Walter Winchell By Adele Owen

His professional life Walter Winchell was born on April 7, 1897. Winchell left school young and started performing with the vaudeville troupes. He got his start at writing when he started to leave gossipy notes of the backstage bulletin board. He started his journalist career in the 1920’s. He worked for the New York Evening Graphic. His newspaper column was read by more then 50 million people a day from the 1920’s to the early 1960’s. He had the number one top rated show in 1948. but in the 1950’s his popularity died.

His personal life He was married to Rita Greene one of his on stage partners, but after a few years they divorced. He then moved in with Jane Magee, they had three children together but were never married, in fear that a marriage would show that their first child Eileen Joan or also known as Walda was illegitimate. Through out their lives they kept the appearance of marriage. Their two other children were Gloria who was adopted and Walter Jr. Gloria died of pneumonia at the age of nine and Walter Jr. committed suicide on Christmas night at the age of 33. Winchell died of prostate cancer at the age of 74

Remembered for. . . Winchell is most remembered for starting the gossip column and exaggerating celebrities personal lives. He also started using slang not only in his radio show but in his column as well. Many people found that his style was hard to mimic. Winchell was also known for being one of the first people to attack Adolf Hitler since he was Jewish and also the fact that he had a “left-of-center” view point on politics for much of the 1930’s and through out WW2.

Walter Winchell at his desk. Winchell broadcasting his radio show. Winchell on the radio.

Work cited http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Walter_Winchell http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell