-
Integrating the National Press Club
On December 14, 1970: The National Press Club in Washington, DC voted to admit women to membership after excluding them from membership since the club’s institution. Prior to 1970, women reporters had to cover press events from the balcony – as pictured above. From Girls in the Balcony by Nan Robertson regarding the 1955 decision by the National Press Club to restrict women to the balcony: “Here were the people in the balcony, distinguished journalists treated like second-class citizens. I had to cover the stories there. Some people equated the balcony with the back of the bus, but at least the bus got everybody to the same destination just as…
-
Jody Furnish oral history
I am doing more work on my book about Dallas women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry – focusing on transcribing an oral history about Dallas activist Jody Furnish that is at the Sixth Floor Museum. Vivian won numerous other awards for her reporting. For example, in 1970, she won the award for best women’s feature for the story “Neighborhood Power,” that examined a successful integrated Dallas neighborhood. In it, she wrote about one of the first integrated Dallas neighborhoods. It was a part of the community that was bounded on the north by Lovers Lane and on the east by Inwood, and on the south, by Mockingbird Lane and on the…
-
Media Report to Women Invitation
I just receive an invitation to submit my article, “Who Wears the Pants?” to the Media Report to Women. I presented the paper at National Communication Association in San Francisco. In the paper, I examined how the New York Times covered the topic of women wearing pants in public from the 1950s through the 1970s. According to its submission guidelines:MEDIA REPORT TO WOMEN is necessarily selective in its choice of articles published in our “Research in Depth” section. We publish quarterly and run only two of these articles in each issue. We prefer papers vetted for, and presented, at major academic conferences. Our goal is to present new endeavors in…
-
Writing about Peggy Daum
I have spent months gathering information about Milwaukee Journal food editor Peggy Daum – she was in that position from 1968 to 1988. She had strong journalism background that she applied to food. Over the years she covered a field that went from simple recipes to news about nutrition and government regulation. She played a leading role in food journalism as a founding member and first president of the Newspaper Food Editors and Writers Association. “Peggy made us better,” said Marion Burros, former food editor of The New York Times and another founding member of the food editors group. “She was a woman of enormous integrity.” Burros recalled that a…
You May Also Like
Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
-
Pearl Harbor and Drue Lytle
Today is the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. Hugh Lytle was the journalist whose teletype message provided Associated Press and the world with the first account of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He was married to award-winning Hawaii women’s page editor Drue Lytle. Here is Hugh’s obituary. Drue is mentioned in it. I have been collecting data about Drue for the past two years. The last few months have been especially fruitful. I found the above clip which answered many questions and I also located some great letters at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection. I hope to write an article about Drue after by book about Vivian Castleberry is finished.
-
Dallas fashion editor Yvonne Pendleton
Yesterday, I watched and transcribed the videotaped oral history of Dallas fashion editor Yvonne Pendleton. (She worked for women’s page editor Vivian Castleberry.)It is available at the Sixth Floor Museum. Yvonne, who was hired at age 23, said of Vivian: “I was so taken. Here was a career woman with children. One of the first I had ever met.” Yvonne came to Dallas from Alabama in October 1971. A week later, she was in New York City covering the fashion shows – the youngest fashion editor for a major newspaper. Dallas was a major fashion city so she got a seat in the front row. She spoke about Vivian’s progressive…
A website devoted to the history of newspaper women's pages
