There is a payoff to listening to your father. In this case it was the recommendation to hunt down and obtain an out of print book titled "City Room" by Arthur Gelb. Gelb joined The New York Times as a night copyboy (the lowest professional position at the paper) in 1944 and retired as The New York Times Managing Director some 45 years later.
Gelb has written such a fine account that I wished he could have worked at The New York times for 100 years. Engaging, intriguing, fascinating and just plain enjoyable, Gelb's 45 years with the gray lady brought him into contact with great newsmakers, celebrities, and major pieces of our history. Throughout all, he brings the facts, the context, and the impact and operations of the paper into sharp focus -- all with a reporter's eye for detail and writing with the classic journalistic understanding that some editor might come by and slash half the column inches out of the story....so the impact, heat, and meaning all show up early in the narrative.
Name dropping is unavoidable....brought under the tutelage of the eminent editor, Abe Rosenthal, Gelb met, reported on, and mingled with the best and the brightest from the end of WWII to the Clinton White House. He was a copy boy, arts editor, news editor, Sunday supplement editor and just about everything else. He "discovered" Joe Papp, reported on Joe McCarthy, covered Nixon's resignation, helped publish the Pentagon Papers, joked with Marilyn Monroe and Tallulah Bankhead, exposed corruption in the New York City police force, and covered the Rosenberg's trial and execution.
Gelb is open and honest about the workings of The New York Times and that produces a phenomenally interesting view into how the news is dug up and reported. He does not shirk from criticism, most notably in his discussion about The Times timidity when it came to reporting on the Holocaust amidst worries about being viewed as "too Jewish" a paper. But he also covers the emergence of truth in reporting about rape, homosexuality (and how long it took to allow the word "gay" into print) and AIDS, as well as the struggle for ensuring women got a fair shot in the newsroom.
Truly this is a journey from a newsroom that was exclusively male -- complete with spittoons, typewriters, and guys monopolizing pay phones to the modern technology of reporting and competing with television and the internet. It is a fascinating journey and a simply terrific story well told.
While I typically shun and detest the quips on the back of the book extolling its virtues, in this case they are accurate. Charlayne Hunter-Gault said of City Room that is was, "a reminder of what it means to be the best", and Pete Hamill remarked that "a sense of intelligent innocence permeates this affectionate memoir." Both are quite correct -- and so was Dad.
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