Canada Lee — 4/2/1944 — Slum Corrals
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Gene Klavan’s “Ballad Of The Long Island Railroad was first published here in 2013.
The watercolor (above) by Tom Saunders is based on the photo (below) published in Arnie Passman’s book, “The Deejays,”* But, the woman in the painting is not the woman in the photo. Explanation, below.
As WNEW’s first Station Manager, Bernice Judis often dropped in on shows at any time of the day or night. In the photo above, she is seen during an after-midnight visit to “The Milkman’s Matinee” when it was hosted by Art Ford. (1942-1954) In an e-mail to long-time friend, and ‘NEW alum, ABC’s Bill Diehl, Saunders explained: “I read that Bernice Judis was the manager who fired Art Ford for playing too much ‘jazz and international’ music, so I purposely eliminated her and put in a blond groupie instead.” Saunders identified correctly the cause of Ford’s firing, but not his executioner. Judis retired from WNEW in 1954 after 20 years with the station, and about four years before Ford got word while in Europe in April, 1958, that his services were no longer desired.
John Crosby, was a columnist for The New York Herald Tribune from 1935 to 1941 and, after WWII military service, from 1946 to 1965.
He continued newspaper and novel writing into the mid-seventies, but is remembered best as the Tribune’s chief radio/TV critic during the 1950’s. This line of his about CBS-TV cancelling Edward R. Murrow’s “See It Now,” helps explain why Crosby was so well regarded: “See it Now… is by every criterion television’s most brilliant, most decorated, most imaginative, most courageous and most important program. The fact that CBS cannot afford it but can afford “Beat The Clock,”is shocking.” Another worthy observation of his concerned WNEW’s new, (1958) full-time news department and its “brash young news staff” whose news coverage was “busting out all over.” Read on.
The image above is a recreation of a 1959 John Crosby column as published in the New York Herald Tribune. Thanks to Bill Diehl for finding a copy of the original column in February 2012 and to Bob Gibson for the reminder that Mr. Crosby pounded out praise of WNEW on his portable typewriter, 60 years ago this month. E.B.
William B. Williams / Henri Rene’ “You Are The One”
For more about William O’ Shaughnessy, click on link below.
http://wvox.com/host-blogs/about-william-oshaughnessy/
Gabe Pressman has died. He was 93. NY1 reported that he died in his sleep.
Gabe worked New York’s main streets and back alleys with note pad, mic and camera for about 60 years with the World Telegram and Sun, WNBC and WNBC-TV. Reproduced below is our posting for Gabe for his 90th birthday in 2014.
