Small Game Hunting On Pine Street And Other Weird Stuff in 1907

If you think Philly is weird these days take a look at the front page of the Inquirer of December 12, 1907. You can do this on Newspapers.Com. We accidentally ran across this issue while searching for something else and we are still bemused by what we read.

For instance, a lady’s hat - full of feathers and other embellishments - was set on fire by a mysterious cigarette while she waited on the corner of Broad and Chestnut. A heroic gentleman noticed the smoke pouring off her noggin and extinguished the blaze with his hands.

Another front page story about a divorce case involving a wife who spoke to the “spiritual world” during séances she organized. Her love poetry to a plumber, was not hers, she told the judge. The spirits wrote it.

And there was a guy living near South Street who trapped live rats. Then he doused the rodents with kerosene, set they on fire and released them.

But the story we found most bizarre occurred on Pine Street near 18th. The story said two “prominent families” were locked in a legal battle over the death of a young girl’s kitten.

Mrs. William Hepburn told the Inquirer she was entertaining guests when she heard a commotion outside. Neighbors called the Women’s SPCA because there was a cat stranded in a tree in front of the Hepburn’s Pine Street house. The thoughtful neighbors and the humane society folks were holding a blanket and urging the cat to jump.

“All of a sudden, a man rushed out of an apartment house at 18th and Pine streets and broke into the crowd,” Mrs. Hepburn related. “He carried a gun in his hands and began to fire shots at the tree. 

“The first thing I knew, the little white kitten dropped down into the blanket dead. It was the first time I knew it was my kitten. I was so sorry. I almost fainted.”

Actually, the kitten belonged to her 13-year-old daughter. Liza, whose photo was on page one. And the girl was heartbroken, said her mother. The Inquirer identified the Great White Hunter as “Henry Paxton, well- known retired Army officer.”

We’re guessing that Paxton was a Civil War veteran suffering PTSD. The Inquirer speculated that “the terrified cries of the kitten annoyed him” so the old soldier opened fire. He was charged with animal cruelty and hired a former district attorney as his defense lawyer.

Think the Roller-Derby Girls Are Nasty. Meet Some TV News Women

Alysia Lane and Colleen Campbell

On air, Philly’s female anchors and TV reporters are always attractive, sweet, pleasant.

Off camera, they can transform into the Vixens of Hell.

When the news ladies are mean and nasty they are really nasty.
Let us cite two examples:
former PHL 17’s foul-mouthed Colleen Campbell and KYW’s cop- punching, sex-pot Alysia Lane.

Lane, you might remember, had a torrid romance with fellow newsperson, Larry Mendte. He got into trouble with the law for hacking into her e-mails. But sweet Alysia got arrested in New York City for punching a female cop in the face and shouting: “I am a reporter! You fucking dyke bitch.”
 
Campbell was taken out of the Helium Comedy Club by a cop for being loud. The poor cop wanted to let Colleen go free but she had other things in mind. She used the F-word so often in her recorded tirade that we are embarrassed to quote more than one sentence of the five-minute rant: “Lick my
asshole mother f—ker.” Of course, Colleen also told the surprisingly calm cop that she was a TV reporter!

Both ranting reporters felt that once the cops knew they were exulted “celebrities” the officers would start quaking in fear. In fact, the charges were downgraded in court for both divas and they merely got a slap on the wrist.

Another disgrace involved Nichole Brewer, former KYW anchor and MISS AMERICA CONTESTANT! Yes, a celebrity and a bona-fide beauty! As far as we know, the pulchritudinous Miss Brewer never struck or cursed-out a cop, but she so-hated weather reporter, Carol Erickson that she hurled insults at Erickson on-air. Both ladies are now gone from KYW.

Is there something about Philly that turns sweet young women into nasty, aggressive creeps? We think our rough-edged city is not entirely culpable.

We believe being born pretty (or handsome) confers life-long privileges. Being special is magnified a thousand-fold when you become a TV “star” with a handsome salary. How can one avoid arrogance?

Monkeys Escape Zoo and News Reporters Go Ape

Those of a certain age remember Monkey Island at the Philadelphia Zoo.

Perhaps a few, remember the three great monkey escapes in 1940, 1945 and 1954.

There was something amusing and charming about a bunch of little monkeys escaping the Zoo and cavorting through West Philly and Fairmount Park with a posse of cops, firemen and zookeepers in hot pursuit.

About 50 rhesus monkey lived surrounded by a moat of water and a steep seven-foot wall. Standing atop the wall and water were visitors tossing peanuts and candy. Two Great Escapes occurred while the moat was drained to allow cleaning.

