FILM AT 11

THE RISE AND TRAGIC FALL OF A MILLION DOLLAR ANCHORMAN

(November 21st, 2007 10:30AM PST)

by ERS News

He was one of the first "million-dollar" anchors in Los Angeles. For years John Schubeck made more than a million dollars a year anchoring local TV News in Los Angeles. He also was one of the few Southern California anchormen to appear on all three network owned stations (KNBC, KCBS and KABC). Schubecks's career spanned 35 years. He was a familiar face and an iconic figure in broadcast news in Southern California for decades.

Schubeck’s career didn’t begin in LA, it began in Detroit, on radio station WJR. He spent time anchoring the news in Chicago, Philly and New York before he made his way to the West Coast. He was a recipient of many broadcast journalism awards including several Emmys and a Golden Mike.

His ability to communicate a news story with an air of authority and credibility, was legend. Few people knew he was a top ranked amateur golfer, participating in many pro am and celebrity golf tournaments. Schubeck graduated from Loyola Law School and had a J.D. but never took the bar to become a practicing attorney. He was a serious newsman with a soft side. Unknown to many, he had a couple of Yorkshire Terriers that he kept in a playpen in his longtime Los Feliz apartment. Despite his many talents, John had a major fault. John had a problem with drinking, especially vodka.

When his career waned in Los Angeles he eventually ended up anchoring the news in Palm Springs (from market #2 to #144) where, for a short time, he was both anchor and news director. But John couldn't overcome the drinking problem and his life began to spiral downward. He apparently never saved any of the millions he earned and eventually, he had little to rely on, even his immediate family had cut their ties. He was homeless and living in a car in the West San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Once a million-dollar anchorman had come full circle, broke and destitute.

Then on September 24, 1997 John Schubeck was brought to the emergency room of the Columbia West Hills Medical Center. He was not in good shape, his life was slipping away. Two days later he would succumb to "multi-systems failure". His liver and kidneys would no longer work. Once one of the highest-paid TV news anchors in Los Angeles John Schubeck died, penniless at the age of 61. The news of John Schubeck’s passing was not a "big story" as they say, there was a paid death notice in the New York Times, a ‘day of" story as the old newsroom saying goes.

Fellow longtime LA anchorman Jess Marlow said at the time of his death that Schubeck had battled alcoholism for years. "John Schubeck's life had a tragic ending, but it was tragic for many years,'' Marlow said. "He had friends who tried to intervene. He had treatment after treatment. "He just could not shake that demon, and it's terribly sad because he was a charming guy with extraordinary potential and absolutely was a victim of alcoholism. There's no question about it.'' Tritia Toyota, a former Schubeck co-anchor at KNBC-TV, paid for the funeral.