Editing Walter Winchell

{{Short description|American gossip reporter (1897–1972)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2013}}
{{Infobox person
|image           =Walter Winchell 1960.JPG
|caption         =Winchell in 1960
|birth_date      = {{birth date|1897|4|7|mf=y}}
|birth_place     = New York City, U.S.
| occupation     = {{hlist|Journalist|broadcaster}}
|death_date      = {{death date and age|1972|2|20|1897|4|7|mf=y}}
|death_place     = [[Los Angeles]], California, U.S.
|resting_place   =[[Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery]]
|spouse          ={{marriage|Rita Greene|1919|1928|end= divorced}}
|domestic_partner=June Magee (1928-1970)
|children        =3
}}

'''Walter Winchell''' (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American [[newspaper]] [[gossip columnist]] and [[News broadcasting|radio news]] commentator. Originally a [[vaudeville]] performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloids]]. He rose to national [[celebrity]] in the 1930s with [[Hearst Communications|Hearst]] newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy [[staccato]] news briefs, [[Joke|jokes]], and [[Jazz Age]] slang. Biographer [[Neal Gabler]] claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into a form of entertainment".<ref name="PBS" />

He uncovered both [[Infotainment#Journalism|hard news]] and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition era]] underworld, then in law enforcement and politics. He was known for trading gossip, sometimes in return for his silence. His outspoken style made him both feared and admired. Novels and movies were based on his wisecracking gossip columnist persona, as early as the play and film ''[[Blessed Event]]'' in 1932. As [[World War II]] approached in the 1930s, he attacked the appeasers of [[Nazism]], then in the 1950s aligned with [[Joseph McCarthy]] in his campaign against [[Communism|communists]]. He damaged the reputation of [[Josephine Baker]] as well as others who had earned his enmity.

He returned to television in 1959 as the narrator of the 1930s-set crime drama series ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]''.<ref name=britannica>{{cite encyclopedia |date=February 14, 2018 |access-date=<!-- 2018-03-11 --> March 11, 2018 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Winchell |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |title=Walter Winchell, American journalist}}</ref> Over the years he appeared in more than two dozen films and television productions as an actor, sometimes playing himself.

== Early life==
Winchell was born in [[New York City]], the son of Jennie (Bakst) and Jacob Winchell, a cantor and salesman; they were Russian Jewish immigrants.<ref name=ANB>{{cite book |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1602802?rskey=bjfCVl&result=24 |author-link=Thomas C. Leonard |first=Thomas C. |last=Leonard |title=Winchell, Walter |work=American National Biography Online |date=1999 |isbn=978-0-19-860669-7 |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1602802 |access-date=March 11, 2018}}</ref> He left school in the sixth grade and started performing in [[Gus Edwards (vaudeville)|Gus Edwards]]'s [[vaudeville]] troupe the Newsboys Sextet, which also featured [[Eddie Cantor]] and [[George Jessel (actor)|George Jessel]].<ref name="ANB" /> During this time, Winchell performed as a tapdancer.<ref>Gottfried, Gilbert, host. “Howard Storm and Steve Soltair” ''Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast, Starburn,'' 3 Feb. 2020, http://traffic.megaphone.fm/STA9864432424.mp3</ref> He served in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]] during [[World War I]], reaching the rank of [[Lieutenant commander (United States)|lieutenant commander]].<ref name=britannica /><ref>[https://www.wellesnet.com/70-years-ago-orson-welles%E2%80%99-patriotism-military-service-made-headlines/ 70 years ago: Orson Welles’ patriotism, military service made headlines.] wellesnet.com. Retrieved May 17, 2020.</ref>

== Professional career == 
Winchell began his career in journalism by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards. He joined the ''Vaudeville News'' in 1920, then left the paper for the ''[[New York Graphic|Evening Graphic]]'' in 1924, where his column was named ''Mainly About Mainstreeters''. He was hired on June 10, 1929, by the ''[[New York Daily Mirror]]'', where he became the author of the first syndicated gossip column,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Age of Winchell |url=http://www.evesmag.com/winchell.htm |first1=Ralph D. |last1=Gardner |year=2001 |access-date=February 19, 2015}}</ref> ''On-Broadway''. The column was syndicated by [[King Features Syndicate]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.nypl.org/the/21480 |title=Walter Winchell papers, 1920–1967 |website= [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]]}}</ref>

