Society of the Silurians EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARDS BANQUET The Players Club Wednesday, May 18, 2016 Drinks: 6 P.M. Dinner: 7:15 P.M. Meet old friends and award winners Published by The Society of The Silurians, Inc., an organization (212) 532-0887 of veteran New York City journalists founded in 1924 Members and One Guest $100 each Non-Members $120 MARCH 2016 Donald Trump: Press Siren BY ALLAN DODDS FRANK Avenue — was cordial and only a little overing Donald Trump has combative. But even then, it was obvious always been a challenge. his relentless self-promotion generated C The one aspect of his behavior waves of overstatements, exaggerations that constantly tests reporters is that his and misrepresentations. Fact-checking credibility is always suspect. There is him clearly was going to be a nightmare. never a guarantee that anything he says As an owner of the New Jersey or asserts can be taken as absolutely true. Generals, Trump had flashily signed Being completely truthful is not and has some big stars, including running back apparently never been part of Trump’s Herschel Walker, who lent the new modus operandi. U.S.F.L. enough appeal to garner a $15 Thinking about the thousands of million contract from ESPN to broadcast people I have interviewed during my football in the spring. four decades as a newspaper, magazine Some U.S.F.L. owners thought the and television reporter, I am hard- league –- by creating a bidding war — pressed to think of anybody like him. could stockpile enough talent to force I have been following Trump and the N.F.L. to create two or more new his business adventures since I first always relished publicity. And he with a rich father and a burning desire franchises in exchange for collapsing the interviewed him 32 years ago for a story knew that if an investigative reporter to be more than a regional celebrity. U.S.F.L. and absorbing its star players. in Forbes. was sniffing around, the best way to His first big national play was his grand That deal -– split among the U.S.F.L. His media savvy was apparent to all understand the challenge and control the plan to drive the U.S. Football League owners –- would have generated huge even then, long before he polished his damage was to call the journalist back to greatness and take a bite out of the profits or even better: stakes in N.F.L. close-ups for 14 years as a television right away. National Football League. franchises that might now be worth game-show host. Unlike other executives In 1984, he was a hyper-ambitious My first interview with him – in more than $1 billion each. who were terrified by reporters, Trump young developer active in local politics his office at the Trump Tower on Fifth Continued on Page 4 From the Southeast Corner BY BETSY WADE challenge Europe to war or peace and uys who insist on the last word left the world breathless for the moment, usually pound on desks or the new German army crossed the Gslam doors. Nothing like that military frontier, which hitherto had fits Theodore Bernstein. But at The New separated it from France, and occupied York Times between 1948 and 1969, the demilitarized Rhineland zone created the last word was his. He stood over in the Versailles treaty and reaffirmed at the composing room stone and told the Locarno. makeup when to let page 1 go. Of many To see what you could find 22 years final words, that was the last indeed. later on page 1, here is the lede of a It was said that printers all recognized police report by Alexander Feinberg on his writing and when a correction in that Aug. 11, 1958: script went to the copy cutter, the page Thieves broke into two display would not lock up without the new slug. windows at Tiffany’s, on Fifth Avenue at In this period, when Bernstein Fifty- seventh Street, early yesterday and was news editor and then top-ranked lifted out jewels valued at $163,300. assistant managing editor, he goaded, Their timing was as perfect as goosed and dragged the newspaper, the exquisite diamonds they stole. paragraph by paragraph into the 20th A patrolman who normally is in the century. His boss and ally, the managing neighborhood from midnight to 8 A.M. editor Turner Catledge, a Southerner, was relieved at 5:45 A.M. He was sent put it more gently, saying that Bernstein to reinforce a guard detail for Soviet sought to bring “a new element of daring Foreign Minister Andrei A. Gromyko on to editing the paper.” his arrival in New York. To understand “daring,” you should I met Bernstein in 1956, when I joined know that one of Bernstein’s precepts the Times. He was in his early fifties, was “one idea to a sentence.” Pretty probably at the height of his power, and Jeff Roth/The New York Times radical, eh? I was 27. I had passed all employment Ted Bernstein at his desk, with a map of the world as his backdrop. But peek at what Bernstein was hurdles, and it was my final vetting. struggling against. It was brief. They pointed me into the “So,” he said. “I have always thought Ted himself, and I did eventually As a sample of the old model, here corner office, where he sat at a desk in women would be good copyeditors.” I call him that, must have also had an is the lede on a Times page 1 dispatch front of a world map covering the entire had no idea what to say. He resumed: interesting first day as a Times employee by the Pulitzer Prize correspondent Otto wall. He looked then as he almost always “You’d better be good.” Almost a smile. in 1925, although he was younger than I D. Tolischus. It was carried on March did to me later: wearing a four-in-hand I said something about hoping so, and and perhaps had bigger dreams. 8, 1936, the day after Hitler’s troops tie and a business shirt, usually with a that was that. Out I went into that block- Theodore Menline Bernstein was marched into the Rhineland: monogram, with the sleeves carefully long newsroom to fulfill my dream: born Nov. 4, 1904, to a well-off New BERLIN -- Germany today resumed folded, in eyeglasses and holding a copyediting at The New York Times, the York family. He was the younger son her “watch on the Rhine” when, with cigarette. His expression was calm and place that had never had a woman on the of a lawyer, Saul Bernstein, who was a an astonishing bravado that dared possibly friendly. copydesk. Continued on Page 2 PAGE 2 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2016 President’s Report From the Southeast Corner BY BETSY ASHTON We got off to a grand start this year with Continued from Page 1 a room-capacity crowd for our January graduate of City College, and his wife, lunch featuring Met Opera General Manager Sarah Menline Bernstein, who had been Peter Gelb. Son of legendary New York a high-school teacher until she married. Times editor Arthur Gelb, he seemed quite Family lore says that they enjoyed at home with the crowd of journalists and wide contacts in the city’s professional was open about the challenges of dealing with difficult divas and financing the world’s community, receiving visits from the most expensive art form, He included video likes of Bernard Baruch. Ted’s older clips of operas, adding great music and high brother, Marshall, was a lawyer. drama to our opening lunch. If you missed Ted went to Columbia College, where it, go to our website, he was editor of the Daily Spectator, the www.silurians. org, where we have links campus paper. After an A.B. in 1924, to our recent speakers. he went on, despite his parents’ wishes, Our next speaker, in February, Jane Bryant Quinn, was also enthralling, as she to the Columbia School of Journalism, spoke about money money money. And which had opened in 1912. He earned I made sure I bought a copy of her latest the degree the school was then awarding, book, “How to Make Your Money Last: The the B.Litt., in 1925. Indispensable Retirement Guide.” Then he encountered Columbia’s We also have a new board member, dark side. In addition to endowing the Michael Serrill, formerly president of journalism school, Joseph Pulitzer, the the Overseas Press Club; he accepted the board’s invitation to fill the seat left vacant Hungarian Jew who made the New by Linda Goetz Holmes, who served the York World great, had also provided, as prizes for the top graduates of each Silurians exceedingly well for so many In the late 1940’s, Ted Bernstein at the Columbia Journalism School years. When not co-chairing our Awards class, money for traveling fellowships. Program with Ralph Blumenthal, Mike is Ted was one of the three top students with a page 1 markup of the students’ page on the blackboard. assistant managing editor of Bloomberg in ’25, he later told his niece, but who announced himself as “the Jewish criticisms to the seventh circle of Markets magazine. Columbia’s anti-Semitic undertow kept Bernstein.”] worthlessness. The Wars of the Roses Ralph and Mike have done an exemplary job in revising our Awards the award from him. It is not impossible This promotion put Bernstein in were never more bitter than struggles Program by reducing and refining the that Nicholas Murray Butler himself, control of the paper’s language and its between Times reporters and editors. number of categories, updating the news president of the university, created this looks. Catledge told him to make the As an evolving supplement to the director/manager contact lists, and getting roadblock, since he had kept Pulitzer’s Times more tightly written, faster to Times Style Book, W&S filled a need. the submission invitations out to news name off the façade of the building the read, “not just needed, but wanted.” In the thin drawers of the old Times organizations at the beginning of this year. publisher endowed. Bernstein’s weapon, which he kept copydesks lodged probably a dozen Judging panels have already been lined up The story, as Ted told his niece, Prof. going until he was retired as assistant three-hole notebooks of Winners & and we are just waiting for the March 1 submission deadline to get going. Note that Marylea Meyersohn, says that a member managing editor in 1978, was his in- Sinners kept by copyeditors, some of our Annual Awards Dinner is going to be of the journalism faculty, embarrassed house publication “Winners & Sinners.” then indexed. But it didn’t take many Wednesday, May 18, at The Players, instead and evidently angry, wrote a compelling He generally issued this at two-week jammed desk drawers before Bernstein of the National Arts Club, because the NAC letter to the Times about Bernstein the intervals, maintaining a scrim of heard suggestions for a book. The