Category Archives: 1900s

Cagney, Dickens and ketchup save a newspaper

Posted on January 31, 2020 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/ScreenGuildTheater/Sgt_48-02-09_ep374_Johnny_Come_Lately.mp3 Local newspapers have been fighting for survival since the horse-and-buggy days when this story takes place. The 1943 film Johnny Come Lately starred James Cagney as an  out-of-work “tramp reporter” who both rescues and is rescued by an elderly … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 1940s, adaptations, closing, editors, local news, newspaper crusades, newspapers, political corruption, reporters | Leave a comment

Ghostwriting for equal rights

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Bob Stepno

https://archive.org/download/DestinationFreedom/DF_49-06-19_ep050-Ghost_Editor.mp3 “Ghost Editor” is a well-dramatized biography of Roscoe Dunjee, who founded the Black Dispatch, the first African American newspaper in 1915 Oklahoma City. Actor Fred Pinkard narrates the series as Dunjee in this episode of the “Destination Freedom” African … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 1940s, 1950s, civil rights, editors, historical figures, newspaper crusades, newspapers, racial justice, reporting, undercover | Leave a comment

Arsenic and Old Headlines

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Bob Stepno

As a former reporter for The Hartford Courant, I was intrigued to find a Courant story from long ago among episodes of the radio series “The Big Story,” and just had to track down the original criminal investigation. https://archive.org/download/OTRR_Big_Story_Singles/Big_Story_The_47-12-10_037_TCOT_Final_Curtain_Aubrey_Maddock.mp3 The … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 1940s, movies, newspapers, The Big Story, true stories | Leave a comment

Newspaper says Yale cheats; Merriwell to the rescue

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Bob Stepno

Last time it was scrappy Boston reporters heading for Connecticut to cover Yale-Harvard baseball. This week we jump to another sport and season, to watch an investigative New Haven newspaperman get the scent of a sports scandal for a Front … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 1940s, adaptations, ethics, journalism, newspapers, reporting, sports | Leave a comment

Press Warrior: Richard Harding Davis

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Bob Stepno

The title of this Cavalcade of America wartime episode, “Soldier of a Free Press” (1942), certainly describes Richard Harding Davis, star reporter from the Spanish American War through World War I. The radio broadcast’s brief biography of the most famous … Continue reading →

Posted in 1900s, 19th century, foreign correspondents, international, journalism, newspapers, reporters | Leave a comment