WALTER WINCHELL, APRIL 22, 1945

WALTER WINCHELL, APRIL 22, 1945
I have collected some of the “rapid fire” radio reports by Walter Winchell (1897-1972) which seem appropriate to share on my channel. Say what you want about Winchell, he had a huge radio audience in his radio heyday. My generation largely remembers Winchell long after his radio years as the narrator of the Desilu Productions TV program “The Untouchables” (1959-1963). The Winchell of radio was highly opinionated and feared by many as he had the ability to make or break careers with a comment or two during his weekly newscasts, which were more commentary than actual news reports. Here is Winchell in his prime. This Sunday night report is chock-a-block with World War II news, with the war in its final months. President Roosevelt had just died 10 days earlier and Truman was in the White House. Hitler and Mussolini were on the run in Europe and both in their final days. Meanwhile the United Nations was seeing its beginnings at a conference to be held in San Francisco later that week.

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Starring James Cagney.

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Now that you mention it, Winchell does sound like Cagney.