Frances Buss Frances Buss

Frances Buss Buch (June 3, 1917 – January 19, 2010) was the first female television director in the United States. Buch grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri, and attended Washington University. In the early 1940s she relocated to New York City, where she had taken acting classes and appeared in some off-Broadway productions. In July 1941 she was hired by CBS for a temporary job as receptionist. She transferred to the fledgling CBS Television two weeks after the Federal Communications Commission allowed commercial TV broadcasts in 1941. With Gil Fates as producer and host, she was scorekeeper on CBS Television Quiz the earliest U.S. live television game show.