He made his radio debut over [[WCBS (AM)|WABC]] in New York, a [[CBS]] affiliate, on May 12, 1930.<ref name="Dunning">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fi5wPDBiGfMC&pg=PA708 |last=Dunning |first=John |author-link=John Dunning (detective fiction author) |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3 |pages=708–710 |edition=Revised |access-date=2019-09-09}}</ref> The show, ''Saks on Broadway'', was a 15-minute feature that provided business news about Broadway. He switched to WJZ (later renamed [[WABC (AM)|WABC]]) and the [[Blue Network|NBC Blue]] (later [[Cumulus Media Networks|ABC Radio]]) in 1932 for the ''Jergens Journal''.<ref name="Dunning" /><ref name="WVobit">Obituary ''[[Variety Obituaries|Variety]]'', February 23, 1972, p. 71.</ref>

Walter Winchell's radio-acting career included an episode of ''[[Lux Radio Theatre]]'', when on June 28, 1937 he played the role of newspaper reporter Hildy Johnson in a one-hour adaptation of ''[[The Front Page]]''.<ref name="Youngstown Vindicator">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=0d5RAAAAIBAJ&pg=1306%2C5727738 |title="Radio Theater" Signs Amelia Earhart for Talk |page=22 |newspaper=Youngstown Vindicator |date=1937-06-28 |access-date=2025-02-11 }}</ref>

=== 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>

=== Outspoken views ===
Winchell was one of the first commentators in America to attack [[Adolf Hitler]] and American pro-[[Fascism|fascist]] and pro-Nazi organizations such as the [[German-American Bund]], especially its leader [[Fritz Julius Kuhn]]. He 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.<ref name="PBS" /> Early on, he denounced American isolationists as appeasing Hitler, and explicitly attacked such prominent isolationists as [[Charles Lindbergh]], whom he dubbed "The Lone Ostrich", and [[Gerald L.K. Smith]], whom he denounced as "Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith". Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Winchell was also an outspoken supporter of [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] for African Americans, and frequently attacked the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and other racist groups as supporting un-American, pro-German goals.

During World War II, he attacked the [[National Maritime Union]], the labor organization for the civilian [[United States Merchant Marine]], which he said was run by Communists, instancing West Coast labor leader [[Harry Bridges]].<ref>"Liberty Ships" 1995 [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS) documentary</ref> In 1948 and 1949, he and influential columnist [[Drew Pearson (journalist)|Drew Pearson]] attacked [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[James Forrestal]] in columns and radio broadcasts.<ref>[http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14496-4/cbss-don-hollenbeck/excerpt ''CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135419/http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14496-4/cbss-don-hollenbeck/excerpt |date=October 6, 2014 }}, Loren Ghiglione, 2008, Chapter 16</ref>

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

=== Television ===
During the 1950s, Winchell supported Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]'s quest to identify Communists in the entertainment industry. His weekly radio broadcast was broadcast on ABC television on the same day. His program debuted on TV on October 5, 1952. Sponsored by Gruen Watch Company, it originated from [[WABC-TV|WJZ-TV]] from 6:45 to 7 p.m. ET.<ref>{{cite journal |title=This Week – Network Debuts, Highlights, Changes |journal=Ross Reports on Television |date=October 5, 1952 |volume=4 |issue=5 |page=1, Supplement B |url=https://archive.org/details/rossreportstele25ross/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=January 23, 2022}}</ref> By 1953,<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/86037989/winchell-starts-22nd-year/ Winchell Starts 22nd Year] Fort Worth Star-Telegram. December 6, 1953.</ref> his radio and television broadcasts were simulcast until he ended that association because of a dispute with ABC executives in 1955. He 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''. In 1956, he signed with NBC to host a variety program called ''[[The Walter Winchell Show]]'', which was canceled after only 13 weeks—a particularly bitter failure in view of the success of his longtime rival [[Ed Sullivan]] in a similar format with ''[[The Ed Sullivan Show]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gabler |first=Neal |title=Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity |publisher=Knopf |year=1994 |pages=434–435 | isbn=0-679-41751-6}}</ref> ABC rehired him in 1959 to narrate ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]'' for four seasons. In 1960, a revival of the 1955 television simulcast of Winchell's radio broadcast was canceled after six weeks.