first, dining room is too small for that event wunderkind. As a result, the 21-year-old anonymity under its subtitle, “A bulletin in 1958, was “Watch Your Language,” Membership is up. Mort Sheinman, who graduate went to work at the Times as a of second-guessing issued occasionally and others followed, all on the way to ably keeps on top of the numbers, reports copyeditor upon graduation. from the southeast corner of The New his major project, “The Careful Writer.” that we wound up with 313 dues-paying members in 2015, the highest total since I never heard Ted discuss his first York Times Newsroom.” By 1978, when Bernstein yielded he began keeping track in 2005. We picked day on the Times rim, but I can bet it Bernstein launched W&S No. 1 his authority over W&S, 389 issues up 26 new members; eight members died. was intimidating. I can almost hear a with this prospectus: “The purpose of had been published. These copies were We also had to drop nine people because guy in a green eyeshade handing him an Winners & Sinners is simply stated. To read not just by employees, but by 5,000 of nonpayment of dues for two years. But unimportant short, saying, “Hey, college make The Times better – better written, outside of the paper. As awareness we’ve already had six new members sign boy, put a D head on this one.” more interesting, easier to understand. of W&S spread, editors elsewhere, up this year, and more than two-thirds of all Bernstein rose fast. In 1930, he We shall not name the doers of evil deeds compilers of dictionaries, journalism members have paid their 2016 dues, which is a month earlier than usual. We thank you for became suburban editor. That was also because we realize such things could teachers, English professors and others that. We also thank those who added special the year he married Beatrice Alexander, happen to anyone. But we shall name had written to join the circulation list. contributions to their dues payments, many daughter of a New York physician, those responsible for the good ones and Bernstein’s outside readers used of whom donated an additional $100. The a woman Ted frequently cited as his we hope they happen to you.” the examples for teaching; seeing the Silurians are in good financial health equal. One more landmark that year: W&S had regular features, of which Times acknowledge its errors enabled My final note is a reminder that it is the Columbia School of Journalism the most popular with his newsroom students to accept criticism more easily. important that you reserve in advance for invited him to serve as an associate readership, of course, were under the Many also enjoyed, as Bernstein did, your lunch rather than walk in. The National Arts Club needs to know the number who in journalism, the start of a 20-year headings: “Inviting leads,” “Bright word play and academic puns. The title will attend the lunch two days before the moonlighting job as well as a chance to passage,” “Trophies of a head hunter” “Winners & Sinners” itself, incidentally, event, so that they will have enough food scan possible future copyeditors. and similar accolades. These got the probably has an ancestor in “Headlines and place settings. We had one person miss In 1932, Ted moved to the foreign names of successful reporters and editors and Deadlines,” the title of the textbook the lunch he reserved last month, because desk, and in 1939 was promoted to into print, and sometimes liberated a Bernstein and Garst wrote in 1933 for walks-in had filled the seats and no extra foreign editor, which gave him control copyeditor from life as a nonentity. Columbia. settings were available. of war coverage. He remained in this Copyeditors vied to get their names In 1958, I was moved from the Please call if you need to cancel your reservation. Do so two days before the event post throughout World War II, and his into three issues in a row, but success in women’s department to the city if you do not want to be charged. The NAC skills unfolded to meet the needs of the this depended upon receiving an article copydesk, where Ted and I became bills us the number we guaranteed two days paper. He taught himself cartography to edit that could sustain a smart head. colleagues of an odd sort. He worked before the event, or the number that show and devised maps and charts for a global Typically, my debut in W&S on Nov. mostly inside his corner cubicle, so he up, whichever is larger. Therefore, no shows war. His demeanor was described as 14, 1956, was this head: “It May Not Be knew few staff members and was shy can cost the club money. We stood to lose calm in a crisis, although his assistants White, but Gift Elephant Poses Some among them. And there were many: the $450 one month because we had nine no- said he could be profane and angry over Problems for Darien Anyway.” 1975 byline list totals 318 names. shows. The board has voted to charge no- shows for the meal they missed. Obviously, office politics. He was named news Bernstein put varying labels on He was reclusive in other ways too. if there is a storm, we will make exceptions. editor in 1948. blunders. “One idea, one sentence,” and Bernstein did not like to use the men’s If you have an emergency, email or call VP Turner Catledge said that in those “Unanswered questions” zapped both the third- floor toilet and he persuaded Bernie Kirsch. days at the Times, no one was ever reporter and editor, but never by name. the publisher to give him a private And with that said, I look forward to fired; “God was our personnel director.” Headlines that could be read two ways one. In addition, his big glass window seeing all of you at our Wednesday lunches. This certainly proved true for Catledge were “Two-faced heads.” overlooking the bullpen -- the news All the best. in December 1951. Edwin L. James, One heading that was a rarity was editor and his two assistants -- had a managing editor since 1932, died and called “Itchy pencil.” This header Venetian blind. These measures enabled 2016 Dates Catledge was immediately named indicated that a deft phrase or sentence him to take his “down,” or nap on his to the vacancy. Catledge then filled had been deleted or mangled by the sofa, in privacy. His need for a nap was Wednesday, March 16 — Lunch, with guest speaker Kenneth P. Thompson, the Brooklyn two assistant managing editor slots, copydesk, and the original author had linked to a heart attack he had had. District Attorney. selecting Bernstein and Robert E. Garst, complained. It further indicated that the One of our points of contact was another Columbia Journalism B.Litt. complaint had found merit in Bernstein’s thus my ability to identify people in Wednesday, April 20 — Lunch, with Robert Upon designation as Catledge’s first- view. the newsroom. This skill was well- Caro as our speaker ranking assistant, Bernstein was told Reporters who were badly treated exercised in 1960, when Ted was chosen Wednesday, May 18 — Annual Awards quietly that he would go no higher; by the desk chronically thirsted for to go to Paris to start a Times edition. He dinner at the Players there was to be no managing editor revenge, but it was not often granted would call me into his office and say that named Bernstein. [The Ochs-Sulzberger because Bernstein was an editor who had someone who spoke French or German Wednesday, June 15 — Lunch, with guest fear of being seen as a “Jewish never been a reporter or correspondent. had been recommended for his staff. speaker Sree Sreenivasan, head of Digital paper” did not fade until the ascent of This caused members of l’École Talese “Can you show me which one he is?” Media at the Met Museum of Art Bernstein’s protégé, A.M. Rosenthal, et Perlmutter to consign Bernstein’s Continued on Page 6 MARCH 2016 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 3 Mary McGrory: Read All About Her BY ALLAN DODDS FRANK Editor who hired me, were: “Never “Mary McGrory: The First Queen forget the Noyes went to Yale, the of Journalism” by John Norris is an Kauffmans went to Princeton and extended love letter about the great never cross Mary McGrory.” columnist whose reporting and writing Burgin knew that behind the lit up Washington for more than welcoming smile of the demure- five decades. looking Boston lace-curtain Irish When I read Ana Marie Cox’s review Catholic maiden was a lioness, in The New York Times, I knew that the Star’s No. 1 ace. He admired she — and Norris the biographer — her fearlessness, her skill at office got Mary. Quoting McGrory’s line that politics, her myriad political she always felt “a little sorry for people connections, her unparalleled who didn’t work for newspapers,” Cox writing and reporting, her humor, continued, “If you find yourself nodding her fierce loyalty to those close to Mary McGrory at the St. Ann’s Infant and Maternity Home. in warm agreement, then by all means, her, and her love of the underdog. – and you will find someone Mary helped. I had never written a news story and was head for the bookstore immediately.” Although he never articulated it was lucky in that regard too. While covering working in the public affairs section at The book from Viking, Cox said, “will to me, Burgin also was aware that he the Justice Department for the National the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity scratch every nostalgic itch with ink- was in charge of dispensing a primary Staff, I applied for a Ford Foundation in the “war on poverty” when he was stained fingers.” source of labor for McGrory: young Fellowship to the Yale Law School for outraged by the events at the Democratic I did rush to the bookstore and decided able-bodied reporters who could reporters writing about the law. Mary was National Convention in Chicago. before I even finished a chapter that be conscripted during the workday my main champion and insisted on writing Since he had never had a byline and as a every Silurian I know (and McGrory) to help her entertain and enlighten a letter of recommendation in addition to government employee was not supposed would get a kick out of this book. indigent children from the St. Ann’s the one from Murray Gart, a tough former to have one, Dowling wrote a satirical McGrory, after two decades at The Infant and Maternity Home. chief of correspondents for Time Inc., who piece as Michael O’Donovan, the real Washington Post, suffered a stroke in I no longer recall when I was had become the paper’s editor when Time name of novelist Frank O’Connor, one 2003 and died in 2004. A Pulitzer Prize volunteered to help “Mary Gloria,” bought it from Joe