Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [41]
Some say there is no radio activity in Chicago, either. Or TV activity. So far as network-originations are concerned, this is essentially true. But competition on the local scene, with four commercial TV stations, one educational station, and dozens of radio stations, is extremely lively and healthy. Chicago always will be a grooming ground for its hordes of talent, which will find its way to the greener pastures of Broadway and Hollywood.
4. Meet the Press, the Publishers, the Writers
Every newspaper that rolls off the presses in Chicago reflects the special personality that has always distinguished Chicago journalism. You can call it an inheritance from the colorful days immortalized in the Hecht-MacArthur play, The Front Page, but it is actually a reflection of the nonconformist spirit that has characterized the city from its beginnings. Either way you look at it, the fact remains that Chicago journalism is steeped in a rich tradition – a tradition that affects every one of us who works in a Chicago city room or covers a beat.
The period between the turn of the century and the late 1930s was a time of some of the wildest literary highjinks in newspaper history, and the most outrageous ruses and pranks of all were contrived by newspapermen in Chicago. “Every newspaper editor owes tribute to the devil,” said the French poet and fabulist La Fontaine. In the case of some Chicago editors, this aphorism seems almost an understatement.
Chicago dailies provided a fairgrounds for the literary antics of such outstanding newspapermen as Ring Lardner, Ben Hecht, Charles MacArthur, John Gunther, and Robert Casey. And also active on Chicago newspapers of the period were a number of major literary figures who are no longer thought of as reporters – Carl Sandburg, Ernest Hemingway, Sherwood Anderson, and Theodore Dreiser.
Today we have four downtown dailies: the Sun-Times and Daily News of Marshall Field IV, and the Tribune and Chicago’s American of the McCormick interests. In those early days, there were as many as nine newspapers on the streets at one time, all of them run by hard-drinking, hard-driving, not always ethical staffs who would do anything for a story – including stealing it.
The Post and Mail, a short-lived paper owned by the McMullen brothers, did just that – steal stories. Every day, shortly after the Daily News hit the streets, some of the News’ stories would turn up verbatim in the columns of the Post and Mail. Daily News publisher Melville Stone tried a number of unsuccessful expedients to stop this blatant plagiarism. Then, one day, he had an inspiration: in the middle of a legitimate story, describing a famine in Serbia, he planted this alleged comment from the Mayor of Belgrade:
“Er us siht la etsll iws nel lum cmeht!”
This, translated, was said to mean: “The municipality cannot aid.”
Just as Stone expected, the McMullens reprinted the story-word for word. Then Stone phoned the other Chicago papers to let them in on his hoax. Spelled backwards, he explained, the quote actually said:
“The McMullens will steal this sure!”
There were some reporters who captured, single-handed, public enemies and locked them in hotel rooms until their scoops were printed. It didn’t matter to these reporters that they were violating the law against harboring lawbreakers. Hecht and MacArthur used such an incident in the plot of The Front Page.
Other reporters carried out elaborate masquerades to get their stories. One novel adventure was the inspiration of Times managing editor Lou Ruppel; it was carried out by three of his staff photographers,