Variety (Jun 1937)

58 VARIETY LITERATI Wednesday, June" 30, 1937 N. Y. Journal-American Loaded with A M. Papers Staff; List Ins and Outs Second step in what appears •be. a nationat shakeup ot earst' newspaper, properties is expected to come off this week witli the reported sale or disoQn- tinuance of tlie Omaha (Neb.) Bee-News, a morning and ' eve- ning paper^ each of which has a circulatioii of 50,000. There is . also a Sunday edition. InfOrmar. tion receiviid indiieafes that the deal Was due : to go into Effect yesterday, but may be held up for a day or so.. L. B. Tobiii is presid«nC and publisher. A deal is silso reported on be- tween Hearst aiid ; Frank Gan- nett, the former to fold thi Rochester Joiurnal and .' Ameri- can. .Hearst is ;said t6 be plan* ning to fold the Roishester paper this week, while Frank tiai^eit takes over the . Albany Tim«a-' Unioii and .fflves up' the &ik|pk^«rr. bocker'Press there. ' . Is the: ing of the N. Y. Anieri- the >relude to the merj^iftg: or absindonment of other losing Hearst •newspaper: properties? .This is the question which employees on Hearst newspapers in ^-number of cities throughput; the . country are asking theinselves aiid. each other. No ?inswer to this poser is presently available, Hearst officials themselves not being in any position to make any ■statement on. the matter.' The. answer may lie in what action the Securities and Exchange Commission in 'Washr ington takes on the Itearst applicar tion for permission to .float twO bond issues totalinig .$35,500,000. Date for approval or rejection is currently July 3 Unless the Heiarst manage- ment files an amendq|ient, in which case decision is automatically p^ost- poned 20 days. : Front page of the Sunday Journal- American. (27) carried an open let- ter to James Wright )?rown, of Edi- tor atid Publisher, explaining that consolidation would make v for a' strong paper. No 6ne,^the statement said, has a rijght to, support the luxury ^of an unsuccessful paper in-" •definitely. Milloy at HeM Meanwhile' developniients i con- nection with the merger continued .rapidly last week. Jack Milloy, Hearst executive' in Boston, was .biroUght to New York to supervise the whole, works, despite the super- abundance of executives on hand. This is because Hearst operates the ./same'kind of.a paper setup in Bos- ton as is .intended for New York, the Record, morning; American, afternoon and Advertiser, Sunday. Only about 35%- of the American and Journal staffs ' have been di'opped thus far.' All those dropped were given handsome severance pay- ments by the paper, consisting of one week's pay for each six months of employment oh the sheet prior to the crash. In one instance this amounted to nearly $4,000, in' an- other to $2,765. .. . Newspaper Guild units on all Hearst enterprises in N; Y. have held several meetings and last week adopted resolutions demanding the flve-day, 40-hour week and no firings whatever. A' strike vote was "taken Sunday (27), but any action was postponed at a second joint meeting Monday (28) of all Hearst units. ;; Still another meeting is scheduled .for next week following further con- fabs wi.th tlie management. The new publishing setUp 6ti the Journal-American has W. R. Hearst, Jr.. as publisher of both that paper and the Sunday, American. Walter A. Young, former assistant publisher Of the American, goes with him as associate, Willianii A. Curley, editor of the , joui-hai; continues in that capacity. ArthUr G. Newmeyer, who has; bean publisher' of the Jourjial. becomes an assistant ^general man-: ager for Hearst newspapers, jind .! Robert C, Brbv/n, associate publisher ©f the Journal, will be assistant publisher of the Journal. Officers t>f the .Journal corporation remain John R. Heiarst, i)re$ident; . G. ■ Ne.wmeyer, .vice-president, and W. R. Peters,: gecretary. , ; ilrttire classified staff of the Ameri^ mn has been taken over by the. ^outnal with J. A. Finneran, classi- 3d manager. Preston Perkinson "ririll, be his assistant^ Walter Mer- ill, advertising director of the