After review December 2019, collection is CLOSED until processing. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Correspondence, articles, etc.
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.
After review December 2019, collection is CLOSED until processing. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
This collection is located on-site.
This collection has no restrictions.
Reproductions may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Jack O'Brian Papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
2016.2017.M095: Source of acquisition--Bridget O'Brian. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--12/14/2016.
Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Collection-level record describing unprocessed material made public in summer 2018 as part of the Hidden Collections initiative.
An entertainment journalist best known for his longtime role as a television critic for New York Journal American.
O'Brian was pivotal in the exposure of the quiz show scandal centering on the quiz show Twenty-One. In 1958, he published the contention by former contestant Herbert Stempel that the NBC game was rigged. Later came an investigation by New York County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Stone that led to Grand Jury testimony and ultimately Congressional hearings in 1959. The House probe, led by Congressional investigator Richard N. Goodwin, resulted in the dramatic admission by the man who had defeated Herb Stempel on Twenty-One, Charles Van Doren, that the program was indeed fixed.
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