87 video recordings documenting Marilyn F. Solomon's career as a producer and moderator of television programming at KCOP-TV (channel 13) in Los Angeles.

Marilyn F. (Dillard) Solomon was raised in Detroit, Michigan by parents Ernest and Jessie Dillard who were deeply involved in labor activism, community organizing, local politics, and civil rights movements in the 1940s-1960s. Solomon was hired at KCOP-TV in Los Angeles in 1969 and given the unusual opportunity to produce weekly primetime television programs and long form documentaries that would demonstrate the station's commitment to operate "in the public interest" as per the Federal Communications Commission. Influenced by the racially and ethnically diverse City of Los Angeles she lived in and her belief that all that happens in the world is at some level, local, Solomon's professional mission was to operate in the "public interest," by creating programs that highlighted the diversity of the City of Los Angeles and Southern California, and strengthened connections between local and international politics and global events. She worked at KCOP-TV from 1969-1994, first as a co-host on the program "Minority Community" and later as the producer and moderator of award-winning television programs which addressed civic and social issues, arts and culture, current affairs and news analysis including a focus on local community issues and activities in Southern California. She produced primetime documentaries that explored in-depth issues such as the Iran hostage crisis, the Turkish-Armenian conflict, the history of the Black original settlers of Los Angeles, the impact of growing immigration on race relations in Southern California, and the plight of endangered children. Her weekly prime-time news analysis program "News in Review," tackled local and national issues of the week and she also produced "My Turn," the first weekly program addressing gay and lesbian issues in Southern California in the 1970s. As Director of Corporate Relations and the Executive Producer of Information and Public Affairs Programming, Solomon was responsible for federal regulatory compliance, corporate, government and community relations, and the production of programs about community issues and activities. She received five Television Academy EMMY Awards for producing these documentaries, news analysis, and children's programs. She was awarded the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for Excellence in Television Journalism, and received the International Documentary Association CINDY Award for a PBS "Frontline" documentary "Down for the Count: An Inside Look at Boxing." Solomon received special recognition for her documentary work in the Republic of Turkey, the government of Kenya, Israel, and the People's Republic of China. Other awards include the Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals from the International Film and Television Festival of New York.

10 Linear Feet (87 video recordings)

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