Jimmy Breslin is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He currently writes a column for the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
' Sunday edition. He has written numerous novels, and columns of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He was a regular columnist for the newspaper
NewsdayNewsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
until his retirement on November 2, 2004, and still publishes occasional pieces there.
Jimmy Breslin is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He currently writes a column for the
New York Daily NewsThe Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
' Sunday edition. He has written numerous novels, and columns of his have appeared regularly in various newspapers in his hometown of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He was a regular columnist for the newspaper
NewsdayNewsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
until his retirement on November 2, 2004, and still publishes occasional pieces there.
Biography
Born in
Jamaica, New YorkJamaica is a neighborhood in the borough of Queens in New York City, New York, United States. It was settled under Dutch rule in 1656 in New Netherland as Rustdorp. Under British rule, the Village of Jamaica became the center of the "Town of Jamaica"...
, Breslin was a columnist for the
New York Herald TribuneThe New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
, the
Daily News, the
New York Journal AmericanThe New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...
,
NewsdayNewsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
, and other venues. When the Sunday supplement of the
Tribune was reworked into
New YorkNew York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine by editor
Clay FelkerClay Schuette Felker was an American magazine editor and journalist who founded New York Magazine in 1968. He was known for bringing large numbers of journalists into the profession...
in 1962, Breslin appeared in the new edition, which became "the hottest Sunday read in town."
He has been married twice. His first
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
, to Rosemary Dattolico, ended with her death in 1981. They had six children together: sons Kevin, James, Patrick and Christopher, and daughters Rosemary and Kelly. His daughter Rosemary died June 14, 2004 from a rare blood disease and his daughter Kelly, 44, died on April 21. 2009, four days after a cardiac arrhythmia in a
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
restaurant. Since 1982, he has been married to former
New York City CouncilThe New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
member
Ronnie EldridgeRonnie Eldridge is an American activist, businesswoman, politician, and television host. She is the current host of Eldridge & Co., a weekly television talk show on CUNY TV, the television station of the City University of New York. A protegee of Bobby Kennedy, Eldridge went on to serve New York...
.
Among his notable columns (perhaps the best known) was the column published the day after
John F. Kennedy's funeralThe state funeral of John F. Kennedy took place in Washington, DC during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas....
, focusing on the man who had dug the president's grave. The column is indicative of Breslin's style, which often highlights how major events or the actions of those considered "newsworthy" affect the "common man".
Breslin's public profile in the '60s as a regular guy led to a brief stint as a TV pitchman for
Piels BeerPiels Beer, aka Piel Bros. Beer and Piel's Beer, is a regional lager beer, originally brewed in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York, at 315 Liberty Avenue...
, most memorably in a bar room commercial where he intoned in his deep voice: "Piels- it's a good drinkin' beer!"
He ran
an unsuccessful campaign as an independentNew York City: the 51st State was the platform of the Norman Mailer-Jimmy Breslin candidacy in the 1969 New York City Democratic Mayoral Primary election...
for the position of president of the
New York City CouncilThe New York City Council is the lawmaking body of the City of New York. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The Council serves as a check against the mayor in a "strong" mayor-council government model. The council monitors performance of city agencies and...
in 1969. He allied himself with
Norman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
, who was running for the position of mayor at the same time, on a platform which proposed the
secession of New York CityThere are and have been several secession movements in New York state. The most prominent amongst these have been the movements for a state of New York City, a state of Long Island, a state of Niagara , and a state of Upstate New York....
from the rest of New York state. Both were soundly defeated.
His career as an investigative journalist led him to cultivate ties with various
MafiaThe Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
and criminal elements in the city, not always with positive results. In 1970, he was viciously attacked and beaten at The Suite, a restaurant then owned by
Lucchese crime familyThe Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia . The family originated in the early 1920s with Gaetano "Tommy" Reina serving as boss up until his murder...
associate Henry Hill. The attack was carried out by mobster Jimmy Burke, who objected to an article Breslin had written involving another member of the Lucchese family,
Paul VarioPaul Vario was a caporegime of a crew in the Lucchese crime family. In the 1970s Vario held the position of consigliere in the family but later resigned. In 1980, longtime associate Henry Hill became a government witness and testified against Vario and members of his crew...
. Though Breslin suffered an epistaxis(nosebleed) and a major concussion, he survived the ordeal without any permanent injury. In 1977, at the height of the Son of Sam scare in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the killer, who was later identified as
David BerkowitzDavid Richard Berkowitz , also known as Son of Sam and the .44 Caliber Killer, is an American serial killer and arsonist whose crimes terrorized New York City from July 1976 until his arrest in August 1977.Shortly after his arrest in August 1977, Berkowitz confessed to killing six people and...
