John Kieran
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John F. Kieran (August 2, 1892 – December 9, 1981) was an American writer, amateur naturalist and radio and television personality.
A native of New York City, Kieran began his newspaper career in 1915 as a sportswriter for The New York Times. He continued on the sports beat during his entire career, working for a number of New York newspapers and becoming one of the country's best known sports columnists, credited with coining the tennis term "grand slam".
A noted intellectual, he gained extensive personal popularity with his 10-year stint as a panelist on NBC's most widely heard radio quiz program Information, Please! (May 17, 1938 – June 25, 1948). His seemingly encyclopedic erudition and quick wit, combined with an aura of gentle modesty, endeared him to the listening audience and assured his place on the show. Along with fellow intellectuals Franklin P. Adams and host Clifton Fadiman, Kieran entertained and educated radio audiences through the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War.
Within eight months of Information, Please! leaving the air, Kieran entered the new medium of television with TV's first widely syndicated show Kieran's Kaleidoscope. A 15-minute program produced from February 1949 to April 1952, Kieran's Kaleidoscope presented its writer and host in his well-acquainted role as the learned and witty guide to the complexities of human knowledge. The 104 episodes touched on any and every subject from the mating habits of insects to the properties of magnetic attraction to the theories surrounding the creation of the solar system.
Kieran became a familiar face on 1950s television, guesting on numerous panel and quiz shows, including CBS' 13-week revival of Information, Please! as a 1952 summer replacement show, the only time it would be seen on TV.
Kieran's son, John Kieran, Jr. also appeared on 50s TV, including a stint as a regular panelist in 1955 on the long-running quiz show Down You Go.
A dedicated bird watcher and observer of the natural world, endowed with a breezy, colloquial writing style, Kieran enjoyed roaming Riverdale, his home area of the northwest Bronx, recording for posterity the changing scene at a time when the postwar housing boom was encroaching on, and eventually eliminating, formerly natural areas. His 1959 book A Natural History of New York City has continued to be read for its observations of local geography as well as birds, reptiles, fish "in troubled waters" and mammals within the city limits.
Kieran's other books include The Story of the Olympic Games, The American Sporting Scene, Footnotes on Nature and John James Audubon, co-authored with his wife Margaret Kieran.
John Kieran died in Rockport, Massachusetts, at the age of 89.
