Broadcast museum to salute Dick Cavett

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Dick Cavett, who brought intelligence and sophistication to television talk shows for more than 35 years, will be honored later this year by Chicago’s Museum of Broadcast Communications.

Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett

“A Salute to Dick Cavett,” a $350-a-plate dinner on June 21, will be followed by a three-month video retrospective of Cavett’s work at the museum, 360 North State Street.

Best known as host of “The Dick Cavett Show,” which ran from 1968 to 1975 on ABC and from 1977 to 1982 on PBS, the 77-year-old Cavett joins such television giants as Steve Allen, Mike Wallace, Hugh Downs, Betty White, Larry King, Bill Kurtis, and Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert among the museum’s honorees.

“No one would argue that Dick Cavett is not one of the most significant talk show hosts in television history,” said Bruce DuMont, founder and president of the museum. “He brought wit and intellect to the discussion of issues in the ’60s and ’70s that others would not touch.”

Calling Cavett “a true icon who’s synonymous with smart talk on television,” DuMont added: “I wish there were more of it on TV today.”

For ticket information see museum.tv.