journalism history
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Helen Thomas & Eleni Epstein
I just found this great 1961 image of journalist Helen Thomas with President JFK. Helen was good friends with women’s page journalist Eleni Epstein. In 1955, Eleni told Thomas that she had paid enough dues on the dawn patrol and deserved a better position. This story can be found in Helen Thomas, Front Row at the White House (New York: Scribner, 2000) I just received revision recommendations for an R & R on my article about Eleni. I went through her papers at two archives to write the article.
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Bobbi McCallum Memorial
A Seattle preservation group is planning to save the globe that is found on top of the former Seattle P-I building. Here is a story about it. I am trying to find out if anything is being done to save the memorial for Bobbi McCallum that is found in front of the building. An image of the fountain memorial is shown above. We went to see it when we were in Seattle last fall. I emailed the reporter of the story about the globe to see if anything is being done about the McCallum memorial, and she responded with the helpful: “Not that I know of.” Not very helpful. My…
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Fashion Writers Marian Christy & Bobbi McCallum
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Bobbi McCallum update
I got good news about my article on Seattle women’s page journalist Bobbi McCallum. The article is scheduled to run in a state history publication this fall. This picture of Bobbi was taken at a Penney-Missouri Award workshop. This letter is from Janet Grimley, an editor at the Seattle P-I before the newspaper folded. She was a great help in tracking down information about Bobbi.
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Fashion Writers Marian Christy & Bobbi McCallum
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Joan Younger Dickinson’s work
I just received this book, The Stork and You, written by Joan Younger Dickinson. (I tracked it down on Amazon.) The book was an early version of What to Expect When You Are Expecting. JYD had been a wire reporter during World War II and then a staff writer for the Ladies Home Journal. She wrote the book after she had her child Rosalind. I found this copy of the March 1947 Ladies Home Journal on eBay. It includes two long stories by JYD: “The Hard Price of Soft Coal” and “The Volunteer Worker, 1947 Style.” I am continuing to work on article about Joan’s career.
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Vivian Castleberry documentary
Last night, Dallas PBS affiliate aired the documentary Texas Trailblazers about Vivian Castleberry, a longtime Dallas women’s page editor. There was a screening at the Women’s Museum in Dallas. I flew out to Dallas in March to be interviewed for the documentary. This is a photo of me with Vivian at her home last summer.
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Helen Gurley Brown
I just got the assignment to review the book, Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown. Before she became well known as the editor of Cosmo magazine, Helen Gurley Brown had a popular column for single women that ran in the women’s pages. This photo is of Helen from 1964. Newspapers across the country ran Helen Gurley Brown’s column, “The Woman Alone” in the 1960s. Her 1962 book, Sex and the Single Girl, had caused a sensation. The book encouraged women’s independence – and a little contradiction thrown in. For example, she advises that a woman have an apartment of her own and that she have a…