Allbritton. of his favorite writers. The story was in winner with a cherished spot on Nixon’s as she was called by the children Gart, as Phil Gailey recently reminded the voice of Mr. Dooley, the fictional enemies list, McGrory “was a force of and the nuns, but I spent nearly a me, never had a chance with Mary. He stood Chicago bartender created by another nature,” said Norris, who got to know her decade going to swimming pools in for everything she despised about corporate Irish humorist, Finley Peter Dunne. So late in her life. “She struck me as a great the suburbs she would commandeer journalism. So months after giving me a who could savor this piece and all the story; she came up from very modest from friends and fill with bottle of Lanson’s Champagne when I was inside Irish jokes? Dowling says: “I roots, a lower middle-class family in underprivileged orphans. A picture accepted at Yale, Gart informed me that he wanted to get into the newspaper game, Boston. Her dad was a postal clerk. She from the early 1960s provided to was reneging on the Star’s commitment to but I had no clips.” had no inside scoop on the newspaper me by John Norris shows McGrory the Ford Foundation that Time would pay my So Dowling went to the Star, asked business, no relations, no real reason she with a group of white children at salary while I was at Yale. Since I was making to see Mary McGrory and was ushered should have made it and she carved out Hickory Hill, the Virginia mansion $32,000 a year, Gart could save Time, Inc., into that little glass office. “She read it, an amazing career.” of Robert and Ethel Kennedy. By then the nation’s largest media company, chuckled and said: ‘You sit right here.’ For those of us fortunate enough to the time I arrived at a pool party close to $16,000 by cutting in half his pledge Off she went and came back 10 minutes have worked with McGrory at the place at Hickory Hill in the mid-70s, the to cover my salary, a move that pushed me later and said: ‘It’ll be in the Sunday she loved — The Washington Star — boys and girls from St. Ann’s were to the National Capitol Bank of Washington paper.’” McGrory had prevailed on the before it ceased publishing on Aug. 7, almost all black children who were to borrow the difference. Fearful that Mary Sunday editor Ed Trible to publish the 1981, the book practically brings her much more scarred by parental would jeopardize herself by exploding at Gart, story and he followed up by offering back to life. abuse. Only Mary’s devotion to the I did not disclose the news to her immediately. Dowling assignments reviewing books, To affirm my appreciation of the children remained rock solid. But my newsroom friends soon did. the very same job McGrory had at the book’s vitality, I called Philip L. Gailey, To thank those who attended to Her next step was to invite Gart to lunch at Star decades earlier. a soft-spoken son of Homer, Ga., who St. Ann’s children, Mary tapped us the Maison Blanche, a French restaurant near After the Star folded, McGrory spent had come to The Star after reporting as unpaid bartenders, waiters and the White House that had supplanted Sans more than 20 years at The Washington for The Atlanta Constitution and the kitchen help to serve the powerful Souci as the hot spot for elite journalists and Post where, despite her great friendships Miami Herald. Gailey became one of and famous politicians, diplomats top officials. The unsuspecting Gart thought with Kay and Donald Graham and McGrory’s closest confidantes while and senior journalists at fabulous he had finally broken through with McGrory. editorial page editor Meg Greenfield, continuing his distinguished career as parties she threw in her modest There they were in the spotlight together, at she never felt quite at home. a national political writer at The New garden apartment bordering Rock a center table – with Ben Bradlee and Art When I heard she died, I called York Times and as the editorial page Creek Park. Buchwald at the next table, Joe Alsop nearby, Greenfield’s office to find out if there editor of the St. Petersburg Times. I was fortunate that Mary liked my etc. McGrory told me she satisfyingly spent was going to be a funeral or memorial Mary decreed in her will that Gailey reporting style as an indefatigable the entire lunch loudly berating and publicly service. They said they were glad I had would produce and edit the posthumous doorbell ringer who refused to humiliating Gart about his decision to cut called. The ever meticulous McGrory collection of her columns called “The accept “no comment” for an answer my salary. Then as they rode back to the had mapped out the details of her low Best of Mary McGrory: A Half-Century and broke stories. newspaper in Gart’s chauffeured Cadillac, mass funeral at the Shrine of the Most of Washington Commentary,” published As I moved up away from the she demanded to get out a block before Blessed Sacrament and I was to be one in 2006 by Andrews McMeel. Now school boards and sewer zoning they got to the front door so that no one in of the ushers at the church. McGrory’s retired in Florida, Gailey keeps a copy of hearings of the suburbs and into the the news room would see her get out of the assistant gave me my strict orders: the new Norris book on the table on his main office just south of Capitol fuming editor’s car. Under no circumstance was I to allow porch so he can leaf through it at will. Hill, my desk was not far from Several months later, McGrory threw a Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee or “It is almost like being with Mary again. her little glass-walled office that party to celebrate my departure. As usual, I Bob Woodward to sit on the Washington You can almost hear her talk.” adjoined the newsroom. By the mid was serving drinks and washing dishes while Star side of the church. While I was I was first alerted to the force that 1970s, Washington was besieged by she cooked up several surprises. She started certain that neither man had entertained was Mary McGrory in the fall of 1973 homeless people who often slept in with a skit: Al Hunt played Phil Donahue for a nanosecond the idea of not sitting when I arrived from the Anchorage Daily the winter over foul hot air grates interviewing Mark Shields pretending to on the clearly delineated Washington News to cover Fairfax County, Va. The connected to the steam heating be Yale President A. Bartlett Giamatti. The Post side of the church, I felt duty bound Star was then arguably the best afternoon system network that warmed line of questioning was: “Did Giamatti to escort each one to his pew and relay newspaper in the U.S., but was declining government buildings, including the realize that by admitting Allan Frank, Yale McGrory’s wishes. They both laughed rapidly. The Washington Post was White House. was going to destroy –- in a blink of the and Bradlee said: “I bet she did.” winning the war for advertisers and had Trying to convince the President eye — the town-gown relations between Months later, I received a small been hammering away as Bob Woodward to do more about the homeless was the University and the City of New Haven package in the mail. Mary had willed and Carl Bernstein produced scoops one of her countless crusades. Mary that had taken 250 years to establish? Did me a prize, a little Lucite cube with about President Nixon and Watergate. resisted the installation of computers he know that my mere disruptive presence the opening fragment of the story that Several families that no longer got at the Star, which we were forced would hurt the reputation of the school and brought her the 1958 Front Page First along cordially had owned The Evening to share. On deadline, she would the city, separately and collectively?” Then Prize Interpretive and Grand Prize Star since 1867 and before they bought emerge in the newsroom and gently McGrory’s coup de grace. She asked her old Award from the Washington Newspaper the tabloid Washington Daily News in kick you off the computer, by pal, Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, to Guild. For me, she had picked a New 1972 and renamed itself The Washington lighting a Marlboro Red and saying, sing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” to me. York dateline: “Oct. 29 — Of the two Star-News. The Noyes family controlled “Get Off My Grate.” Her graciousness was boundless. Tom millionaires trampling the streets editorial and the Kauffmans ran the Name a young reporter from those Dowling, who was a Washington Star begging for work here, Gov. Averell business side. The first instructions days – Maureen Dowd and Gloria columnist and sports feature writer when I Harriman is considered the poorer I got from David Burgin, the Metro Borger immediately come to mind arrived, just told me this story. In 1968, he prospect.” It sits proudly on my mantel. PAGE 4 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2016 Donald Trump: Press Siren Continued from Page 1 an answer? Go do the story.” Instead, Trump insisted on going Accompanied by John Metaxas, then to head-on war with the N.F.L. by an ABC producer who had degrees from moving the upstart league’s season to Columbia Journalism and Columbia Law the fall. Here’s the rationale Trump School, I began a dusty pre-digital age gave Forbes: “I go first class. If you’re four-month journey through municipal going to go first class, you need the records, court filings, Securities & television revenue generated by the fall Exchange Commission documents and and winter. It is as simple as that. The dozens of interviews, culminating with biggest obstacle we’ll have to moving is a sit-down with Mr. Trump. our own success.” On April 2, 1990, the day the Trump The antitrust suit against the N.F.L. Taj Mahal opened in Atlantic City, my that Trump promoted was actually won first piece went on the air. Peter Jennings by the U.S.F.L. and the federal judge led into it by calling the Taj Mahal awarded $1 – 100 pennies –- in damages. project “…an example of how Trump Led by Trump, the U.S.F.L. collapsed does business. Little of the money at Trump and Herschel Walker, a big-name player he signed for his fledging and the owners lost their investments. stake is his own.” U.S. Football League in 1984. Trump remained on my radar, and I What I had discovered was pretty a tremendous winner. “ banks had begun to question whether he would bump into him at events around simple, although it was so complex My tagline on the initial story about could make upcoming bond payments town. Always eager to have a spot