Burt Kearns

Burt Kearns
NationalityAmerican
Alma materFairfield University
Occupations
  • author
  • writer
  • film director
  • journalist
  • television and film producer

Burt Kearns is an American author, journalist, and television and film producer, writer and director, whom Vanity Fair referred to as "a show business and pop culture savant."[1]

Kearns's first book, the television memoir Tabloid Baby, was published in 1999.[2] The Show Won't Go On: The Most Shocking, Bizarre, and Historic Deaths of Performers Onstage, which he wrote with Jeff Abraham, was published in 2019.[3] His biography of actor Lawrence Tierney,[4] Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy, was published in December, 2022 by the University Press of Kentucky.[5][6] Applause published Kearns’ book, Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel,[7][8] on April 2, 2024.[9] Kearns's book, Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy, was published on October 1, 2024, by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books. [10][11]

In 2018, he became a contributor to the literary pop culture website, PleaseKillMe.com.[12] In December 2021, he began to contribute written and video pieces to Legs McNeil’s literary pop culture website, Legsville.com.[13]

Early career

After graduation from Fairfield University,[14] Kearns worked as a reporter and editor for the Acorn Press, a chain of newspapers in southern Connecticut and Westchester, New York. He then moved to Manhattan, where in 1981 he reported and wrote for neighborhood newspapers including The Westsider, East Side Express and Chelsea-Clinton News, before being hired on the assignment desk at WNEW-TV's 10 O'Clock News. Kearns also wrote for CBS News' Nightwatch and CBS Morning News and later became a producer for WNBC-TV's News 4's Eleven O'clock News.[14] He also worked as a writer for Spin magazine.[15][16][17]

Television and film production

Writer and producer

Kearns was a creator and executive producer of Breaking the Ice, a docuseries following the first diverse, competitive synchronized ice skating team.[18][19] The series premiered on WE tv and streams on AMC's ALLBLK platform.[20]

He appeared on-camera in, the Reelz nonfiction special program, Kardashian: The Man Who Saved OJ Simpson.[21] He was executive producer of the Reelz nonfiction specials, Time Presents: Celebrities On Trial and El Chapo & Sean Penn: Bungle In The Jungle.[22] Kearns also produced the documentary films Death of a Beatle (2000) and Bin Laden's Escape (2005) (with Parco Productions). Directed and produced the documentary, Boxing: A Different Look for Showtime and Hollywood Animal Crusaders for Animal Planet. Co-producer of the HBO documentary Panic’'. [23] Producer of Fox Television special, When Good Pets Go Bad 2’’,[24] and producer of the syndicated series, Strange Universe.[25]

Independent features and Good Story Productions

Kearns directed and produced the nonfiction film Telethonand produced the nonfiction film comedy High There.[26][27] Kearns directed the nonfiction film, El Viaje Musical de Ezekiel Montanez: The Chris Montez Story, which opened on August 15, 2009 at the 35th annual The Fest For Beatles Fans in Chicago.[28] High There and the Montez film were produced through his Good Story Productions production company.[29]

Frozen Pictures

In 2000, Kearns formed the production company Frozen Television (later Frozen Pictures) with producer Brett Hudson.[30] Kearns was an executive producer on All the Presidents' Movies.[31]

He directed and produced the 2008 Frozen Pictures documentary musical film, The Seventh Python, about the career and influence of Monty Python collaborator and Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes,[32] and directed and produced Basketball Man, the 2007 Frozen Pictures documentary film that featured basketball stars and legends telling the story of the life and legacy of the game's inventor, Dr. James Naismith. The film was released on DVD on May 8, 2007.[33]

Kearns founded the website, Saintmychal.com that chronicled and promoted the canonization of 9/11 victim Mychal Judge.[34][35][36]

Tabloid television

Kearns joined the show A Current Affair in 1989.[37] Kearns later helped create the show Hard Copy,[38] where he was a producer and managing editor, along with Premier Story.[39]

Kearns (and his coverage of the fall of the Berlin Wall) was featured in Maury Povich's 1991 memoir, Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge.[40]

Tabloid Baby

Kearns left tabloid television and began writing Tabloid Baby in 1996. A combination memoir and exposé, the book was published in November 1999 by Hambleton-Hill's Celebrity Books imprint.[37][41] The book was praised by Mike Wallace of CBS News' 60 Minutes as "sad, funny, undeniably authentic" and by tabloid television host Maury Povich as "The Bible".[2][42]

