As you know, I sometimes report documented historical accomplishments and other factual newsworthy events concerning the Zuckerman Clan in the US. In order to be fair and balanced I felt it was necessary to reveal a somewhat embarrassing bit of Zuckerman lore. Well- here goes- I am sure that you are all aware of the 11/3/48 Chicago Tribune headline that erroneously proclaimed DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN - and the famous picture of President Truman holding up a copy of the paper that day at a train stop on his way to DC after his upset victory. Well- it as been reported that because the Tribune had a new method of printing the paper, faster than linotype, the Tribune could get to press much earlier than its competition and because the vote count was very close, it based its headline on too early of a tally. WELL- that is not the real story. My great uncle Zabneth Shlomo Zuckerman, a displaced person who came to the US following WWII, was working as a copy boy at the Tribune. Zabneths English was not so hot- but he tried hard to learn. The night of the election the editor (whose name I am not allowed to reveal) had been drinking because of the good news that Dewey was ahead (you may recall that the Tribune was a Republican paper), the editor starting drinking more heavily when the bad news was coming in the Truman was pulling ahead. Well it was getting late and Zabneth was pestering the editor for the headline, it was Zabneths job to run the headlines down to the set up boys. Finally, Zabneth was frantic and he yelled at the editor That we must have the headline about the winner of the election The editor was very drunk and yelled back Do we? Zabneth heard Dewey and was surprised and replied Dewey won? -Emmis? (emmis is the yiddush word for truth). The editor drunkenly roared back Truman, but with Zabneths limited English Zabneth heard True man The editor then passed out and Zabneth realized it was up to him to get the headline to the set up boys. He scribbled out Dewey Defeats Truman- he was quite proud of his use of the word Defeats Well- know you the know the rest of the story.......Zabneths journalism career was not over.....he later became the fashion critic and society editor for the Gassville, Arkansas paper the Gassville Gazette It should be noted the Gazette has been the leading paper in Baxter County Arkansas for the last 90 years.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 15:04:12 +0000
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