Jour- nal, will continue and Monroe. Green - of the Sunday American advertising staff will be the local Journal ad- vertising manager. E. n. Coblentz,-editor,.and Jeroma K. Karpf, managing editor of the -American, reniala with the Hearst F.D.R. Casualties? The Hearst Journal-Amer- ican (N; Y.) merger, stemming from. S. E. C. objections in Washington, ©. C., and the re- cent merger of the Literary Di- gest-American Review of Re- 'views (to be called The Digest), aire pointed to, in publishing circles, as *Admi igtrati cas- ualties.' The it igest's erroneous poll on thie election Outcome, and. Hearst's aritiTRooseveltiari attitude prior tO the election,^ by ii , coincidence, both eh'cpun- ; tered complications withi the past" fortnight. . .'i.'.. organization, ■ yet-^ are^ 'tmas-. sighfed. BilF Ry^n, city feditbr bf 4he AmerieanV' Tjedom'es'Siiliday editor, Ti V; Ranck' reriiairts In. charge. Of the Mai-ch Events . Amster Spiro remains c- .the Journal-; American, ; Among rie American features: transferred to the journal are: B. C.! Forbes' jftnanciai column; Brpiadan Wall's Wall Street Commeht; Mailry Paul's 'Cholly Knickerb6cker'; iLou- ella Parsons'. Hollywood News, Ben- jamin de Casseres editorial comment; BrUnO Lessirtg's 'Vagabondia'; Bugs Baer, Sid Mercer, Dinty Doyle, Regina Crewe, who shifts! to doing a film column; and wjU be. associated with Rose Pelswick; jpsepliine Hughes, fashions; Alice -Hughes, shops; and John. McClain's *0.h the Gangplank.' Daily comics which go to the journal-American are Bringing tip Father, Skippy, Toots and Casper, Barney Google, Radio. Patrol, .King of ., the. Royal Mounted, and Little Miss 'Muffet. Journal features which appeal* in the Sunday American include Louis Sobol, who will do. .an. extra: daily chore: Bill Corum's sport's column; Bill Farnsworth's 'Sidewalks of New York'; Burris Jenkins, cartoonist; Dr. Lewis Haney, financial commentator; John Anderson, drama critic; Isaac Don Levine, editorial feature writer. Feature "Writers Among other personnel shifts and casualities are Florence Qsborn, bridge, and Ida Jean Kain, beauty, columnists, both out of the Ameri- can; Robert Garlandj aide to Regina Crewe on the American as film ..re- viewer, out; Coniiie, Miles, makeup editor .on: drama, women and society, oh: the American, moved, over, to mkkeup 'Cholly . Knickerbocker's page on the Journal; John Harkihs, Amer- ican amusement editor; to the Sunday American only, ditto job, while Jack Smith remai anius. ed of the Jpurnal-Amierican; Murray BoltinOff, American's asst. dramatic editor, goes to the Journal-American; Mike Porter, remaining with the Ameri- can Weekly, his major post, but re- lieved of the Journal's ra<Vo column, now that J. E. (Dinty) Doyle has been shifted over from the Ameri- can to the Journal. With the sports diepiartment of the Journal now overloaded with men, it is indicated that another shakc'-up will be made in about 30 days. Sid Mercer and James CannOri, both American sports columnists, have not been definitely assigned, although both ai'e said to have contracts and their columns are ruhning. Mercer ■ is considering the desk's suggestion that he tour with the. Yankee ball team,, ah. ideai; not: attractive to him since he has. been covering New York sports events for 20 years; Ed Frayne, sports , editor Of the Journal, offered to have the Hearst office buy his contract but no dice. He will handle the SUnday Ameri-r can's sports department; a one day per \yeek job.. William J. Slocum, one of the American's baseball men. and 'Stanley Lomax, who covered the Brooklyn, ball , outfit, are out; Former has. hot been out of a news^ paper job since 1904, while latter will retain his radio announcing con-: tract. rry Schumacher and Max Case, two hiore American baseball writers, have been assigned, former to. the Giants arid.latter to Brooklyn. Tom Thorp, the Journal's racing seiector. ■ out, with Ed Curley of the American having that assign- ment. Thorp's outside assignments inade lhat transfer comparatively simple. He receives $15,000 for