Film & TV / Press & broadcasting
Rita Bell
1925–2003 · television host, singer
Detroit-born host of WXYZ-TV's weekday-morning Prize Movie (1960–1977), billed as the first woman television broadcaster in Michigan.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
California
aged 78- Birth name
- Rita Louise Connolly
- Also known as
- Rita Bell-Hansen
- Detroit years
- 1925–1970s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Rita Bell was a Detroit girl who graduated from Marygrove College, worked in public relations for the United Way and sang with big bands before WXYZ-TV's general manager discovered her in 1957. She is often called the first woman television broadcaster in Michigan. From 1960 she hosted Prize Movie, a weekday-morning film show on Channel 7 that aired more than 6,000 movies over its long run. Between reels she took phone calls from viewers trying to name a mystery tune for a cash jackpot, and for a generation of Detroit homemakers, shift workers and children home sick from school she was the voice of the morning. She made a cameo in the western series The Big Valley in 1968 and served as a national spokeswoman for American Women in Radio and Television. She died in California in 2003.
Highlights
- Hosted Prize Movie on WXYZ-TV weekday mornings, 1960–1977
- The show aired more than 6,000 films
- Viewers phoned in to name the 'mystery tune' for a cash prize
- Graduate of Detroit's Marygrove College
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1960–1977
WXYZ-TV Broadcast House
Channel 7's Southfield studios, home of Prize Movie.
Studied here · 1940s
Dignity Detroit
Closed · 1927–2019
The Catholic women's college she graduated from; the college closed in 2019 and its campus is now the Marygrove Conservancy.