Christine Chubbuck could have celebrated her 67th birthday today. I don't want to imply that she would have, if she were still alive. According to her family, she struggled through most of her adult life with depression. Sometimes depressed people don't celebrate their birthday. Regardless, Chubbuck isn't turning 67 today because she ended her life during a live television broadcast in 1974.

By some accounts, Chubbuck had a hard time with her social life. While at prep school in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, Chubbuck started a small group called the "Dateless Wonder Club." Shortly before her death at age 30, she complained to family members that she was still a virgin, adding that she had never been on more than two dates with a man. After her death, her brother recalled that she had trouble connecting to people in the beach community of Siesta Key, Florida. She was openly self-deprecating and still referred to herself as "dateless." That couldn't have helped either. Chubbuck attempted suicide by overdose in 1970 but was unsuccessful. Those close to her knew about the incident though, and she brought it up frequently. Several weeks before her death, she stopped seeing her psychiatrist. A year before her suicide, Chubbuck had an ovary removed and was told that if she didn't become pregnant within a year, she most likely never would. Her mother was worried about her depression and suicidal tendencies, but didn't mention it to Christine's co-workers out of fear of her being fired. Chubbuck had a crush on a co-worker only to find that he was already involved with another woman, a sports reporter who was also her co-worker. The sports reporter was her closest friend at work, but was moving to Baltimore, which further depressed Chubbuck. They all worked at WXLT-TV, the ABC affiliate station in Sarasota, Florida.

Chubbuck started her career in television with a degree in broadcasting from Boston University. She then got a job with Cleveland public television station WVIZ, and then moved on to other public stations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio. Eventually she moved to St. Petersburg, Florida where she worked in the traffic department. Her move to Florida was supposed to brighten her mood, as her depression was already evident. She lived in a summer cottage owned by her parents. She volunteered at a local hospital, giving puppet shows to mentally handicapped children. When her parents divorced her mother and brother moved into the cottage as well, and it was noted that her bedroom resembled that of a teenager's. Her last position was at WXLT-TV, first as a reporter, then as the host of a community affairs talk show called Suncoast Digest.

In late June of 1974, Christine Chubbuck did a report on Suncoast Digest about suicide. During the story, an officer with a local Sheriff's department explained the most efficient way of committing suicide. Three weeks later she would kill herself in nearly the same exact fashion.

Three days before her death, Chubbuck had an argument with a news director after he cut one of her stories to cover a crime story instead. The station owner had tried to convince the staff to cover more stories concentrating on "blood and guts."

"She had written something like 'TV 40 news personality Christine Chubbuck shot herself in a live broadcast this morning on a Channel 40 talk program. She was rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.'"

—Mike Simmons, TV-40 news director, quoted in The Dallas Morning News

Chubbuck started Suncoast Digest in a peculiar manner on the morning of July 15, 1974. She insisted that the episode be taped and began the segment by reading a newscast, a first for both things. Her written copy of the newscast ended with a report of her own suicide, concluding that she was being taken to Sarasota Memorial Hospital in critical condition, but she didn't reach the end of her report. A technical malfunction caused footage from a local restaurant shooting to jam during playback, to which Chubbuck replied, "In keeping with Channel 40's policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see another first—attempted suicide." She then produced a revolver while still on camera and shot herself behind her right ear.

Chubbuck's written copy was correct, she was taken in critical condition to the hospital listed in her own report of her own suicide. She died at that hospital 14 hours later. She was then cremated and her ashes were scattered in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Christine Chubbuck story partly inspired the script for the film Network, which was released two years later. The video tape of her suicide was turned over to her family and has never again been aired. Somehow, it seems nobody else was taping the segment on that morning. At least anybody who thought the footage should be seen again.

Newspaper article links: 1 & 2.

h/t: Ruben Mendez