managing the Empire track, and is a steward at the Rockingham track. Tliose posts, in addition to newspaper work and football officialing, have Front Page Analogy imilarlty of the newspaper cap- ture of Robert Irwin to circum- stances in the Hecht and Mac Arthur play, 'The Front Page,' was pointed out in dispatches from Chicago after his arrest therfe. In the play ah escaped murderer turns himself over to a criminal court rieporter for The Herald-Examitier and there is a great deal .of to do in. attempt to score a beat for the paper. Contrast to the Irwin case, however, is that in thC; play the atternpt fails, but in; this case truth beats out the fiction: version. : Irwin originaliy wanted to come to New York. and surrender to the Diaily Mirror, but was short $2, so went to Chicago and to Hearst's H-E.- Reason he gave was that the Mirror called him the 'mad geniiis' and other papers called him the 'rhad. murderer.' . Wincheli's Sunday night br9adcast two weeks .ago said that Harvey Deiiell, ntanaigihg editor of the 'Daily News,' .had Irwiii all sewed up and. would break an exclusive story shortly afterwards. He praised peueil for his enterprise in the Courie oiE' the broadcast, but Win- cheli's' own paper k.o.'d the predica- tion, ■ Wincheli's alibi in .his broadcast last Sunday for being Off in predic- tion was that the deal with the News fell through. iStrike itt Faiipei>9«« Pittsburgh was withbiut . a single daily newspaper for the fl'*"*^^ ♦'me in almost 200 years for two days last week when mailers of jail three sheets, Post-Gazette, iSun-Telegraph and Press, struc^ without warning. Union comprises' only 150 men, who demanded $1.20 more, daily for day wpi-k and. $1.50 for night.. Mailers had signed contract early last year which doesn't expire until January 1, 1936, and pubiishers ihi-. mediately suspended publication, choosing to. make strike a test case by calling attention to the refusal of labor organizations to carry out terms of their written agreements. Strikie was~ declared illegal by In- ternational Typographical Iloion, With Which 'mailers--are affiliated, and-members. were warned thiey Would, be suspended immediately upon a. refusal to return to Work. Beginning of strike was a sit-dqWn, biit Governor Earle of Pennsylvania warned mailers they would be rer garded as'common. trespassers and evicted if . they didn't leave and men immediately at>andoned the three buildings. Union officials, connected with. A.F.L., came into Pittsburgh and were about to fevokie' chartar and organize a new chapter hei:e, bar- ring all striking members, when mailers .voted to return to -work and reopen' negotiations with publishers when priesent. contract expires. Mail- ers picked a, psychological moment for their walk-put; on eve of Louis- Braddock fight,; when every sheet planned to have extras on the street, putting a stiff crimp iii circulation figures for the month. Newspai>ers presented the situa- tion to public by means of extensive radio announcements signed by all three sheets. Mailers countered once with a ilve-minute spot on one sta- tion night before strike Was settled, their only claim being that they wanted a 'decent living ^yage.' Pub- lishers believe that while suspension of two days was costly, it served its purpose in bringing to attention of public irresponsibility of unions in fulfilling contract terms. Whole thing was particularly timely in view of widespread labor unrest at moment. Newsies, Too Los Angeles, June 29, Newsboys here have fornled ai union ' under . jurisdictipn of the Committee fpr Industri Organization and Units are be- ing organized in all the down- town papers. Word is oiit that strike will be called unless circulation • departments meet demands for increased guaran- tees and reductipn in the whole- sale price of i>apers. CIO is said tp be urgiing that the newsies. peddle all the paperiS instead; of only one sheet, as now. First; hostilities are urtder- istood to have . been .planned against Hearst's Examiner. . igest's New Setat» Reshuffling of sta^s as