Joan Ganz Cooney (born 30 November 1929 in Phoenix, Arizona) is an American businesswoman and television producer. She is one of the founders of the Children's Television Workshop (now known as Sesame Workshop), and the organization famous for the creation of the children's television show Sesame Street. Cooney received her B.A. degree in education from the University of Arizona in 1951. November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days remaining, as the final day of November. ... -1... Phoenix was incorporated as a city on February 5, 1881. ... Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Childrens Television Workshop (or CTW), is a non-profit organization behind the production of several educational childrens programs that have run on public broadcasting around the world (including PBS in the United States), as well as Noggin. ... Childrens television shows are television programs designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. ... From A Celebration of Me, Grover, showing much of the main cast of Sesame Street. ... The University of Arizona (UA) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona. ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ...

Cooney was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998. The National Womens Hall of Fame was created in 1969 by a group of people in Seneca Falls, New York, the location of the first American womens rights convention, now known to historians as the 1848 Womens Rights Convention. ...

She is currently married to Peter G. Peterson and lives in New York. This article is about the Pete Peterson who was a U.S. government official during the Nixon administration; there is also a Pete Peterson who was a former Florida Congressman and ambassador to Vietnam. ...

Childhood

Cooney was born Joan Ganz, and adopted the name Joan Redden Ganz, using her mother's maiden name. Cooney's mother was Irish-Catholic, and born in Jackson, Michigan. After her maternal grandfather died, her mother's family came west when she was 18 or 19. Her father was Jewish, and born in Phoenix, but his mother went to California to get better medical care when giving birth to him. Her paternal grandfather was a German Jew, who fought in Georgia during the American Civil War, on the Confederate side. He was an atheist, and brought his children up as atheists. Jackson is a city located in the south central area of the U.S. state of Michigan. ... The American Civil War (1861–1865) was fought in North America within the United States of America, between twenty-four mostly northern states of the Union and the Confederate States of America, a coalition of eleven southern states that declared their independence and claimed the right of secession from the...

Cooney's mother and father dated for five years. She describes her father as "the perennial bachelor", being thirteen years older than her mother.

Her father, Sylvan, always had a job in the Depression era, and the family had a summer cabin "up near Prescott, Arizona, because the weather was terrible in the summer." Growing up near the Phoenix Country Club, she grew up more affluent than her family had money, although she considers them to have been middle class. Her father's occupation was executive vice-president of the First National Bank in Phoenix. Prescott is a city located in Yavapai County, Arizona. ...

Cooney went to public school in first grade, switching to Catholic school St. Francis Xavier in Phoenix for grades 2-8. She describes herself then as "just a grim, over-rought little kid". Never able to keep up with her siblings, she always read, much to the chagrin of her mother, who always wanted her to get outside. While she doesn't consider herself to have been a nerd as child, she always argued about ideas, including religion with Jesuit priests. The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ...

As World War II and gas rationing came, Cooney's family sold the cottage. Cooney describes the weather at the time as "bearable", thanks to early, self-made air conditioning systems. Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as... Note: in the broadest sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning. ...

For high school, Cooney went to North Phoenix, while her siblings went to St. Mary's. She feels this seperation, that she was no longer "their little sister", let he come into her own. In school plays and even state-wide drama contests, Cooney was sure she wanted to become an actress. She describes herself as the "world's happiest adolescent", especially after not being a happy child. She says that a psychologist once told her "You're the only patient I've ever had that's ever had a happy adolescence." A psychologist is a scientist who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human behaviour and mental processes. ...

One teacher in 1943, Bud Brown, taught a course on the history of culture, as well as operating Bud Brown Barn, a dancing establishment. Brown was Cooney's first teacher to talk about the injustice of segregation, and it "absolutely inflamed" her. Brown talked about Hitler's treatment of the Jew, a topic Cooney says "nobody talked about". "I was 13-years-old, and it totally changed my life." Both Brown and Ms. Natscowski were investigated as potential communists.

She stopped acting in college, when her father expressed that he would never support such a career; she says she's very content with this life path, instead of trying to find jobs on Broadway. Cooney attended the Catholic girls institution Dominican College, before transfering to the University of Arizona, where she obtained her BA in Education. Along with not wanting to stay in an all-girls institution, she switched because it was "more fun" at Arizona. She feels she learnt more at Dominican, simply because she didn't find Education challenging. Her mother advised her to take Education, primarily because women whose husband die could work, and be at home with the kids when their home. Broadway theatre is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Dominican College is a four-year private college in Orangeburg, New York. ... The University of Arizona (UA) is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona. ...

Out of college, she went with a friend to Washington, D.C. to work for the United States government in 1951, organizing Foreign Student Exchange for the State Department. She started as a clerk typist, and was going to be elevated up to the position of Program Officer, upon when she left. During that period, Cooney visited New York City a couple of times, and became intent on moving there. Nickname: the District Motto: Official website: http://www. ...

She returned to Phoenix, and began working at the Arizona Republic newspaper, getting a job on the women's page, to write wedding stories and the like. As time went on, she got many general assignments. The Arizona Republic is a newspaper published in Phoenix, Arizona. ...

Life in New York City

Moving to New York City, she was hired in the press department of RCA. There, she wrote regular releases, on prediction of what television would be like in the future, from shopping for groceries, and color transmissions. She was offered a job on the women's page of Lester Markel's The New York Times, which she found easy to turn down. Her stay at RCA was miserable, as she was thought to have been sophisticated and manipulative, and sleeping with her boss. RCA, formerly an initialism for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark used by two companies for products descended from that common ancestor: Thomson SA, which manufactures consumer electronics like RCA-branded televisions, DVD players, video cassette recorders, direct broadcast satellite decoders, camcorders, audio equipment, telephones, and related... The New York Times is a newspaper published in New York City by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. ...