on the and arduous that apparently none of his what Trump called “The Eighth Wonder on his casinos. Trump’s sound bite Forbes 400 rich list, he was all smiles creditors had ever bothered to undertake of the World “ – his third casino — from the March 30 interview helped. when I encountered him at a reception the exercise. When I added up all his went like this: “Trump is gambling Trump: “The banks like me because I he hosted at the 1988 Mike Tyson- obligations, I discovered that he owed with investors money and hoping his pay the interest on time and then at the Michael Spinks heavyweight title fight more than $3 billion against assets customers lose theirs.” The first sound conclusion of the deal, they are gone. in Atlantic City. Many bankers eager to worth perhaps 50 percent as much. I also bite had been Trump’s view: “It’s real They go home happy.” give him loans almost certainly were found he owned mere fractions of many estate. It’s a hotel. It’s everything, but it At the time, my wife Lilian King was squeezed in the jazzed-up crowd close properties carrying his name that the is really show biz. And somehow it has the chief of staff for the man at Citibank to the many models and friends of Marla public assumed were his. I even looked just worked out well for me.” who ran most of the retail bank and Maples who were present. up every mortgage on apartments in As I later learned, Trump called ABC 45,000 employees. The bank’s stock I really resumed covering him in the Trump Tower and discovered that News President Roone Arledge the next price was low and the CEO John Reed December 1989, a little more than a dozens were held in the names of dummy morning to complain about my story and had allowed bad loans to South America year after I had become the Business offshore corporations or partnerships extend an invitation to play golf. Arledge to jeopardize the bank’s financial Investigative Correspondent for ABC that masked the true owners. blew off the request and I never heard soundness. As guests, we attended a News. Trump was then yearning to be When I questioned Trump about the a word of complaint. I had however benefit on June 13 at the Waldorf-Astoria a national figure, and getting front page property values he listed on his so-called received a profane message from Trump at the Citibank table. attention from gossips Liz Smith and “net worth statement,” his defense was the night the story aired on my answering Being shy as usual, during the Cindy Adams about splitting with his essentially his assertion that putting the machine, which my wife now regrets I cocktail hour, I kidded the bankers: “I wife Ivana. name Trump on a property doubled its erased since it was such a classic. do not understand why you do not have When one of my bosses, Paul value overnight. In that way, he claimed The machinations of the Trump story a policy that you will make no loans to Friedman, the executive producer the Plaza Hotel and the Eastern Airlines kept getting better and I kept doing it Brazil or Donald Trump before 10 am.” of “World News Tonight With Peter Shuttle made him look like a genius for “World News,” for “Business World One banker asked: “What do you mean Jennings” asked me for story ideas, I because they were worth so much more With Sander Vanocur” and with Sam about Trump?” and I ticked off his major told him I suspected Donald Trump was than he paid. As he told me then: “I have Donaldson for “PrimeTime Live.” loans from various divisions of Citibank, broke despite his grand pronouncements really trophy assets and I guess that they On June 5, the leading papers and Bankers Trust, Chase Manhattan, about building the world’s largest casino are disproportionately valuable because I reported that Trump was in trouble Manufacturers Hanover, and others, in Atlantic City. of the fact they are trophies, but I have with his lenders. Jennings began: “… including bondholders. Friedman seemed intrigued. “How do zero idea what I am worth.” Every acquisition accompanied by a Years later, I learned that I may have you know? he asked. I told him “Stevie My favorite sound bite from the initial bombardment of self-promotion. And sounded an alarm. The highest-ranking Wonder Fingertips Part 2. I can just feel interview taped on March 30, 1990 was now there is that matter of not enough Citibank executive at the dinner convened it.… It would take a lot of digging to this one. “The institutions that finance cash on hand so Mr. Trump is in trouble. a credit-risk assessment meeting at the prove and take months. You would have what I have, they happen to be in love Here’s ABC’s Allan Frank.” bank the following morning to review its to look up all his mortgages, his junk with Donald Trump. But they are not in I began by detailing how Trump had position with Trump. bond offerings, etc.” After listening for a love with me because I am a nice guy convinced banks he was a good credit That day, without my wife’s consent couple of minutes, Friedman dispatched or anything. They are in love with me risk and that he now faced interest or involvement, I felt obligated to call me with: “Allan, can’t you take ‘Yes’ for because everything I have done has been payments of nearly $1 million a day. The Citibank to ask what the bank’s position would be if Trump were found to be insolvent or go bankrupt. I got no answer except by the bank’s actions. It turns out this was one of those Our Mr. Guida Meets Mr. Trump moments in the history of “Too Big to BY ALLAN DODDS FRANK and I was ordered to cover. I could have breakfast tables. He’s very free with that Fail.” Trump owed so much money ay 1, 1989 – “I have never been fired if I had refused to go.” word: hatred. His passion is aroused by to different divisions of Citibank that been over the line as much as Guida says he confronted Trump at the the rape of the jogger in Central Park. if it took him down, the bank might MI was that day,” recalls veteran press conference and used the responses Whose isn’t?...” have severe problems with government broadcaster Tony Guida about the only as his sound bites in his piece which he Tony concluded: “What we do not regulators concerned about whether it time he ever covered Donald Trump. remembers carried more “attitude” than need is a prominent citizen spitting anger had enough capital. Guida was getting ready to report for anything he had ever broadcast. and frustration at us, screaming about So on June 15, I was back on the air, the 3-11 p.m. shift at WNBC TV when “I did not disguise in my questions to killing everyone and letting the cops run reporting that Trump had unexpectedly the assignment editor called to tell him him, nor in the report for the 6 o’clock free. That solves nothing. It only makes made an announcement. He would make to get over to the Trump Tower on Fifth news, my contempt for what he was do- thing worse. It is obscene.” a $16 million payment due on Trump Avenue to cover a 4 p.m. press con- ing. I was editorializing,” Guida says. Guida only had one other encounter Plaza casino, would not make a $30 ference. That morning, Trump had in- “Maybe it was because it was so close to with Trump, an inadvertent one in 2007 million one due on the Trump Castle flamed New York with a 600-word, full deadline, but I got away with it. I don’t at the U.S. Tennis Open when he was casino and was still trying to negotiate a page ad screaming: “Bring Back The know whether anyone read my script be- sent by CBS to do a reaction story about $60 million bridge loan. Death Penalty, Bring Back The Police” fore I went on at 6. I never heard a word Serena Williams shouting an obscene Then on June 26, I was reporting about in the wake of the alleged rape attack by about it later either.” threat at a lineswoman. the banks agreeing to give Trump a $20 the so-called Central Park Five. Guida was so outraged by Trump’s While Guida and his crew were out- million loan to make his next payment. “It was savage,” remembers Guida. behavior that he says he tried to “chan- side an ESPN box waiting to get a com- Led by Citibank, his creditors installed One Trump paragraph read: “How can nel my inner Murray (Kempton) and ment from John McEnroe, Trump and an overseer, Steven Bollenbach, the our great society tolerate the continued Jimmy (Breslin) and write a column in his entourage emerged from the box former Chief Financial Officer of the brutalization of its citizens by crazed short angry sentences.” next door. “Tony, Tony, come on into Walt Disney Company, who put Trump misfits? Criminals must be told that The column was never published, the suite. Have a drink, some food, have on a personal allowance of $450,000 their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN but Guida dug it out of his files after I anything you want.” a month. The creditors made Trump AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BE- called to ask whether he had ever cov- Always a pro, Guida responded: dump his private jet, his helicopter and GINS!” ered Trump. The column begins: “Don- “Thanks Mr. Trump, but I have to finish his yacht, which alone cost $250,000 a “It was a racist bloodlust call without ald Trump is peddling obscenity. Mate- my story and get back.” month to maintain. any redeeming social value from a real rial lacking any redeeming social value. So how does Guida view Trump’s re- Perhaps even more fun than reporting estate developer and I felt strongly we Look at the ads Trump splashed across lationship with the press? the story myself was producing it for should not cover it,” recalls Guida. “Of the local papers today. Full of hatred and “You could pee in his face and he “PrimeTime Live” with Sam Donaldson. course, everyone else was, so the assign- raving…Trump screams for the death wouldn’t care,” says Guida, “as long as We were ignoring Trump’s impending ment editor went to the news director penalty and spills his hatred all over our you televise it.” Continued on Page 5 MARCH 2016 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 5 When the Writer Faces Intimidation BY ANNE ROIPHE One girl came up to me and asked Times Magazine just weeks before the ate mail is a routine risk for me to out her in The New York Times. college acceptance letters were sent out most of us who write about She thought that would be the best way and the rate of acceptances plummeted Hthe things that really matter to to tell her parents who lived in Shaker catastrophically downwards. people: money, sex, politics, family: Heights Cleveland who she really was. The college threatened to sue me and in