a result of combo of Review of Reviews with the Literary Digest will result in only; One-third of the presient edi- torial staff of the Digest .moving over. First issue of the joint publication, titled The Digest, will be out July 17 with a run pf about 600,000. Albert Shaw, Sr., is editor, Albert Shaw, Jr-, publisher. Anot'her son, Rpger Shaw, is fpreign editor, the iiit. . :Pigest's 'fprei • department being but; ^ Howard FlOrance and David Page Will be joint managing editors, with Douglais LurtOh not \mpving PVer. Latter has made arrangements tp start a new pocket size mag in the fall. Wilfred J. Funk also has plans for . a new. magazine. . Morrill C|ody will . be art editor.;pf the Digest. Jack Hackett, whp has been pn several hews-weekly publications, and whp recently, left the Digest tp join staff Of Tbda'y and went put with that merger, finds himself back on'the combined publication via ah acrobatic turn, having joined staff of Review shortly befOre the sale. He remains with the new publica-r tion as news editor. . Others set for posts are John Bakeless, literary editor; Tom Krujg as national affairs editor, and Jimmy Wells as librarian. Latter was formerly, head- of the old World's librairy, but weht put after the combo with the Telegram. Merged papers will have.no drama critic, legit . being regafrded as a strictly-loc^l and New 'York activity, and of. national importance. Donita Ferguson, formerly on the New York 'Woman, will cover pic- tures f Or the mag. Whitney Bolton of the Morning Telegraph, who formerly covered both legit and films for the Digestr is out. Si^mund Spaeth' will be music critic, and RodloW Willard will continuie to do cartoons. Cover ; the issue for July IT wiii be done by Adolf Treid- ler. Included among those Who are out are Gug Hickok, Lester Zelie,. Jack' Campbell, Allan Finn, Alex Schlos- ser. Bill Parker, Robt. McQueen, Dorothy Walker, Mary Knight and Bernice Schrift. Latter Was asst. to the managing editor. Still others are Irene Stillman, Julie Rlera, Al- phonse Ponnietti and Harry Daugh-. terry. Sales price of the Digest was never announced, but is unofficially reported as in the neighborhood of $100,000. Only two or three of the business department employees are moving over to the new publication. earned him arbund $35,000 annually. While Thorp is a'craclc race selector,. understood he has not made a bet for' 15 years. Hearst's; Y. tabloid, the ily Mirror, gained chi the wire services, for news coverage, but the Journal received the major strength through the shifting of the . major features from the American. The: Mirror acquired; such American fea- tures as.Damon Runyon, Ripley, Ted Cook* 'Cook-Coos'; also Tillie the Toiler, and The Nebbs, daily comics, Prudence /Penny, food authority,^ Junioi"- Birdmeri, Bob ; COnsidine's sports column, and Gobi Behari Lai's: science column. Both the N. Y. Times and the Herald Tribune , have agreed not to issue an earlier bulldog; edition in attempt to grab up dirculation fpr- rnerly available to the N.Y; Ameri- can. Both papers wiil' continue as in the past, figuring that any increase in sale is for the most part 'ashcan circuiati , papers being tossed after a quickie glance. Leaves the fight for the field open to the tabs. Circular tion of the bulldog edition of the American was about 100,000. , Tacoma Sheet Folds Tacoma's oldest daily paper, an a.m. sheet, the Daily Ledgieiv has gone into mothballs for good. Frank Bak publisher, announced suspen- sion, which will affect about CO em- ployes. Paper-; Was established in 1880 as a weekly arid thr^e years later put on a daily garb;. Paper'was a trio coritbi TacOma News Tribune, Taccjma Daily Ledger and Tacoma Sunday Ledger> under one management.. News Tribune now goes to.a seven- day sheet; lih Sunday edition. Daily Ledger has had hard going for some tiriie. and its suspension was foreseen for several years. Very few changes were made- in the busi- ness .and editorial departments in the high brackets—the News Tribune absorbi ' Staff Cornelius Van Jr*; has lieen appointed to the regular edi- torial staff of Libei:ty Magazine, iri charge of big news eventsi Vanderbilt has been Lib's roving reporter on special features—the Spanish rebellion, the Coronation; otc.