Society of the Silurians LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS BANQUET The National Arts Club 15 Gramercy Park South Tuesday, November 17, 2015 Honoring Gay Talese Drinks: 6 p.m. Dinner: 7:15 p.m. Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc., an organization Meet Old Friends (212) 532-0887 of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 Members and One Guest $100 each Non-Members $120 NOVEMBER 2015 2015 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER Gay Talese: New Journalism, Old-School Values BY MORT SHEINMAN a man Tom Wolfe suddenly I was back working against arly morning in the Talese house- called “the Father deadlines, working with people like Peter hold on New York’s Upper East of New Journal- Applebome, the deputy national editor, ESide. Another day of freezing tem- ism,” a writer and the boss, Dean Baquet . . . I felt 50 peratures, flirting with single digits. Gay whose work and years younger. When Peter said to me, Talese slips out of bed at about 6:30 a.m., methodology re- ‘Dean likes it,’ I felt as though I’d just careful not to awaken his wife. He quietly main a profound won a Pulitzer.” dons a brown Brooks Brothers robe with influence on For Talese, who will be honored on black piping and heads for his front door. younger genera- Nov. 17 with the Silurians’ Lifetime Just inside, having been pushed through tions. Despite all Achievement Award, the printed word a wide mail slot, is his freshly delivered that, when he saw is everything. He may be a New Jour- copy of that morning’s New York Times. his front-page nalist, but his work habits are strictly Talese has a special interest in today’s piece last March, Old School. An analog man in a digital paper. He has been told by his editor he was as exhil- world, he composes his copy first with a that a piece of his will appear. He quickly arated as a cub pencil on a lined yellow legal pad, then scans the front page, paying particular reporter breaking on a typewriter. He uses a computer only attention to the bottom half, where the into print for the when a publisher requires that a piece be reefers are. His story isn’t there. He first time. emailed. He does not own a cell phone. begins turning pages and finally finds it. “Working on When he is out and about, he is not one Or most of it. At the top, it says “From that story allowed of those ambulatory zombies, his eye- Page A1.” His eyebrows raised slightly, me to revisit the balls glued to a tiny screen in the palm he goes back to Page One and when he happiness I’d of his hand. He sees what’s going on sees his byline — above the fold, where known when I around him. He listens, ears cocked for he had not thought to look — Gay Talese was a reporter,” the tiny details that reveal larger truths. is giddy with happiness. Talese said. “That Social media is anathema to him. When This happened not in the distant was the happiest he interviews someone, he does not use past, when he was a young reporter, time of my life. a tape recorder. He prefers to look his but only last March, exactly one month Working with ed- subject in the eye because if he doesn’t, after his 83rd birthday. His piece in itors, wondering he fears he will miss the subtleties of that morning’s Times was a report from whether the copy nuance and tone. Selma, Ala., where he had returned for Gay Talese: pioneer in prose. desk would kill “When I was new at The Times,” he the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, your best sentenc- recalled, “a great reporter named Peter the infamous day civil rights protesters years later for an anniversary piece and es, the camaraderie, the instant gratifi- Kihss said to me, ‘Kid, stay away from were beaten by police on the Edmund this year The Times asked him to add his cation of seeing your words in the paper the phone.’” Pettus Bridge. He had been in Selma perspective to the 50th. It didn’t matter the next morning. That’s the great thing There is a difference between “writ- back then, filing for The Times and that after learning his craft at the news- about daily journalism. When you write ing” and “reporting,” Talese said. The standing close enough to hear the thud paper more than half a century earlier, books, you work alone. Maybe you difference is voice. He wanted to write in of billyclub upon flesh. He returned 25 Talese had become a celebrated author, talk to an editor every six months. But Continued on Page 2 My Cousin Roy Cohn BY ANNE ROIPHE lege, arrived hoping to get a loan to open oy Cohn, the infamous Roy Cohn, an office in the Bronx. In those days poor was a part of my family. He was Jewish boys did not get invited into the Rmy aunt’s nephew. This aunt was best of established law firms. my mother’s sister Libby. That made him My mother said that the new lawyer my cousin by marriage. There were no was sitting in a chair waiting for a banker blood ties but many meals were shared. to speak with him when the President of There was Thanksgiving and the Jewish the Bank himself invited him into his Holidays, large gatherings of the clan office. Young man, he said, what is it you with my brother and I the youngest by hope for in this world. “I want,” replied many years. the young Al Cohn, “to be a judge, to The story my mother told me was that serve this great country, to keep democ- Roy Cohn’s grandfather, whose name was racy safe for all.” (My mother’s report.) Marcus, had been a tailor on the Lower A judgeship in the Bronx in those days of East Side before the turn of the century Tammany Hall rule cost many thousands and had a gift for money, and so other of dollars. The President of the Bank immigrants began to trust him to hold invited the young lawyer home for dinner their meager funds in his safe, and soon and introduced him to his wife and his he needed a bigger safe and within a few daughter Dora. Dora, said my mother, was Roy Cohn, right, with Senator Joseph McCarthy. years he opened a bank which grew and the ugliest girl in all the Bronx and she grew and moved with many of its immi- was known to have a bitter mean dispo- America but he compromised and seized under the law — except if Tammany had grant customers to the Grand Concourse sition. She was hanging neglected on the the opportunity and the couple were mar- an interest in the legal outcome. Within in the Bronx. It was there that a young marriage vine and but for Al Cohn might ried and within a few years a judgeship a few years, Dora gave birth to Roy. He newly minted lawyer, named Al Cohn, have stayed there. was procured for Al and he was mostly was an only child and was cherished by who had just graduated from City Col- Al Cohn was an idealist and he did love a very good judge who treated all fairly Continued on Page 5 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 President’s Report 2015 LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD WINNER BY BETSY ASHTON Dear Fellow Silurians, Gay Talese: New Journalism, Old-School Values In my first report to you as President of the Society, I would like to thank former President Continued from Page 1 Allan Dodds Frank for giving us two years of a narrative voice, to reflect what people first-rate speakers and well-attended programs. thought as well as what they said. It was We regularly had more than 80 attendees for a style that impressed him while he was our luncheons, often tipping over 100. still a youngster, devouring short fiction It is now my job to produce great programs for you, and I am taking suggestions and in the glossy pages of The Saturday working hard, with the help of other board Evening Post by writers such as Irwin members, to make our luncheons well worth Shaw and Carson McCullers. The dif- your time, travel, and money. ference was that he didn’t want to write We began this season on Sept. 24, with fiction. He preferred writing about real Bloomberg News Founder Matt Winkler telling how, at a time when most news organizations people with real names who lived in the were being cut back, he built a powerful global real world and while he used the tools financial news operation from scratch. of fiction, he would observe all the rules On Wednesday, Oct. 21, we will hear about accuracy that he’d been trained to former New York Times Executive Editor Bill obey as a newspaperman. Keller tell why he left journalism’s “Valhalla” to launch a start-up, The Marshall Project. Talese traces his origins as a journal- which examines the criminal justice system ist to his boyhood in Ocean City, N.J., a On Tuesday evening, Nov. 17, beach community just south of Atlantic groundbreaking journalist Gay Talese will City, where the family lived above his join us for dinner to accept our Lifetime father’s tailor shop and his mother’s dress Achievement Award. We will round out the year with a lunch on shop, each of which was a major influ- Wednesday, Dec. 16, to hear Mary Pflum, a top, ence on his prose as well as his clothes. veteran producer at ABC’s “Good Morning “Because of my father, I was always America,” describe the insanity behind-the- well-dressed,” Talese said. Well-dressed Mort Sheinman interviewing Gay Talese in 1971. Courtesy of WWD scenes in morning television news and tell indeed. As a child, young Gaetano was why it’s the only TV news that is growing its audience. Joseph Talese’s mini mannequin, clad in ever written. Talese, who has never been pad for “The Kingdom and the Power,” In the coming year, all our luncheons and impeccably sewn custom-tailored suits. a big fan of “celebrity profiles,” prefers Talese’s groundbreaking study of The dinners are slated to be on the third Wednesday Today, most of what he wears is bespoke. to write about little-known characters. Times and the people who made it of each month, to make it easier for you to plan Many years ago, a reporter who’d never That’s why he says his article about Al- what it was. It was perhaps the first your schedules. met him and knew nothing about his den Whitman, the chief