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Reuven Frank (December 7, 1920 – February 5, 2006) was an American broadcast news executive.
Frank was a key figure in bringing television news out of the shadow of radio news by emphasizing the importance of visuals in telling stories. He paired Chet Huntley and David Brinkley for the first time to co-anchor NBC's coverage of the 1956 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Later that same year, he created the groundbreaking Huntley-Brinkley Report, and was its producer until 1964. The national catchphrase "Good night, David" "Good night, Chet" was credited to Frank.
Frank's Documentary film included Emmy Award-winning report The Tunnel (1962) about the escape of 59 Germans through a passage under the Berlin Wall. It received the Emmy Award for program of the year, the only documentary ever so honored. In the 1970s, he created and was executive producer of Weekend, a news magazine hosted by Lloyd Dobyns that originally aired one Saturday a month from 11:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The program received a Peabody award. Linda Ellerbee later joined as co-host.
Frank served two tenures as president of NBC News, from 1968 to 1974 and from 1982 to 1984, and mentored such journalists as Tom Brokaw, John Chancellor, Linda Ellerbee, and Andrea Mitchell. His memoir, Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News, was published in 1991.
Frank was a resident of Tenafly, New Jersey. He died of pneumonia on February 5, 2006, at the age of 85. He was a member of Temple Sinai of Bergen County.
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