Judith Crist

Early life and education

Crist was born Judith Klein in The Bronx, New York City, the daughter of Jewish parents Helen (née Schoenberg), a librarian, and Solomon Klein, a manufacturing jeweler. She attended Morris High School in The Bronx, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hunter College and a Master of Science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Career

After graduating from Columbia in 1945, she was employed by The New York Herald Tribune as a reporter, film critic, and arts editor for 22 years, and she won a George Polk Award for her education coverage. After the Tribune ceased publication, she was named the first film critic at New York magazine. Upon her death, New York magazine film critic David Edelstein said, "Judith Crist helped set the stage for New York Magazine as a place for popular and yet essentially serious and wide-ranging film criticism. She was tart, sensible, and irresistibly readable, and she cut a colorful figure on the festival circuit, building bridges between filmmakers and audiences in her famous weekend seminars."

In addition, Crist worked as TV Guide's resident film critic (1966-1988) and as a critic-at-large for the Ladies Home Journal (1966-1967). Like Dwight Macdonald, she also worked on television as a critic for the Today show (1964-1973). She conducted the Judith Crist Film Weekends at Tarrytown House, in Tarrytown, New York, from 1971 to 2006.

In 1948, Crist took part in Dr. Fredric Wertham’s attack on comic books and published an article in Collier's magazine quoting Wertham and calling for action against violent, sadistic, and provocative comic books which Crist perceived to be affecting the morality of American youth.

In 1965, she wrote the article "Tribute to a Partnership", a tribute to Rodgers and Hammerstein, for a booklet that accompanied RCA Victor's original LP release of the soundtrack album of The Sound of Music. However, the article has not been reprinted for any of the CD releases of the soundtrack. In 1968, she published a collection of reviews entitled The Private Eye, the Cowboy, and the Very Naked Girl: Movies from Cleo to Clyde.
She was an adjunct professor at Columbia's School of Journalism for over 50 years (1958-2012). There, she taught a course called "Personal and Professional Style." Her students included film critics Kenneth Turan, David Denby of The New Yorker and New York Times critics Anna Kisselgoff and Margo Jefferson. In 1963, she was awarded an Alumni Award by the Journalism School Alumni Association.

Personal life

Judith was married to William B. Crist from 1947 until his death in 1993. She was the mother of Steven Crist, a thoroughbred handicapper and publisher of the Daily Racing Form.

Crist died at her home in Manhattan on August 7, 2012, at age 90.

See also

• List of Columbia University people
• List of Hunter College people
• List of people from New York City

References

• Who's Who of American Women, 1991-1992, Inc. Marquis Who's, Who, January 1, 1991, Marquis Who's Who, Google Books
• Open secrets; ninety-four women in touch with our time, Barbaralee, Diamonstein, February 29, 1972, Viking Press, Google Books
• Something about the Author, Anne, Commrie, February 2, 1990, Gale, Google Books
• Judith Crist papers, 1930s-2012 , , Rare Book & Manuscript Library , , Columbia University Libraries Finding Aids, 2024-03-13, findingaids.library.columbia.edu
• Buchanan, Kyle, Judith Crist, New York Magazine's Founding Film Critic, Dies at 90, Vulture, 26 March 2021
• Garner, Dwight, 2011-10-21, Dwight Macdonald's War on Mediocrity, 2024-03-13, The New York Times, en
• Collier's Article: Horror in the Nursery, www.lostsoti.org, 2019-05-03
• Maslon, Laurence, August 20, 2020, THE CHARTS ARE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Rodgers & Hammerstein, 2024-03-13, The Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization, en-US
• Lingeman, Richard R., 1968-12-29, The Private Eye, The Cowboy and the Very Naked Girl; Movies From Cleo to Clyde. By Judith Crist. 292 pp. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston. $6.95., 2024-03-13, The New York Times, en
• Bernstein, Adam, Judith Crist, film critic and journalism instructor, dies at 90, The Washington Post, 26 March 2021
• Past Alumni Award Winners
• Bergan, Ronald, August 10, 2012, Judith Crist obituary, The Guardian
• Steven Crist, Andrew Beyer To Be Given Eclipse Awards of Merit, Paulick Report, December 22, 2016, 6 March 2019

External links

• The Judith Crist Tarrytown House Film Festival page at Tarrytown House Estate Official Website
• Judith Crist's faculty profile at Columbia University
• Judith Crist press books, 1969-1982, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts