43 Facts About Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator.

Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids.

Walter Winchell rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program.

Walter Winchell was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang.

Walter Winchell uncovered both hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics.

Walter Winchell was known for trading gossip, sometimes in return for his silence.

Walter Winchell damaged the reputation of Josephine Baker as well as others who had earned his enmity.

Walter Winchell returned to television in 1959 as the narrator of the 1930s-set crime drama series The Untouchables.

Walter Winchell was born in New York City, the son of Jennie and Jacob Walter Winchell, a cantor and salesman; they were Russian Jewish immigrants.

Walter Winchell served in the US Navy during World War I, reaching the rank of lieutenant commander.

Walter Winchell began his career in journalism by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards.

Walter Winchell joined the Vaudeville News in 1920, then left the paper for the Evening Graphic in 1924, where his column was named Mainly About Mainstreeters.

Walter Winchell was hired on June 10,1929, by the New York Daily Mirror, where he became the author of the first syndicated gossip column, On-Broadway.

Walter Winchell made his radio debut over WABC in New York, a CBS affiliate, on May 12,1930.

Walter Winchell switched to WJZ and the NBC Blue in 1932 for the Jergens Journal.

Walter Winchell fled to California and "returned weeks later with a new enthusiasm for law, G-men, Uncle Sam, [and] Old Glory".

Walter Winchell was responsible for turning Louis "Lepke" Buchalter of Murder, Inc over to Hoover.

In 1948, Walter Winchell had the top-rated radio show when he surpassed Fred Allen and Jack Benny.

Walter Winchell was one of the first commentators in America to attack Adolf Hitler and American pro-fascist and pro-Nazi organizations such as the German-American Bund, especially its leader Fritz Julius Kuhn.

Walter Winchell was a staunch supporter of President Franklin D Roosevelt and the New Deal throughout the Depression era, and frequently served as the Roosevelt Administration's mouthpiece in favor of interventionism as the European war crisis loomed in the late 1930s.

Subsequently, Walter Winchell began to denounce Communism as the main threat facing America.

Walter Winchell's program debuted on TV on October 5,1952.

Walter Winchell starred in The Walter Winchell File, a television crime drama series that initially aired from 1957 to 1958, dramatizing cases from the New York City Police Department that were covered in the New York Daily Mirror.

Walter Winchell had angered Paar several years earlier when he refused to retract an item alleging that Paar was having marital difficulties.

Hostess Elsa Maxwell appeared on the program and began gibing at Walter Winchell, accusing him of hypocrisy for waving the flag while never having voted [which, incidentally, wasn't true; the show later issued a retraction].

Walter Winchell became known for his attempts to destroy the careers of his political and personal enemies as his own career progressed, especially after World War II.

Walter Winchell was not above name-calling; for example, he called New York radio host Barry Gray "Borey Pink" and a "disk jerk".

Walter Winchell responded swiftly with a series of harsh public rebukes, including accusations of Communist sympathies.

Walter Winchell spurned any attempts by friends to mitigate the heated rhetoric.

Walter Winchell wrote in a style filled with slang and incomplete sentences.

Walter Winchell's casual writing style famously earned him the ire of mobster Dutch Schultz, who confronted him at New York's Cotton Club and publicly lambasted him for using the phrase "pushover" to describe Schultz's penchant for blonde women.

Walter Winchell's best known aphorisms include: "Nothing recedes like success" and "I usually get my stuff from people who promised somebody else that they would keep it a secret".

Walter Winchell wrote many of the signature one-liners, called "lasties", that Winchell used at the end of his radio broadcasts.

Walter Winchell divorced Greene in 1928, but never married Magee, although they lived together for the rest of their lives.

Walter Winchell announced his retirement on February 5,1969, citing his son's suicide as a major reason as well as the delicate health of his companion, June Magee.

Walter Winchell spent his final two years as a recluse at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

When Walter Winchell began gossiping in 1924 for the late scatological tabloid Evening Graphic, no US paper hawked rumors about the marital relations of public figures until they turned up in divorce courts.

In 1946, after the death from cancer of his close friend and fellow writer Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell appealed to his radio audience for contributions to fight the disease.

The response led Walter Winchell to establish the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund, since renamed the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Walter Winchell led the charity with the support of celebrities, including Marlene Dietrich, Bob Hope, Milton Berle, Marilyn Monroe, and Joe DiMaggio, until his death from cancer in 1972.

The piece is about a ruthless journalist, JJ Hunsecker, and is generally thought to be a thinly veiled commentary on the power Walter Winchell wielded at the height of his influence.

Walter Winchell is credited for coining the word "frienemy" in an article published by the Nevada State Journal on 19 May 1953.

Walter Winchell invented phrases viewed as slightly racy at the time.