Martin Luther King Jr.: His Rise as a National Media Figure

More than 50 years after he died at age 39 from an assassin’s bullet, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. endures as one of the most influential and recognizable figures in American history.

His rise from the pulpit of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to his groundbreaking work as a founder and leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference made him the driving force of the Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century.

King was not yet 30 when he first made his mark on the national stage. His forceful use of non-violent protest, boycotts and civil disobedience to address the deplorable racism and the legal, political and economic discrimination that Black Americans faced made him a compelling personality at a time when local and national TV news was strengthening as a cultural force. King’s message and mission was embraced by prominent Hollywood liberals who helped bring more attention to the righteous causes championed by King and the SCLC.

King made his first appearance in Variety in the Sept. 4, 1957, New York-based weekly edition, in a story about NBC’s new Sunday public affairs series “Look Here,” hosted by journalist Martin Agronsky.

King was among the early guests on the show, putting him in the company of then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, then-Senator John F. Kennedy, playwright Tennessee Williams and authors Aldous Huxley and Howard Fast.

As the nation observes the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, here is a look at key moments in his public life as chronicled in the pages of Variety.

September 4, 1957

King was identified as “the Alabama minister who spurred the Negro bus boycott in Montgomery,” in his first mention, which came in New York-based weekly Variety. He was listed as among the guests in the first few episodes of NBC’s new public affairs series “Look Here.” Host Martin Agronsky touted the show as “a new and responsible concept of journalism.” King’s leadership of the successful yearlong boycott of the city’s segregated bus lines – the action that made Rosa Parks an icon of civil rights – brought him national attention.

October 7, 1957

Hollywood-based Daily Variety reports on Harry Belafonte’s plan to star in and produce “the first film on the integration fight in the south,” a biopic of King, with financing from United Artists. A week later, on Oct. 14, Daily Variety reports that producers Walter and Harold Mirisch and director Jeffrey Hayden have joined the project, tentatively titled “The Montgomery Story.”

November 2, 1960

Variety reports on the radio interview that King gave via telephone to New York station WLIB after he was released from jail in Atlanta following his arrest at a sit-in demonstration at a department store. The harsh sentence to four months in labor camp was ostensibly for violating the terms of probation he received after being arrested earlier that year for driving in Georgia with an out-of-state driver’s license. The item notes that then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy arranged for his release after a week on a $2,000 bond. “He took a courageous stand because Georgia happens to be one of the southern states that Senator Kennedy is pretty sure to carry. His courage and willingness to take a stand in my unjust arrest meant that he was losing a lot of support in the white community, which he has already done,” King told WLIB, per the report. Six days after this ran, Kennedy defeated then-Vice President Richard Nixon and was on his way to the White House.

June 3, 1963

Gospel great Mahalia Jackson was one of many legends in arts and entertainment who worked to support King’s drive to end segregation in the south. Daily Variety notes Jackson’s success in raising $40,000 (worth about $400,000 today) at a sold-out fundraiser in Chicago. She planned to do the same at New York’s Carnegie Hall later that month “to aid King’s ‘non-violent uprising’ in Greenwood, Miss.”

August 1, 1963

One Night Only! An ad in Daily Variety spreads the word about an Aug. 8 fundraiser for civil rights organizations hosted by pop superstar Nat “King” Cole at Los Angeles’ Shrine Auditorium. “Sights and Sounds, 63” is billed as “a New Musical Spectacular.” The Rev. Martin Luther King and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP are among the advertised guests. Two and a half weeks after the fundraiser, King would lead the landmark March on Washington and deliver his seminal “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

August 7, 1963

Variety reports on the collapse of a makeshift wooden stage at the “Salute to Freedom ‘63” benefit hosted by the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA) in Birmingham, Ala. James Baldwin, Nina Simone, Johnny Mathis, Ray Charles, boxer Joe Louis and other legendary artists were on stage at the time. Some 14,000 attendees paid $5 and brought their own chairs to watch the show. The report notes that the benefit had to change venues to a local school’s football field at the last minute “when the local Civic Auditorium ‘suddenly’ decided to have a paint job done that night.”