She met up with the Arizona-born head of a firm that ran publicity at Pat Weaver's NBC, moving there after eight or nine months at RCA. At NBC, Cooney promoted the Day Drama lineup, consisting of soap operas. As Cooney had started at RCA with a low wage, and transferred within the same company to NBC, her boss wasn't able to raise her income to acceptable levels. He helped Cooney move to publicise The US Steel Hour, which aired on CBS. Sylvester Pat Weaver (December 21, 1908 - March 17, 2002) was the father of actress Sigourney Weaver. ... The National Broadcasting Company or NBC is an American television broadcasting company based in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... The first TIME cover devoted to soap operas: Dated January 12, 1976, Bill Hayes and Susan Seaforth Hayes of Days of Our Lives are featured with the headline Soap Operas: Sex and suffering in the afternoon. A soap opera is an ongoing, episodic work of fiction, usually broadcast on television...

Cooney became involved in the Democratic reform movement, led by Eleanor Roosevelt, helping them write releases about their activities. Still, she had much time on her hands, promoting a bi-weekly show. She became involved in the Partisan Review, to help fundraise; the intellectual contributors had great contempt for Cooney, as she was involved with both television and publicity. Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (October 11, 1884 – November 7, 1962) was an American human rights activist, stateswoman, journalist, educator, author, and diplomat. ... Partisan Review was an American political and literary quarterly published from 1934 to 2003. ...

Television production

When someone from The US Steel Hour was left to go to WGBH in Boston, Mass., Cooney was shocked to learn that there was a new educational television movement. She instantly knew that she was meant for such an area of broadcasting, "it was like St. Paul on the highway." She wanted to become the publicist for what is now WNET. The head of the station told Cooney he had a publicist, but needed producers. After proving she knew the national issues of the time and pursuing the position through a series of notes, she became a producer for the station. WGBH is an established public television and public radio broadcast service located in Boston, Massachusetts. ... City nickname: Beantown, The Hub, The Athens of America Location in the state of Massachusetts Founded September 17, 1630 County Suffolk County Mayor Thomas Menino (Dem) Area  - Total  - Water 232. ... WNET (Thirteen/WNET) is an American television station licensed by the FCC to serve Newark, New Jersey. ...

At the station, she had an initial income of USD$9000, down from USD$12000 at US Steel.

Her first program was Court of Reason, where two advocates debated, with an audience of three expert judges. The series was hosted by Columbia University's sociologist Robert Merton. All tapes, including those with notable guests like Malcolm X, are no existant, as tapes were reused. Columbia University is a private university in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. ... This article is about the economist. ... Malcolm X, (May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little, also known as Detroit Red, El-Hajji Malik El-Shabazz and Omowale, was a longtime spokesman for the Nation of Islam. ...

One show Cooney produced was called Cuba: Should America Change Its Policy? It featured was a roundtable discussion on the topic; guest President Kennedy "virtually declared World War III". The series incidentally debuted the week before the Cuban missile crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a very tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba. ...

Cooney's first documentary produced was A Chance at the Beginning. Through this, she met Tim Cooney, who would become her husband. The first episodes focused on adult literacy programs, teenage program Har U in Harlem, and Martin Doutch's program for four-year-olds in Harlem. Head Start was started within months of the third episode airing, and bought 125 print of the episode to use for teacher training. Head Start is a program of the US governments Department of Health and Human Services which focuses on assisting three- and four-year-old children from low-income families. ...

Cooney produced Poverty, Anti-Poverty, and the World, for which she won a Regional Emmy. The program invited multitudes of poor people into the studio, to confront the bureaucrats about the programming going on at the time. It was the very first "teach-in", a format that became increasingly popular during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War or Second Indochina War was a conflict between the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRVN, or North Vietnam), allied with the Communist World, namely the Soviet Union and Red China against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam), and its allies — notably the United States military in...

In 1966, she was asked to do a study on the usefulness of television in the education of children.

Trivia

• Her mother nicknamed her "Joan A" and "Ganzeebug".
• Her brother Emil Paul Ganz, residing in Coronado, CA, is 3 years old than her, and her sister Sylvia "Sis" Ganz Houle, residing in Scottsdale, AZ, is 19 months older. All were born within three years and three months.
• One of Cooney's father's relatives disappeared in Berlin, and persumably was taken to an internment camp.
• "We had this very, sort of ideal existance of always being outdoor, virtually, in those days. Very safe area, nice neighborhoods. I do remember unemployed men coming across the backyards to ask for work, or money, or food, which we always did, that you had— one had no fear of strangers in those days it seems so... We always knew these were victims of the Depression, and my mother would give them work, yard work if she had, otherwise money and a sandwich, and they'd be on their way."
• While she does not actively practice religion, or "necessarily believe" in it, her life is "marked by... the best of Christian teachings."
• Her father died in 1956.

A concentration camp is a large detention centre created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...

References

• "Archive of American Television Interview with Joan Ganz Cooney", an inteview by Shirley Wershba for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation.

External links

• Joan Ganz Cooney at the Internet Movie Database
• Google Video: Archive of American Television Interview with Joan Ganz Cooney Part 1 of 9, free to view