Gimme Rewrite, Sweetheart...

Once upon a time, Cleveland (like every big city in America) had several daily newspapers. There were morning papers and evening papers. And generally speaking, they didn’t like each other much, which made for some interesting situations around our town.

Gimme Rewrite, Sweetheart . . . by local author John H. Tidyman, celebrates this wild and woolly era in this loving tribute to the art and science of being a newspaper reporter. Readers of a certain age will be especially fond of the snippets from the older era of reporting, not to mention the names of those long-ago persons who represented the newspaper media in our town: Bus Bergen, Louie Seltzer, Dan Hanna, George Plagenz, Herb Kamm, Mary Strassmeyer, and the list goes on.

Those readers not quite of that age (yet!) will recognize many of the contributors, some of whom are still active here, although perhaps no longer writing full-time: Dick Feagler, Brent Larkin, Marge Alge, Bob Dolgan, Robert Finn, Frank Hruby, Mike Roberts, Doris O’Donnell, Helen Moise, Teddi Gibson-Bianchi, Harriet Peters, etc. Wonderful writers all, who helped us understand our world better then we would have without them.

For sure, they knew their worlds better than we did: politics, crime/justice, sports, women’s pages (which included cooking, fashion, decorating, etc.), religion, the arts, and most of all—Cleveland, which at that time was the 10th largest city in the US. We were important then—a major player on the national scene.

There are also more than a few photographers who contributed, as well, and a nice chunk of their work is also included. Some of their feats of derring-do in order to ‘get that shot’ are truly unbelievable! They were sometimes better second-story men than the criminals they chased!

Actually, the main thrust of this book is the rivalry between the Plain Dealer and the Press, which died—unceremoniously—on June 17, 1982. An era died with it. But you can re-live those bumptious, boisterous, downright rowdy days of the 50s through the early 80s with this book—told by the ones who lived it, and loved it. Of course, not all of the stories in here were true, (these folks were writers, after all) but still, they’ll make you wish you’d been a bigger part of it than just a reader. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and go back to it time and time again for a bit more of the joie de vivre depicted within its pages.

The author comes from a reporting family: he ended up writing for both papers, plus nearly every other print publication in the area. He knows whereof he writes, with the help, of course, of all those colleagues who came before—or after him.

John H. Tidyman will speak at the Bertram Woods Branch of Shaker Heights Public Library, 20600 Fayette Road, from 7 to 8PM Wed 1/20. For more info: 216-991-2421. For more information about the book and upcoming appearances by the author go to: http://www.grayco.com/cleveland/books/10169/index.shtml

From Cool Cleveland contributor Kelly Ferjutz, who writes: My most recently published book is Ardenwycke Unveiled (e-book and trade paper). Cerridwen has another contemporary romance from me, But Not For Love, currently available only as an e-book, but perhaps will be in print next year. I hope to soon get around to completing some of the 30+ incomplete books in my computer!

By the way, Cerridwen has also accepted two of my short stories in their Scintillating Samples (complimentary reads) area: Song of the Swan and Unexpected Comfort. I love photography as well, as you can see here. Occasionally I teach writing workshops and sometimes do editing or ghostwriting on a free-lance basis. But over and above everything else, there's always been the writing. I can't imagine my life without it.