Joan Ganz Cooney — Innovator in children’s television

 

Joan Ganz Cooney was born November 30, 1929, in Phoenix, AZ. Cooney's mother was Irish-Catholic, and born in Jackson, Michigan. Cooney’s father was Jewish and was born in Phoenix, but his mother had gone to California to get better medical care when giving birth to him. Her Jewish German paternal grandfather was Emil Ganz, fought in Georgia during the American Civil War, on the Confederate side. He was elected mayor of Phoenix three times, when he had died her mother family had move west when she was around 18 and 19. Joan was the youngest of three children born to Sylvan and Pauline Ganz. After high school, Cooney then enrolled at a Catholic college in California, later on she transferred to the University of Arizona. She graduated in 1951 with a degree in education.  This was her first job writing for the Arizona Republic in Phoenix and in 1954, she headed east, taking a job in publicity in New York for the National Broadcasting Company. The next year, Cooney began doing publicity for a popular dramatic series, The United States Steel Hour, a position she held for seven years.  Growing up she had many opportunities, Cooney worked in media, first as a newspaper reporter and then later as a television publicist. She also became an Emmy award-winning television producer at the New York City's PBS station, WNET/Channel 13.