Walter Winchell
Overview
Walter Winchell was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 newspaper and radio gossip commentator.
Born Walter Weinschel in New York City
New York City
New 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 left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...

 troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."

His career in journalism was begun by posting notes about his acting troupe on backstage bulletin boards. Joining the Vaudeville News in 1920, Winchell left the paper for the Evening Graphic
New York Graphic
The New York Evening Graphic was a tabloid newspaper published from 1924 to 1932 by Bernarr "Bodylove" Macfadden...

in 1924, and in turn was hired on June 10, 1929 by the New York Daily Mirror
New York Daily Mirror
The New York Daily Mirror was an American morning tabloid newspaper first published on June 24, 1924, in New York City by the William Randolph Hearst organization as a contrast to their mainstream broadsheets, the Evening Journal and New York American, later consolidated into the New York Journal...

where he finally became a the author of what would be the first syndicated gossip column, entitled On-Broadway.

Using connections in the entertainment, social, and governmental realms, he would expose exciting or embarrassing information about celebrities in those industries.
Quotations

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

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.

(variation on above to demonstrate the good neighbor policy, probably) "Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. North and South America and by shortwave to all the ships at sea, let's go to press!"

 
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