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Jerry Springer, Talk Show King & Grandson of Jews Killed in Holocaust, Dies at 79
Edited by: Fern Sidman
Jerry Springer, the onetime mayor of Cincinnati and news anchor whose namesake TV show featured a three-ring circus of dysfunctional guests willing to bare all — sometimes literally — as they brawled and hurled obscenities before a raucous audience, died Thursday at 79, the Associated Press reported.
At its peak, “The Jerry Springer Show” was a ratings powerhouse and a U.S. cultural pariah, synonymous with lurid drama. Known for chair-throwing and bleep-filled arguments, the daytime talk show was a favorite American guilty pleasure over its 27-year run, at one point topping Oprah Winfrey’s show, as was reported by the AP.
Springer called it “escapist entertainment,” while others saw the show as contributing to a dumbing-down decline in American social values.
In a statement released to the media, Jene Galvin, a family spokesperson and friend of Springer’s since 1970 said, “Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word. He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humor will live on,” the AP reported.
Springer died peacefully at home in suburban Chicago after a brief illness, the statement said.
On his Twitter profile, Springer jokingly declared himself as “Talk show host, ringmaster of civilization’s end.” The AP reported that he also often had told people, tongue in cheek, that his wish for them was “may you never be on my show.”
After more than 4,000 episodes, the show ended in 2018, never straying from its core salaciousness: Some of its last episodes had such titles as “Stripper Sex Turned Me Straight,” “Stop Pimpin’ My Twin Sister,” and “Hooking Up With My Therapist.”
The AP also reported that in a “Too Hot For TV” video released as his daily show neared 7 million viewers in the late 1990s, Springer offered a defense against disgust.
“Look, television does not and must not create values, it’s merely a picture of all that’s out there — the good, the bad, the ugly,” Springer said, adding: “Believe this: The politicians and companies that seek to control what each of us may watch are a far greater danger to America and our treasured freedom than any of our guests ever were or could be.”
He also contended that the people on his show volunteered to be subjected to whatever ridicule or humiliation awaited them, as was reported by the AP.
Gerald Norman Springer was born on February 13, 1944,in the London Underground station of Highgate while the station was in use as a shelter from German bombing during World War II, and he grew up on Chandos Road, East Finchley, Wikipedia.org reported. His parents, Margot (née Kallmann; a bank clerk) and Richard Springer (owner of a shoe shop), were German-Jewish refugees who escaped from Landsberg an der Warthe, Prussia (now Gorzów Wielkopolski, Poland).
Wikipedia reported that his maternal grandmother, Marie Kallmann, who was left behind, died in the gas vans of the notorious Chełmno extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. His paternal grandmother, Selma Springer (née Elkeles), died at the hospital in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, as was reported by Wikipedia. Selma Springer’s brother, Hermann Elkeles, was a renowned Berlin doctor who also perished at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
In January 1949, when Springer was four, his family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Kew Gardens neighborhood of Queens, in New York City. Wikipedia reported that he attended nearby Forest Hills High School. Other such famous alumni include singers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel.
One of his earliest memories about current events was when he was 12 and watching the 1956 Democratic National Convention on television where he saw and was impressed by then-Senator John F. Kennedy, Wikipedia reported.
The AP also reported that Springer entered the political arena as an aide in Robert F. Kennedy’s ill-fated 1968 presidential campaign. Springer, working for a Cincinnati law firm, ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1970 before being elected to city council in 1971.
Springer earned a Bachelor of Arts from Tulane University in 1965, majoring in political science, Wikipedia reported. He earned a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University in 1968, the report added.
The AP reported that he was active in politics much of his adult life, mulling a run for governor of Ohio as recently as 2017.
At the age of 30, Springer married Micki Velton. The couple had a daughter, Katie, and divorced in 1994.
