Jack Catran

Catran was born on January 22, 1918, to a Sephardic Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York.{{Citation | last = Rolfe | first = Lionel | title = Fat Man On the Left | place = Los Angeles | publisher = California Classics Books | year = 1998 | chapter = Unpopular Science | pages = [https://archive.org/details/fatmanonleftfour0000rolf/page/160 160–164, 170–171] | isbn = 978-1-879395-01-5 | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=lSX9pwnsOc4C&pg=PA162 | url = https://archive.org/details/fatmanonleftfour0000rolf/page/160 }}

He grew up in the neighborhood of Bensonhurst where he began participating in vaudevillian theater during the 1930s and 1940s,{{Cite news | last = Remy | first = Holly O. | title = Accenting the Positive | newspaper = The Press-Enterprise | location = Riverside, CA | pages = D1 | date = June 9, 1993 }}{{Cite news | title = Schwartz Play Will Continue | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = IV3 | date = May 3, 1953 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/426445861.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050106/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/426445861.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}} and became interested in science as well. He had dropped out of high school but moved to Los Angeles in 1941 where he attended Chouinard Art Institute under the GI Bill. He returned to school at USC and UCLA where he earned his master's degree in psychology. He began teaching technical illustration and perspective drawing at the Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys Adult School, and San Fernando High School where he employed experimental psychology techniques in his methods.I. {{Cite news | title = Illustration Class Offered By Two Valley Schools | newspaper = Van Nuys News | location = Van Nuys, CA | pages = VII5 | date = Feb 3, 1957 }}

II. {{Cite news | title = Youth Classes | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 14A | date = May 14, 1959 }}

III. {{Cite news | title = Technical Writing Course Planned at Adult School | newspaper = Van Nuys News | location = Van Nuys, CA | pages = 18C | date = Jan 19, 1961 }} He began his career as a technical and industrial designer for the aerospace industry in Los Angeles. He later attended the University of London to obtain his doctorate in psychology. He began working for the NASA Apollo space program as a human factors engineer.{{Cite news | last = Stein | first = Mark | title = Waste of Money, He Charges | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 2 | date = Aug 24, 1980 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664825682.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050122/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664825682.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}} Meanwhile, he was editor of the journal, Feedback. He also became president of the Beth Daiah Temple.{{Cite news | title = Beth Daiah Guest Talk Announced | newspaper = Van Nuys News | location = Van Nuys, CA | date = May 12, 1967 }} He became an instructor at California State University, Northridge's Experimental College,{{Cite news | title = Teacher Says Men Prefer Sexy Women | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = V9 | date = Nov 2, 1975 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/609294472.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050137/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/609294472.html?FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}} where he taught such controversial classes as "Charm and Sex Appeal."{{Cite news | last = Sahagun | first = Louis | title = Experimental College Survives Odd Courses | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = IX7 | date = March 7, 1982 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664046082.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050155/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664046082.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}}

In the early 1980s, he wrote a series of articles in The New York Times,{{Cite news | last = Catran | first = Jack | title = NASA Scientists In Orbit | newspaper = New York Times | location = New York, NY | pages = 31A | date = Dec 4, 1980 }} the Chicago Tribune,{{Cite news | last = Catran | first = Jack | title = A Word of Caution for UFOlogists | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | location = Chicago, IL | pages = 27 | date = Sep 15, 1981 }} the Los Angeles Times,{{Cite news | last = Catran | first = Jack | title = Flushing Out Space Fallout | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = II11 | date = Aug 19, 1982 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/666200702.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050214/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/666200702.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}} Newsweek,{{Cite news | last = Catran | first = Jack | title = E.A. = Enough Already | newspaper = Newsweek | location = New York, NY | pages = 18 | date = Dec 20, 1982 }} and the Humanist{{Cite news | last = Catran | first = Jack | title = Space Sneeze Causes Earth Colds: Evolution According to Hoyle | newspaper = The Humanist | location = Washington, D.C. | pages = 32–33 | date = Sep–Oct 1982 }} in response to the attempts of some cosmologists, primarily Carl Sagan, to theorize and locate the existence of intelligent life in outer-space. In 1980, he wrote the underground classic Is There Intelligent Life On Earth {{Cite news | last = Shuster | first = Fred | title = Accent On Versatility For KGIL's Catran | newspaper = Los Angeles Daily News | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = L23 | date = July 30, 1990 }} which thoroughly attempted to refute the whole idea of SETI. In the book he also argued that the global monetary system is the central cause of societal ills and that eventually the money system would give way to a moneyless technologically governed society that would eliminate waste, poverty, and crime.{{Cite news | last = Dorff | first = Ralph L. | title = Is There Intelligent Life On Earth Review | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 8–9 | date = Aug 24, 1980 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664829292.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106050240/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/664829292.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI| url-status = dead| archive-date = November 6, 2012}} He was also one of the few scientists to argue that humans are probably alone in the universe. Catran appeared on radio and television arguing his point. A national television show attempted to arrange a debate between Catran and Sagan, but Sagan turned it down.

He later became interested in linguistics and became a consultant for 20th Century Fox.{{Cite news | last = Beller | first = Miles | title = Modern-Day Henry Higgins | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 1 | date = Dec 5, 1985 }} He trained such actors as John Belushi{{Cite news | last = Rutherford | first = David | title = Former Radio Star Helps People Lose Accents | newspaper = Los Angeles Daily News | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 3 | date = March 19, 1986 }} and Richard Burton to speak with various accents. He would eventually write a series of books and audio tapes entitled How To Speak English Without A Foreign Accent which provided exercises for speakers to lose accents across fifteen different languages. He became a prominent radio show host in the 1980s and 1990s in Los Angeles area, hosting a show on KGIL where he assisted callers in eliminating their accents.{{Cite news | title = Linguist positive foreign accents | newspaper = Houston Chronicle | location = Houston, TX | pages = III10 | date = Nov 22, 1987 }}

Catran published Walden Three in 1988. Following on the philosophical and ideological orientation of B. F. Skinner's Walden Two, it was a 422-page science fiction scenario with occasional sections of biographical memoir, both of which centered on the life and philosophy of Jacque Fresco via pseudonymous protagonist "Jack Tedesco."{{Cite news | last = Kirsch | first = Jonathan | title = From Flawed World to a Flawed Utopia | newspaper = Los Angeles Times | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = 8 | date = June 15, 1988 | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-06-15-vw-4100-story.html}}{{Cite news | last = Vier | first = Gene | title = 'Walden' Insightful But Overlong | newspaper = Los Angeles Daily News | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = L28 | date = Aug 7, 1988 }}

Catran later hosted the midnight show, Brooklyn Bridge, featuring entertainers from the 1930s and 1940s.{{Cite news | title = Radio Has Something For Everyone | newspaper = Los Angeles Daily News | location = Los Angeles, CA | pages = L58 | date = Jan 10, 1992 }} He published his last book, a novel, in 1994. He died January 18, 2001, in Riverside, California..

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=LxvXAAAAMAAJ Is there intelligent life on earth?] (1980)
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=DT4aAAAACAAJ How to Speak English Without a Foreign Accent] (1986–1991)
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=oBMpAAAACAAJ Walden Three] (1988)
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=WvXwPAAACAAJThe Plot to Win the White House and How It Succeeded] (1994)

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Category:1918 births

Category:2001 deaths

Category:American industrial designers

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:Alumni of the University of London

Category:People from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn

Category:American people of Sephardic-Jewish descent