obituary writer non-fiction book to present an insid- A major change this season has been the return to the National Arts Club, which we will sartorial proclivities, was to interview of The Times, “may be the most grati- er’s view of a media institution. The be using for all but our May Awards dinner, him at his home the following morning. fying piece I ever did.” Also published title, in fact, came directly from the because that event requires a larger dining As a courtesy, the reporter called the in Esquire in 1966 and written with the Daniel profile: “Kingdoms, the Powers, room than the NAC can accommodate. This night before and said, “I’m bringing a narrative drive of a short story, it revealed and the Glories of The New York switch back was made to give us a better dining photographer, but don’t feel you have to the extraordinary world of “an ordinary Times.” Although Talese had pub- experience for the same amount of money as we paid The Players last year, plus the security dress up or anything. Wear a T-shirt and guy whom no one had heard of.” lished three earlier books — “New of knowing that the club will be there when we jeans if that’s what makes you comfort- Talese’s own life has been well doc- York: A Serendipiter’s Journey” in need it. The Players is having serious financial able.” “That’s all right,” Talese said. “I umented, by him in two books — his 1961; “The Bridge: The Building of the difficulties, whereas the NAC, which went like to dress.” boyhood in “Unto the Sons,” a 1992 Verrazano-Narrows Bridge” in 1964; through its own challenging time three years If his father taught him what to wear, account of his family’s roots in Italy and “The Overreachers” in 1965, a ago, has emerged as a stronger, professionally managed operation. his mother showed him how to listen. and their years in America, and in “A collection of magazine pieces — it was One change you will note will be our lunch It was in Catherine Talese’s dress shop Writer’s Life,” a 2006 memoir — as well his extraordinary study of The Times desserts. Many women members — myself that her adolescent son gained the kind as by others. In Ocean City, he attended that made him famous. included — complained that we were paying of insight into storytelling that would the local high school and, as a teenager, More bestsellers followed. He wrote for heavy desserts that we could not (or should serve him well. He would go there after began writing sports for the Ocean City one on the Mafia (“Honor Thy Father,” not) eat. This year we will have trays of fresh fruits along with the club’s popular home-made school to help out, and while dusting Sentinel-Ledger. Because his grades 1971) and another on sex in America cookies. The chef has promised many rich shelves or folding the tissue paper that were less than stellar, Ivy League schools (“Thy Neighbor’s Wife,” 1980), before chocolate cookies in the mix, to keep certain would line the boxes, he would eavesdrop turned him down, but he was accepted embarking on subjects closer to home. male board members happy! Enjoy! on conversations between his mother at the University of Alabama, where he His next book will chronicle his 56-year Much has been going on behind the scenes and her customers, mostly middle-aged majored in journalism and graduated in (and counting) marriage to Nan Talese, a that is also worth noting. A major refinement of our annual awards women who were the town’s leading 1953. He moved to New York, seeking a senior vice president at Doubleday and program is underway to bring our categories matrons. World War II was raging and the job at The Herald Tribune (“it seemed as the publisher and editorial director of her up-to-date with the changes going on today in women voiced their anxieties about sons if they allowed their writers a lot of free- own imprint, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. various news-reporting media and to streamline in the service, about gas rationing and dom”), but there were no openings. The It will likely be called “A Non-Fiction our entry and judging process. New Awards meat rationing and the scarcity of nylon Times, his second choice, hired him as Marriage,” a title Talese said he “stole” Co-chairs Ralph Blumenthal and Michael Serrill began the process with an in-depth hosiery and the million other ways their a copyboy and soon his byline appeared from a New York Magazine article about review of our 2015 program and last month lives were affected. For Talese, it was a over a feature about the famous rolling the project in 2009. He says he’s been presented a detailed report with recommended form of Journalism 101. He noticed how chairs on Atlantic City’s boardwalk and working on the book almost as long changes to the board. Ralph pointed out that his mother could ask questions without a profile of the silent screen actress Nita as he’s been working on his marriage, we are greatly benefiting from Michael’s recent appearing “to be nosy,” and how she Naldi in the Sunday Magazine. After two a union that survived perilous times experience in running the Awards Program for the Overseas Press Club, for which he also listened to the answers, knowing bet- years in the Army, he returned to The when Talese was intimately involved in served as President. ter than to interrupt the flow of dialog Times in 1956, first as a sportswriter, then researching changing sexual mores for Board members Mort Sheinman and Ben when someone else was talking. He also as a general assignment reporter, finally “Thy Neighbor’s Wife.” Shortly after Patrusky teamed up this summer to post more learned about World War II and what it as the “About New York” columnist that book was published, the Taleses current and useful information about the club meant to “ordinary people,” later realiz- following the death of Meyer Berger. were at home one evening when Nan on the site, along with links to other sites journalists will enjoy. You can see all at www. ing that everyday characters such as the Talese left daily journalism in 1965 Talese asked her husband whether he’d silurian.org. Thanks for our web guru Fred women of his town could help illuminate because the deadlines that fueled him like to go out for dinner. “Let’s see,” he Herzog for making it function and look good. issues as wide as a global conflict when he reported from Selma last March replied. “There’s a basketball game on Board members Bill Diehl and Barbara “It taught me to be sensitive to minor were what frustrated him 50 years ago, cable around 7:30 or 8, and a game on Lovenheim worked to get useful information characters,” he said. “Traditional jour- when he wanted more space, more time, the West Coast at 11:30. OK, I’m all set on a Silurian’s Facebook page. This can be an effective way to communicate news and nalism is about major characters.” a bigger canvas, and the leeway to tell for tonight. Let’s stay home.” updates about members to one another. If Case in point: his best-known maga- a story his way. With great reluctance, A visitor turned to Nan and asked, everyone used it, we could eliminate the need zine piece, “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold,” he moved on. “What’s the greater threat to a marriage: for email blasts about memorial services and published in Esquire in 1966 as part of a “It was torture making the decision a full schedule of sports on TV or ‘thy such, but far too few members have signed up. six-article contract for which Talese was to leave,” he recalled a few years after neighbor’s wife’?” If you already have a Facebook page, it’s very easy to link to the Silurians’ FB page. If you paid $15,000. Sinatra would not speak resigning. “I cried when I left. I was Nan and Gay Talese both burst out don’t have a clue about how to do this, email with Talese, but the people around him 33 years old and there were tears in my laughing, and Nan said, “I don’t know, Bill Diehl, [email protected], who can did, “at least a hundred,” including the eyes. I was depressed because I deeply but both of them have been responsible explain it and help you. woman who toted the singer’s toupees respected and loved the paper. I still feel for a lot of needlepoint pillows.” On a personal note, I must inform you in a small satchel for $400 a week. From that way. It’s the greatest newspaper in that I will miss our Oct. 21 meeting for a very special reason. I will be on my honeymoon in these minor characters and his own ob- the world.” (Mort Sheinman began reading Gay Umbria! I am marrying opera composer James servations, Talese crafted a piece that When he left, Talese had that contract Talese in the sports section of The New Stepleton on Oct. 10, and I ran into a conflict seemed as though he was reporting from with Esquire and, in addition to the afore- York Times. He interviewed Talese three with my promise of holding meetings on the inside Sinatra’s brain. That article and mentioned pieces, wrote one on Clifton times for Women’s Wear Daily in con- third Wednesday of the month. But we have a another on Joe DiMaggio called “The Daniel, who’d been a distinguished junction with the publication of three of great bench here. First VP Bernie Kirsch will most ably chair that meeting and introduce Bill Silent Spring of a Hero” — same year, foreign correspondent at The Times and his best-known books: “The Kingdom Keller. same publication — have been celebrat- was then managing editor. That and the and the Power,” “Honor Thy Father” And I will see you again in November. ed as two of the best magazine stories Whitman profile became the launching and “Thy Neighbor’s Wife.”) NOVEMBER 2015 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 3 The Daily News of the 60s and 70s and How I Got Myself Fired From It BY JACK DEACY Maury, who could often be spied n the 1950s, New York daily polishing his bald head in the News newspapers elicited fierce loyalty executive washroom. Ifrom readers that ran along class, When I was hired, the News economic, cultural and religious lines. was still the largest selling daily in From my neighborhood in Brooklyn, the country, with a circulation of here’s how it looked to us: The blue- 2.1 million on weekdays and 3.5 collar working class and Dodger and million on Sunday. It employed Giant fans read the News and the Mirror. 