short mostly everything. Hate mail I said I couldn’t do that. But I told her The New York Times. They claimed I is not when someone disagrees with to write her feelings about Sarah Law- was responsible for a $500,000 loss. you. It is not an intellectual part of the rence and her sexuality down for me. I had my letters and my tapes and my public discussion. It is an attempt to I asked that of dozens of students. I notes and after looking at them the stab the writer in his or her throbbing wanted it in their words and in their Times lawyers said not to worry and heart. Sometimes it is really threaten- writing. My tape recorder was heaving three days later all talk of a lawsuit was ing. Mostly it is just an expression of and creaking. over. But the president of the college, fury and as they say, sticks and stones. I spoke to theater students who told Charles de Carlo, sent out a letter to Early in my writing life I was as- me that at this time, the interesting the- his students, his parents, his alumna, signed by the then editor of The New ater class that was doing serious the- saying that the Times reporter had lied. York Times Magazine, Lewis Berg- ater, was only open to Lesbian and Gay He knew I had not lied. I could not sue man, to go to Sarah Lawrence college students. Straight students were only him for libel because I was a public (my alma mater) and see how a recent offered a musical theater and popular person and he was defending his com- turn to coeducation was working. This When I got to that question I wrote the comedy theater class. Really? Yes, re- munity or so the law said. doesn’t sound like a hornets nest of an answers fast in my notebook, I turned ally they said. I asked the students who And then we started to get hate mail assignment but in those days feminism on my tape recorder. What I heard star- told me that to put it in writing and sign and threatening letters. The scary let- was boiling and pouring over every- tled me, and I was a rebel when I was their names. They did. ters threatened to harm our children, the thing like hot lava, and feelings were a student. I was fleeing into art away I spoke to the boys. They were not youngest of whom were 5 and 4 at the raw, old insults and new insults brought from the nasty world of Joseph McCar- yet at a 50-50 point and many of those time. Should we hire a guard? Should rage right to the surface and The thy, the lonely crowd, the sad conform- boys were dance or theater students and we keep them home forever? My hus- Thought Police were being recruited on ist America that was waiting to devour many of them were clearly not going to band and I decided we would ignore the left and on the right and I should me if I didn’t run really fast into the for- be interested in the females. Some of the threats. The campus was angry, and never have accepted that assignment. est where Alan Ginsburg was chanting the other boys told me that the wom- for the next 10 years my alumna mail I have a tape recorder, but I like to and Becket was writing and Camus has en shouted them down when they tried arrived with messages like Die Bitch use a pencil and a notebook and my said everything that would ever need to to speak in class. I had that in writing scrawled across the top. But nothing memory. I begin to talk to the students. be said. too. The colleges that had supplied men happened. They look to me just the way we looked And what I heard from the Sarah for the women at Sarah Lawrence had With each threatening letter came a in 1957 when I graduated. They were Lawrence students in 1974 was this: recently gone co-ed too and the Friday sharp ache in my stomach. Had I spo- a little ragged and paint splattered and I am worried because my roommate night drives to a female college had end- ken of something I should not have? bohemian or beatnik or hippie or what- wants to have sex with me and says I ed and so the women at Sarah Lawrence I was not attacking anyone’s sexual ever word comes to your mind when won’t be a real liberal if I don’t try it. were stuck with each other and with a choice. I was attacking the air of coer- you see a lot of black and some holes in I am scared. I heard this over and over small pool of boys, some of whom were cion the students had reported to me. I the sweater and a look of rebellion in in many forms. I also heard: I found not interested in them. This contributed was attacking the fusion of politics and the jut of the chin and the slash of black myself at Sarah Lawrence. Now I know I am sure to the fever of sexual exper- sex that seemed a mistake to me. I was makeup under the eyes. There were I am a Lesbian and I am going to tell imentation that was both political and reporting on the effect of that confusion no female G.I.’s in sight, no account- my parents soon. I am part of the new personal everywhere on the campus. on a number of vulnerable young peo- ing majors, and enough poets to sink feminist world. I find men disgusting. The admissions director told me ple. I used their own words. I thought a campus if it were a boat. There was a Girls from Alabama, from the Mid- that she steered her former students at the story was an interesting one in the lot of smoking: of what I wasn’t quite west, told me they felt they had to be a New York City progressive private midst of a sexual revolution and a new sure. And then there were girls kissing Lesbians or everyone on their dorm school who were applying to Sarah feminism that I had greeted with great each other in the arbor leading up to floor would hate them. They spoke in Lawrence away from the school. She relief and hope. But revolutions have the main administration building. There slogans about male domination and ex- did not think the atmosphere was good their excesses and their flaws can be were girls on the lawns and in the dining ploitation of women. Do you like boys, on the campus for young people who observed without undermining the pos- room holding hands and nuzzling each I asked. Oh yes, one girl said. I have a were just finding themselves. I asked itive changes that have arrived. other. Good I think. There has been a boyfriend at home. But please, she said, her if I could quote her. She said no, so Also as a journalist I am committed sexual revolution since I graduated and don’t tell anyone. I didn’t. I used the I didn’t. But I had her on tape. to the truth of whatever is before me. Andy Warhol had changed the look of word girls here to describe these stu- Prospective parents told me that they I believe, as we all do, that whatever things, not just things but people too. dents because they were so young, so had refused to let their daughters ap- can be accurately said, to the best of And then I started to do the inter- untouched, so eager to begin their adult ply to Sarah Lawrence after touring the our ability, is a necessity as it helps us views. I started with harmless ques- lives, so anxious not to do the wrong campus and seeing the openly Lesbian know ourselves and one day to do bet- tions. Where did you grow up? What are thing, that they were still girls, girls activity all about. ter, to be better, to build a better world you interested in, are you happy here? struggling with women’s issues. The piece appeared in The New York Continued on Page 7

Press Siren Society of the Silurians Officers 2015-2016 Continued from Page 4 ranch in New Mexico. OFFICERS: GOVERNORS EMERITI: President ROBERT D. McFADDEN divorce and his infatuation with Marla “In almost every incident when I BETSY ASHTON LEO MEINDL Maples. brought something up, he would say: I warned Sam that Trump would “You‘re ignorant “or “clearly out of First Vice-President COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS: BERNARD KIRSCH promise him a look at the books to your league there” or something. In the Awards support his net worth statement, then end, when we turned off the camera, Secretary RALPH BLUMENTHAL and find some pretense to withdraw the offer. he said something to the effect: “I am LINDA AMSTER MICHAEL SERRILL Trump was true to form. sure that you’re not going to use any of Treasurer Dinner He offered the books to Sam, then that material,” and I said: “Oh No, Mr. KAREN BEDROSIAN WENDY SCLIGHT a few minutes later, retracted the offer Trump. I am going to use every one of RICHARDSON Membership by labeling Sam as an unsophisticated the putdowns.” BOARD OF GOVERNORS: MORT SHEINMAN person who knew nothing about business Donaldson said: “The point is Trump DAVID A. ANDELMAN and would be incapable of understanding is Trump and when I met him he was no RALPH BLUMENTHAL Nominating JACK DEACY BEN PATRUSKY the art in Trump’s deals. Donaldson different than he is today. Today, he is using BILL DIEHL was ready. He accepted Trump’s insults those traits of his to inflame, to divide. At GERALD ESKENAZI Social Media merrily and announced that his lack first I thought he was just having a lot of TONY GUIDA BILL DIEHL and MYRON KANDEL BARBARA LOVENHEIM of knowledge about bookkeeping was fun and a great time. Then I realized he CAROL LAWSON the reason ABC News had a Big Eight was serious as his numbers mounted and BARBARA LOVENHEIM Website accounting firm standing by to help him his support seemed to grow.” BEN PATRUSKY BEN PATRUSKY, ANNE ROIPHE MORT SHEINMAN, co-editors sift through the finances of the Trump Donaldson says the press and public WENDY SCLIGHT empire. For several weeks, Sam would need not worry. “He is not going to be MICHAEL SERRILL Webmaster – on the air — offer Trump a new red tie president. I can assure you of that, not MORT SHEINMAN FRED HERZOG in exchange for fulfilling his promise to because I have any means of stopping ADVISORY COMMITTEE: SILURIAN NEWS: hand over the books. Of course, Trump him. But if I know anything about this ALLAN DODDS FRANK BERNARD KIRSCH, EDITOR never delivered. country, it is not going to make him GOVERNORS EMERITI: CONTINGENCY FUND: To double-check my recollections president. And if I am wrong, then it GARY GATES LARRY FRIEDMAN about the encounter, I called Sam at his isn’t the country I thought I knew.” HERBERT HADAD PAGE 6 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2016 A Close Encounter With the Son of Sam BY SALVATORE ARENA Someone told me that a teen - apparently It is no understatement to say that a girl who lived in Buhre Arms - had been David Berkowitz had the people of the shot at point-blank range while sitting City of New York living in deadly fear in a car. Actually, two young women during the 12-month span that began with had been shot. The ambulances