-^and while he will continuie to cover niost of this sort of stuff per- sonally, he will now also have an editorial say. on speical features. Fort Worth Fetes Scribes one pf .the biggest junkets of all times was held in Fort Worth. Texas, last Friday night (25) when the management of the Frontier Fiesta brought in 1,650 newspaper- men frorn all, o;yer the state for preview of the; show. Scribes were fed. at/the Casa Manani and saw a run-off of the show, with all ex- penses paiid to and from, their home towns. ight New Vork writers Were also brought in by air- They were Sid- ney Cairroll, tage; Lucius Beebe N. .. Y. Herald-Tri Johnny' Harki . N. Y. Sundaly American; George Tucker, Associated Press; Homer Strickler, N. Y. Sun; Fritz' Gorp, Life; Mary March, NeWs-'Week; Clifford New Yorkeri Guild Members Disapprove While, a number ■ ol people in the editorial department of the N. Y. Times joined the Newspaper Guild, since the latter joined Up .with. CIO, 30. have resigned from the Guild be- cause opposed, to it switching from He replied that he did not care' to discuss the issue until after return- ing from the conference pf news- paper publishers Chicagp this week. Wrong: White House Secretariat is burned at the. Acme and Associated Press photp departments', fpr;, sending: out pictures; ;of the Priesidential weiek- end outing. . No staff lensers were at the' party, but-.the services obtained pictures anyhow. Photographers from these services may be barred froni the Du iPont- Rposevelt wedding today (Wednes-- day).as a result, Raymond Everett (;Josh) Wilson, 56, Wichita Beacon editorial writer, died in Wesley Hospital at "Wichita, Kan., last week, following two weeks' illness from bronchial pneu- monia. J. Earl Clausen, 64, formei? assist- ant managing editor of the old New York World, died in Wickford, R. I., June 24. Since 1932 he conducted a column fOr the Providence Eve- ning Bulletin. Oemarest Lloyd, 54, former foreign and Washington correspondent for the Ch.ristian Science Monitor, died at his home in. Pennyfield, Md,, Jiine 24. He founded his own n>agazine, Affairs, in l93l. Meredith N. Stiles, 57, former New York daily newspaperman and. from 1926-28 foreign news editpr of the Asspciated Pre^sj died in Roch-. ester, N. Y., June He was in charge Of puiilications and cpntests fpr Eastman Kodak Company ;isince 1934. :Jphn R. McCurdy, former itts- burgh newspaper man and an'ad- vertising executive in the same city for several years, died in-Pittsburgh* Saturday (26), of pneumonia. Buried in the faihily plot at Canonsburg, Pa. McCurdy was the son of the late Dr. John R. McCurdy and Ber- nice Budke McCurdy, of. Dormont, Pa. John .H. Re?an, , ship news re- porter for the City News AsSoci tion for 15 years, ied in. Victori Tex., on June 28. Col. Louis A. Watres, 86, died i Scranton, Pa., on June 26. He was for 20 years publisher pf the Scran- ton Republican. Mohhis;L. Ernst arid, family sail for Europe this week. . Albert Weisbord'S >Cpnquest. Power' to be issued in Spanish. Clairence Day's 'Life; With Mother'- wiU/appear pbsthuinously in August. Jerome Weidmari dramatizing his novel, 'I Can Get It for. You 'Whole- sale,' Mack Miller; paper cartopnist, visiti wood. Andy Kelly, pic .ed of the Wash- irigton (p;.C) imes, iritervi iiig celebs on the Coast. Edwin Oimstead, forriier p.a. Columbi author of novel .'Nightly She due August. V John Steiribeck has written a short book titled' 'The Red Pony' dealing with incidents in his youth.. ' ited to 699 copies at $10 each. Herb Drake, drama reporter for the N.. Y, Herald Trib, and his wife, Dee towrance, will spend the sum- mer aboard their newly acquired sloop, Skipper Drake will coyer strawhat assignments for the Trib and Cue Mag. His wife is p.a. for Ciuilford's (Conn.) strawhat. , Be- lieved first navigating drama critic and seagoing p.au