Chalmers Marquis papers

Chalmers Marquis, a longtime lobbyist for educational television, attended the University of Chicago College before moving on to the University of Illinois, where he trained in journalism and broadcasting and studied under Frank Schooley. While at the University, Marquis created a campus radio station that broadcast from a photography store in Urbana. Upon completion of his courses in 1950, Marquis accepted a job as a "dolly-pusher" at WGN TV, where he remained for three years. He then took a position at WBBM TV, the CBS affiliate in Chicago. There, he produced and directed numerous commercials in addition to his work with regular programming.

Marquis's desire to see television used as an instrument of learning rather than merely passive entertainment prompted his acceptance in 1955 of a position with WTTW, Chicago's public television station. First working as a producer/director, Marquis soon moved into the realm of public relations and development, and eventually became director of programming. He remained with WTTW for nine years, during which time the station was the largest public broadcaster in the United States, setting the standard for educational broadcasting.

Despite various obstacles, such as a lack of funding and a kilowatt signal approximately one quarter as powerful as those of commercial stations, Marquis fostered the genesis of numerous projects and expanded WTTW. He organized Chicago Area School Television (CAST), which broadcasted two channels into local classrooms.

In 1965 Marquis became the first full-time executive director of Educational Television Stations (ETS, created in 1963), the newly-formed television arm of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB). He participated in the establishment of the Educational Television Stations Program Service (later the Public Television Library), which supplied programming to public television stations. He was also involved in the movement to create the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).

Due to the consistent lack of funding for public television stations, Marquis spent increasing amounts of time lobbying for government funding, particularly from administrative departments such as Health, Education, and Welfare. He fought to push through the House of Representatives legislation that eventually became the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967.

Marquis's work at ETS led to his position in 1970 as Executive Vice President of NAEB, which he followed with a term at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). Marquis then became a full-time lobbyist as legislative liaison for the National Association of Public Television Stations (NAPTS), which later became America's Association of Public Television, Inc. (APTV), a lobbying arm of the Association of America's Public Television Stations (APTS).

Along with his work for NAPTS, Marquis frequently lobbied Congress on behalf of the Children's Television Workshop. He spent much of his time gathering evidence, later presented to various congressional committees, demonstrating the positive impact of public broadcasting and the necessity for its continued existence. His work involved efforts to obtain funds from the National Science Foundation, to procure government funding for CTW programs such as 3-2-1 Contact, Square One TV, and Ghostwriter, and to further the development of the National Endowment for Children's Educational Television.