Editing Walter Winchell (section)

=== Underworld connections ===
[[File:"The Bard of Broadway" with Walter Winchell ad in The Film Daily, Jan-Jun 1932 (page 461 crop).jpg|left|thumb|262x262px|"The Bard of Broadway" with Walter Winchell ad in ''[[The Film Daily]]'', 1932]]
By the 1930s, Winchell was "an intimate friend of [[Owney Madden]], New York's no. 1 gang leader of the [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]] era,"<ref name="TBR">{{cite news
| title = Columny
| newspaper = [[Time (magazine)|TIME]]
| date = September 23, 1940
| url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802020,00.html
| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20081113142947/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802020,00.html
| url-status =dead
| archive-date =November 13, 2008
| access-date= October 17, 2011}}</ref> but in 1932 his intimacy with criminals caused him to fear he would be murdered. He fled to [[California]] and "returned weeks later with a new enthusiasm for law, [[G-Man (slang)|G-men]], [[Uncle Sam]], [and] [[Old Glory]]".<ref name="TBR" /> His coverage of the [[Lindbergh kidnapping]] and subsequent trial received national attention. Within two years, he befriended [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. He was responsible for turning [[Louis Buchalter|Louis "Lepke" Buchalter]] of [[Murder, Inc.]] over to Hoover.

His [[Column (periodical)|newspaper column]] was syndicated in a wide array of newspapers worldwide, and he was read by millions every day from the 1920s until the early 1960s. His Sunday night radio broadcast was heard by another 20 million people from 1930 to the late 1950s. In 1948, Winchell had the top-rated radio show when he surpassed [[Fred Allen]] and [[Jack Benny]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Bob |author-link=Bob Thomas (reporter)|title=Winchell |year=1971 |publisher= Doubleday|quote=His ranking among the most listened-to radio programs climbed higher and higher until in 1948 his audience was the biggest in radio. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajUrAAAAMAAJ&q=%22most-listened-to+radio+programs%22 }}</ref> One indicator of his popularity was being mentioned in [[Richard Rodgers]] and [[Lorenz Hart]]'s 1937 song "[[The Lady Is a Tramp]]": "I follow Winchell and read every line."<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/FuP2AlKEvy4 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190920220156/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP2AlKEvy4&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuP2AlKEvy4|title=The Lady Is a Tramp|last=Mary Martin – Topic|date=November 7, 2014|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>