Winchell, Walter

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<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell</a>

Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-WVobit-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[1]</a>

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: bold; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; font-size: 13.3000001907349px; display: inline; font-family: sans-serif; line-height: 1.3; background: none;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#" id="togglelink" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Professional_career" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1 Professional career</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Ethical_failings" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">1.1 Ethical failings</a></li>

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<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Style" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">2 Style</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Personal_life" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">3 Personal life</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Later_years" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">4 Later years</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Death" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">5 Death</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Legacy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">6 Legacy</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Winchellism_and_Winchellese" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">7 Winchellism and Winchellese</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-10" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#References" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">9 References</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-11" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#Further_reading" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">10 Further reading</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-12" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#External_links" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">11 External links</a></li>

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<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Professional career<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Professional career" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

He began his career in journalism by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards. Joining the Vaudeville News in 1920, Winchell left the paper for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Graphic" title="New York Graphic" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Evening Graphic</a> in 1924, where his column was named Mainly About Mainstreeters. He was hired on June 10, 1929 by the<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Daily_Mirror" title="New York Daily Mirror" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New York Daily Mirror</a> where he finally became the author of what would be the first syndicated gossip column,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[2]</a>entitled On-Broadway.

Using connections in the entertainment, social, and governmental realms, he would expose exciting or embarrassing information about celebrities in those industries. This caused him to become very feared, as a journalist, because he would routinely impact the lives of famous or powerful people, exposing alleged information and rumors about them, using this as ammunition to attack his enemies, and to blackmail influential people.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[3]</a> He used this power, trading positive mention in his column (and later, his radio show) for more rumors and secrets.

He made his radio debut over WABC in New York, a CBS affiliate, on May 12, 1930.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-4" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[4]</a> The show entitled, ‘Saks on Broadway’ was a 15-minute feature that provided business news about Broadway.

By the 1930s, Winchell was "an intimate friend of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owney_Madden" title="Owney Madden" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Owney Madden</a>, New York's No. 1 gang leader of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_in_the_United_States" title="Prohibition in the United States" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">prohibition</a>era",<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-TBR-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> but "in 1932 Winchell's intimacy with criminals caused him to fear he would be 'rubbed out' for 'knowing too much.'" He fled to California, and "returned weeks later with a new enthusiasm for law, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Man(slang)" title="G-Man (slang)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">G-men</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Sam" title="Uncle Sam" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Uncle Sam</a>, [and] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Glory" title="Old Glory" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Old Glory</a>".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-TBR-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> His coverage of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindbergh_kidnapping" title="Lindbergh kidnapping" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lindbergh kidnapping</a> and subsequent trial received national attention. Within two years, he befriended <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.Edgar_Hoover" title="J. Edgar Hoover" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">J. Edgar Hoover</a>, the No. 2 G-man of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeal_of_Prohibition" title="Repeal of Prohibition" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">repeal era</a>. He was responsible for turning <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Buchalter" title="Louis Buchalter" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louis "Lepke" Buchalter</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder,_Inc." title="Murder, Inc." style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Murder, Inc.</a> over to Hoover.

His newspaper column was syndicated in over 2,000 newspapers worldwide, and he was read by 50 million people a day from the 1920s until the early 1960s. His Sunday-night radio broadcast was heard by another 20 million people from 1930 to the late 1950s. In 1948 Winchell had the top-rated radio show when he surpassed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Allen" title="Fred Allen" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Fred Allen</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Benny" title="Jack Benny" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Jack Benny</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-6" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[6]</a> (One example of his profile at his professional peak was being mentioned in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Rodgers" title="Richard Rodgers" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Richard Rodgers</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_Hart" title="Lorenz Hart" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lorenz Hart</a>'s 1937 song "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lady_Is_a_Tramp" title="The Lady Is a Tramp" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The Lady Is a Tramp</a>": "I follow Winchell, and read every line.")

Winchell, who was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish" title="Jewish" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Jewish</a>, was one of the first commentators in America to attack <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler" title="Adolf Hitler" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Adolf Hitler</a> and American pro-fascist and pro-<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism" title="Nazism" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Nazi</a> organizations such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German-American_Bund" title="German-American Bund" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">German-American Bund</a>. He was a staunch supporter of President<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_D.Roosevelt" title="Franklin D. Roosevelt" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Franklin D. Roosevelt</a> and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal" title="New Deal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New Deal</a> throughout the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_era" title="Depression era" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Depression era</a>, and frequently served as the Roosevelt Administration's mouthpiece in favor of interventionism as the European war crisis loomed in the late 1930s. Early on he denounced American isolationists as favoring appeasement of Hitler, and was explicit in his attacks on such prominent isolationists as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh" title="Charles Lindbergh" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Charles Lindbergh</a>, whom he dubbed "The Lone Ostrich", and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_L.K._Smith" title="Gerald L. K. Smith" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Gerald L. K. Smith</a>, who he denounced as "Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith". Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Winchell was also an outspoken supporter of civil rights for African Americans, and frequently attacked the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan" title="Ku Klux Klan" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ku Klux Klan</a> and other racist groups as supporting un-American, pro-Nazi goals. After <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II" title="World War II" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">World War II</a>, Winchell began to denounce Communism as the main threat facing America.