September 4, 1963

Variety examines TV news coverage of the March on Washington in a lengthy (for the time) story that states flatly: “Television’s part in the freedom march on Washington last week can be summed up simply as great coverage of a great event in American history.” The story dissects the different approaches of and ratings generated by the Big Three networks, starting out with characteristically slangy Variety shorthand: “ABC firstest, CBS mostest, NBC bestest.”

November 20, 1963

The first photograph of King to run in our pages came in a CBS News ad in Variety touting the quality and depth of its coverage of pressing national issues. In those days, Variety was chock-a-block with text but ran very few photos other than those included in advertisements.

November 11, 1964

In a short item on page 1, Variety reports that King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, a classically trained musician and singer, was slated to make her New York performing debut at Town Hall as a fundraiser for the SCLC and the Goodman-Chaney-Schwerner Memorial Centre, the latter a tribute to three civil rights workers who were murdered in Mississippi in August of that year. “Mrs. King will deliver a program of narration song and poetry.”

June 6, 1967

“What Are You Doing During Vietnam Summer 1967?” asked the ad that ran in Daily Variety. It was a pitch for money and volunteers to take part in the anti-war campaign that King launched in April of that year amid a significant increase in U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

June 27, 1967

King’s influence was underscored by the news report in Daily Variety that author and humorist Dorothy Parker, who died that month at age 73, had left the bulk of her estate to King and the NAACP. The executor was none other than Lillian Hellman, who described Parker’s estate as “modest” but it nonetheless included “cash, negotiable securities and income from a trust fund derived from copyrights, royalties and contract rights on her writings.” A report that ran a day later in Variety notes that her estate was valued at “more than $10,000.” That story also observes that Parker and King were not believed to have ever met in person.

April 8, 1968

The jolt of King’s assassination was reflected in the banner headline in Daily Variety four days after he was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis. For the first time in its then 40-year history, the Academy Awards were delayed by two days in the aftermath of his murder.

“No death of a private citizen in the history of the U.S. has ever had an effect on showbiz in all its manifold operations as that experienced over the weekend as the nation mourned the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.,” the story states. “But then King was more that just an individual; he was a symbol of civil rights equality to all men of good will.”

April 9, 1968

Daily Variety reports that Hollywood studios held a moment of silence to coincide with the start of King’s funeral service in Atlanta. And Las Vegas casinos halted all gambling for two hours during the service for only the second time in Sin City’s history. The first came in 1963 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

April 11, 1968

Daily Variety reports the Oscarcast, postponed by two days to April 10, opened with Academy president Gregory Peck delivering a somber tribute to King.

“Society has always been reflected in its art – and one measure of Dr. King’s influence on the society we live in is that of the five films nominated for best picture of the year, two dealt with the subject of understanding between the races,” Peck said. “It was his work and his dedication that brought about increasing awareness of all men that we must unite in compassion in order to survive. The lasting memorial that we of the motion picture community can build to Dr. King is to continue making films which celebrate the dignity of man, whatever his race or color or creed.”

In fact, the big winner that night was Norman Jewison’s “In the Heat of the Night,” which took five awards including best picture, best actor for Sidney Poitier and best editing for Hal Ashby.

In his closing remarks, Academy Awards host Bob Hope also offered heartfelt words of appreciation for the slain leader.

“No one person, no one industry, no one race or creed, can conquer bigotry, find human understanding or unite us all in a brotherhood of peace and love. It is a challenge that each of us must and will meet,” Hope said.

April 16, 1968

Richard Pryor, Eartha Kitt, Ivan Dixon, Shirley Bassey, Leonard Nimoy, Florence Henderson, Walter Matthau and Edward G. Robinson were among the stars who turned out at the Hollywood Bowl on April 21 for a benefit to honor King’s memory. “There is still time for you to do your part,” read the ad in Daily Variety that solicited more talent for the show.