600 news people, 48 photographers, The rich, the business and professional had 70 streetwise reporters and 12 classes, the Protestants and Yankee fans radio cars cruising the city 24 hours read the Times, the Herald Tribune and a day. It owned forests in Canada the Wall Street Journal. The Jews read the for newsprint; it had airplanes Post. The Journal-American, the flagship and boats. But the numbers - in of the powerful Hearst empire and the circulation, in profits - were going in largest afternoon paper in the country, the wrong direction. In the past two was a favorite of Catholics. Eight out of decades the News had lost 300,000 10 of their 600,000 readers were Catholic. in circulation daily and 1.2 million There was even a rumor that the Journal- on Sunday. American’s city editor, Eddie Mahar, had During my first week I had a direct hotline from his desk to Cardinal lunch with a veteran News reporter Spellman. at Costello’s on Third Avenue, In our house in Brooklyn, we read the paper’s favorite saloon. “The the News, the Mirror and the Journal- paper is suffering from hardening American. My parents were Irish of the arteries,” he said. ”The city immigrants who came to New York in room looks like an old-age home. the1920s, met at a dance, got married Almost every major editor has 40 and raised three children, me, my sister plus years with the paper. City editor Theresa and my brother Joe. Two Harry Nichols has been here 48 AUGUST 1969 Daily News columnist Jack Deacy (right rear, wearing glasses bachelor uncles - big Paddy and little Phil years. Our famous editorial writer and mustache), and the author of this article, covering the Northern Irish - also lived with us. Reuben Maury, he’s been here 43 civil rights leader Bernadette Devlin in New York during her fundraising tour From a young age, I loved to write years. The list goes on. The staff is of the U.S. and loved to read the newspapers. In high predominantly white, male, Irish told me the paper was thinking of starting a the visit of Irish civil rights firebrand school at Power Memorial Academy I and aging. When I got here in the column that would report about nightlife in Bernadette Devlin to New York. I wrote wrote for the school paper, the Yearbook Fifties, the city desk jargon referred the city. about a late night stabbing I witnessed in and covered the great Power basketball to blacks as banjos and Puerto Rican “We want the column to target younger Sheridan Square in the Village. Before teams that featured Lew Alcindor, who as bongos. The paper really needs readers, tell them what’s going on at night I wrote about Pete Seeger I went to get would become Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a transfusion, younger blood like in New York that might interest them, clips on him in the News morgue and was one of the great N.B.A. stars. When I yourself. And the new guy, Mike entertainment, the bar scene, the music scene, shocked to see on the folder - SEEGER, graduated from high school in 1962, I was O’Neill, he’s starting to change profiles of stars like Bob Dylan. But the PETE - SINGER - COMMIE. hired as a reporter for my neighborhood things. The News has to change.” column would also touch on other areas as I wrote about the great saloons, the weekly, the Home Reporter and Sunset The change was driven largely well, sports, the theater, books, some politics. Lion’s Head, Costello’s, McSorley’s and News. Then I worked nights at the by Michael O’Neill, 47, who It’s 1968 and New York, like the rest of the Farrell’s and the Rainbow in Brooklyn. Journal-American covering school sports. arrived in 1966 from the News country, is going through great cultural and I wrote about election nights and the The 1960s had been disastrous for Washington bureau as an assistant social changes and the News has to start winners and losers, Bella Abzug, Daniel New York dailies. At the beginning of managing editor and then rose reflecting those changes. A column like this Patrick Moynihan, John J. Rooney, the decade there were nine dailies on the quickly to become executive editor. can help us to do that.’’ Al Lowenstein, Hugh Carey, Howard stands. By the time I was discharged from He was starting to attract a younger The column would be called The Night Samuels and little Vito Battista. I the Navy in October 1967, only four were cadre of reporters and editors and Owl to tie it in with the renaming of the covered Tiny Tim’s wedding on the left: the News, the Post, the Times and columnists, people like Sam Roberts, Bulldog edition to the Night Owl edition Johnny Carson show and wrote about The Wall Street Journal. I wanted to work Dick Oliver, Ellen Flysher, Mike which hit the streets about 8 p.m. McKinney his friends from the old neighborhood for one of them. McGovern, Sylvia Carter, Frank had already selected one of the writers, Ernie who remembered him by his real name, Interviews I had with the Times and McLoughlin, Bert Shanas, Mark Leogrande, who was writing features for the Herbert Khaury. And as the Vietnam War Newsday on Long Island led nowhere. Bloom and others. For the first time paper. He asked me if I would like to be the dragged on, I wrote more and more about I never heard from the Post or The blacks, hispanics and women were other writer. I said yes. it. My views ran counter to the Daily Wall Street Journal. But I started doing being added to the newsroom. He Here I was, 24 years old and I was going to News editorial page, which backed the freelance pieces for the weekly Village was revamping sections, adding be writing a column in the largest circulation war effort wholeheartedly and President Voice, which gave me good exposure but more sports, financial and science newspaper in the country. My cup runneth Nixon’s stewardship of it. When about 40 little money. Then The Daily News called reporting. Now I was part of that over. News reporters and writers - me among and after several interviews I was hired brave new world that O’Neill was I saw the column as an opportunity to them - tried to take out a paid ad in the as writer/reporter. It was early 1968 and I creating at the News. write creatively. From the very beginning, my News opposing the war, the paper refused was finally in the game. For a young rookie like myself intention was to broaden its scope well beyond to run it. Tensions began to build in the The News had a long and colorful the city room was a joy to behold. entertainment. For the first few months, newsroom. history. Published first in 1919 as the There was the clacking of a hundred McKinney liked what we were writing. Then But I was having the time of my young nation’s first tabloid, by 1947 it was the typewriters, shouts for “copy,” the he abruptly left the news to become managing life, and being paid for it. largest circulation daily in the country, staccato rhythms of the UPI and AP editor of McCall’s magazine. We were left And then Sheward Hagerty showed hitting an all-time circulation high of 2.4 telegraph machines and a permanent without an editor. As it turned out, no editor up. million copies daily and 4.7 million on gray cloud of cigarette smoke. And was assigned to work with us for another year Hagerty had been a senior editor at Sunday, amazing numbers in a city with a now I had a desk and typewriter in and a half. So myself and Leogrande were Newsweek and O’Neill had lured him population of 7.8 million this room. basically on our own to write what we wanted away and made him features editor of It had a brash blue-collar style all I began my News career writing to write. Our copy went directly to the copy the News. That would also make him my its own. The paper’s bread and butter features for the Sunday supplements desk. If there was ever a problem, Mike editor, the first one I had in almost two had always been its coverage of crime. for Westchester, Long Island and O’Neill usually got it straightened out. years. When I first met Hagerty in the city Reporters posed as cops, doctors, New Jersey. Suburban editors liked Over the years I wrote about Duke Ellington room, he was wearing black suspenders priests and undertakers to get the story. my writing and after a few months I and Bob Dylan and mafia dons and the with skulls and crossbones on them. One of its legendary police reporters, was writing New York City features Beatles. I wrote about the colorful labor leader Skulls and crossbones! A Yale man! I Pat Doyle, was known far and wide as in the Sunday paper. I was also Mike Quill, bus drivers, barbers, undertakers, sensed that I might be in trouble. I was “Inspector Doyle”. At crime scenes, he continuing to write freelance pieces fight night at the old Garden. I wrote about the right. would announce himself aggressively for the Village Voice. A few of the night men landed on the moon, the day the After a few weeks of reading the to uniformed cops as Inspector Doyle younger News editors liked the Voice Mets won the World Series, the Sunday the Night Owl columns, he let me know and gain immediate entry. The News pieces and they began to notice me. Jets won the Super Bowl, the night the Knicks he wasn’t happy about how I had also maintained a paid network of One afternoon I got word that a won the N.B.A. championship. I wrote about broadened its original focus. He wanted sources like hospital attendants, hotel new editor, Don McKinney, wanted the bank robber Willie Sutton, the poet Joel me to concentrate on the music scene that detectives, cops, court personnel and an to see me. McKinney had been an Oppenheimer. I covered Woodstock, getting young people would be interested in. And occasional reporter at a competing paper. editor