Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story biography
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The fact-based true story of the rapid rise to fame and untimely death of Jessica Savitch - one of America's first female news anchors.

As a teenager, Jessica's career in broadcasting began with voice-overs at an Atlantic City radio station. She eventually received her own programme called Teen Corner where she played music and discussed current events.

Jessica Savitch majored in communications at Ithaca College. Her local broadcasting work led her into modelling jobs and television commercials. After college, she was employed at CBS in New York, which led to her eventual hiring at KHOU-TV in Texas.

In 1972, she was spotted by a TV news talent scout who recommended her to KYW-TV in Philadelphia, which was looking for a fresh young face to compete with a rival station's news team.

She took the job for a small amount of money, but soon signed an extremely favourable contract, allowing her to move into a Washington Square luxury apartment.

Jessica got her first national exposure during KYW's nationally televised debate between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in 1976. Within a year of that debate, she was covering the U.S. Senate at NBC.

Critics and old-school broadcasters felt that she lacked the experience for national network news; But audiences loved her, and she soon became one of the most popular NBC anchors.

As her career skyrocketed however, her unstable personal life became increasingly messy.

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She continued an on-again, off-again affair with Ron Kershaw, whom she met in Houston while he was a reporter for rival station KTRK, he apparently beat her. After breaking up with Kershaw, Jessica was married twice.

Jessica's first husband was millionaire Mel Korn, the head of a Philadelphia ad agency. They married in January 1980, however, months after the wedding the couple started experiencing problems and separated in November 1980.

By the time Jessica & Mel separated, she had begun having an affair with her gynecologist, Donald Payne. Payne was a closet homosexual who had recently gone through a bitter divorce of his own.

During their brief troubled marriage, Jessica suffered a miscarriage and Payne suffered from depression. Payne committed suicide on August 1, 1981 by hanging himself in the basement of their townhouse.

Rumors and allegations were spread about her bizarre behaviour on and off the set; screaming rants, cocaine binges, and promiscuity have been alleged. By 1983 she had been replaced on the Saturday edition of NBC Nightly News, and Frontline had nearly eliminated her on-screen appearances.

The most bizarre incident in her career was a one-minute prime-time news update on the night of October 3, 1983. Savitch's delivery of the news report was slurred and incoherent. Savitch told her bosses that her teleprompter had gone out, but her agent claimed that she was on medication for a head injury.

Jessica was killed in a car crash on the evening of 23rd October, 1983, whilst on a date with the Vice President of the New York Post. Either ignoring or not seeing the "No Vehicles" signs in the pouring rain, their car went over the edge falling about 15 feet and landed upside-down, sinking into deep mud which sealed the doors shut. The coroner later ruled that both had drowned. Jessica had not been unconscious and had struggled to escape.


Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story biography




Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story biography




Almost Golden: The Jessica Savitch Story biography

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