During World War II, he attacked the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Maritime_Union" title="National Maritime Union" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">National Maritime Union</a>, the labor organization for the civilian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Merchant_Marine" title="United States Merchant Marine" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">United States Merchant Marine</a>, which he said was run by Communists.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-7" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[7]</a> In 1948 and 1949 he and the influential <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leftist" title="Leftist" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">leftist</a> columnist<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Pearson_(journalist)" title="Drew Pearson (journalist)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Drew Pearson</a> "inaccurately and maliciously assaulted <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secretary_of_Defense" title="United States Secretary of Defense" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Secretary of Defense</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Forrestal" title="James Forrestal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">James Forrestal</a> in columns and radio broadcasts."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-8" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[8]</a> In 1951 he feuded with African-American-French entertainer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephine_Baker" title="Josephine Baker" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Josephine Baker</a> after Baker criticized the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stork_Club" title="Stork Club" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Stork Club</a>'s unwritten policy of discouraging black patrons, then scolded Winchell (a loyal club patron) for not rising to her defense. Winchell responded swiftly with a series of harsh rebukes, including his usual accusation of Communist affiliations. The ensuing publicity resulted in the termination of Baker's work visa, forcing her to cancel all her engagements and return to France. It was almost a decade before US officials allowed her back into the country.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-9" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[9]</a>

During the 1950s Winchell supported <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate" title="United States Senate" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Senator</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy" title="Joseph McCarthy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Joseph McCarthy</a>'s quest to identify Communists in the entertainment industry, but his popularity and influence began to decline as the public turned against McCarthy. His weekly <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old-time_radio" title="Old-time radio" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">radio</a>broadcast was simulcast on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Broadcasting_Company" title="American Broadcasting Company" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">ABC</a> television until he ended that association because of a dispute with ABC executives in 1955. He starred in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walter_Winchell_File" title="The Walter Winchell File" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The Walter Winchell File</a>, a television crime drama series that initially aired from 1957 to 1958, dramatizing cases from the New York City Police Department that were covered in the New York Daily Mirror. ABC re-hired him in 1959 to narrate <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untouchables_(1959_TV_series)" title="The Untouchables (1959 TV series)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The Untouchables</a> for four seasons. In 1960 he signed with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC" title="NBC" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">NBC</a> to host a variety program called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walter_Winchell_Show" title="The Walter Winchell Show" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The Walter Winchell Show</a>, which was canceled after only thirteen weeks—a particularly bitter failure in view of the success of his longtime rival <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sullivan_Show" title="Ed Sullivan Show" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ed Sullivan</a> in a similar format.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-10" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[10]</a>

In the early 1960s a dispute with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Paar" title="Jack Paar" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Jack Paar</a> effectively ended Winchell's career—already in steep decline due to his association with McCarthy—signaling a shift in power from print to television.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-11" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[11]</a> Winchell had angered Parr several years earlier when he refused to retract an item that had alleged, falsely, that Paar was having marital difficulties. Biographer Neal Gabler described the exchange on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonight_Show_with_Jack_Paar" title="Tonight Show with Jack Paar" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Paar's show</a> in 1961:

Hostess <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsa_Maxwell" title="Elsa Maxwell" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Elsa Maxwell</a> appeared on the program and began gibing at Walter, accusing him of hypocrisy for waving the flag while never having voted [which, incidentally, wasn't true; the show later issued a retraction]. Paar joined in. He said Walter's column was "written by a fly" and that his voice was so high because he wears "too-tight underwear" … [H]e also told the story of the mistaken item about his marriage, and cracked that Walter had a "hole in his soul".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-12" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[12]</a>

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<h3 style=" color: black; font-weight: bold; margin: 0.3em 0px 0px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.6; font-family: sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Ethical failings<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Ethical failings" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h3>

