Gerald Norman Springer

Gerald Norman Springer was born in Highgate tube station in London, which was being used as a bomb shelter during World War II air raids, to German Jewish refugee parents who had escaped the Holocaust. His family emigrated to Queens, New York, in 1949. Springer earned a law degree from Northwestern University and served as a campaign advisor to Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

Entering Cincinnati municipal politics, Springer was elected to the City Council, resigned in 1974 following a personal scandal involving checks written to prostitutes, and made a stunning political comeback when voters re-elected him in 1975, serving as Mayor of Cincinnati in 1977. He became an award-winning television news anchor before launching The Jerry Springer Show in 1991. Initially a serious talk show, it morphed in the mid-1990s into a raucous carnival of infidelity, chair-throwing fights, and chant-fueled spectacle ("Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!"), famously overtaking Oprah Winfrey in the television ratings. Despite the sensationalism, Springer ended each episode with his sincere catchphrase: "Take care of yourself, and each other."