at the Saturday Evening Post there the Wednesday before and going right I could write about interesting New York The editorial page was right wing, anti- and O’Neill brought him in to help through the following Monday morning when characters. He told me he didn’t want me communist and written in a kick-them-in- revamp the paper and make it more Jimi Hendrix played his psychedelic version writing about politics. Or about Vietnam. the-shins style by the legendary Reuben attractive to younger people. He of the Star Spangled Banner. I covered Continued on Page 4 PAGE 4 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 The Daily News of the 60s and 70s and How I Got Myself Fired From It Continued from Page 3 to Mike O’Neill and John Quinn and I made the case that I had worked my parents and my sister, explaining hard to make the column interesting to what I had done, why I had done it and a broader audience and that for almost apologizing for all of it. two years no one had complained about I went to see my parents and my my approach. I thought that I had earned sister in Brooklyn and apologized for the right to continue to write on many my bizarre behavior. They were really subjects. He disagreed. No politics. No disappointed. And my sister had a few Vietnam. Period. questions: After all that time without an editor, I “Why the hell did you have to have started to think that I had some proprietary me in the car crash in Chicago? Why not right to the column as if it belonged to brother Joe in California or some dead me, not to the News. uncle. Why me?” I had no answer. I went to see Mike O’Neill and made I spoke to my Guild representative my case and asked him to intervene on Marty McLaughlin and he didn’t think my behalf. He said he couldn’t do that. I had much of a chance at survival. A Hagerty was the features editor and it was meeting was set up with Mike O’Neill. his call. He said I should work it out with One morning I was sitting in his office Hagerty. with him and a few other editorial I continued to mix politics into my PROOF THAT HE WAS IN WOODSTOCK Among the 400,000 or so at the administrators. who were saying that columns. Hagerty warned me to stop. 1969 festival was Jack Deacy, who covered the event for The Daily News. they could not remember an episode My young head had swelled. He killed quite like this. I made an effort to put my a few columns. Then I wrote a column few stories and I would join him there in So now the lie was making its way behavior into context. But it was pretty about Bella Abzug. It was to be my last. a few days. But on my way north I would back and forth across the Atlantic. weak tea. “Well, we’re really sorry about He called me into his office. “You’re stop and spend time with my uncle Pat A few days later my mother’s phone all this Jack,” said O’Neill. “Why the hell off the column,” he said. Phildy McGowan at my mother’s home rang again. “Hello, my name is John didn’t you come to us and say you needed I couldn’t believe it. I was shell- place in County Leitrim. Before heading Quinn from the Daily News and I work some time off instead of making up this shocked. Colleagues and friends told me up to his house on the mountain, I always with Jack Deacy. Is Mrs. Deacy there?” incredible story. But you’ve got to be to grin and bear it. Move on. stopped at the small shop and post office he asked. held accountable for this. So I’m afraid I was assigned to the city desk and run by Gertie Coyle. The office was “No, she’s not here,’’ my mother said. we’re going to have to let you go.” We all wrote short pieces, most of them rewrites the Times Square of the small hamlet ”I’m the housekeeper. All the Deacys are stood up and there were handshakes all of press releases. I was in purgatory. of Creevelea. It had the only phone in away”. around. I went to my desk and gathered Then I was assigned to special features the area and any messages or telegrams “Do you know if they’re in Chicago up a few things and left The Daily News with John Quinn, a good man and a good would come through Gertie. to see their daughter Theresa?” Quinn for the last time. At 27, my short happy editor. He said he wanted to put together a When I walked in, Gertie looked asked. career at the News was over. team to do a series on the draft. I agreed to disturbed. “You’re welcome back Jackie “ I don’t know where they are. They I was depressed and embarrassed. be part of it. But my head was elsewhere. but i’m afraid I have a telegram for you just went away. I don’t know where they What was I going to do now? Then I went a little crazy. with bad news about your sister.” My went.” The following week, my phone rang at It was the summer of 1970 and I knew heart sank. She handed me the telegram. After that call, my mother avoided home. It was Jimmy Breslin. that the Fleadh Cheoil, the traditional It read: “SISTER THERESA STILL IN the phone like the plague. Now she “So what’s going on? I heard about music festival of Ireland, would be held CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER CAR knew something was up with me and the what happened at the News. For Christ’s in Listowel, a small town in County ACCIDENT IN CHICAGO. I’LL KEEP News and that it was no coincidence that sake, you were one of the few people Kerry that I was familiar with. I traveled YOU INFORMED. DOUG IRELAND.” Quinn was inquiring if the family was in over there who could write an English to Ireland often since I spent summers “I’m very sorry Jackie about Theresa,’’ Chicago visiting their daughter Theresa. sentence. I talked to Clay Felker at New there as a boy. I had many friends there Gertie said. ”God help her, we hope she My mother wondered what I was up to. York Magazine about you. I think he can and had done some freelance work for comes out of this. We’ll pray for her Then something absolutely amazing use you. Call him right away.” the Dublin Evening Herald. I also wrote recovery. You’re uncle was here this happened. In an issue of the Irish Echo, All of a sudden, things were looking about the Northern Ireland troubles for afternoon and he’s in a terrible state.” an Irish-American weekly published in up. the News. I had to think of something quick. And New York City, there was a story about I talked to Felker that afternoon, then So I decided that I would go over for it certainly wouldn’t be the truth. the recent Fleadh Cheoil held in Ireland. met him for dinner at the Lion’s Head a the festival and my good friend, Dennis “Gertie, this telegram is not about our Several photos ran along with the story. few nights later. A week later I had a desk Duggan of Newsday, said he would go Theresa. It’s about Doug Ireland’s sister One of them included me and Duggan at New York, was listed on the masthead along for the adventure. I said to myself: Theresa in Chicago. I talked with him the dancing with a group in the streets and as a contributing editor and was on the To hell with the News. I’d make up some other day and he told me that she was in we were identified in the caption as New payroll. excuse and go off for two weeks. On an awful accident in Chicago. I told him York journalists. A secretary to an editor at Several weeks later my first piece the night we were flying out of JFK for to keep me informed. That’s what this the News was from Ireland. She was also appeared in the magazine - “When The Shannon, I went to a phone booth and telegram is about.” a regular reader of the Irish Echo. When Ax Fell On Mike Gahagan.” Ironically it called John Quinn at home. “Thanks be to God!” Gertie shouted, she saw my photo, she brought it into was about a middle-aged working class “John, I have some bad news,” I said. blessing herself. “Thanks be to God the office and shared it with a few staff Brooklyn family man who had just lost “My sister has been in an awful car Theresa’s OK. Thanks be to God.” members. She knew nothing of my sad his longtime job at the American Can accident in Chicago, her car was hit by My uncle was also delighted to hear Chicago tale but a few others who saw Company and how it affected him and an oil truck. She’s in bad shape and I’m the good news. But I knew the bad news it did. The Echo story eventually made his family.” flying out there tonight.” would have spread around the community its way to John Quinn and Mike O’Neill. It was the best piece I had ever written. John said he was sorry to hear the by now and would take some time to My Irish jig was up. I was back in the game again. news and hoped everything would work correct. On the plane ride back to New York, ————————————— out well and to keep him informed. Unknownst to me, the next day the I drafted long letters that I would send [email protected] My sister Theresa, of course, was phone rang in my mother’s house in alive and healthy and living in Brooklyn, Brooklyn. She answered it and it was where she worked as a nurse. In Ireland, from a friend who was also from my meanwhile, myself and Duggan were mother’s home place in County Leitrim. 