, Ellis 
> moved to New York and a job with ABC as news anchor
> on the network's 
> local station. At the time, he reportedly signed a
> three-year contract 
> worth $200,000 a year.
> 
> 
> 
> 


=====
Peter Q. George (K1XRB)
Whitman, Massachusetts
                           "Scanning the bands since 1967"
radiojunkie1@yahoo.com
radiojunkie3@yahoo.com
***********************************************************

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