In the early 1960s, a public dispute with [[Jack Paar]] effectively ended Winchell's career—already in decline due to a shift in power from print to television.<ref>''[[Pioneers of Television]]'': "Late Night" episode (2008 [[Public Broadcasting Service|PBS]] mini-series) <blockquote>"Paar's feud with newspaper columnist Walter Winchell marked a major turning point in American media power. No one had ever dared criticize Winchell because a few lines in his column could destroy a career, but when Winchell disparaged Paar in print, Paar fought back and mocked Winchell repeatedly on the air. Paar's criticisms effectively ended Winchell's career. The tables had turned, now TV had the power."</blockquote></ref> Winchell had angered Paar several years earlier when he refused to retract an item alleging that Paar was having marital difficulties. Biographer [[Neal Gabler]] described the exchange on [[Tonight Show with Jack Paar|Paar's show]] in 1961:

<blockquote>Hostess [[Elsa Maxwell]] appeared on the program and began gibing at Walter, accusing him of hypocrisy for waving the flag while never having voted [which, incidentally, wasn't true; the show later issued a retraction]. Paar joined in. He said Walter's column was "written by a fly" and that his voice was so high because he wears "too-tight underwear" … [H]e also told the story of the mistaken item about his marriage, and cracked that Walter had a "hole in his soul".{{sfn|Gabler|1994|pages=362–363}}</blockquote>

On subsequent programs, Paar called Winchell a "silly old man" and cited other examples of his underhanded tactics.{{sfn|Gabler|1994|pages=364}} No one had previously criticized Winchell publicly, but by then his influence had eroded to the point that he could not effectively respond. The ''New York Daily Mirror'', his flagship newspaper for 34 years, closed in 1963; his readership dropped steadily, and he faded from the public eye.{{sfn|Gabler|1994|pages=420–435}}

=== Personal ethics ===
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. Favorite tactics were allegations of having ties to Communist organizations and accusations of sexual impropriety.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabler|1994}} chap 8–9.</ref> He was not above name-calling; for example, he called New York radio host [[Barry Gray (radio)|Barry Gray]] "Borey Pink" and a "disk jerk".<ref>{{cite magazine
| url=http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,817546,00.html
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050505144022/http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,817546,00.html
| url-status=dead
| archive-date=May 5, 2005
|magazine = Time
| title = The Press: Feud Days
| date = December 8, 1952
| access-date = May 27, 2010}}</ref> Winchell heard that Marlen Edwin Pew of the trade journal ''[[Editor & Publisher]]'' had criticized him as a bad influence and called him "Marlen Pee-you".<ref name="TBR" />

For most of his career, his contracts with newspaper and radio employers required them to [[indemnity|hold him harmless]] from any damages resulting from lawsuits for [[Defamation|slander or libel]].<ref>{{harvnb|Gabler|1994}} noted in several places in the book.</ref> He unapologetically published material told to him in confidence by friends; when confronted over such betrayals, he typically responded, "I know—I'm just a son of a bitch."<ref name="TBR" /> By the mid-1950s, he was widely seen as arrogant, cruel, and ruthless.<ref>{{harvnb|Gabler|1994}} chap 8–10.</ref>

While on an American tour in 1951, [[Josephine Baker]], who never performed before segregated audiences, criticized the [[Stork Club]]'s unwritten policy of discouraging black patrons, then scolded Winchell, an old ally, for not rising to her defense. Winchell responded swiftly with a series of harsh public rebukes, including accusations of Communist sympathies.<ref name="PBS" /> He spurned any attempts by friends to mitigate the heated rhetoric. The ensuing publicity resulted in the termination of Baker's work visa, forcing her to cancel all her engagements and return to France. It was almost a decade before U.S. officials allowed her back into the country. The adverse publicity of this, and similar incidents, undercut his credibility and power.<ref>Hinckley, David (9 November 2004). [http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/firestorm-incident-stork-club-1951-article-1.571278 "Firestorm Incident at The Stork Club, 1951"]. ''New York Daily News''. Retrieved 29 February 2016.</ref>