had just the slaying of a young Bronx woman in pulled away. the early morning hours of July 29, 1976. This was a rare occurrence in Pelham CAPTURED, 1977 David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, is taken into custody. By the time he was arrested on Aug. Bay. There would be 33,465 building Motive was a mystery. The Bronx and women late at night sitting in parked 10, 1977, he had used his .44-caliber fires reported in the Bronx in 1976. Its Homicide Squad would be stumped for cars or walking home continued. There revolver to kill six and wound seven. southern neighborhoods were in shambles many months. Not until the following was one more in Pelham Bay on the And it is no understatement when I claim – the result of poverty, arson and housing March would investigators connect the Hutchinson River Parkway in April, a that I came closer than any other New abandonment on a scale previously Pelham Bay shooting to one of four similar location almost visible from our bedroom York newspaperman to witnessing the unknown. But Pelham Bay remained attacks in Queens, which had resulted in window. And another in Queens and murderous debut of the infamous Son unscathed. It was not the part of the Bronx the deaths of two people and the wounding finally one in Brooklyn. of Sam. that President Jimmy Carter would vow of five others. Ballistics tests indicated that Through the fearful and frustrating But who knew? to rebuild a few months later. the same .44 caliber Charter Arms Bulldog months of fruitless investigation, In the summer of 1976, I was 23 Its working-class residents, revolver had been used in the shooting of detectives had warned that couples were and working at The Daily News, at that predominately Italian immigrants and Lauria and Valenti. being targeted and noted what little time and for many years to come, the first- and second-generation Italian- Until then, only David Berkowitz – the description they had of the killer: he largest selling newspaper in America. I Americans rounded out by their equals Son of Sam — knew. had bushy brown hair. Well, so did I and had landed a copyboy’s job - a dream among Irish, German and, more recently, And only I knew that if my No. 6 train more than once I recall stepping up the come true – in 1972 and from that point Greek communities lived with few had been on schedule, I would very likely pace of my brisk, late night walks from until I graduated from the City College luxuries except the abundant amounts of have been on the scene when those first the subway to my apartment, sure I was of New York three years later, l worked pride in family, church and neighborhood. shots rang out. being tailed by the kind of unmarked days, nights and weekends, attending I found a pay phone, dropped a dime The shootings targeting young men sedan favored by the NYPD. school full time, working at The News and dialed the News city desk. I knew and devoting every other spare minute that Mark Liff, a 25-year-old graduate of to the The Campus, one of CCNY’s the Columbia School of Journalism, was From the Southeast Corner undergraduate newspapers. working the lobster shift. Skinny, smart Continued from Page 2 this, Catledge said, Bernstein innovated It had all paid off in August 1975 when and cocky, Liff was paying his dues on We would step out and standing behind against “ unbreakable bounds of I won a promotion over nearly two dozen the late trick and not liking it very much. the news editor, I would say, “The guy tradition.” When he saw a new typeface, other contenders from the copyboys’ I explained the situation to Liff, but it with the red necktie,” and that was it. Egizio, in the Columbia Journalism bench to the top wage scale that included is 1976. There will be 1,632 murders in In Paris, Bea Bernstein always brought Review, Ted sent me to an outside shop reporters, copy editors, makeup editors, the Naked City that year, the vast majority two meals into the office at dinnertime, to have it run a dodger – a one-shot caption writers and photographers. of them on Mark’s shift. telling Ted’s assistant that he would proof – of a Times page 1 using the new Reporting was my goal. I pressed. have to eat too because Ted hated eating face. The test looked good, but the type But a full-time writing job was proving “Mark - I wouldn’t bother you, but it’s alone. This was also how I got to know proved too plump for practicality. elusive. In the summer of 1976, I was really very unusual. Especially, the way him in New York. When others were not Meantime, I was pushing him working nights as a caption writer, I’m told it went down. Point blank. Like available for “lunch” at first-edition time, tactfully toward making the Times less responsible mostly for the makeup of a mob hit.” I would cross Eighth Avenue with him for sexist. One evening when the Russian the tabloid’s front and back pages and “O.K.,” he assured me. “I will check moussaka at the Pantheon with a martini author Anna Akhmatova was mentioned its signature all-picture centerfold, or it out.” I learned in this setting that Ted and in the paper, she was identified as a double-truck as we called it. While this It was close to 2 A.M. and the new Bea had a single child, Eric Menline “poetess.” When I spotted this after was not doing much for my writing career, Police Headquarters at One Police Plaza Bernstein, born in 1935, who was Ted had left for the day, I went to the it rounded out my newspaper education had no information beyond the basics stricken with meningitis at 3 and was copydesk and asked to have it changed by, among other things, inculcating me I had provided. The Bronx Homicide left severely retarded. to “poet,” noting earlier Bernstein steps with the ability to read blocks of lead type Squad had yet to return to their base. For The events were not related all at abandoning “executrix” and “aviatrix”. from right to left, backwards and upside Mark, there was only time for a paragraph once, but I learned that after Bea had a I was rebuffed. So I left a note for Ted, down, a skill I retain to this day. or two, and still he would be lucky to bad auto accident, the parents decided and received this reply the next day: At the end of my 4 P.M. to midnight make a replate of the paper’s last edition that it would be too much to care for a As for that damsel Akhmatova, They shift, I would grab a damp edition of the – the Four-Star Circle, which meant son who would be forever no more than should have done the damned thing ova. paper and hustle out of the landmark just a fraction of the paper’s 1.5 million “a very bright 10-year-old.” In 1946, After Ted died of cancer in 1979, Daily News Building at 220 East 42nd circulation. Eric was enrolled in the Woods School the Dictionary of National Biography Street over to Grand Central to catch the For all practical purposes, the shooting in Langhorne, Pa. And from then on assigned me to write his entry. Bea had uptown Lexington Ave. local to Pelham went unreported in the morning. all the royalties from Ted’s books were died in 1977, and I knew that her niece, Bay — the far reaches of the northeast More details were available the next placed in a trust to pay Eric’s fees. Professor Meyersohn, had long been Bronx, where I had grown up and still day, and though it may be difficult to At one supper Ted returned to this guardian for Eric. lived with my wife and infant son. believe, the murder did not attract any story. Once when he and Bea were I went to interview her. Since I had Our apartment, in a four-family house TV or radio coverage. The Daily News reviewing their returns with an I.R.S. never met her, this had a ticklish aspect, on Mayflower Avenue, was midway did follow up, returning to the story on lawyer, he opened a new subject. He said: given the Times’s reputation for sin in between the Buhre Avenue and Pelham Friday, July 30, but the piece landed deep “Mr. and Mrs. Bernstein, I am leaving the stairwells. My first sentence was: Bay Park stations. At that hour, my in the paper. government employment at the end of “Professor Meyersohn, before we begin, commute was a very predictable 50 The dead girl was identified as Donna this quarter, or I would never say this to I would like to assure you that I never had minutes to Buhre Avenue and a brisk Lauria, 18. One later and more complete you. I do not think you are paying tuition an affair with Ted Bernstein.” She burst 12-minute walk home. account recalls the shooting this way: to the Woods School for your son; I think into laughter -- laughter, not giggles. I But not in the early morning of “At about 1:10 a.m. on July 29, 1976, you are paying for medical care. I suggest was taken aback. What’s funny? I asked. Thursday, July 29, 1976. Donna Lauria, 18, and her friend Jody you bring a case in tax court.” “Of course you didn’t have an affair Delays ahead of my train had us Valenti, 19, were sitting in Valenti’s Bernstein & Bernstein v U.S. was with Ted,” she said. “With him, nothing inching along, so it was closer to 1:30 Oldsmobile, discussing their evening decided in favor of Ted and Bea. All the ever happened below the neck.” A.M. when the graffiti-covered Redbird at the Peachtree, a New_Rochelle other parents of people enrolled at the She told me on another occasion that pulled into my elevated station. discotheque. Lauria opened the car Woods School were likewise able to revise a woman employee had mentioned at a A trip down two flights of stairs left door to leave and noticed a man quickly their tax burdens. Ted and Bea were the party that Ted was the only executive me in front of the confluence of Buhre, approaching the car. Startled and angered perfect couple to carry the argument : They who did not molest women on the Edison and Westchester Avenues in front by the man’s sudden appearance, she said were well-set, they had no other children, staff. On Aug. 3, 2014, the New York of the Triangle Bar and Grill. I turned “Now what is this...” From the paper they loved Eric dearly and lawyers were Times carried a notice saying that Eric west onto Buhre Avenue, where it rose sack he carried, the man produced a in the family. The decision protected M. Bernstein died on July 24, 2014, in to meet Joe’s Candy Store. pistol, a .44 caliber weapon, and went their son longer than they otherwise Langhorne, Pa. Professor Meyersohn Walking up the hill that night I saw into a crouch – he braced one elbow on could have. said that the royalties from his father’s flashing lights ahead. Police cars were his knee, aimed his weapon with both Personal