, addressed letters to Breslin. Excerpts from these were published and later used in the
Spike LeeShelton Jackson "Spike" Lee is an American film director, producer, writer, and actor. His production company, 40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks, has produced over 35 films since 1983....
film
Summer of SamSummer of Sam is a 1999 crime-drama based around the Son of Sam serial murders. It was directed and produced by Spike Lee.-Plot:Summer of Sam is the story of a group of people in New York City in the summer of 1977, a time when the headlines were dominated by the Son of Sam serial killer...
, a film in which Breslin, portraying himself, bookends. In 2008, The Library of America selected one of Breslin's many Son of Sam articles published in the New York
Daily News for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime writing.
Awards
Breslin has received numerous accolades and awards throughout his career.
In 1985, he received a George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. In 1986, he was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for CommentaryThe Pulitzer Prize for Commentary has been awarded since 1970. The Pulitzer Committee issues an official citation explaining the reasons for the award.-List of winners and their official citations:...
.
Controversies
In May 1990, after fellow
Newsday columnist Ji-Yeon Mary Yuh described one of Breslin's articles as
sexistSexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
, Breslin threw a tantrum in a newsroom, calling her a "slant-eyed cunt" and a "yellow cur", stating "the fucking bitch doesn't know her place". While the Asian American and anti-hate groups forcefully decried Breslin's outburst, he went unpunished until he later went on to "call into the
Howard SternHoward Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
show to joke about his outburst and exchange jabs about Koreans". It was after his second act of insensitivity that led
Newsday managing editor Anthony Marro to suspend Breslin, who then apologized.
Upon
George SteinbrennerGeorge Michael Steinbrenner III was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees. During Steinbrenner's 37-year ownership from 1973 to his death in July 2010, the longest in club history, the Yankees earned seven World Series...
's death on July 13, 2010, Brian Kenney interviewed Breslin live on
ESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
and asked about Breslin's thoughts regarding Steinbrenner and his legacy. Breslin responded, "We need to stop deifying this man. He never played first base. He was the owner of the Yankees, and he was a good guy, but that's it." He also stated, "You're living in a phony history. This town never has much trouble, it's New York."
He also famously called South Carolina and other Southern States the "low IQ states."
Works include
- 1962 Sunny Jim: The life of America's most beloved horseman, James Fitzsimmons ASIN B0007DY5XS
- 1963 Can't Anybody Here Play This Game?
- 1969 World of Jimmy Breslin ISBN 0-345-21651-2
- 1969 Running Against the Machine: A Grass Roots Race for the New York Mayoralty
- 1970 The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight is a 1969 novel written by Jimmy Breslin and a film of the same name based on the book and released in 1971 starring Robert De Niro. The novel is a roman à clef of the life of Joey Gallo whose fictional counterpart, Kid Sally Palumbo, is played by Jerry Orbach...
ISBN 0-316-11174-0
- 1973 World without End, Amen ISBN 0-670-79020-6
- 1976 How the Good Guys Finally Won ISBN 0-345-25001-X
- 1977 Breslin to .44 Calibur Killer: Give up! It's the only way out.
- 1978 .44 ISBN 0-670-32432-9
- 1983 Forsaking All Others ISBN 0-449-20250-X
- 1986 Table Money ISBN 0-89919-312-9
- 1988 He Got Hungry and Forgot His Manners ISBN 0-89919-311-0
- 1988 The World According to Jimmy Breslin ISBN 978-0899193106
- 1991 Damon Runyon: A Life ISBN 0-89919-984-4
- 1997 I Want to Thank My Brain for Remembering Me : A Memoir ISBN 0-316-11879-6
- 2002 American Lives: The Stories of the Men and Women Lost on September 11 ISBN 0-940159-77-5
- 2002 I Don't Want to Go to Jail : A Novel ISBN 0-316-12032-4
- 2002 The Short Sweet Dream of Eduardo Gutierrez ISBN 0-609-60827-4
- 2004 The Church That Forgot Christ ISBN 0-7432-6647-1
- 2005 America's Mayor: The Hidden History of Rudy Giuliani's New York -preface to Robert Polner's book. ISBN 1-932360-58-1
- 2007 America's Mayor, America's President? The Strange Career of Rudy Giuliani - Preface to Robert Polner's next book ISBN 1-933368-72-1
- 2008 The Good Rat: A True Story ISBN 9780060856663
- 2011 Branch Rickey ISBN 9780670022496
External links