Barbara Hussie (1920-1997) was an American women producer and director of documentary films for the US Information Agency, one of the few women to create films for the organization.

Early Life and Career edit

Hussie was born in Pennsylvania, attended Germantown Highschool, and worked for WFIL radio station in Philadelphia[1]. In 1950, she moved from being CBS script secretary to the newly created post of casting director for Hollywood.[2] After having worked for a New York advertising agency and volunteering n the 1952 Republican presidential campaign, [3] she then worked briefly on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's White House staff before joining the Information Agency in 1953.[4]

Her work with the USIA included subjects on black Americans and their contributions to art, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and artifical intelligence. Among her other works was a documentary about the jazz musician Herbie Mann. She retired from the USIA in 1980.

Filmmography edit

  • Herbie Mann, Man With a Flute (1960), for USIA
  • The Filmmaker (1969), written, produced, and directed by, about filmmaker Tom Palazzolo, for USIA
  • The American Experience (1971), for USIA, featuring vignettes and readings from American literature of the past two centuries set to "Fanfare for the Common Man" by Aaron Copland
  • Black Scientists and Inventors in the US (1976), for USIA, including stories of over 20 Black achievers such as chemists, technicians, electricians, mathematicians, physicians, physicists, and scientists
  • Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution (1977), for USIA, narrated by the actor Moses Gunn

References edit

  1. ^ Going Forward with Radio: As Presented by WFIL, 1947.
  2. ^ Broadcasting Telecasting 38(15), April 10, 1950, p.46.
  3. ^ The Philadelphia Inquirer; Friday, February 28, 1997
  4. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1997/02/27/the-rev-andrew-kuroda-dies/120d0a56-c0dc-42c3-bde0-ac55e9bd604a/

External Links edit

The Filmmaker