In his radio and television broadcasts on April 4, 1954, Winchell helped stoke public fear of the polio vaccine. He said, "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America ... and all the ships at sea. Attention everyone. In a few moments I will report on a new polio vaccine claimed to be a polio cure. It may be a killer." Winchell claimed that the U.S. Public Health Services found live polio viruses in seven of ten vaccine batches it tested, reporting, "It killed several monkeys ... the United States Public Health Service will confirm this in about 10 days." [[Jonas Salk]], developer of the polio vaccine, immediately responded that the vaccine, which had been recently tested on 7,500 schoolchildren at the University of Pittsburgh, had been triple tested for the absence of live virus by its manufacturers, the National Institutes of Health, and his own research lab, and that similar testing would continue to screen out batches containing live virus.<ref>Barcousky, Len (12 April 2020). [https://www.post-gazette.com/local/pittsburgh-history/2014/04/13/Eyewitness-1954-Legendary-broadcaster-Watlter-Winchell-warns-of-killer-vaccine-for-polio/stories/201404130067 "Legendary broadcaster Watlter Winchell warns of 'killer' vaccine for polio"] ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette''. Retrieved 1 September 2021.</ref>

== Style ==
Many other columnists began to write gossip soon after Winchell's initial success, such as [[Ed Sullivan]], who succeeded him at the ''[[New York Graphic|New York Evening Graphic]]'', and [[Louella Parsons]] in Los Angeles. He wrote in a style filled with slang and incomplete sentences. 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.<ref>Sann, Paul. "Kill the Dutchman!"</ref> 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".

Herman Klurfeld, a ghostwriter for Winchell for almost three decades, began writing four newspaper columns per week for Winchell in 1936 and worked for him for 29 years. He also wrote many of the signature one-liners, called "lasties", that Winchell used at the end of his radio broadcasts. One of Klurfeld's quips was "She's been on more laps than a napkin". In 1952, the ''[[New York Post]]'' revealed that Klurfeld was Winchell's ghostwriter.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/25/nyregion/25klurfeld.html|title=Herman Klurfeld, 90, Dies; Wrote Winchell Columns and Quips|date=December 25, 2006|website=The New York Times|access-date=October 29, 2017|url-access=limited}}</ref> Klurfeld later wrote a biography of Winchell, ''Winchell, His Life and Times'', the basis for the television film ''[[Winchell (film)|Winchell]]'' (1998).

Winchell opened his radio broadcasts by pressing randomly on a [[telegraph key]], a sound that created a sense of urgency and importance, and using the catchphrase "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press." He then read each of his stories with a staccato delivery (up to a rate of 197 words per minute, though he claimed a speed of well over 200 words per minute in an interview in 1967),<ref>{{cite book|last=Wallace|first=David|title=Capital Of The World|year=2011|publisher=Lyons Press|location=Guildford, CN|isbn=978-0-7627-7010-6|page=[https://archive.org/details/capitalofworldpo0000wall/page/79 79]|url=https://archive.org/details/capitalofworldpo0000wall |url-access=registration}}</ref> noticeably faster than the typical pace of American speech. His diction can also be heard in his breathless narration of the television series ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]'' (1959–1963), as well as in several Hollywood films.

== Personal life ==
On August 11, 1919, Winchell married Rita Greene, one of his onstage partners. The couple separated a few years later, and he moved in with Elizabeth June Magee, who had already adopted daughter Gloria and given birth to her and Winchell's first child Walda in 1927.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/18/books/books-of-the-times-of-winchell-and-the-power-of-gossip.html |last1=Gabler |first1=Neal |title=Walter Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity |newspaper=The New York Times |date=1994 |ref=CITEREFGabler1994b |location=New York|pages=98–99|access-date=July 5, 2017 |url-access=limited}}</ref> Winchell divorced Greene in 1928, but never married Magee, although they lived together for the rest of their lives.