2015-2016 MEETING SCHEDULE: having a fine time at the festival. The sun “Oh Mary, I was so sorry to hear about was shining, there was great Irish music Theresa and the awful car crash she was Thursday, Sept. 24, with Matt Winkler at National Arts Club (NAC) all over the town, plenty of drink, people in in Chicago,’’ the woman said. “How is Wednesday, Oct. 21, with Bill Keller at NAC dancing sets and half sets in the streets she and how are you and Martin doing?” with me and Duggan joining in. On my My mother was flabbergasted. “Where Tuesday, Nov. 17, Lifetime Achievement Award Dinner second day there, I called my friend in God’s name did you hear that? Wasn’t at NAC honoring Gay Talese Doug Ireland in New York. Doug had Theresa here this morning on her way to connections in Chicago. I told him my work. What crash in Chicago? Where did Wednesday, Dec. 16, with Mary Pflum at NAC situation and asked that he get someone you hear such a thing? in Chicago to send this telegram to Mike The woman explained that she had a Wednesday, Jan. 20, lunch at NAC O’Neill and John Quinn at the News: call from a relative in Creevelea. “They “SISTER STILL CRITICAL BUT told me that there was a telegram from Wednesday, Feb. 17, with Jane Bryant Quinn at NAC EXPECTED TO PULL THROUGH. someone sent to your son Jackie that said NEED TO STAY ON HERE. JACK Theresa was in critical condition after a Wednesday, March 16, lunch at NAC DEACY.” Doug said he would have it car crash in Chicago.” sent that day from Chicago. “Well that’s absolute nonsense,” my Wednesday, April 20, lunch at NAC So now the lie was taking on a larger mother said. “Jackie getting a telegram Wednesday, May 18, Awards Dinner at The Players life of its own. Duggan and I spent a few in Ireland that Theresa was in a car crash more days at the festival and then parted in Chicago. She’s never been to Chicago. Wednesday, June 15, lunch at NAC ways. He was headed to Belfast to do a Somebody must be playing a sick joke.’’ NOVEMBER 2015 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 5 A Critic’s Choice: Baseball and Broadway BY LEIDA SNOW we were desperate, catching glimpses in emorable theater comes in var- shop windows, not knowing what was ious shapes and sizes, from happening, asking people who came on Moutsize performances to mirac- at various stops if they knew the latest. ulous productions. In the thirteen years A stretch limo was in front of the I was Theater Critic for WINS-AM — Nederlander Theater on West 41st 1979-1992 — two such evenings live in Street. The driver was mobbed and had memory because of — baseball. finally opened the car door so more peo- Memory isn’t always dependable, and ple could hear. The show’s prospective I’m no baseball fanatic, so if I’ve gotten audience was camped around it, all of us any of this wrong, I hope the experts will following this incredible game. forgive me. Finally, we were corralled inside. As you may know, the first night crit- “Raggedy Ann” would closed Oct. ics generally don’t go to opening nights 19th, after 15 previews and 5 regular anymore — there are “critics’ previews” performances. I had been looking for- instead. “Raggedy Ann” opened on Oct. ward to seeing it, as the music and lyrics 16,1986. I saw the show the evening be- were by Joe Raposo, of Sesame Street fore, which happened to be the night of and Muppets films fame, and the book Game 6 of the National League Champi- was by William Gibson, who had writ- onship Series between our Mets and the ten “The Miracle Worker” and “Two For Houston Astros. the Seesaw.” It turned out to be a chaotic It was top of the 9th as I was getting mess of a musical about child abandon- ready to leave for the theater. Houston ment, alcoholism, and death. My review had taken a 3-0 lead in the first inning, On the way to the bus I noticed that a teenager had a transistor radio. There said it was obviously not a show for but both teams had been scoreless since. there were crowds in front of some stores were no private conversations. Everyone kids, and, unfortunately, also not one for Then Lenny Dykstra tripled, and I was where televisions had been turned to the listened as the game went to 10 innings. adults. hooked. sidewalk and were tuned to the game. We were as one, with much back-and- Lou and I figured the game had end- I had thought I’d wait for the end of Astros’ pitcher Bob Knepper had forth discussion, and “bets” as to wheth- ed, and after the unfortunate show, we the game, since my Mets-addicted hus- been dominant, and there were no runs er “the Muts” could really pull off a mir- started to walk home. band was at a meeting, and I knew the through the first eight innings. But after acle. It was a warm — but not hot — night, final score would be important to him. I Dykstra tripled against Knepper, Mook- Then the youngster tried to get off the and once we got to the residential areas, planned to surprise Lou with details of ie Wilson singled him in, and then with bus. windows were open all the way. Incred- the last inning. one out, Keith Hernandez doubled to “You can’t get off now,” yelled one ibly the game was still on. We followed Only it turned out not to be the last in- score Wilson. That ended Knepper’s man. the action as we walked. All of Manhat- ning because by its end, the score would night. His reliever, Dave Smith, walked “I’ll give you 20 bucks for the radio,” tan seemed to be watching or listening. be tied. two men to load the bases, and Ray said another. We could feel the earth shaking as the Little did I know that I was watching Knight hit a sacrifice fly to right to score “Stay on. Stay on!” came from all excitement kept growing. And then the what became one of the most famous Hernandez and tie the game. The inning over. voices filling the night air: WE WILL games in baseball history. ended with the bases loaded. The teenager was finally able to make WE WILL ROCK YOU. WE WILL WE I waited as long as I could. On the Broadway 104 bus downtown, his escape through the crowd. On the bus Continued on Page 8

New Members Larry Armour, in the business since the 1960s, was a writer for Barron’s, where he helped pioneer the magazine’s Q&A format in interviews with such as George Soros. Allan Greenspan and Bernie Cornfeld as well as writing The Trader column. He was later a senior corporate PR exec- My Cousin Roy Cohn utive before returning to journalism at Fortune magazine, handling assignments that included writing one-on-one interviews with Wall Street managers and analysts. He is Continued from Page 1 of Champagne in it. A few tables away I always knew best, tore up the paper now a freelance writer and editor. his parents, who thought he might grow see Roy Cohn sitting with David Schine, containing his request and on his death Stan Bernard was a reporter and anchor at 1010 WINS from up to be the first Jewish president of the the older brother who looks like a Greek buried him in the Marcus family mau- 1963 to 1974. From there, he went to NBC News as a corre- spondent and from 1974 to 2002, he reported from Europe, United States. God and compared with his younger soleum, where he would wait for her to the Middle East, the Vatican and Washington, D.C. Since 2009, My earliest memories of him are of a brother like God himself. Roy waves. He join him for all eternity. he’s been doing voiceovers and broadcasts for Thirteen WNET. brusque and unfriendly adult who ate all is the source of the Champagne bounty. Roy went on giving parties for Barba- Judith Dunford is a freelance writer and book reviewer ra Walters and any other celebrity who whose work over the course of several decades has appeared the chopped chicken liver on the table, My curly hair is flying about as it always in many publications, from newspapers such as The New York leaving none behind for anyone else. Li- did when I played basketball. I have a would come and he never invited me Times, New York Newsday, The Chicago Tribune and The onel Trains was his client and my brother lipstick in my school bag but I can’t find and I never would have gone. He hung Jewish Daily Forward to magazines that include The New had a grand set of them; I watched them it without spilling my Latin books across around politicians and men of wealth Republic, Tikkun, American Scholar and American Heritage. Joan Gelman is a veteran TV producer and writer as well as go round and round a track that crossed the table. and made a large living from very a freelance writer and author. Since the mid-1970s, she’s and crisscrossed the room. The boy is miserable. I am misera- nasty divorces, the sort where husband been associated with ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS, and is now and wife fought over possession of the the owner of Soundbite Productions, writing, developing Time passed and I was in high school, ble. He invites me to come up to Harvard and marketing talk shows for network, cable and syndi- on the girls basketball team, and my for a weekend. gold faucets in the guest bathroom. He cation markets. She’s also written for such magazines as mother got a phone call from Roy’s of- Everyone tries to make me go. I won’t. also had another life. In the midst of the New York, Newsweek, Vogue, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, fice in Washington D.C. where he was I am told that Al Cohn is not happy epidemic he contracted AIDS. McCall’s and Woman’s Day. Ann Marsh, a journalist since 1994, is a senior editor and working for Senator Joe McCarthy. His with his son or his political actions. I am This was not due to his brutal charac- West Coast bureau chief of Source Media, a diversified good friend G. David Schine, with whom not happy with Roy Cohn either and a few ter. It was not revenge for all the writers business-to-business digital media company. She joined and directors and other people his Com- Source in 2011 after writing a personal finance column he had just travelled across Europe, years later I send him a telegram telling at The Los Angeles Times from 2006 to 2011. She was accusing various army people with sub- him what I think. He tells my father, who mie slurs destroyed. It was just disease a staff writer for Forbes magazine from 1994 to 2003. version, had a younger brother who was was receiving some law work from Roy, working its impartial way across our Andy Soltis began working for The New York Post in 1967 a freshman at Harvard and was having that the stream would dry up if he ever landscape. But there was another thing while a student at CCNY. He retired last year. He has been a reporter and an assistant city editor, but is best known for his trouble getting a date, and would I come heard from me again. Please, said my that happened. In his last days in a hos- weekly chess column, which he started in 1972. Mr. Soltis is and meet him after school and possibly mother. I got my Sarah Lawrence friends pital in Washington D.C. he had young a Grandmaster who was once ranked as the 