Film & TV / Press & broadcasting
George Pierrot
1898–1980 · travel-film host, editor, lecture impresario
Gravel-voiced host who brought the world to Detroit through the DIA's World Adventure Series and the TV travelogue George Pierrot Presents.
- Born
Chicago, Illinois- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 82- Birth name
- George F. Pierrot
- Also known as
- George F. Pierrot
- Detroit years
- 1920s–1980
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Pierrot came from Chicago and in the early 1920s became an editor of American Boy, a national youth magazine published in Detroit, where he stayed until 1934. In 1933 he began presenting the World Adventure Series at the Detroit Institute of Arts: for a quarter, Depression-era audiences watched a travel film and heard the traveler describe it. The idea moved to television in 1948 on WXYZ, and from 1953 he also hosted George Pierrot Presents on WWJ-TV, making him the only Detroit TV personality to host shows on two local stations at once. The format never changed: on a bare set, Pierrot and a guest narrated 16 mm films of Turkey, Finland or the American West. During World War II he directed Detroit's USO branch. He lived in Indian Village, died at Henry Ford Hospital in 1980 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery.
Highlights
- Editor of the Detroit-based American Boy magazine until 1934
- Launched the World Adventure Series at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1933
- Hosted travel shows on WXYZ (from 1948) and WWJ-TV (from 1953) at the same time
- Directed Detroit's USO branch during World War II
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 3
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1933–1979
Detroit Institute of Arts (Friday Night Live!)
The museum where Pierrot presented the World Adventure Series travel-film lectures for decades.
Buried here · 1980
Elmwood Cemetery
Detroit's oldest nondenominational cemetery, where Pierrot is buried.
Lived here · until 1980
Indian Village
The historic east-side neighborhood of grand houses where he lived (private home, no address given).