Winchell and Magee had three children. Daughter Gloria died of pneumonia at age nine and Walda spent time in [[psychiatric hospital]]s.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/18/arts/he-turned-gossip-into-tawdry-power-walter-winchell-who-climbed-high-fell-far.html?pagewanted=2|title=He Turned Gossip Into Tawdry Power; Walter Winchell, Who Climbed High and Fell Far, Still Scintillates|author=Weinraub, Bernard|date=November 18, 1998|website=The New York Times|access-date=February 5, 2015|url-access=limited}}</ref> Walter Jr. died by suicide in the family garage on Christmas night of 1968.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1723361/winchell_son_suicide/|title=Winchell's son suicide victim|publisher=Terre Haute Tribune|page=3|date=December 26, 1968|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref> Having spent the previous two years on welfare, Walter Jr. had last been employed as a dishwasher in [[Santa Ana, California]]; for a time, he wrote a column in the ''[[Los Angeles Free Press]]'', an [[underground newspaper]] published from 1964 to 1978.<ref>{{cite news
| title = Milestones
| work = Time Magazine
| date = January 3, 1969
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900521,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081214135536/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900521,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = December 14, 2008
| access-date = October 17, 2011
}}</ref>

== Later years ==
[[File:Phoenix-Greenwood Memory Lawn-Walter Winchell.JPG|thumb|250px| Grave site of Walter Winchell in Greenwood Memory Lawn]]
In the 1960s, Winchell wrote some columns for the film magazine ''[[Photoplay]]''.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/photoplayjanjun100macf_18/page/10/mode/2up/search/winchell|first=Walter |last=Winchell |magazine=Photoplay|title=The Midnight World of Walter Winchell|date=June 1963|pages=11–15|publisher=New York, MacFadden Publications|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> He 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. Exactly one year after his retirement, Magee died at a hospital in [[Phoenix, Arizona]], while undergoing treatment for a heart condition.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1723302/june_winchell_death/|title=Mrs. Winchell dies; services set Monday|date=February 7, 1970|newspaper=The Arizona Republic|page=85|access-date=February 5, 2015|via = [[Newspapers.com]]}} {{Open access}}</ref>

Winchell spent his final two years as a recluse at the [[Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)|Ambassador Hotel]] in Los Angeles.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wallace|first1=David|title=Capital of the World: A Portrait of New York City in the Roaring Twenties|date=2012|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-7627-6819-6|page=88}}</ref> He died at age 74 in Los Angeles and is buried at [[Greenwood/Memory Lawn Mortuary & Cemetery]] in Phoenix.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,,910224,00.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204143240/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,,910224,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=February 4, 2013|title=Mrs. Winchell's Little Boy|date=March 26, 1972|work=Time Magazine|access-date=October 17, 2011}}</ref> [[Larry King]], who replaced Winchell at the ''[[Miami Herald]]'', recalled:

<blockquote>He was so sad. You know what Winchell was doing at the end? Typing out mimeographed sheets with his column, handing them out on the corner. That's how sad he got. When he died, only one person came to his funeral: his daughter.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Garvin |first1=Glenn |title=King reflects on his 50 years in broadcasting |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2007-01-25-0701240452-story.html |access-date=October 18, 2020 |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=January 25, 2007}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Several of Winchell's former co-workers expressed a willingness to go but were turned back by Walda.{{sfn|Gabler|1995|page=549}}

