Oral History Interview with Gerard Harrington, 1976 May 7


Summary Information
Title: Oral History Interview with Gerard Harrington
Inclusive Dates: 1976 May 7

Creator:
  • Harrington, Gerard
Call Number: Audio 587A

Quantity: 2 tape recordings

Repository:
Archival Locations:
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:
Interview with Gerard Harrington, a veteran New England newspaperman, concerning his experiences, changes in journalism, interviews with William Jennings Bryan and Clarence A. Darrow, work with the British War Relief Society as national publicity director, and the differences between broadcast and print journalism. The interview was conducted by Gerard Harrington III in Sepulpa, Oklahoma on May 7, 1976.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-audi00587a
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Administrative/Restriction Information
Acquisition Information

Presented by Gerard Harrington III, Evanston, Illinois, 1976. Accession Number: MCHC76-076


Contents List
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
How he entered newspaper business
Scope and Content Note: Early 1920s atmosphere that led people to newspapers; how he learned to write news stories; his first story.
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
A newspaper's function
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
Comparing his working at Newark, N.J. to working at Worcester, Mass.
Scope and Content Note: Why he went to Newark; Ledger's staff makeup at the time; general life in Newark; newspaperman's self concept then and now; today's news writers.
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
Investigative reporting
Scope and Content Note: Way it works; Woodward and Bernstein; Waterbury Republican's 1940 Pulitzer Prize and the story behind it.
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
Working at a smaller newspaper
Scope and Content Note: Importance of small papers; similarities between different size newspapers throughout the country; Meriden Record's quality of local coverage; small-town editor image.
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
Outside influences on newspapers for which he worked
Scope and Content Note: Publisher's influence; William Pape's philosophy; Governor Cross on Pape; politician's influence; parents' influence; cutting corners with news judgement.
Audio   587A/1
Side   1
How page one has changed over the past 50 years
Scope and Content Note: Original reason for big headlines; reasons for their diminishing in size; modern layout.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
Major force in horizontal layout of front page
Scope and Content Note: New York Herald Tribune in 1950s; influence of London; copied throughout the United States; inner page layout changes; New York Times layout today.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
East Coast style of journalism
Scope and Content Note: New England style; New York City style.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
Audience changes from 1920s to present
Scope and Content Note: 1920s was finale of life without fear; better education for both reader and writer; cultural assimilation over time.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
His admiration of Charlie McGurk, of Boston American
Scope and Content Note: Story of adoption of motorized hearses; McGurk's Hearst lead for same story.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
Public's right to know
Scope and Content Note: Newspaper's responsibility; enemy of the government; daily play of stories because of economics; Keene, N.H. and the problems of being managing editor; composing room anecdote; Keene Board of Education closed-meeting controversy.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
The Great Depression
Scope and Content Note: Stock Market crash; gloominess of life during the 1930s; Roosevelt's impact on Americans; the New Deal; newsman's perspective of recovery.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
His work with the British War Relief Society
Scope and Content Note: His staff and its clout; promotion of the Society's propaganda into the press and radio; nationwide development of committees and amount of money they made; his job as national publicity director.
Audio   587A/1
Side   2
His career on New Haven Register
Scope and Content Note: Assistant to telegraph editor; being too good at the job; being appointed city editor after six months; getting job as managing editor of Journal-Courier.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan interviews
Scope and Content Note: Darrow: personality description; thoughts on capital punishment. Bryan: strangeness of interview; idiosyncratic objects in the room.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
War Reporting
Scope and Content Note: World War II: coverage was running history; Korea; Vietnam: correspondents' disgust.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
Radio and Television's effect on newspapers
Scope and Content Note: Major factor in newspapers' extended in-depth reporting; differences between broadcast and print journalism; where television news money comes from; conversational nature of news over the air; second-guessing himself by monitoring television news and reading other newspapers.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
News control
Scope and Content Note: Governmental pressures on electronic medium; newspaper tradition.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
News Competition
Scope and Content Note: Situation in Wallingford, Conn.; self-competition of Washington Post; wire service improvements; Associated Press Managing Editors Association's influence on the service; United Press International's bargaining themselves to death.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
News reporting and news creation
Scope and Content Note: New York Graphic; television's reporting alters news incidents more than newspaper's report does; photojournalism's importance; circulation and newspaper improvement.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
Touching on persons he knew through the business.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
Presidents and the press
Scope and Content Note: Good Presidents exploit the press.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
High-quality newspapers he has admired
Scope and Content Note: New York World he would read after work in Worcester; New York Times and Washington Post.
Audio   587A/2
Side   1
Journalism Schools
Scope and Content Note: Columbia School of Journalism, Medill, University of Missouri; not as good as they think they are; good general education is much more important.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
His move from the New Haven Register to the Journal-Courier
Scope and Content Note: History of John Day Jackson in New Haven journalism: worked on Register as young man, bought it, began to build it; Journal-Courier was failing; Jackson bought it but left it as it was; he continued building the Register, wiped out competition. Jackson's sons, Richard and Lionel, took over management of papers; Journal-Courier was doing poorly; Harrington was first to try to improve it; made gradual improvements rather than abrupt ones; hired new staff of reporters; hired Richard Harris to increase revenue; developed combination advertising in both newspapers; typographical changes; Harrington's thinking like a printer while being an editor; operation of The New Yorker similar to that of Journal-Courier; Thanksgiving Day and filling the paper; people finally took the paper seriously.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
The tabloid
Scope and Content Note: Invented with subway readers in mind; condenses reporting, leaving out background.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
Newspaper foldings
Scope and Content Note: New York papers and limited advertising spread over all of them; aggravated by typographical union problems; in past, over-supply of often unnecessary newspapers; very expensive to run a newspaper today.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
Recent printing advances
Scope and Content Note: Letterpress press conversion procedure to photo composition, and operation description.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
Public Broadcasting and public newspapers
Scope and Content Note: Government interference would create a public scandal; in newspapers, government interference would lead to loss of independence and loss of adversary role newspapers must necessarily take.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
Chain ownership
Scope and Content Note: Doesn't necessarily mean loss of independence and local strength; singly-owned papers similar to chains because of syndicated features.
Audio   587A/2
Side   2
Newspaper dynamics
Scope and Content Note: Changed greatly since Hearst and Pulitzer, though still employs their innovations; Chicago Tribune's liberalization; changes with the people-and the times; bright future for papers.