<p style=" margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As his career progressed Winchell became notorious for his attempts, especially after World War II, to destroy the careers of his enemies, both political and personal. Favorite tactics were alleged ties to Communist organizations and accusations of sexual impropriety.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-15" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[15]</a> He was not above childish name-calling; for example, he described New York radio host <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Gray(radio)" title="Barry Gray (radio)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Barry Gray</a> as "Borey Pink" and a "disk jerk".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-16" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[16]</a> When Winchell heard that Marlen Edwin Pew of the trade journal <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor%26_Publisher" title="Editor & Publisher" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Editor & Publisher</a> had criticized him as a bad influence on the American press, he began calling him "Marlen Pee-you".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-TBR-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a>

For most of his career, his contracts with newspaper and radio employers required them to hold him harmless from any damages resulting from lawsuits for slander or libel.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-17" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[17]</a> He would unapologetically publish material told to him in confidence by friends; when confronted over such betrayals, he typically responded, "I know — I'm just a son of a bitch."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-TBR-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a> By the mid-1950s he was widely seen as arrogant, cruel, and ruthless.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-18" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[18]</a>

Many other columnists, such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Sullivan" title="Ed Sullivan" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ed Sullivan</a> in New York and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louella_Parsons" title="Louella Parsons" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Louella Parsons</a> in Los Angeles, began to write gossip soon after Winchell's initial success. He wrote in a style filled with slang and incomplete sentences. Winchell's casual writing style famously earned him the ire of mobster <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_Schultz" title="Dutch Schultz" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Dutch Schultz</a>, who confronted Winchell at New York's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_Club" title="Cotton Club" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cotton Club</a> and publicly lambasted him for using the phrase "pushover" to describe Schultz's penchant for blonde women.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-19" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[19]</a>Some notable Winchell quotes are: "Nothing recedes like success", and "I usually get my stuff from people who promised somebody else that they would keep it a secret".

Winchell opened his radio broadcasts by pressing randomly on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph" title="Telegraph" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">telegraph</a> key, a sound that created a sense of urgency and importance and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catchphrase" title="Catchphrase" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">catchphrase</a> "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press." He would then read each of his stories with a staccato delivery (up to a rate of 197 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Words_per_minute" title="Words per minute" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">words per minute</a>), though in an interview in 1967, claimed a speed of well over 200 wpm.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-20" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[20]</a>noticeably faster than the typical pace of American speech. His diction can also be heard in his breathless narration of the Untouchables television series as well as in several Hollywood films.

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Personal life<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Personal life" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<p style=" margin: 0.5em 0px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; color: rgb(37, 37, 37); font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On August 11, 1919, Winchell married Rita Greene, one of his onstage partners. The couple separated a few years later[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>], and he moved in with June Magee, who had already given birth to their first child, a daughter named Walda[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>]. Winchell and Greene eventually divorced in 1928[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>]. Winchell and Magee would never marry, although the couple maintained the front of being married for the rest of their lives[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>].

Winchell and Magee successfully kept the secret of their non-marriage[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>]. Their children all had misfortune. Their adopted daughter Gloria died of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonia" title="Pneumonia" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">pneumonia</a> at the age of nine, and Walda spent time in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychiatric_hospital" title="Psychiatric hospital" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">psychiatric hospitals</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-21" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[21]</a>Walter, Jr., the only son of the journalist, committed suicide in his family's garage on Christmas night, 1968.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-22" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[22]</a> Having spent the previous two years on welfare, Walter had last been employed as a dishwasher in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Ana,_California" title="Santa Ana, California" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Santa Ana, California</a>, but listed himself as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer" title="Freelancer" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">freelancer</a> who for a time wrote a column in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_Free_Press" title="Los Angeles Free Press" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Los Angeles Free Press</a>, an alternative newspaper published between 1964 and 1978.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-23" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[23]</a>

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Later years<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Later years" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

Winchell spent his final two years as a recluse at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambassador_Hotel_(Los_Angeles)" title="Ambassador Hotel (Los Angeles)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ambassador Hotel</a> in Los Angeles.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_King" title="Larry King" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Larry King</a>, who replaced Winchell at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Herald" title="Miami Herald" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Miami Herald</a>, observed:

He was so sad. You know what Winchell was doing at the end? Typing out mimeographed sheets with his column, handing them out on the corner. That's how sad he got. When he died, only one person came to his funeral: his daughter.

