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| Pete Dexter |
If a time
machine could whisk us back to the 1970s newsrooms of the Evening Bulletin and the
Philadelphia Daily News, the contrast
would be striking.
The staid, boring Bulletin would be
the home to a few good writers and many old hacks. By contrast the Daily News would be a sort
of joyful madhouse full of eccentric personalities and talented writers.
Larry Fields was a veteran of many
newspapers and wrote a man-about-town style Daily News column. He also had a two hour talk show on WWDB-FM
No one remembers the exact year or
date but one evening Fields’ on-air guest was his Daily News colleague Pete
Dexter who was making a name for himself as the wittiest newspaper columnist in Philly.
It was an era of celebrity journalist -
writers such as Jimmy Breslin and Mike Royko. Dexter and Fields fancied
themselves as hard-drinking, wild and crazy guys. So a lot of newspaper people
were listening, expecting a real laugh-fest.
Dexter arrived at the radio studio
with a bottle of Bourbon and the two hard-driving newspaper men started
drinking. Dexter refused to take any
question seriously.
Asked what he thought of Daily News’
editor Gil Spencer, a man liked by everyone,
listeners remember Dexter declaring something to the effect that Spencer
went to prison as a child molester.
Another joking exchange some
remember was Fields saying the Daily News was good for lining his bird cage.
Dexter asked if the bird liked to read the newspaper.
What almost everyone with a memory of
the show recalls is Field’s asking Dexter his favorite part of Philadelphia. Dexter’s answer: the part of my
girlfriend between her knees and her navel.
The show went downhill from
there.
Words were slurred. Belching and cursing was heard. Women callers were insulted or subjected to
sexual innuendo
Toward the end of the show, a caller excoriated the pair for
their on-air obscenities.
Many remember what Fields said next. “The only obscenity that
I know is spelled G-O-D.” Fields
followed this with a passionate and drunken anti-religious screed.
And then, mercifully, the show ended.
But it didn’t end.
After the station break
and news. Fields was back on the air – minus Dexter.
Fellow Daily News reporter Frank Dougherty, who was in the
studio, says. “For the first time the person
(radio host) who was supposed to replace Fields didn’t show up.”
Fields was only on the air briefly before the station pulled
the plug. The young woman who did the news breaks (with the odd name Michelle
IaIa) abruptly took over the microphone.
Doughtery recalls that Mayor Frank Rizzo sent a police patrol
car to pick up Fields at the radio station and get him home safe.
Everyone in the Daily News newsroom that evening was
listening aghast – including editor Spencer.
Fields lost his radio show. The very liberal-minded Spencer handled the matter behind closed doors.
Apparently, he gave his bad-boy reporters a brief lecture and that ended the
matter.
It’s a long story, but after Dexter was nearly beaten to
death with baseball bats in a Philly taproom, he decided to stop drinking.