74th best chess boys brought to his bedside for his final player in the world and is a member of the U.S. Chess Hall of go spend a weekend in Cambridge with to also send telegrams of protest. Fame. He is also the author or co-author of more than 100 him. And then Joseph Welch asked his sexual pleasures. In so doing he likely books and monographs about the game. I am given an address and told to ap- question of Joe McCarthy— have you killed them. One of his biographers, Marcy Soltis was with The Post for 37 years before retiring pear there at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I no sense of decency? — and America’s not the hagiographer, but the other one, last year. She started as a copy girl and for many years was a copy editor and feature writer. Prior to joining The Post, am wearing my school uniform, blue pin- nightmare soon ended. David Schine makes a convincing case that this was so. she wrote freelance pieces for The Associated Press. She afore and baggy bloomers underneath. I married someone and then returned to This summer a beloved cousin of mine has covered major chess events (the 1997 match between died and was buried in his family Mauso- Kasparov vs. IBM’s “Deep Blue,” for example), and is herself arrive from basketball practice. I am very the hotel business and had six children. a tournament-tested player. serious about basketball. I am sweaty and From google I learn that the little Schine leum out in Queens and I stood there as Steve Stoneburn is the chairman and chief executive officer smudged. I walk in to the Stork Club, was in the business for a while and mar- far away as I could from the place where of Frontline Medical Communications, a multimedia company which is mostly empty at that hour and ried and divorced and spent years living Roy rested for all eternity. He should have whose 25 publications and 124 monthly digital newsletters reach more than a million readers in the healthcare industry. am directed to a table where a plump, with his mother. been buried in Potters Field. He should From 1970 to 1989, he was with Fairchild Publications, shy, acne covered, unhappy boy with Then Al Cohn became very ill and not be anywhere near people who really where he became a senior vice president. thick glasses waits. His name is Richard he wanted to be buried with his father loved this country for all it gave to them Scott Wenger is group editorial director at Source Media, a di- Schine, C. Richard Schine. He is as un- and mother in the cemetery in a distant and their children. But there rest Al and versified business-to-business digital media company. He joined Source in 2011. Prior to that, he was managing editor/money sure as I am of what to do next. A waiter unfashionable borough, and he put his Dora and Roy, an American story with and business at The Daily News of New York from 1998 to brings over a silver bucket with a bottle wish in writing. But his wife Dora, who an ending, if not exactly a happy ending. 2011, and a senior producer at CNN from 1995 to 1998. PAGE 6 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 Success, John B. Fairchild: The B Stands for Burr BY MORT SHEINMAN In the spring of 1972, President Rich- The Quiet Way ard M. Nixon went to Moscow for a summit meeting with Soviet leaders. Two BY MICKEY CARROLL Women’s Wear Daily journalists were Dave Laventhol was the most improb- also there: Kandy Stroud of our Washing- able of geniuses. ton bureau, and photographer Reginald He was beyond unassuming, he ap- Gray of our Paris bureau. As WWD’s peared to be almost anonymous. When managing editor, I had asked Kandy to he slouched into the New York Herald stay away from the other reporters and go Tribune, the best newspaper in the city, her own way. No one was reading WWD the rest of us — I was a reporter — for details of the negotiations between the couldn’t quite figure him out. He seemed president and the Politburo. Our mission amiable, but not anything special, and was to dig up stories our readers weren’t when he was made the metro editor, Don likely to find elsewhere. Every day, Kan- Forst and I began a sort of silent protest. dy would call me from her hotel room to Don and I thought that Don should discuss the coverage. During one of those have been named metro editor and we calls, a figure suddenly materialized at my snubbed Dave. Don would give me as- desk: our boss, John B. Fairchild. Courtesy of WWD signments and I’d do them and we acted “Are you talking to Kandy?” he blurt- John Fairchild as if Dave wasn’t there. So he politely let ed out. I nodded. us do our little act and simply blended us “Oh, good,” he said. “Ask her to find the pertinent details by chatting up the into his team and years later hired Don to Dave Laventhol in 1993. out where the rich Russians have their seamstresses who toiled in the work- be his editor at New York Newsday and dachas — you know, their summer homes rooms and knew the precise location of me to be a reporter. the air of a guy sort of shambling around — and tell her to take Reggie and go out every stitch. From the Trib, he moved up through the newsroom. His technique was to and photograph them. Tell her I only want The French called him an enfant ter- a series of new jobs — in each one, with apologetically offer an idea that the chic dachas.” rible — as well as other, more colorful his apologetic manner and his shirt tails recipient would accept, act on and get Not just any old dachas, mind you. names — because he constantly fought hanging out, there was somehow the as- credit for. I remember hurrying back Chic dachas. With the cold war still in the against their rules of coverage. It seems sumption that this one would finally turn into the Trib city room with a lead al- fridge if not the freezer, with Vietnam still ludicrous in today’s digital world, when out to be too much for him. And in each ready fashioned in my head and Dave, bloody, with Nixon on the cusp of signif- news events appear on everyone’s mobile one, unobtrusively, always with his shirt then the metro editor, asking, “Uh, were icant talks about arms control, Fairchild’s screens even as they unfold, but in the tails hanging out, he’d be a spectacular you going to do ....” something or other gaze was on Soviet society. He regarded 1950s, the fashion press meekly bowed to success. different. And, what he said was so right the oligarchs and their way of life with the dictates of French authorities by wait- The only reason his crowning achieve- that I did it his way, and then everybody the same blithe spirit as if they were ing a month before publishing sketches ment, New York Newsday, didn’t work, said, “Hey, nice story.” homeowners in the Hamptons. He was of new collections. Fairchild didn’t want was that he got sick. If he hadn’t devel- When Don Forst offered to hire me at oblivious, of course, to the constraints on to wait a minute. oped the Parkinson’s disease that was New York Newsday, I suggested the new his journalists, who were not exactly free “The ruling was ridiculous because responsible for his death in April, New paper would last about six months and to wander through the Russian country- more than a thousand different profes- York Newsday would still be there. When Don said, “Let me get Dave” and Dave side. Still, there was a potential story there sionals — buyers and press — had seen the Los Angeles Times management mur- came in and said there was a carefully and if Kandy and Reg had had enough the clothes,” he once wrote. “Fashion is dered it in 1995, it was the best paper in thought out plan that didn’t depend on one time, I believe they would have gotten news when it happens. That day, not a New York and, if what we on the staff of the other papers failing and he was, of it. The point is that Fairchild thought of month after.” heard was true, was only depicted as los- course, right. asking for it. He assumed command of WWD ing money because of the incompetence He hadn’t calculated on the timidity John B. Fairchild died at the age of 87 during the paper’s golden anniversary of its then management, personified by and stupidity of the other L.A. Times last February after transforming WWD celebration. It had been a daily since its assassin, a former breakfast foods ex- executives and on getting sick, so that the from a trusted but tedious trade paper 1910 and everyone was caught up in an ecutive known, of course, as “the cereal paper’s future would be up to them. And into a quirky, provocative must-read for atmosphere of self-congratulatory bliss. killer”. on what we on the staff understood was anyone who wanted to be au courant not Then he held his first staff meeting and The obituaries traced Dave’s rise. a creative accounting system that made only with fashion but with whatever was wasted no time in marking his turf. For 50 He devised the Washington Post’s style New York look like a loser and Long new about the culture. He was my boss years, he said, the paper had been guilty section, then Long Island Newsday’s Island a winner (the business and sports for almost 40 years. Working for him of the worst sin he could imagine. It was feature section, then became the Long staff expenses were all said to be charged was infuriating, exciting, frustrating, un- boring. Boring, boring, booooorrrrrring. Island paper’s publisher, broadened its against New York). predictable, exhausting, and, more often “Fashion is fun and fashion designers news coverage to world-class and its So the cereal killer came in one Friday than not, fun. What it wasn’t was boring. are all crazy,” he insisted, backing up territorial dominance into Queens, moved and New York Newsday published its last Fairchild’s middle name was Burr and his claim with some bizarre anecdotes up — after the Los Angeles Times bought edition the next Sunday and the crown it was apt. If he wasn’t exactly the wind concerning the sexual antics of certain it — into the top L.A. Times management of Dave’s career was labeled a