MEMORIES
Nick Kelsh
In 1977 Nick Kelsh was completely convinced that he could win the “Anyone Can Host“ contest on Saturday Night Live. The producers of the show asked for a postcard containing 25 words or less stating why the entrant was qualified to host a live national television show. Kelsh, of course, cleverly put a photograph on the flip side of his postcard.
His key tools were several hi-tech X-Acto knife blades, rubber cement, and a rented tuxedo. Tribune writer Frank Rossi wrote a story about the embarrassing moment which ended up on the front page of The Tribune. Kelsh’s next-door neighbor and mayor’s wife, Betty Wilson, was completely convinced that Kelsh was well on his way.
He did not win. The winning entrance was a 80-year-old grandmother from New Orleans named Miskel Sillman.
MORE STORIES FOLLOW
A high-wire act
by Mary Ann Gwinn
In the small town of Columbia, we were our own tribe. This made for interesting and complicated friendships, but we were excellent company for one another, and for a while that was enough….
“Huge in the business”
by Jeff Leen
“You’re huge in the business,” Chris Conway would say after a good story, the greatest compliment you could get.
The talent I encountered
by Ed Dorian
A sign on Mary Ann’s desk, next to mine, which read, “A clean desk is a sign of sick mind.” I knew I never had to worry about Mary Ann.
Like a petri dish
by Greg Rasa
I asked Phil once how he got up so early every day. “Put the alarm clock on the other side of the room,” he advised, “and hit the ground running. Hesitate, and you’re DEAD!”
My formative years
by Mike Reilly
Virginia Young was my most formative teacher about the nitty-gritty of hard-nosed government reporting. How will you advance that story factually, Mike? It was something I prided myself on for the rest of my career.
Two questions
by Alan Berner
Carolyn said, “There are two questions in journalism. So what? And who cares? And in this case case, I don’t give a shit.”
Words to remember from Carolyn White
I always wanted to be a writer. It was not something I learned about in school, it was something I felt inside: I wanted to show the world to itself, and in so doing understand it myself.