=== Filmography ===
{|class="wikitable"
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1930
| ''The Bard on Broadway'' (Short)
| Himself
| Film debut
|-
|1933
|I Know Everybody and Everybody's Racket (Short)
|Himself
|{{Efn|1=While the film's copyright was [https://archive.org/details/catalogofcopyr3141213libr/page/112/mode/1up?view=theater&q=everybody registered in 1933], the physical print has a 1932 date attached to it. The work will enter the public domain based on the 1932 date}}
|-
| rowspan=2|1933
| ''Beauty on Broadway'' (Short)
| Himself
|
|-
| ''[[Broadway Thru a Keyhole]]''
| Himself
| Also writer
|-
| rowspan=2|1937
| ''[[Wake Up and Live]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| ''[[Love and Hisses]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| 1947
| ''[[Daisy Kenyon]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| 1949
| ''[[Sorrowful Jones]]''
| Himself
| Voice, uncredited
|-
| 1955
| ''[[There's No Business Like Show Business (film)|There's No Business Like Show Business]]''
| Himself
| Voice, uncredited
|-
| 1956
| ''[[The Walter Winchell Show]]''
| Himself
| 3 episodes
|-
| rowspan=4|1957
| ''[[A Face in the Crowd (film)|A Face in the Crowd]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| ''[[Beau James]]''
| Narrator
|
|-
| ''[[The Helen Morgan Story]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| ''[[Telephone Time]]''
| Himself
| 1 episode
|-
| 1957–1959
| ''[[The Walter Winchell File]]''
| Himself/host/'Two Gun' Crowley
|
|-
| 1959
| ''[[Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse]]''
| Narrator
| Voice, 3 episodes
|-
| 1959–1963
| ''[[The Untouchables (1959 TV series)|The Untouchables]]''
| Narrator
| Voice, 119 episodes
|-
| rowspan=2|1960
| ''[[The Bellboy]]''
| Narrator
| Voice, uncredited
|-
| ''[[College Confidential (film)|College Confidential]]''
| Himself
|
|-
| 1961
| ''Dondi''
| Himself
|
|-
| 1962
| ''Wild Harvest''
| Narrator
| Voice
|-
|-
| 1964
| ''[[Valentine's Day (TV series)|Valentine's Day]]''
| Radio Announcer
| Voice, 1 episode
|-
| 1966
| ''[[The Lucy Show]]''
| Narrator
| Voice
|-
| 1967
| ''The Kraft Music Hall''
| Himself
|
|-
| rowspan=2|1968
| ''[[Single Room Furnished]]''
| Himself
| Uncredited
|-
| ''[[Wild in the Streets]]''
| Himself
| Final film, uncredited
|}

== Legacy ==
Even during Winchell's lifetime, journalists were critical of his effect on the media. In 1940, [[St. Clair McKelway]], who had earlier written a series of articles about him in ''[[The New Yorker]]'', wrote in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'':

<blockquote>the effect of Winchellism on the standards of the press... When Winchell began gossiping in 1924 for the late scatological tabloid ''Evening Graphic'', no U.S. paper hawked rumors about the marital relations of public figures until they turned up in divorce courts. For 16 years, gossip columns spread until even the staid ''New York Times'' whispered that it heard from friends of a son of the President that he was going to be divorced. In its first year, ''The Graphic'' would have considered this news not fit to print... Gossip-writing is at present like a [[spirochete]] in the body of journalism... Newspapers... have never been held in less esteem by their readers or exercised less influence on the political and ethical thought of the times.<ref name="TBR" /></blockquote>

Winchell responded, "Oh stop! You talk like a high-school student of journalism."<ref name="TBR" />

Despite the controversy surrounding Winchell, his popularity allowed him to leverage support for causes he valued. In 1946, after the death from cancer of his close friend and fellow writer [[Damon Runyon]], Winchell appealed to his radio audience for contributions to fight the disease. The response led Winchell to establish the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund, since renamed the [[Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation]]. He 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.

In 1950, [[Ernest Lehman]], a former publicity writer for Irving Hoffman of ''[[The Hollywood Reporter]]'', wrote a story for ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' titled "Tell Me About It Tomorrow". The piece is about a ruthless journalist, J.J. Hunsecker, and is generally thought to be a thinly veiled commentary on the power Winchell wielded at the height of his influence. It was made into the 1957 film ''[[Sweet Smell of Success]]'', with a screenplay by Lehman and [[Clifford Odets]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/film/holdings/lehman/chronology/|title=Ernest Lehman Chronology|website=www.hrc.utexas.edu}}</ref>

Walter Winchell is credited for coining the word "[[frienemy]]" in an article published by the ''[[Nevada State Journal]]'' on 19 May 1953.<ref>{{cite news |first=Walter |last=Winchell |author-link=Walter Winchell |title=Howz about calling the Russians our Frienemies? |work=[[Reno Gazette-Journal|Nevada State Journal]] |date=19 May 1953}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Lucy |last=Cavendish |author-link=Walter Winchell|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/8250216/The-best-of-frenemies.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/sex/8250216/The-best-of-frenemies.html |archive-date=January 12, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=The best of frenemies|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=17 January 2011 |access-date=August 11, 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

