When I took over as chief
in the fall of 1946, I had a
wonderful core of people to
work with and some very exceptional traditions
to follow. Friday nights, issue nights,
were always very special—mob scenes for
dinner at one of the nearby restaurants after
readying the copy, then checking the proofs,
preparing page dummies, and working out
headlines at the printer's in Greenwich
Village. It was a very exciting period in my
life. If we could keep the laughing down, it
was possible to get home before 2 am. But
with the jokesters we had on board, that
was no easy task. To name a
few who come to mind:
Henry Brief, Ralph "Windy"
Ginzburg (yes, that one!),
Herb Thau, Ellie Lewit, Sol
Buchalter, Zelda Schwartzberg,
Sy Barasch, Clare Turk, Leo
Fassler, "Red" Press, and the
irrepressible Jerry Smilowitz.
Who can forget the explosion that rocked
the Italian restaurant where we were dining
one issue night when "Butterball" (that's
me), after plowing through his pasta, garlic
bread, and rich dessert, insisted to the waiter
that he had to have Sweet 'N Low with his
coffee.
—IRWIN BASKIND ('48)