flop. Not beneath our wings, he was most definitely Paris couturiers. “The paper should be and, finally, launched New York News- an accurate judgment. Everything Dave the burr beneath our butts. fun. It should be amusing. It should not be day, famously described as “a tabloid in touched was a spectacular success. And, We both arrived at the Greenwich boring. It should be controversial because a tutu”, which Don Forst edited into a to those who saw him in action, even Village headquarters of WWD in 1960, fashion is controversial.” first-ever amalgam, a nervy New York more spectacular because — an unassum- although by somewhat different routes. He snatched up that morning’s WWD City tabloid with a grounding in serious, ing guy who was also an exceptionally I’d been hired as a market reporter for and waved it wildly above his head, solid news coverage. The nearest anyone nice guy — he managed to convince the princely sum of $125 a week. A few saying, “I want people to come into their had ever come to that was when another everyone that he didn’t have that much months later, John — the true Prince — offices in the morning and pick up the very savvy newsman, Roger Wood, ran to do with the success. It just happened. was summoned from his post as Paris paper and become so furious with what The New York Post. A very ordinary-looking sort of guy. A bureau chief and handed the reins of they see that they just crumple it up and And, all the while, Dave maintained newspaper genius. the business, then family owned, by throw it out the window!” his father, Louis W. Fairchild. L.W., a At that moment, I knew we were no distinguished looking fellow who wore longer in his father’s newsroom. It was homburgs in winter and straw boaters in the start of a rollercoaster ride that carried Remembering Milt Hoffman summer and who sometimes sent flowers the paper to new highs in circulation, For me, fellow Silurian Milton S. Goetz, to work at the Westchester County to the wives of senior reporters observing that spawned a fashion magazine called Hoffman always held a special place. Publishers — a precursor of The Journal special anniversaries, was then approach- W without hiring a single extra writer or He was hired in 1947 by my dad, Ted News— and he stayed at that newspaper ing the company’s mandatory retirement editor, and that became more talked-about chain for 50 years, long enough to be- age of 65 and was adored by the staff. and influential than any newspaper with a come known as the dean of Westchester When John took over, he was 33 and tiny circulation (about 75,000) had a right journalism. And long enough for him ready to rumble. He could be as petulant to be. John opened the news columns to to have gained numerous honors from and demanding as any rich man’s son, but all kind of stories that were not directly his peers, including our Peter Kihss his desk was out on the newsroom floor, related to the fashion industry. We profiled Award in 2001. He retired the follow- not behind a closed door, and he rode journalists, novelists, historians, artists, ing year, after having been a reporter, the subway to work when he lived in the entertainers, economists, politicians, and metro editor, editorial page editor and city, and he was no dilettante. At heart, he anyone else who might have something columnist. Milt passed away in April at was a newspaperman and what he wanted provocative to say — but only if we had the age of 86. most was to be first with the story. it first. Authors or actors on promotional Just as my Dad had mentored Milt, When he was a reporter in Paris tours were not welcome unless we were Milt mentored young reporters, who during the 1950s and an internationally the first stop on their itineraries. WWD became known around the newsroom as renowned fashion designer like Chris- had long employed a theater critic because “Milt’s kids.” Milt was an exemplary tian Dior or Cristobal Balenciaga would garment manufacturers routinely used 2001: Linda Goetz Holmes, Silurian, and I will miss him. reveal nothing to him in advance of an to take visiting buyers to Broadway Milt Hoffman — Linda Goetz Holmes upcoming collection, he could ferret out Continued on Page 7 NOVEMBER 2015 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 7 On the Rocky Road With a Sportswriter

BY GERALD ESKENAZI So I did. We sat next to each other at es, I understand the image takeoff. When we were a few hundred that readers—even fellow feet off the ground, I started to ask him Yjournalists—have of a question. sportswriters: We’re sitting in a press box, “Ssh,” he said. He cocked his head, protected from the elements, writing our listening for something. Then he said to stories. Oh yes, and we also get to talk to the pilot, “I thought we had that fixed.” naked athletes in locker rooms. Scared witless, I started listening to the All true. But that’s only part of the engine noise myself. Turns out the type-A story. For over the years, all of us have Penske would have nothing less than had to improvise in getting that story— perfection (the night before the 500 race, and it hasn’t always been handed to us. his car was dismantled to the smallest In fact, I’ve been in all sorts of moving screw, each one wiped clean). objects interviewing subjects. And Craig Breedlove was the world’s sometimes, funny things happen when fastest human, on the ground. His car you’re traveling with famous people. had just set the land-speed record at the Case in point: the bus. A group of Bonneville Salt Flats. And he was coming journalists was leaving Midtown New to New York. I got hold of his Goodyear York one winter’s day for a trip to tire sponsors, and said, “It would be a Kutsher’s Country Club, the Catskills great idea for me to go driving around resort where George Chuvalo was training Manhattan with Craig. What do you to fight Floyd Patterson in a heavyweight think?” fight. As I walked up the steps, I suddenly They agreed. I rented a car and met him squinted. For there in the driver’s seat was at his hotel. “You drive,” I said. He had Muhammad Ali—yes, that Muhammad never driven in Manhattan. We got to a Ali. He was going to drive us all there. red light. He stopped—and then made a Ali was going to do the TV commentary right turn. Pedestrians yelled at him and on the bout, so the promoters figured cars honked. they’d also have him plug the fight. “What are they upset about?” he asked. Turns out that Ali also owned his own “You can’t turn on red in New York red-and-white bus, so he knew how to City,” I said. Ron Blomberg drive the press bus. It was uneventful until We drove for a few blocks and I was we got to within half a mile of the hotel. about as comfortable with him as I would eyesight,” he explained. Then he said, although the important Jewish holiday There was snow on the ground and heaped have been with a learner-driver. Finally, “Watch this. I’m going to brake hard of rosh hashanah would be starting that in piles on the side of the road. Suddenly, we got back to the hotel. He had to back when we come to a stop. You’ll feel all night. I would have plenty of time to see Ali drove too close to the side — the bus in to park. He hit the car behind him. At those g-forces!” Wow. Did I. I wrote the game, write it, and still get back for suddenly tilted, hitting a snowbank, and least we were traveling something less about him in the next day’s paper. evening services. Lo and behold, the game turned over. We were tossed around but than 300 miles an hour. That afternoon, he saw me in the pit was tied in the ninth inning and I started to no one was injured. Because the bus was But I also interviewed the first man to area. kvetch. How could I have done something on its right side, we all scrambled out break the sound barrier—on the ground. “Hey, come over,” he shouted. “I want so stupid? through an emergency window. Chuck Yeager was going to drive the to introduce you to my friend.” Which he I didn’t count on Blomberg, a Jew from Ali was walking away from the bus Indy 500 pace car. What a great idea for did, telling his friend, “This is the guy who Georgia. He got up in the bottom of the when I asked him, “Do you have a a story—an American hero of the air, wrote about me in The New York Times.” ninth with a runner on, and drove him license?” down to earth (Tom Wolfe was to make I realized at that moment that even icons home for the winning run. I was grateful He looked sheepish. “Suspended,” he him even more famous with his book love to read nice things about themselves. to Blomberg as I spoke to him in the locker replied. “The Right Stuff,” which was made into The Long Island Rail Road had a room. He confided to me that if the game Some time later I was going to the a movie). And I would be sitting beside promotion involving the Yankees. The had gone into extra innings, “I would have Indianapolis 500, and wanted to interview him. railroad wanted to show suburbanites how left to go to temple.” Roger Penske, the truck-rental mogul We arranged to go for a drive around easy it was to get into the city and go on to I thought about that as I spoke to who owned the pre-race favorite car. The the track a few days before the race. Yankee Stadium from there. So they sent Blomberg on the train. After a few best place to get him for an extended talk, He was like a kid behind the wheel. He Ron Blomberg, the outfielder, as part of minutes, someone came by with a tray his p.r. man told me, was on the flight gunned the car and hit the first turn at a p.r. tour. of sandwiches. “Oh, my favorite,” said to Indy. “Roger’s leaving in his private more than 100 miles an hour. Then he The last time I had seen him was at Blomberg as he snatched one. plane from Teterboro Airport,” I was told. pointed to a tiny sign and said, “See that?” Yankee Stadium. I had made the mistake It was a ham sandwich. Thank you, “Why don’t you go with him?” I couldn’t really. “I’ve got exceptional of offering to cover an afternoon game Ron.