Monkeys on the run provided the perfect opportunity of news reporters who fancied themselves great wits and punsters to “go ape.” The May 1940 Inquirer story called those trying to round up the monkeys “great white hunters. It was the mightiest safari since Spencer Tracy found Dr. Livingston.”

One monkey  was captured in a West Philly taproom “and by the time firemen arrived he was playing the pinball machine.” 

Monkeys caught along the railroad tracks wanted to “hop a freight for the Congo.”

We counted 25 lame jests in this one story. One monkey died “emulating Santa Claus” by jumping down a chimney. Another corny quip had the monkeys captured with “butterfly nets, flypaper and putting salt on their tails.”

Only 13 monkeys escaped in 1940 and all were rounded-up in one day.

In 1945, 19 monkeys went on the lam when they got a wooden board and used it as bridge to cross the moat. It took six days to round them all up. The last one captured was sitting on top of George Washington’s statue in front of the Art Museum.

There were far fewer attempts at newspaper humor in 1945 when four monkeys escaped. These escapees scared motorists on what was then called the West River Drive. They played on the Girard Avenue Bridge and then returned to the zoo where they were lured into a ladies’ room with bananas and caught.

Pet monkeys sometimes escaped in the city. A rather large variety of monkey was jumping around on the rooftops of Montrose Street in South Philadelphia. Three SPCA workers were trying to net him while about 200 spectators cheered for the monkey.

The Inquirer writer couldn’t resist a little joke. After its capture, the SPCA guys “put a belt around his hands – probably to prevent him from signing a movie contract with Tarzan.”

Needless to say, headline writers got the phrase “monkey business” into all the escape stories.

Headlines Even Too Risqué for the Daily News

Daily News headlines are witty and often naughty, but occasionally raunchy enough to be killed by a puritanical editor.

So this headline about a woman who fell in love with a Greek sailor while on a cruise appeared in only one edition:

"SHE LOVED HER GREEK SEAMAN"

Several decades ago someone (only his first name Mike is remembered) was building without the proper permits. The city told him to tear it down. The headline in the first edition read:

"MIKE’S ERECTION IS NO LONGER HIS TO HOLD"

However, here’s a headline that plays off a common expletive that did not offend the editors. When a 76er player accidentally spit on a fan, the headline read:

"SPIT HAPPENS"

Show Biz Stars Marry in Philly In Hopes of Privacy

Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

It was November 1951 and the excitement of Hollywood celebrities in town was palpable. 

Frank Sinatra and the gorgeous actress Ava Gardner were here to get married.

Romance between this glamorous pair had been the stuff of gossip columns for quite some time - despite the fact that Frank was still married to Nancy Barbato, the mother of his three kids.

Now, Sinatra had obtained a Nevada divorce. Ava had already been married and divorced from Mickey Rooney and band leader Artie Shaw.

The pair arrived at City Hall on November 2, to get a marriage license. They avoided the press with the help of two city detectives. Five days later, the couple was back in Philly for the wedding.

Why would such famous stars choose Philly for their wedding ceremony?

Apparently, they wanted a quiet ceremony with just a few close friends and family. They wanted no press or publicity.

Sinatra had two close friends here who could provide privacy in their homes. Emanuel “Manie” Sacks, a recording executive with Columbia, RCA and NBC was a father figure to many singers and musicians, especially Sinatra.

Then there was another close friend. Isaac “Ike” Levy, was the owner of WCAU radio and television stations and was part-owner of Columbia records. Also Levy lived in a large, impressive East Falls mansion, which is now part of Philadelphia University. (Oh excuse us; it’s now Jefferson University.) Photographers and reporters staked-out the Levy mansion when correct rumors said the pair would tie the knot here on November 7.

Now the fun began. All kinds of tricks were employed to confuse the press.

Notably, a chauffeur-driven limousine roared out of the Levy driveway with a man and woman seated in the back wearing sunglasses. Another limo followed the first. It was all a decoy.

Other limousines left the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, carrying food and staff for the wedding. About half-way to the affair, cars and cargo were switched. Frank and Ava made it to the secret wedding location undetected.

It wasn’t the Levy or the Sack’s homes. The night before, Sacks called his brother, Lester, to ask him to host the wedding at his rather modest house at 506 W. Springer Street in West Mount Airy.

Somehow, word leaked. A dozen members of the press arrived at the house where curious neighbors had also gathered.

Before the ceremony Frank stepped outside and asked, “How did you creeps know I was here?” Then the crooner got into a heated argument when he said a hired photographer would shoot the wedding photos, not the press photographers.