== Winchellism and Winchellese ==
Winchell's colorful and widely imitated language inspired the term "Winchellism."<ref>{{cite journal | last=Kuethe | first =J. Louis | title =Johns Hopkins Jargon | journal =American Speech |volume=7 |issue=5 | pages =327–338 |date=June 1932 | doi=10.2307/452954| jstor =452954 }}</ref> An etymologist of his day said, "Winchell has achieved the position of dictator of contemporary slang."<ref name="Beath">{{cite journal | last =Beath | first =Paul Robert | title =Winchellese | journal =American Speech |volume=7 |issue=1 |date=October 1931 | pages =44–46 | doi=10.2307/451313| jstor =451313 }}</ref> His use of slang, innuendo, and invented euphemisms also protected him from libel accusations.<ref name="PBS" />

Winchell invented phrases viewed as slightly racy at the time. Some of the expressions for falling in love Winchell used were "pashing it", "sizzle for", "that way", "go for each other", "garbo-ing it", "uh-huh"; and in a similar vein, "new [[Greta Garbo|Garbo]], trouser-crease-eraser", and "pash". Some Winchellisms for marriage are "middle-aisle it", "altar it", "handcuffed", "[[Wedding March (Mendelssohn)|Mendelssohn March]]", "[[Lohengrin (opera)|Lohengrin]] it", and "merged".<ref name="Beath" />

== In popular culture ==
* [[Buddy Greco]] in 1960 recorded an updated version of the 1937 [[Rodgers and Hart]] song "The Lady is a Tramp" to include several 1950s cultural references. Among the lady's peculiar habits and attitudes listed in the lyrics, Greco adds "Why, she even reads Walter Winchell and understands every line. That’s why the lady is a tramp."
* The song "Let's Fly Away" from the 1930 [[Cole Porter]] musical [[The New Yorkers]] includes the lines "Let's fly away, and find a land that's so provincial, we'll never hear what Walter Winchell might be forced to say."
*[[Lee Tracy]] starred in the 1932 movie ''[[Blessed Event]]'' as a thinly-disguised version of Winchell. The movie's title refers to Winchell's way of describing a pregnancy/birth on his radio broadcast.
* Winchell was a character in the 1992 movie ''[[Citizen Cohn]]''.
* [[Groucho Marx]] did a Winchell parody in the 1932 [[Marx Brothers]] movie ''[[Horse Feathers]]''. It included burlesques of Winchell's use of the phrase 'blessed event', his radio sign-off of "O.K., America!", and his use of a toy siren whistle on the program to punctuate items.
* Winchell starred as himself in the movie ''[[Wake Up and Live]]'' (1937)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/walter-winchell/|access-date=October 29, 2017|title=Walter Winchell|date=February 21, 1971|work=Los Angeles Times}}</ref> and its follow-up, ''[[Love and Hisses]]'' (1937).
* In the [[Warner Brothers]] cartoon ''[[Porky's Movie Mystery]]'' (1939), a radio announcer at the beginning of the short identifies himself as "Walter Windshield."
* Waldo Winchester, newspaper scribe, was a recurring figure in [[Damon Runyon]]'s fiction.
* In the film ''[[Sweet Smell of Success]]'', [[Burt Lancaster]] plays J. J. Hunsecker, a tyrannical gossip columnist widely understood by audiences at the time to be based on Winchell.
*In [[Robert Heinlein]]'s 1961 novel ''[[Stranger in a Strange Land]]'', characters refer to syndicated columnist Ben Caxton as a "winchell", the lower case indicating that in the future world of the novel, "winchell" had become a [[common noun]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Heinlein|first=Robert|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p9UiDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT217|title=Stranger in a Strange Land|publisher=Penguin (original 1961 publisher Putman's)|year=2016|isbn=978-0-14-311162-7|page=190|access-date=February 5, 2020}}</ref>
* He was caricatured as a bird in the [[Warner Brothers]] cartoons ''[[The Coo-Coo Nut Grove]]'' and ''[[The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos]]'' in 1936 and 1937 respectively.
* Longtime San Francisco gossip columnist [[Herb Caen]] used Winchell as a model, calling the style 'three dot journalism'.
*Winchell is listed in the first verse (concerning the 1950s) of [[Billy Joel]]'s 1989 song, "[[We Didn't Start the Fire]]", between ''[[South Pacific (1958 film)|South Pacific]]'' and [[Joe DiMaggio]].
* Winchell was portrayed by [[Vaughn Meader]] in the 1975 crime biopic ''[[Lepke (film)|Lepke]]'' starring [[Tony Curtis]].
*In 1991, Winchell was portrayed by [[Craig T. Nelson]] in the HBO biopic ''[[The Josephine Baker Story]]''.
*The HBO biopic ''[[Winchell (film)|Winchell]]'' (1998) stars [[Stanley Tucci]] in the title role and [[Paul Giamatti]] as Herman Klurfeld, his sidekick and ghostwriter.
* In [[Douglas Kennedy (writer)|Douglas Kennedy]]'s novel ''The Pursuit of Happiness '' (2001), Winchell appears in connection with McCarthyism.
* Winchell has a major role in [[Philip Roth]]'s ''[[The Plot Against America]]'' (2004, adapted as [[The Plot Against America (miniseries)|miniseries]] 2020), an alternate history novel that depicts Charles Lindbergh winning the 1940 presidential election.
* In the 1991 film ''[[Oscar (1991 film)|Oscar]]'', [[Sylvester Stallone]]'s character asks, "Why don't you phone it in to Walter Winchell?"
*In the 2001 musical ''[[The Producers (musical)|The Producers]]'' and its 2005 [[The Producers (2005 film)|film adaptation]], [[Matthew Broderick]]'s character mentions wanting to "read my name in Winchell's column."
* In the second season of television series ''[[Fargo (TV series)|Fargo]]'', released in 2015, Betsy Solverson tells her husband "Good night, Mr Solverson" and Lou replies "Good night, Mrs. Solverson—and all the ships at sea," paraphrasing how Winchell introduced his radio broadcasts.
* In 2020, ''Walter Winchell: The Power Of Gossip,'' an episode of ''[[American Masters]]'' on [[PBS]],<ref name="PBS">{{cite news |last1=Robinson |first1=Jennifer |title=American Masters: Walter Winchell: The Power Of Gossip |url=https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/oct/19/american-masters-walter-winchell-power-gossip/ |access-date=21 October 2020 |publisher=PBS |date=19 October 2020}}</ref> profiled Winchell, touching on his career, connections, and controversy.

