Gene Shalit was born in New York City on on March 25, 1926. He grew up in Morristown, New Jersey. In grammar school he ws responsible for the school's first newspaper, The Spotlight. He attended Morristown High School, where he wrote the humour column for the school newspaper. He attended the University of Illinois, where he was the sports editor of The Daily Illini and also wrote the columns "What Shalit Be?" and "Campus Scout" for the newspaper. He also wrote for The Champaign-Urbana Courier and was a stringer for the Associated Press, writing about the Big Ten conference.
He began his career as a PR agent and was a partner in the firm Barkas, Shalit and Schiller. Among his clients was Dick Clark. It was in the early Sixties that he became an entertainment columnist for McCall's, and wrote primarily book reviews. In 1968, he became the senior movie critic at Look. He also wrote the “What’s Happening” column for Ladies’ Home Journal and the "Sports Talk" column for Sport. He did movie reviews for KNBC in Los Angeles and WNBC in New York City. It was NBC News president Reuven Frank who brought Gene Shalit to Today. He joined the show in 1969, occasionally doing book reviews. It was in 1973 that he became the full-time movie critic on Today. His segment, called Critic's Corner, would remain a part of Today until he retired from the show in November 2010.
While on Today, he continued to write a column for Ladies Home Journal and also wrote for Cosmopolitan, TV Guide, Seventeen, and The New York Times. His "Man About Anything" segment was broadcast each day on the NBC radio network. Over the years, he appeared on several TV shows, including Jeopardy, What's My Line? (on which he was a panellist), The Mike Douglas Show, To Tell the Truth, Mystery! (on which he was briefly the host), and The New Hollywood Squares, among others. He hosted the TV special Sesame Street at Night?. He had a cameo in Tootsie (1982) and provided his voice for episodes of the animated series The Critic and SpongeBob Squarepants. He also hosted a video cassette and laserdisc series on MCA Home Video called Gene Shalit's Critic's Choice Video.
Gene Shalit also authored books, including Somehow It Works; A Candid Portrait of the 1964 Presidential Election (1965), Laughing Matters: A Celebration of American Humor (1987), Great Hollywood Wit (2002), and, with artist Jack Davis, Khrushchev's Top Secret Coloring Book (2016).
I was very young when Gene Shalit began regularly appearing on the Today Show, and he have little doubt that he was the first movie critic to whom I was exposed. With his bushy hair, handlebar moustache, glasses, and bow ties, he looked less like a film critic than he did an absent-minded professor or an old-time comic just fresh from touring the Catskills. Indeed, his reviews were always filled with one-liners and often outrageous puns. Not only was he clearly having fun in his reviews in the Critic's Corner, but it was clear he loved movies. What is more, even when he might dislike a movie that you liked (1980's Flash Gordon stand out for me), you understood where he was coming from. He was approachable as a critic, and never arbitrary.
Of course, Gene Shalit not only did book and movie reviews on Today, but he also interviewed many celebrities, including Richard Burton, Mel Brooks, Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, Burt Reynolds, and Steven Spielberg. Gene Shalit was an excellent interviewer, not only obtaining some deep insights into his subjects, but often bringing out the best of them. Among his most famous interview is one he had with Carol Channing, in which she told a hilarious story about Sir Benjamin and Lady Astor that left Gene Shalit unable to stop laughing.
Gene Shalit remains a fond memory for me from my early childhood into my adulthood. I have to admit that Gene Shalit may have been responsible for my love of movies, and I think he may have been for others as well. He certainly had an enthusiasm for movies and books that was absolutely contagious.
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