</blockquote>

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Death<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Death" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Legacy<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: Legacy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

the effect of Winchellism on the standards of the press.... When Winchell began gossiping in 1924 for the late scatological tabloid Evening Graphic, no U.S. paper hawked rumors about the marital relations of public figures until they turned up in divorce courts. For 16 years, gossip columns spread until even the staid <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Times" title="New York Times" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">New York Times</a> whispered that it heard from friends of a son of the President that he was going to be divorced. In its first year, The Graphic would have considered this news not fit to print... Gossip-writing is at present like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirochete" title="Spirochete" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">spirochete</a> in the body of journalism.... Newspapers... have never been held in less esteem by their readers or exercised less influence on the political and ethical thought of the times.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-TBR-5" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[5]</a>

</blockquote>

Despite the controversy surrounding Winchell, his popularity allowed him to leverage support for causes that he valued. In 1946, following the death from cancer of his close friend and fellow writer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon" title="Damon Runyon" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Damon Runyon</a>, Winchell appealed to his radio audience for contributions to fight the disease. The response led Winchell to establish the Damon Runyon Cancer Memorial Fund, since renamed the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damon_Runyon_Cancer_Research_Foundation" title="Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation</a>. He led the charity — with the support of celebrities including <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dietrich" title="Marlene Dietrich" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Marlene Dietrich</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hope" title="Bob Hope" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Bob Hope</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Berle" title="Milton Berle" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Milton Berle</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe" title="Marilyn Monroe" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Marilyn Monroe</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_DiMaggio" title="Joe DiMaggio" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Joe DiMaggio</a> — until his own death from cancer in 1972.

In 1950, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Lehman" title="Ernest Lehman" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Ernest Lehman</a>, a former publicity writer for Irving Hoffman of The Hollywood Reporter,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-27" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[27]</a> wrote a story forCosmopolitan titled "Tell Me About It Tomorrow". The piece is about a ruthless journalist, J.J. Hunsecker, and is generally thought to be a thinly veiled commentary on the power wielded by Winchell at the height of his influence. It was made into the film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Smell_of_Success" title="Sweet Smell of Success" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Sweet Smell of Success</a> (1957), and the screenplay was written by Lehman and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Odets" title="Clifford Odets" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Clifford Odets</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-28" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[28]</a>

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Heinlein" title="Robert Heinlein" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Robert Heinlein</a> introduced the term "winchell" into the American vocabulary, as a term for a politically intrusive gossip columnist.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-29" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[29]</a>[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NOTRS" title="Wikipedia:NOTRS" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">better source needed</a>]

Winchell was parodied in the film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessed_Event" title="Blessed Event" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Blessed Event</a> (1932), where a Winchell-like character was played by actor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Tracy" title="Lee Tracy" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lee Tracy</a>. He wrote the original story for the film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadway_Through_a_Keyhole" title="Broadway Through a Keyhole" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Broadway Through a Keyhole</a> (1933).

<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cole_Porter" title="Cole Porter" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Cole Porter</a> wrote in his song "Let's Fly Away" (from "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Yorkers" title="The New Yorkers" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">The New Yorkers</a>", 1930): "[...] Let's fly away, / And find a country so provincial / We'll never hear what Walter Winchell / Might be forced to say. [...]"

<h2 style=" color: black; font-weight: normal; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 1.5em; font-family: 'Linux Libertine', Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 1.3; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Winchellism and Winchellese<span class="mw-editsection" style=" -webkit-user-select: none; font-weight: normal; margin-left: 1em; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1em; display: inline-block; white-space: nowrap; unicode-bidi: -webkit-isolate;">[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Winchell&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: Winchellism and Winchellese" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">edit</a>]</h2>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">One definition is a pejorative judgment that an author's works are specifically designed to imply or invoke scandal and may be <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libelous" title="Libelous" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">libelous</a>.[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" title="Wikipedia:Citation needed" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">citation needed</a>]</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">The other definition is "any word or phrase compounded brought to the fore by the columnist Walter Winchell"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-30" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[30]</a>or his imitators. Looking at his writing's effect on the language, an etymologist of his day said, "there are plenty of... expressions which he has fathered and which are now current among his readers and imitators and constitute a flash language which has been called Winchellese. Through a newspaper column which has nation-wide circulation, Winchell has achieved the position of dictator of contemporary slang."<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-Beath-31" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[31]</a> Winchell invented his own phrases that were viewed as slightly racy at the time. Some of the expressions for falling in love used by Winchell were: "pashing it", "sizzle for", "that way, go for each other", "garbo-ing it", "uh-huh"; and in the same category, "new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Garbo" title="Greta Garbo" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Garbo</a>, trouser-crease-eraser", and "pash". Some Winchellisms for marriage are: "middle-aisle it", "altar it", "handcuffed", "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wedding_March(Mendelssohn)" title="Wedding March (Mendelssohn)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Mendelssohn March</a>", "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohengrin(opera)" title="Lohengrin (opera)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Lohengrin</a> it", and "merged".<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Winchell#cite_note-Beath-31" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[31]</a></li>

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