Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [7]
These relationships often involve my family. As readers of my column know, this includes my lovely, red-haired wife Essee; our twenty-year-old daughter Karyn, now an actress in Hollywood; and our seventeen-year-old son Jerry, a student in the East. When there is a career setback, marital breakup, or any other problem among our celebrity friends, we feel it deeply. We understand the tremendous conflicts and pressures under which most celebrities labor.
Essee, for example, was one of the late Diana Barrymore’s dearest friends. She was one of the last to see alive this luckless member of the great acting family. It was during one of Essee’s trips to New York to see Karyn, then appearing in a play in the East. Diana, after having apparently conquered alcoholism, suffered a relapse. The cooling of her romance with Tennessee Williams and the loss of a role on which she had set her heart, the lead in the touring company of Sweet Bird of Youth, were too much for her to combat. Other problems were piling up. At one time during this visit, she told Essee, “You’re spending a week here with your daughter. Do you realize that’s more than I spent with my mother in a lifetime?”
One of the last things Essee did before leaving Diana was to remove a drink from her hand. But for the “poor little rich girl” who revealed everything in her autobiography, it was too little too late. We never have forgotten her.
From the outside looking in, a columnist’s job appears to be all glamour and glitter. It isn’t. There is also a good deal of hard work. Considerable responsibility is involved in writing a big-city column. Aside from reporting gossip, quips, and anecdotes, the columnist should make an effort to educate and inform readers on the important problems of the day. A column must have a conscience, and the columnist should be willing to take a stand on important issues. In my column you will find considerable critical comment about racial and religious bigotry, whether it occurs in Chicago or Little Rock. You will find items defending freedom of expression. (For years I have fought against Chicago’s notorious movie censorship.) You will also find items criticizing television for its failure to live up to its potentials. You will find me speaking out in favor of improved educational facilities, public health institutions, and prisons, even if this means higher taxation. And you will find me campaigning for tighter law enforcement – criticizing first those citizens who are so willing to corrupt policemen with bribes. And you will find me discussing the more intelligent approaches to our juvenile problems.
Another guideline, laid down by my first editor, Mr. Finnegan, is that a column, like a newspaper, must have a “heart.” This means a willingness to take time to help the less fortunate members of society, the sick and the poor. In the past two decades the list of causes in “Kup’s Column” has been, I think, a lengthy one. It includes veterans’ welfare, funds to further medical research and to help the widows and children of firemen and policemen. Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been raised through the column, with the help of various show-business celebrities.
Chicago is a big and bustling city. I am only one human being (though at six foot one, weighing 210, a large one). How can I possibly cover it and the rest of my beat, which extends to the Sputniks and beyond?
It’s a race, and it usually goes like this:
Every morning at 7:30 I get a wake-up call from the Sun-Times switchboard. My apartment, near Lincoln Park on the North Side, is a ninth-floor hideaway of nine rooms, containing eleven phones, four TV