In Memoriam: Rick Ludwin

We regret to say that today we learned of the passing of Miami University alumnus, Rick Ludwin. A longtime figure at NBC Television, Ludwin began his career here at Miami. During his time as an undergraduate student, Ludwin hosted “Studio 14,” a variety-comedy show that aired on Miami’s WMUB-TV station. Then, after earning his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1970, Ludwin went on to graduate school at Northwestern University, and soon after he began working in broadcasting for stations WXYZ-TV Detroit and WLS-TV Chicago. Eventually, he became a producer on both Bob Kennedy and Mike Douglas’ television talk shows. 

It was during his time working in Chicago television that Ludwin met and impressed Brandon Tartikoff, who soon after was appointed President of NBC Entertainment. Tartikoff then offered Ludwin the position of Director of Variety Programs at NBC in 1980. By 1983 Ludwin had been promoted to Vice President for Specials and Variety Programs. Later, in 1989, he was named the Senior Vice President for Specials, Variety Programs and Late Night, and then in 2005 Ludwin was promoted to Executive Vice President for Late Night and Primetime Series. 

Looking back on his early years with the network Ludwin admits, “I thought I’d be here a year and be fired or would leave out of frustration, and here I am all these years later. It worked out pretty well.”

Things did indeed work out well. As a result of his 32-year career with NBC, Ludwin is credited for the success of series such as “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Unsolved Mysteries” and, most notably, “Seinfeld.” Furthermore, in addition to serving as an executive on numerous successful NBC programs since the 1980s, Ludwin also made cameo appearances on “Seinfeld,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and alongside comedian Bob Hope. Ludwin also supervised numerous landmark primetime specials, including the EMMY Awards, Golden Globe Awards and “Saturday Night Live” primetime specials. Plus, he worked on NBC’s 60th and 75th Anniversary telecasts, and helped to oversee the television special “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever.”  

Throughout his career, Ludwin maintained strong connections with Miami University. He regularly visited campus to give talks to students and recently, on March 19, 2019, the Williams Hall TV studio located on campus, the place where Ludwin began his career by hosting “Studio 14,” was named the “Rick Ludwin Studio” in his honor. Furthermore, Ludwin was a great friend to the Walter Havighurst Special Collections and University Archives. He participated in several special lectures here, and he generously donated many interesting items related to his career in broadcasting to us, all of which can be viewed by anyone who wishes to visit us here in King Library. This includes a small display that is currently up in our reading room, which features items from Ludwin’s career, including several “Seinfeld” scripts, one of which is signed by members of the cast. 

Rick Ludwin passed away after a short illness on Sunday, November 10, 2019 at his home in Los Angeles. He will be missed by many. 

For more about Rick Ludwin: 

Rick Ludwin Collection: http://archivesspace.lib.miamioh.edu/repositories/7/resources/535

“And Now, Live From Miami…” Exhibit opening reception, featuring Rick Ludwin: https://spec.lib.miamioh.edu/home/opening-reception-and-now-live-from-miami/

Special Collections Lecture Series – “Studio 14,” featuring Rick Ludwin: https://spec.lib.miamioh.edu/home/annual-lecture-2013-studio-14/

“The Seinfeld Connection” Exhibit: https://spec.lib.miamioh.edu/home/the-seinfeld-connection/

WMUB Archives: https://digital.lib.miamioh.edu/digital/collection/wmub-merged


In Memoriam Justin C. Bridges

September 12, 1972 – August 2, 2019

Endeared Colleague, Beloved Friend

O15319 Justin Bridges

Exhibition Closing Reception

Friday May 10 5:00-6:30p King Library Rm 320

Art book
a SYMBIOTIC affair

Black History Month Lecture 2/14/19 12:00 rm 320, King Library. Speaker Dr. Andy Rice

Collaboration between Special Collections and Undergraduates

Professor Lance Ingwersen’s course on (HST 470) Theater in the Americas 19-20th Century used our Native American Women’s Playwright Archives Collection (NAWPA) to complete a senior project.

The students were introduced to the Archival Method, background on the NAWPA Collection and then explored the collection.  They create posts with their papers.

The Students:

Agee

Download (PDF, 192KB)

Alisha Boykin 

Download (PDF, 167KB)

Addison Caruso 

Download (PDF, 119KB)

Sarah Childs 

Download (PDF, 292KB)

Holden 

Download (PDF, 220KB)

Joe Howard 

Download (PDF, 289KB)

Kline 

Download (PDF, 119KB)

Adler Smith 

Download (PDF, 107KB)

Mac Telle 

Download (PDF, 364KB)

Ward 

Download (PDF, 393KB)

Lindsay Wantuck 

Download (PDF, 327KB)

 

 

My Life as an Intern: Farewell and Thank You

Hi, it’s Candace Pine here again – and for the final time. Today marks the last day of my internship at the Miami University Special Collections and Archives. I have finished up my required internship hours, and I will be graduating from Kent State University with my MLIS degree in just a couple of weeks. I have to admit, though, that I am quite sad to see this internship end. I’ve had the opportunity to learn a lot, meet wonderful people, and to work with all kinds of different and interesting materials. And I certainly feel like I am much more prepared to start my career in this field now that I have had this experience. So I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped me and supported me during this internship – to Bill Modrow and Justin Bridges for teaching me and guiding me through this process, to all of the staff and student workers here at the Special Collections and Archives for helping me whenever I needed it and for making this a great environment to work in, and to the librarians in the Art & Architecture Library, B.E.S.T. Library, and Amos Music Library for giving me a tour of their libraries, talking to me about their careers, and giving me advice. I appreciate it all very much.

As for you, readers, I hope you have enjoyed following my journey through this internship. Hopefully you found my blog posts to be interesting, informative, and perhaps a bit entertaining. And please continue to keep up with what is going on here in Special Collections and Archives. There are always interesting things going on and exciting materials to discover!  

If you want to keep up with me, one of the last things I learned during my internship was how to set up my own website using Omeka, and I have already created a few small digital exhibits there. I hope to be able to continue to add new content in the future, as well, so if you’d like to check the site out it can be found here: http://candacenpine.omeka.net/.  

Thanks again!

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