Some say about 75 guests, including Frank’s parents, crammed into the house. The house blinds were drawn. A local judge presided.

In the end, a man and woman – their heads down, trying to cover their faces - rushed from the house into a waiting limo while guests came out to throw rice and shout good wishes.

This time the ruse did work. 

Later the two stars were driven to a airport in Montgomery County and flew off in a private plane for their honeymoon in Florida.

Both stars had fiery, temperamental personalities. They separated after two years and later got a Mexican divorce in 1957.

We don’t know how often Sinatra visited Philadelphia after the wedding. We know he was here in 1958 for Manie Sacks’ funeral. Many Sinatra biographers claim Sacks saved the singer from committing suicide during a low point in his life.

The Nazis are Coming! To Philadelphia?

U-Boat Commander Outfit similar to what Toughill and Mellor wore

A stunt pulled by two Philadelphia newspaper reporters 75 years ago appeared in scores of American newspapers and still evokes smiles today.

It was February 1942, America had just entered World War II, when Philadelphia Record reporters Frank Toughill and William B. Mellor Jr. paraded through the city dressed as Nazi submarine commanders.

A costume company had designed their outfits and the pair spoke in broken German-accented English.  Not a single Philadelphian they encountered seemed suspicious.

“We walked through the streets in full Nazi regalia, complete with swastikas and nobody paid any attention,” according to their story. “We passed thousands of people, dined in a crowded restaurant, mingled with church throngs, asked questions and transacted business in broken English – and nobody said boo.”

They were most interested to find out what would happened along the Delaware waterfront where security should have been tight. They had informed the Navy of their experiment but not the police.
One cop politely directed the disguised reporters to a certain pier.

When they parked their car in a “no parking” area, an irate cop appeared. He looked at the pair and said, “Oh, Navy men, eh?”
That was it.

The “Nazi” reporters went into an automat and helpful citizens explained how it all worked.

They wore the heavy sweaters popular with German submariners and caps with Nazi insignias.

Their story was picked up by the wire services. Scores of American newspaper ran the story, mostly on page one.

Drinking On Air With Dexter and Fields

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.   

Hilarious Headlines From The Daily News

We present a few very clever headlines from the Philadelphia Daily News.

JUST AS IRISH AS PADDY'S PIROGI
McGillian’s Olde Ale House was sold by the original McGillian family to Polish-American brother named Szczepanial.


PAY-PER-CHEW
Mike Tyson was disqualified and fined $3 million for biting Evander Holyfield ears.


STINKO DE FLYO
The Philadelphia Flyers lost an important game on May 5 - Cinco de Mayo.


THE NEW FUROR
Front page photo of President Trump with arm out – Nazi style. The furor surrounded Trump’s travel ban

Founder of Two Schools of Journalism Never Practiced Good Journalism at His Newspaper

If there was a Philadelphia Hypocrite Hall of Shame, certainly “America’s Dad” Bill Cosby would be the first inductee.

Another first class hypocrite would be former District Attorney Seth Williams.

While Seth was busy prosecuting criminals, he was involved in a variety of lawlessness and mendacity, including stealing money meant to fund his mother’s nursing home.

Our nominee for the Hypocrite Hall of Shame is the late multi-millionaire philanthropist Walter Annenberg .

His Honor Ambassador Annenberg endowed two schools of journalism at University of Pennsylvania and at USC on the West Coast. We presume both prestigious schools emphasis journalism that is unbiased, fair and trustworthy.

In other words, virtues that are just the opposite of the Inquirer under the ownership of the esteemed Walter Annenberg.

The newspaper was a tool Annenberg employed to attack and smear those he disliked and boost those he approved - such as Richard Nixon and Frank Rizzo.

Imagine a newspaper that refused to cover the city’s NBA basketball team.
For reasons now lost to history, Annenberg ruled there would be no coverage of the Philadelphia Warriors on his sport pages.

To many it seemed like vindictive whims, when Annenberg ruled some names would never appear in his Inquirer, including Imogene Coca, Zsa Zsa Gabor and singer Dinah Shore. Consumer crusader Ralph Nader was also persona non grata in the Inquirer.

Annenberg’s most vicious smear campaign was against Milton Shapp, who eventually became Pennsylvania’s governor despite countless negative Inquirer stories.

The most outrageous smear was when an Inquirer reporter asked Shapp if he had been hospitalized for mental illness. Of course, he had not, but the next day’s front page headline read: Shapp Denies Mental Institution.”

The Inquirer under Annenberg included bookies operating in the building and a top investigative reporter who used his skills for blackmail and extortion.