John B. Fairchild: The B Stands for Burr Society of the Silurians Officers 2015-2016

Continued from Page 6 President Committee Chairpersons It had to go, but Fire Department regula- BETSY ASHTON shows, but under John, we reviewed tions required such a sign. John brooded Awards First Vice-President RALPH BLUMENTHAL everything: movies, music, books, art, for a few days, then quietly asked, “Does BERNARD KIRSCH MICHAEL SERRILL restaurants, anything else we thought the sign have to be in English?” Treasurer Website was worth writing about. We wrote trav- And yes, he could be petty. His feuds KAREN BEDROSIAN BEN PATRUSKY el pieces. We never stopped covering with designers were well chronicled, RICHARDSON MORT SHEINMAN Secretary Social Media the business, of course. That was our but they were rarely on a personal basis. LINDA AMSTER BILL DIEHL mandate, but we broadened our horizons If someone dissed the paper or one of BARBARA LOVENHEIM Board of Governors Dinner because, as John said, everything that was our reporters, that person risked being DAVID A. ANDELMAN WENDY SCLIGHT happening in the culture influenced the cut from coverage. If John went to a RALPH BLUMENTHAL Advisory way people dressed. particular store and couldn’t find exactly JACK DEACY ALLAN DODDS FRANK His thinking was sometimes eccentric, what he was seeking, a series of snarky BILL DIEHL Webmaster often original. When he came home after items about that store might follow. And, GERALD ESKENAZI FRED HERZOG his first trip to Asia, for example, he was TONY GUIDA Legal as the paper’s influence expanded into LINDA GOETZ HOLMES KEN FISHER besotted by Japanese style. Almost imme- areas beyond the fashion industry, he MYRON KANDEL Membership diately, the floor of his conference room could inspire fear in unexpected places. CAROL LAWSON MORT SHEINMAN was covered by tatami mats, the windows I was invited to lunch once in a lovely BARBARA LOVENHEIM Nominating and lamps by bamboo shades, and a sho- Italian restaurant on the East Side when BEN PATRUSKY BEN PATRUSKY ANNE ROIPHE Silurian Contingency Fund Trustees ji screen was put in place. Something, the maitre d’ popped by to ask if all was WENDY SCLIGHT LARRY FRIEDMAN, CHAIR however, was not quite right. There was a well. When I was introduced to him as an MORT SHEINMAN NAT BRANDT door on the room’s back wall leading to a editor at Women’s Wear Daily, the poor Governors Emeriti JOY COOK stairwell. Above it was a bright white sign man suddenly looked stricken. GARY PAUL GATES MARK LIEBERMAN with red letters saying EXIT. To John’s “Women’s Wear Daily . . . John Fair- HERBERT HADAD MARTIN J. STEADMAN ROBERT McFADDEN Silurian News eye, it was distasteful. It ruined the tran- child . . . Dio mio,” he murmured. LEO MEINDL BERNARD KIRSCH, EDITOR quility and cohesiveness of the setting. Then he bit his lip and crossed himself. PAGE 8 SILURIAN NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 At the Birth 1,000 Foods Of Bloomberg And Still News It began with a simple question in 1990 Counting from a financial analyst named Michael Bloomberg, who was making an impact Mimi Sheraton once spoke at a Siluri- by providing instant data: ans’ lunch—and promptly criticized the “What would it take to get into the service. news business?” She had no such complaints, but plen- And that was the beginning of Matthew ty of terrific stories, in her June talk to Winkler’s foray as the founding editor of Sept. 24 Matt Winkler of the group at the Players Club. Bloomberg News, he told the Silurians at Bloomberg Ms. Sheraton has added to her six-de- its fall kickoff lunch in September. cade résumé—that includes her iconic Mimi Sheraton For Winkler, now 60, it turned into a dia-business world more inclusive—“how eight-year stint as the restaurant critic soy sauce.” 25-year run. He had been a Wall Street to take our profession, which is still most- of The New York Times—by publishing “You just ate my napkin,” he said. Journal columnist who had gotten to ly white”—to a more encompassing base. “1,000 Foods to Eat Before You Die: A Because of her fame - some in the know the innovative Bloomberg. Winkler In response to a question about whether Food Lover’s Life List.” restaurant business might have called helped begin Bloomberg News to provide retirees’ funds are safe, he noted that there It has been a daunting task, she admit- it her notoriety - she often had to wear financial bulletins, and then it expanded were a record number of freight arrivals ted, taking 10 years. a disguise when reviewing. She has a to include a wire service, a global televi- at the country’s major ports, indicating “The first time I sat down to write collection of wigs and glasses. She also sion network, a radio station, and more. purchasing power, and he also liked the it, I came up with 1,800 items,” she ex- said she never went to a party if she knew It is a worldwide financial media player. economic policies of Janet Yellen, head plained. And even after she pared it down there would be a chef or restaurant owner These days, Winkler works closely of the Federal Reserve System. to a measly 1,000 (including spices and there. And she had other people always with Bloomberg, who has resumed his “Things are looking pretty good,” he veggies), she then had to cite where to get make reservations, and never paid by leadership of the company after taking said. these often obscure things to eat. That credit card to keep her identity a secret. time off to be the Mayor of New York The journalist in him still was appar- included, for example, cherry jam from Her rollicking career included tak- City. Winkler would not comment on the ent, though, when he reflected on one of Moldavia. (Go to Amazon.) ing Colonel Sanders to lunch at a possibility of Bloomberg making a run the televised debates for the Republican Along the road to eating all those meals fried-chicken restaurant. She once ate for the Presidency, but he did say that his candidates: all over the world—including, of course, bull’s testicles, but eschewed eating mon- boss “is constantly learning. He loves to “I came into the office the next morn- marmite, a spread made from yeast, in key brains. learn new things. He’s a man of the world ing, and I thought it was awful. So many Australia—she had some bumps. There She conceded that there are foods she and he knows all the important people in things were said that weren’t true—and was the time she was eating in a Japanese doesn’t like but had to order. the world.” journalists didn’t say what was true and restaurant in New York, took something “I’d be in big trouble now,” she said. As for his own future, Winkler sug- not true.” out of a dish, and complained to her hus- “I hate kale.” gested he will be trying to make the me- — Gerald Eskenazi band, Richard: “This tastes like paper in — Gerald Eskenazi A Night to Honor the Best of the Best The best journalism turned out in New York’s greater metropolitan area in 2014 was honored by the Silurians when reporters, editors, producers, columnists, editorial writers, photographers and bloggers from 24 news organizations were salut- ed at this year’s annual Excellence in Journalism Awards Dinner. The dinner, held on May 19 at the Players and hosted by outgoing president Allan Dodds Frank, drew what is believed to be a record crowd for such an event, pulling in 166 members and guests, according to dinner chair Wendy Sclight. There were 114 submissions from which the winners were selected, said Frank. Carol Lawson chaired the Silurians’ Awards Committee. Veteran newsman David Gonzalez of The New York Times took home the Silurians’ Peter Kihss Award, and the Dennis Duggan Memorial Scholarship Award, which goes to a promising student at the Graduate School of Journalism at David Gonzalez, this year’s Peter Kihss CUNY, was presented to Cole Rosengren of the Award winner, with his wife, Elena Cabral, Class of 2015. at the awards ceremony. Members of Bloomberg News with their awards.

“Dangerous Games,” having been serendipitously titled to coincide with A Critic’s Choice: Baseball and Broadway a baseball game and earthquake, closed Continued from Page 5 denly he turned around. His eyes were reaching the San Francisco Bay Area and after 12 previews and 4 performances. WILL ROCK YOU. wide. Oakland. It was conceived, choreographed, and As baseball fans know, this once-in- “I’ve been listening to the World Se- Because of the World Series coverage directed by Graciela Daniele, and my a-lifetime game went to 16 innings with ries in San Francisco,” he said. it was the first major U.S. earthquake review was unsparing. I nailed it as two the Mets triumphant at the Astrodome, I wasn’t sure how to react. I knew broadcast live on national radio and tele- dance dramas, the first showing many defeating Houston 7-6, and New York game 3 of the series, between Oakland vision. Experts say loss of life was light flashing thighs, macho men, violence, advancing to its third World Series in its and the Giants, was scheduled. Since no because so many thousands were already and rape through faux tango. The second history, this time against the Boston Red New York teams were involved, I wasn’t at Candlestick Park or in homes or bars was a Fascist ballet with choreographed Sox. The Mets took the series in a wild that interested. to watch the game, and they weren’t on torture scenes. seventh game, 4 games to 3. “Thanks for sharing” didn’t seem an the bridges and freeways that collapsed in I am not making this up. The other theater evening made mem- appropriate response as the lights were the quake. I concluded that “Dangerous Games” orable by baseball was called “Danger- dimming in the theater. My critic colleague didn’t take off his came close to being soft core pornogra- ous Games,” and I saw it two days be- “There’s been an earthquake,” he said. headphones, but I could hardly blame phy. fore it’s official Oct. 19, 1989 opening, There’s always an earthquake some- him since the show was painfully medio- also at the Nederlander. The curtain where in California, I thought. cre. I thought the game had continued af- started to go up at 8:04 p.m., and I no- Only this turned out to be one with a ter what was probably some minor event. Society of the Silurians ticed that, seated in front of me, one of magnitude of 6.9 that killed 63 people It was only later that I learned how dev- PO Box 1195 my critic colleagues had not removed and caused close to 4,000 injuries. The astating the quake had been. Madison Square Station his headphones. “How unprofessional,” Loma Prieta earthquake happened min- The game was postponed, and the se- New York, NY 10159 I thought. utes before the start of the game, causing ries resumed 10 days later. The A’s swept 212.532.0887 He had no guest with him, and sud- extensive damage in Northern California, the Giants in four straight. www.silurians.org