Awards

References

  1. ^ "Killer Set: The Strange History of Performers Dying Onstage". Vanity Fair. 4 September 2019.
  2. ^ a b Tabloidbaby (2010-12-19). "tabloid baby: Buy, bye". tabloid baby. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  3. ^ "'Show Won't Go On': Book Compiles Performers Who Died Onstage". NPR.org.
  4. ^ "Home". lawrencetierneybook.com.
  5. ^ "Book About Late Actor and Notorious Bad Guy Lawrence Tierney Set from Writer-Producer Burt Kearns". The Hollywood Reporter. 9 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Lawrence Tierney Bio Etches Vivid Portrait of Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy | Features | Roger Ebert". 27 November 2022.
  7. ^ "The photo that wrapped Marlon Brando's homoerotic swagger in a tight leather jacket =March 27, 2024". MSN.
  8. ^ "Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel =March 29, 2024". Library Journal.
  9. ^ Marlon Brando: Hollywood Rebel. Retrieved 30 September 2023 – via rowman.com.
  10. ^ Shemp! The Biography of the Three Stooges' Shemp Howard, The Face of Film Comedy. Retrieved 4 February 2024 – via rowman.com.
  11. ^ "A neglected Marx Brother and an unsung Stooge finally get their due =October 18, 2024". The Washington Post.
  12. ^ "Search for "burt kearns"". PleaseKillMe. 28 March 2018.
  13. ^ "You searched for burt kearns".
  14. ^ a b "Burt Kearns: Tabloid TV Revolution" (PDF). www.fairfield.edu. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 March 2018. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  15. ^ SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1988-09-01.
  16. ^ SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1988-11-01.
  17. ^ SPIN. SPIN Media LLC. 1989-03-01.
  18. ^ Grodeska, J. F. (25 July 2023). "Groundbreaking Docuseries With Jersey Shore Roots". Jersey Shore Scene. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  19. ^ Pendleton, Tonya (2023-04-28). "'Breaking the Ice' docuseries on diverse ice skating team comes to WE tv in July". UPI. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  20. ^ "Breaking News - WE tv Greenlights Ice Skating Docuseries "Breaking the Ice"". thefutoncritic.com via press release from AMC Networks. 2023-04-27. Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  21. ^ Sorokach, Josh (June 12, 2017). "Did You Know There's A New O.J. Simpson Documentary On Netflix?". Decider.com.
  22. ^ Galloway, Stephen (9 March 2016). "The Strange, Ongoing Saga of Sean Penn, el Chapo and Who Was (And Wasn't) Making a Movie". The Hollywood Reporter.
  23. ^ https://www.chelseanewsny.com/news/bad-boy-tv-CINP1419991116311169999
  24. ^ "Steve Dunleavy and the Rise of Tabloid TV". The New York Observer. 6 December 1999.
  25. ^ https://www.coasttocoastam.com/guest/kearns-burt-6018/ Executive Producer of Strange Universe is Art Bell’s guest
  26. ^ Diaz, Dave. "High There". Anchorage Press. Archived from the original on 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  27. ^ "An Interview with Burt Kearns, Producer - High There - The Documentary Dude". The Documentary Dude. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  28. ^ Tabloidbaby (2009-08-16). "tabloid baby: The more they saw Chris Montez at the Fest for Beatles Fans in Chicago, the more they wanted to call him". tabloid baby. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  29. ^ "Welcome". Good Story Productions. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  30. ^ https://insidepulse.com/2004/09/28/21583/
  31. ^ Kumar, Martha Joynt (2007). "A Review of: "All the Presidents' Movies, executive producers, Bill Knoedelseder, Burt Kearns, Brett Hudson, and Irv Letofsky"". Political Communication. 24: 99–104. doi:10.1080/10584600600977102. S2CID 146325033.
  32. ^ https://laist.com/news/entertainment/laist-movie-review-the-seventh-pyth-1
  33. ^ goodstory (2006-10-30), Red Auerbach's last interview (from 'Basketball Man'), archived from the original on 2021-12-13, retrieved 2016-04-09
  34. ^ "Ocala Star-Banner - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  35. ^ Wakin, Daniel J. (2002-09-27). "Killed on 9/11, Fire Chaplain Becomes Larger Than Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  36. ^ "The making of St. Mychal". USA Today. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  37. ^ a b Elder, Sean (1999-12-08). "Tabloid nation". www.salon.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2000. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  38. ^ Rader, Peter (2012-04-13). Mike Wallace: A Life. Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 9781466802254.
  39. ^ "Burt Kearns". www.lukeford.net. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  40. ^ Povich, Maury (1992-01-01). Current Affairs: A Life on the Edge. Berkley Books. ISBN 9780425132449.
  41. ^ "Anorak News | Gentleman Jim Davidson, wife beating and the Celebrity Police Force". Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  42. ^ Holland, Gale. "Tabloid Baby". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  43. ^ Team, The Good Story (September 24, 2014). "Good Story News: Emmy anniversary".
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