discussions with Ted were books had covered Eric’s fees at the parked across from Buhre Arms, a fading hands, and fired. Lauria was struck by rare, however. When he was developing Woods School to the end and a little pre-war building that had boasted a one bullet that killed her instantly. Valenti such features as Man/Woman in the beyond. Moreover, she said, a small doorman when it opened in the 1930s. was shot in her thigh, and a third bullet News, Quotation of the Day and the News royalty for sales of the second edition of Whatever had happened, things were missed both women. Not having said a Summary, Ted fiddled with everything, “Miss Thistlebottom’s Hobgoblins,” a wrapping up. I asked a cop, but I didn’t word, the shooter turned and quickly even the old-fashioned 30-point Latin Bernstein book first published in 1991, have a press pass and he put me off. walked away.” extra-condensed page 1 headline type. In had just arrived. MARCH 2016 SILURIAN NEWS PAGE 7 My Mom, Marlene The following is adapted from a eu- documentaries in the seventies, and she logy given for Marlene Sanders by her started covering the women’s move- son Jeffrey Toobin at a memorial service ment, in depth. Those of us who are at New York University on September 3, journalists know that probably the most 2015. important decision we make is what to My mother presided over our family cover. We decide what’s news, and in as my son Adam graduated from Brown that way we decide what matters. Well, over Memorial Day weekend. She raced starting in 1970, she did seven full doc- up and down the hills of Providence, umentaries about women’s liberation, the way she walked all the time. She as it was accurately called at the time. laughed, she ate, she enjoyed. She was She told the world that feminism was her opinionated self, full of pride and important – that people needed to pay some advice for the new college grad- attention. This, I think, was her proudest uate. A few days later, she went with achievement. friends to Iceland, and she had a good She also had a good run at CBS, al- time, though I would not exactly call most a decade, until she took a deal to her a great fan of Iceland. A few days walk away in 1988. It was not an es- later she felt sick, and she died on July pecially happy parting. Why didn’t she 14. It was a bad, sad month, but it was have a chance to stay? She worked at a only one month, so today I’d like to talk network, but I think the answer is con- about the other 1,011 months of Marlene ABC News tained in an observation she often made Sanders’ life. Marlene Sanders in 1966, covering the war in Vietnam as a correspondent about local news. She said, “Most local I loved my mother – but I also liked for ABC News. news anchor teams look like most men’s her. She was sharp, smart, often funny, second marriages.” She was also just good company, attentive if impatient, School, class of 1948. An advertisement scenes, and that led her in a job in sum- weary of the constant uncertainty of a voraciously interested in the world, on the back page of her high school mer stock, in a place called the Theater career in television news. Because I fol- widely read, and opinionated. She was yearbook said: “Congratulations girl by the Sea in Matunuck, Rhode Island. lowed her into television news, people unconventional in all the best ways. She graduates! You can be a telephone oper- Her job was called Girl Friday. She did have asked me, “Did your Mom ever was not one of those parents who pre- ator for Ohio Bell!” a little of everything. One day, she was give you advice on your television ca- tends to be a kid’s friend, but she never Amazing, no? In part because of the asked to go to the train station and pick reer?” And the answer is yes, she did. talked down to me. She always treated work Mom did – and work that other up a radio actor from Chicago who was She said this: never give up your job at me like the intelligent person she hoped people did, including many of her close co-producing a Broadway tryout with the New Yorker! And I haven’t. I would become. That was just the way friends – it’s hard to believe how differ- her bosses. During his two-week stay Mom would not want me to pretend she was. I mean, this is a woman who ent the world was when Mom came of in Rhode Island, this fellow noticed my for you that those later years were as spoke to babies and to our dog in full age. Of course, there is nothing wrong Mom’s energy and enthusiasm, and just good as the earlier ones. Love and work sentences. I will not take this occasion with being a schoolteacher, a nurse, or before he left, she mentioned that she mattered most to her, and neither was as to wax nostalgic about her cooking. a telephone operator. But in her day, needed a job in the fall. His name was good as they once were. Still, there were As she often pointed out with a kind those looked like the beginning and end Mike Wallace, and as it happened, he good times in recent years, too. She con- of rueful pride, she was born in Cleve- of her career options as a young woman was starting a new local news program tinued to do great work. She anchored land, which she always described as “a of modest means out of Cleveland. And in New York, and he said she should in- Metro Week in Review on Channel good place to be from” Her parents di- that was especially true for someone like terview with his producer, Ted Yates. 13. She traveled the world for Pranay vorced when she was 3, and her father Mom, who had to drop out of Ohio State Well, Ted Yates gave her an entry Gupta’s Partners in Progress. And then moved to Philadelphia. At a young age, after just one year, because her parents level job, and that program evolved into there was her long-running role as the not much more than three, she started didn’t have the money for tuition. Nightbeat, a legendary broadcast in the voice of Autopsy, on HBO. Every time taking the train, by herself, back and But there was another option: a young history of television, not least because she completed a taping, she’d say to me, forth between Cleveland and Philadel- woman could become an actress. I al- it put Mike Wallace on the map. And “They’re really pushing the envelope phia. It was an all-day proposition. And ways thought that was a kind of strange it created a lifelong friendship between this time.” she loved it. The independence, the ad- ambition for my mother. She was so Mike and my Mom. And by the way, was there anyone venture, the different people, sights and direct, so straightforward, I didn’t see She often described those years with in the history of television with a better sounds. It was an early sign of what she how she could pretend to be someone the same word: fun. She believed in fun, voice than Marlene Sanders? wanted out of life. else. But she did try, at least for a while, especially at work. And the good news She was fortunate to find a new home, She went to Shaker Heights High but she gravitated to work behind the for her continued in those days when and a new career, at NYU. She taught she tried to book Leopold Stokows- broadcast journalism for 20 years. She ki, then the conductor of an orchestra gave her last class in May – when she called the Symphony of the Air, for was 84. I can’t tell you how many times When the Writer Faces Intimidation Nightbeat. Stokowski wasn’t interest- at CNN, new colleagues have come up Continued from Page 5 economics of the press, the opinions ed, so a friend suggested that she book to me and said, “Your mom was my fa- somewhere out there in the far distant of our editors, the fear of backlash by the manager of the orchestra instead. vorite professor!” She helped train a new future. So in the meantime a little hate the anxious financial arms of the press. She wasn’t interested. I mean, why in- generation of journalists, and many of mail is not such a bad price to pay for And it is our obligation to say what we terview the manager? But the friend them are already in prominent places in the opportunity to explore and report on see. If we are wrong someone else will suggested she at least meet the guy, and the industry. That was probably because the changing scene beneath one’s feet. correct our errors. Even if it is just a he turned out to be Jerry Toobin. They they passed her infamous news quizzes. But I have to admit I was frightened. little matter, like coeducation at a for- were together until he died, in 1984. She had the novel idea that people who I had nightmares of losing my chil- merly woman’s college, it is worth a It was just 25 years, and a marriage as wanted to work in news should actually dren. Would I do it again? Maybe, but I try for the human truth. That I do be- good as that one should have lasted a know something about what was in the would be prepared for the response and lieve. lot longer. Mom went on a lot of dates news. Mom was proud of them. I might decide that some other journal- Recently, some very political femi- since 1984, and after I asked them how In recent years, there was no gentle ist could do the piece equally well or nist friend of mine complained to me they went, she almost always said the winding down. Last year, we went to a better and I might hide under the bed that I had hurt the feelings of some same thing, “He’s no Jerry Toobin.” play together, and she mentioned that covers for a decade or two or I might friends of hers by writing my Sarah In 1964, Mom went to an open audi- the trip to the theater was her sixth sub- not. Lawrence piece. How did I hurt their tion to be the second woman correspon- way ride of the day. I remember thinking I imagine most journalists, particu- feelings? Was it by suggesting that dent at ABC News. As Variety called it, that day, “God, is this woman ever going larly opinion journalists, will at some sexual choice should not be a matter to be a “News Hen.” A News Hen. She to get old?” She was out three nights a point evoke rage in a few readers, or of political correctness? Was it by hint- got the job. Then the other woman got week - theater. music, ballet, opera, but maybe many readers. It is our job to ing that the feminist movement could fired for holding a political fundrais- especially plays. Or, more precisely, she stand outside the approved easy wis- make its own errors of sexual coercion er, and Mom inherited her five-minute went to the first act of a lot of plays and dom and look carefully at the details and disrespect for other’s sexual needs? news show in the afternoon, which often left at intermission. Not for lack of of the