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
{{notelist}}

== Further reading ==
* Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''[[The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows]]''.
* {{cite encyclopedia |last1=Dunning |first1=John |title=On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |edition=1st |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-507678-3}}
* {{cite book |first1=Neal |last1=Gabler | author-link=Neal Gabler |title=Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity |publisher=Vintage |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-679-76439-7}}
* {{cite book |first1= Herman |last1=Klurfeld |title=Walter Winchell: His Life and Times |publisher=Praeger |year=1976 |isbn=978-0-275-33720-9}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mosedale|first1=John |year=1981 |title=The Men Who Invented Broadway: Damon Runyon, Walter Winchell & Their World |url=https://archive.org/details/menwhoinventedbr00mose|url-access=registration|location=New York |publisher=Richard Marek Publishers |isbn=978-0-399-90085-3}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|934595}}
* {{rhof|id=268|name=Walter Winchell}}
* [http://archives.nypl.org/the/21480 Walter Winchell papers, 1920–1967], held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, [[New York Public Library for the Performing Arts]]
* [http://www.evesmag.com/winchell.htm A remembrance by a contemporary]
* [http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/04/the-ghost-ship-ww/?hp Dick Cavett remembers an evening with WW]
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/Walter%20Winchell%20 FBI file on Walter Winchell]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winchell, Walter}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:American broadcast news analysts]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American radio personalities]]
[[Category:American anti-fascists]]
[[Category:American anti-communists]]
[[Category:American gossip columnists]]
[[Category:Writers from Minneapolis]]
[[Category:American vaudeville performers]]
[[Category:Jewish American journalists]]
[[Category:20th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:United States Navy officers]]
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:Jewish anti-communists]]
[[Category:Jewish anti-fascists]]