The Chicago American[1] was an afternoon newspaper published in Chicago under various names from 1900 until its dissolution in 1975.
History
The paper's first edition came out on July 4, 1900, as Hearst's Chicago American. It became the Morning American in 1902 with the appearance of an afternoon edition. The morning and Sunday papers were renamed as the Examiner in 1904. James Keeley bought the Chicago Record-Herald and Chicago Inter-Ocean in 1914, merging them into a single newspaper known as the Herald. William Randolph Hearst purchased the paper from Keeley in 1918.
Distribution of the Herald Examiner after 1918 was controlled by gangsters. Dion O'Banion, Vincent Drucci, Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran first sold the Tribune. They were then recruited by Moses Annenberg, who offered more money to sell the Examiner, later the Herald-Examiner. This "selling" consisted of pressuring stores and news dealers. In 1939, Annenberg was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud and died in prison.
Under pressure from his lenders, Hearst consolidated the American and the Herald-Examiner in 1939. It continued as the Chicago Herald-American until 1953 when it became the Chicago American. The American was bought by the Chicago Tribune in 1956, and was renamed as Chicago's American in 1959.
As with many other afternoon daily newspapers the paper suffered in postwar years from declining circulation figures caused in part by television news and in part by population shifts from city to suburbs. The paper continued as an afternoon broadsheet until 1969 when the Tribune converted the paper to the tabloid-format Chicago Today. Measures to bolster the paper were unsuccessful, and Chicago Today published its final issue on September 13, 1974. The Chicago Tribune inherited many of the Today's writers and staff and became a 24-hour operation.
The American was the product of the merger or acquisition of 14 predecessor newspapers and inherited the tradition and the files of all of them.
As an afternoon paper, the American was dependent on street sales rather than subscriptions, and breaking news helped bring in street sales.
The tradition was exemplified by the longtime night city editor of the American, Harry "Romy" Romanoff, who could create news stories almost at will with only a telephone. He ran the city room at night with the help of two rewrite men (including Mike McGovern, noted below), one night photo editor, a sports desk editor (Brent Musburger's first job out of journalism school), and one night copy boy who cut and pasted AP and UPI wires for Harry's review. Since the afternoon paper was put together the previous evening, the night city editor was the key news editor. Romanoff enjoyed the fearful but absolute regard of pressmen, the composing room and the entire night staff of the Tribune Tower, which owned and housed the Chicago American's operations in its final decades.
One night, floods threatened Southern Illinois, and the American did not have a big story for the front page. Romanoff called fire departments and police stations throughout the region, posing as "Captain Parmenter of the state police" (a nonexistent individual), urging them to take action.[citation needed] One fire department, bemused by the call, asked what they should do. "Ring those fire bells! Call out the people!" Romanoff then turned to his rewrite man to dictate the lead story:
Fire bells rang over southern Illinois as police and fire departments called out the people to warn them of impending floods.
It never did flood, but the American had its banner headline. These headlines were necessary for sales of the early editions. Later in the day, breaking news would generally replace them or reduce their importance. Of course, many stories developed in this way were genuine scoops that would be expanded in later editions.
The American gave the same attention to smaller stories as to large ones. It was usually first with police news. One notable headline:
Mother of 14 kids kills father of 9 in police station
Headquarters for the paper was the Hearst Building, located at 326 West Madison Street in Chicago. In 1961, the offices of Chicago's American were moved adjacent to the Tribune Tower at 435 North Michigan Avenue, where they would remain until the ultimate demise of Chicago Today in 1974.
Notable people
In addition to Romanoff, notable American staff members included:
Frank R. Adams, reporter for Herald-Examiner, author, songwriter and screenwriter
Charles Dryden, considered the best baseball writer of his era; first hired in 1898 by the New York Journal; capped his career with the Tribune and Herald-Examiner; coined the name "Hitless Wonders" for the 1906 White Sox
Hugh Fullerton, while covering the 1919 World Series for the Herald-Examiner, became suspicious of the Chicago White Sox's play; his articles culminated in eight Sox players being accused of conspiring with gamblers and subsequently being banned from baseball for life
Chester Gould, cartoonist; creator of Dick Tracy; drew a number of comic strips for the Evening American before being hired away by the Chicago Tribune in 1931
Robert Gruenberg, Washington bureau chief for the American, 1963–65
Richard Hainey, the American's executive editor. Bob Hainey, his brother and a Sun-Times copy chief, was found dead on a Chicago street at 35; the circumstances were addressed by Bob's son, GQ magazine editor Michael Hainey, in a 2013 book, After Visiting Friends.
Sydney J. Harris, wrote for the Herald-Examiner from 1934-41 before launching a long career as a columnist with the Daily News
Walter Howey, managing editor of the American, beginning in 1917; widely presumed to be the inspiration for the colorful character of editor "Walter Burns" in the play The Front Page and subsequent film adaptations, including His Girl Friday
Harold L. Ickes, reporter for the Record at the turn of the century; U.S. Secretary of the Interior 1933-46
James Keeley, owned the Herald from 1914–18; also served it as a World War I correspondent
Jack Mabley, columnist and associate editor for the American and Chicago Today 1961-1974; one of his most famous columns was about the measured water pressure during commercial breaks on national TV broadcasts, determining that viewers were using the toilet during the breaks
Hazel MacDonald, born in 1890, wrote for Photoplay magazine, then reviewed films for the American until she was let go for crossing a picket line in 1938; became a war correspondent for the Chicago Daily Times
Tiny Maxwell, football player; cub reporter for the Record-Herald; college football's Maxwell Award is named for him
Maxwell McCrohon, American reporter in 1958; became managing editor of Chicago Today in 1970; named editor of the Tribune in 1972, and later was the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner editor when that paper closed
George Murray, was once sent to Central America and told to "find a lost city," which he promptly did; wrote a memoir about the paper called The Madhouse on Madison Street[4]
Vaughn Shoemaker, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist; ended his career with Chicago's American and Chicago Today, retiring in 1972 after drawing approximately 14,000 cartoons
Sidney Smith, cartoonist for the Examiner, 1908–11
Roger Treat, vocal critic of segregation and editor of the first Pro Football Encyclopedia
William Veeck, Sr., sports columnist who was hired away to be Chicago Cubs vice-president by William Wrigley Jr. in 1917 after a series he wrote criticizing the team; after the Cubs won the 1918 National League pennant, he was promoted to club president
John F. Kennedy, the future U.S. president, worked as a reporter at the Chicago Herald-American after serving in the Navy during World War II in 1945, where he covered the United Nations Conference held in San Francisco and the elections that ousted Winston Churchill in 1945 from London. The job was lined up by his influential father, Joseph P. Kennedy.
In the end, TV news brought an end to most afternoon papers, but up until the 1970s, Chicago had a competitive journalistic scene unmatched by most other American cities, five daily newspapers and four wire services in competition, and none were more competitive than Chicago's American.[citation needed]
The American's predecessor and successor newspapers
Morning Record, March 13, 1893 – March 27, 1901 (originally News Record, aka Morning News, aka Chicago Daily News (Morning Edition) beginning July 24, 1881)
^"Chicago American Now A.P. Member", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Tuesday 1 November 1932, Volume 39, Section 1, Page 1. Associated Press.