subject at hand. It is our goal Was it by writing about what really was was called, “News With the Women’s energy, but for lack of enthusiasm for the not to offend someone but to see and happening at one campus in the cruci- Touch.” Her television career was art at hand. But hey, she went. She nev- observe what is happening, which is ble of coeducation and moral change? launched. er slowed down, she never faded away, never exactly what someone else would And if after some 41 years those hurt Mom often corrected me when I talk- she never mellowed, she never changed. like us to see. In totalitarian societies, feelings are still alive in some one’s ed about the glory days of civil rights I had my actual mother – the real thing, where the authorities control the press, anxious breast than I am convinced movement in the sixties. Not for wom- the genuine article, the remarkable journalists can only keep secret diaries that it was a good and necessary piece en, she said. For us, it was the seven- woman who was Marlene Sanders – for or risk grave consequences. In America of journalism and I am proud to have ties. And that time was certainly the my whole life. And I could not be more we are not inhibited by more than the written it. high point of her career. She moved into grateful. PAGE 8 SILURIAN NEWS MARCH 2016 An Afternoon at the Opera Peter Gelb took the Silurians behind the curtain of the Metropolitan Opera — disclosing, for example, that the portly Luciano Pavarotti liked to se- crete sandwiches among the props so he could quietly munch when he wasn’t singing. Gelb, the Met’s general manager, spoke at the Silurians’ January lun- cheon, and displayed both a sense of hu- mor about his role and a passion for one Gay Talese with Silurians President Gay Talese of the most important jobs in the world Betsy Ashton of music. He has brought innovation to opera, High Honors for Gay Talese a job he describes as “a balancing act of bringing the Met to a new audience Peter Gelb Gay Talese, a careful and precise his mother a dress shop, and it wound its while not offending the old audience.” writer, was also a careful and precise way through the University of Alabama, Since he took over in 2006, the Met nees are out because workers don’t have speaker when he accepted the Silurians’ The New York Times and a career as a has reached people in the middle of to work that day), and of the controversy Lifetime Achievement Award in magazine and book writer. He gave a Times Square with its opening-night surrounding his insistence that the opera November. His story started in a house new narrative voice to journalism. His televised extravaganzas, as well as its “Klinghoffer” be staged—despite pro- by the Jersey Shore, in Ocean City, speech at the National Arts Club can be “Live in HD” closed-circuit broadcasts tests that it was anti-Semitic. where his father had a tailor shop and seen on YouTube. brought to theaters in 70 countries and Mostly, his talk was fun and his re- reached 19 million people. spect for opera and its performers was He also spoke of his run-ins with the apparent. New Members Met’s powerful unions (Sunday mati- — Gerald Eskenazi Mary Breasted’s work has been Ray Hoffman is a veteran radio editor, appearing in local newspapers since at producer and newscaster specializing in least 1968, when she joined The Village business and the economy. He has long The Challenges Voice. She was on staff at The Voice been associated with WCBS Newsradio until 1973, when she began reporting 880, and now hosts and produces a daily of Morning TV for The New York Times. In 1978, she one-minute feature program called CEO turned freelance. Her books include “I Radio, focusing on entrepreneurism. It probably wasn’t much of a stretch Shouldn’t Be Telling You This,” a comic Valerie S. Komor of The Associated for Mary Pflum Peterson to become a novel about a newspaper on West 43rd Press has been an archivist for 30 years. producer at “Good Morning America” Street called The Newspaper. She joined The AP in 2003 and is its on ABC. David Evanier from 1968 to 1987 founding director of corporate archives. “It’s quirky,” she conceded at the was an assistant editor at The New When she was hired, AP’s files were December luncheon. “One part of the Leader and then a senior editor at The in unattended filing cabinets in the show we’re working on a President and Paris Review. He is currently a full-time basement of corporate headquarters. Ms. the other on getting braces for dogs’ author whose latest book is “Woody: Komor was given the job of organizing teeth. It’s a very strange world.” The Biography,” a bio of Woody Allen. and preserving that material and making But then again the word “strange” Jane Gross was a correspondent for it available to researchers, a job she could also describe many anecdotes in The New York Times from 1977 until continues to perform. a book she recently published called taking a buyout in 2008. Prior to that, Jared Lebow is a former reporter and “White Dresses.” Much of it is about her Mary Pflum she was a researcher at Sports Illustrated editor who began his journalism career mother, who had been a nun for 10 years. kitchen,” she explained. “It’s a time in (1969-1974) and a reporter at Newsday as a sportswriter for The Fort Lauderdale She married, though -- and when her the morning we have to make decisions (1974-1977). She is the author of “A News in 1962 and moved to New York husband left, became a hoarder, raising on what we’re showing. The stock Bittersweet Season: Caring for Our a few years later when he was hired by her daughter in an odd world. The book, market’s opening overseas; is there Aging Parents -- and Ourselves.” Time Inc. to edit its FYI magazine. He though, is a loving tribute to her mother, ISIS? Difficult decisions to handle for Michael Gross’s career as a eventually found his way to the sports describing those seminal moments in our viewers. A mother getting up in the newspaper and magazine writer dates to copy desk at The New York Times. He their lives when they wore white dresses. morning with her young children—is it the 70s, when he wrote and edited for left in 1979 to pursue a career in public Perhaps that unusual background has safe to go to the bus stop.” publications covering the rock music relations. He is now retired. played a part in Ms. Peterson’s ability She believes the future for morning scene. He was on staff at The New York David Margolick is a longtime to juggle the “quirky” doings on the TV news remains strong, with her show’s 5 Times from 1985 to 1988, covering the contributing editor at Vanity Fair and show. million viewers, and taking them in “so fashion industry, and was a contributing a freelance writer. He was a reporter “We take up an intimate space in many offbeat directions.” editor at New York magazine from 1988 at The New York Times from 1981 to the morning — in the bathroom, in the — Gerald Eskenazi to 2000. He is the author of “740 Park” 1996, specializing in legal affairs; he and “House of Outrageous Fortune.” covered the trials of O.J. Simpson, and Chester A. Higgins is a photographer Lorena Bobbitt. He also has written and author whose work has appeared books on subjects ranging from the 1938 Watching Over regularly in The New York Times for championship fight between Joe Louis some 40 years, with a particular focus and Max Schmeling (“Beyond Glory”) on African and African-American to the fight for control of the Johnson & Criminal Justice culture. Mr. Higgins went on staff at The Johnson fortune (“Undue Influence”). Bill Keller didn’t waste time explain- Times in 1975 and remained until last Jeff Roth, who has been with The ing what the Marshall Project is: December, when he retired. New York Times since 1993, is the “We’re not the Marshall Plan, we’re manager of the newspaper’s archives — not Marshall Field, and we’re not Penny familiarly known as the morgue — a Marshall,” he quipped at the Silurians’ In Memoriam trove of history that includes clippings October lunch. C. Gerald (Jerry) Fraser, a reporter of articles that go back to the 1870s, and He also contended that the online Mar- at The New York Times for 24 years, a photo library with some six to eight shall Project, which has become a major covering everything from politics to million physical photographs. journalistic player in only two years, is cultural news, died on Dec. 8. He was 90. Stephen M. Silverman is a veteran not an advocacy group. Its mission is to Prior to joining The Times in 1967, he was writer, critic and editor who was with be a nonprofit news organization that fo- with The Daily News. As one of only two Time Inc. from 1995 to 2015, focusing cuses on the American criminal-justice Bill Keller black reporters on staff when he was hired on the world of show business and system. Yet, it does investigate faulty the paper elevated him to its highest post by The Times, he became an advocate for celebrities. In the mid-1990s, he became verdicts, prison corruption, and prose- as executive editor from 2003 to 201l, improving coverage of issues important the founding editor of People.com when cutorial misconduct — even as, he ad- followed by three more as a columnist. to blacks and for expanding opportunities the magazine went online. . mitted, most Americans believe that the Like many other speakers at Silurians’ for black journalists. Peter Szekely is president of the majority of people in prison are guilty. luncheons, he was asked about the future Deadline Club and president of The Keller was tapped to lead the organiza- of journalism. “I change my mind on that NewsGuild of New York, which until tion early in 2014, leaving The Times after a every week,” he admitted. But he did point Society of the Silurians last April was known as The Newspaper 30-year career that remains among the most out that his daughter “doesn’t mind if her PO Box 1195 Guild of New York. His journalism roots distinguished in contemporary journalism. information comes from The New York Madison Square Station date to the 1970s, when he was a reporter It included a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting Times or BuzzFeed.” The Internet-based New York, NY 10159 for the Middlesex News in Framingham, from Moscow on the break-up of the Soviet BuzzFeed describes itself as the “social 212.532.0887 Mass. In 1978, he joined Reuters and Union. He moved on to South Africa and news and entertainment company.” www.silurians.org was a correspondent there until 2007. its emergence from apartheid. Eventually, — Gerald Eskenazi