So, we recognize media mogul Walter Annenberg for a place of honor in the Hall of Shame. His name lives on at schools dedicated to the best principles of journalism – schools endowed by a man who embodied the worst principles of media ownership.

A Golfer With a Real 'Handicap'

It’s one of the more famous (or infamous) headlines to appear In the Philadelphia Daily News. 
It refers to golfing great Ben Hogan...

It read:
HOGAN COMES THROUGH WITH BLOODY PUTTS

A “putz” is a Yiddish word normally used to describe a foolish or stupid person.
More literally it means penis.

A New Kind Of Grain Export: Saudi Arabia Acquires New Jersey Sand

You had to read the headline twice to be sure you read it correctly.
 
It was about 20 years ago that the Associated Press sent out a brief story declaring that several shiploads of South Jersey sand had been sold to Saudi Arabia.

Everyone knows that sand is one commodity Saudi Arabia has in abundance. In fact, the entire country is nothing but sand.

However, the item explained that Jersey sand is vastly superior to Saudi sand when it comes to water filtration.

Philadelphia Zoo: When Newspaper Headlines Go Wild!

Newspaper headline writers have always found fodder for puns and fun in news coming out of the Philadelphia Zoo.

Examples:

• A New Gnu is Due at Zoo
• (the follow up) No New Gnu at Zoo
• Shocking News 5 Electric Eels at Zoo
• Zoo Cassowary Broods 14 Years – Then Lays a Five-Minute Egg
• Zoo Cockatoo Won’t Woo
• (And old favorite) Stork Arrives at Zoo

Funny Philadelphia Headlines: Tattoo Convention

The Philadelphia Daily News is noted for witty (often corny) headlines.
When a tattoo convention came to town, two headline writers came up with winners and both were used.

Rick Selvin wrote: “They’ve Got Hue Under Their Skin.”

Jerry Carrier wrote “They Have Designs on Your Body.”

That Time Philadelphia Newswoman Lisa Thomas-Laury Went To London

Former Channel 6 newswoman Lisa Thomas-Laury was in London covering the marriage of Diana and Prince Charles when she noticed a truck leasing company owned by a family named “Thomas.”

In Great Britain, a truck is known as a “lorry.”

Painted on the truck was the message “Lease a Thomas Lorry.”

Journalism in the Funnies: Philadelphia Bulletin and Al Capp's Lil' Abner

Bulletin columnist James Smart recalls how prissy and puritanical the paper could be, even in its comic pages. The art department was always adding clothes to skimpily clad characters in Al Capp’s Lit’l Abner strip.

Smart recalled: “An editorial crisis arose when a woman in the Gasoline Alley strip became pregnant and her waistline started to increase. There was a discussion of retouching the woman’s abdomen or even suspending the comic strip during her pregnancy.

“Finally four editors and I met with the managing editor, Walter Lister, on the emergency. I spoke up for the woman on the grounds that even Philadelphians were aware of where babies come from, that motherhood had not yet been ruled obscene and that I, in my formative years, (Smart was then a copy boy) had watched my mother enlarge without suffering any deleterious effects that I was aware of. 

Lister laughed and allowed the pregnancy to be depicted. Some weeks later he asked me, “How does it feel to be responsible for the first pregnant lady in the Bulletin?”

Dick Sheeran's Trip To The White House: Philadelphia Reporter Takes Orders

Guess Where I’m Going?

Dick Sheeran was a news reporter for 30 years with KYW radio and TV,  and now lives in retirement in Atlantic City.

One of Dick Sheeran’s favorite yarns occurred in 1979 during the presidential contest between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. 

President Carter was staying in Washington to monitor the crisis in Iran,  but holding frequent campaign interviews with reporters in the White House. To Sheeran’s delight, he was selected to go to the capital city to interview the President.

“I was excited about it – a local TV reporter doesn’t get invited to the White House every day,” Sheeran recalls.

“So, I called my wife and said, ‘Honey, guess where I’m going tomorrow - to the White House!’”

“She said, ‘Bring me back two cheese subs,’” Sheeran recalls with a grin.

In New Jersey, a hoagie is called a sub and in Atlantic City, the most famous sub shop is the White House Sub Shop on Arctic Avenue.

All That Philadelphia Journalism Jazz: The Bulletin Misses The Beat?

The obituary writer for the defunct Evening Bulletin was obviously not a jazz fan. The funeral director explained that the deceased was an excellent musician – so good that he had played
with John Coltrane.

The next day's obituary informed readers that the jazz man had played with a group called “John’s Coal Train.”