HARRISON CARROLL
Receives Award
-by Dorothy
Manners
01h
•
Photos:
Speaking of old friends,
Harrison Carroll was very much on hand for the
press party hosted by John Wayne at the Marquis
Restaurant. Occasion of the get-together was the
presentation of the Harrison Carroll Cinema Press
Prize -- which didn't seem as important as all the
old friends milling around and telling one another
how great everybody looks.
Julian Myers, who started at 20th Century Fox in
1948, recalls Archerd's pre-Variety stint as "leg
man" for Los Angeles Herald-Express columnist
Harrison Carroll. Photo:
Harrison Carroll Cinema Reporting Prize - 1971;
John Wayne, Harrison Carroll, Priscilla Cory, Terry
Moore, Troy Cory, at the Marquis in Hollywood -
1971.
•
Feature
Story
About"The
Hollywood
Scene"
By John
Austin
/ An
Ex-columnist Shows His
Class;
•
•
IRONY . .
. for more than forty years,
Harrison Carroll and his column
in the Herald-Express -- now the
Herald-Examiner -- was a fixture
in our town. Press agents, stars,
men-about-town, starlets and
hangers on couldn't do enough for
Harrison He was wined, dined and
catered to. It was all part of
the job for an entertainment
columnist in Los Angeles in the
halycon days of the business, and
then the transitional
movie-to-television era. Harrison
took it in his stride, never
abused it and, naturally, enjoyed
it. He always paid his dues in
return.
•
•
Unless
they deserved it, Harrison never
wrote a harsh word about anyone
in a career-destroying style. He
was always available to listen to
anyone who needed their name in
print in order to help them and
move them one run closer to the
top of the ladder. Unlike many if
his ilk. Harrison always checked
out a controversial story and
listened to both sides before he
put it in print. He never took
anyone's word for it. There were
(and still are) many people in
this town who try to "plant"
phony stories to further their
own career or hurt someone
else's. It's par for the course
in this business. Someone is
always standing behind you with a
hatchet up their
sleeves.
•
•
Since he
retired from the Herald -- and
not by his own choosing --
Harrison has become almost a
forgotten man in this town. A
telephone which used to ring
every two or three minutes, now
rings every two or three days. He
is no longer wined and dined
except, occasionally, by a press
agent who never forgets old
friends. Unfortunately, far too
many of them have forgotten
Harrison
Carroll.
•
•
But, in
his own way, Harrison has not
forgotten them entirely, rather,
his former colleagues in the
industry. Last Thursday at the
Martoni-Marquis, Harrison Carroll
announced that he was endowing a
permanent Cinema Reporting Prize
Foundation for entertainment
columnists throughout the
country. To fund the Endowment,
Harrison has pledged as
collateral his memoirs (which
will not be published until after
his death -- so you can breathe
easier) his fantastic photograph
collection, and his other
memorabilia collected over forty
years.
•
•
Three
prizes of $5,000, $3,000 and
$2,000 will be awarded starting
next February - and hopefully on
a national telecast -- to the
best entertainment columnist as
voted by stars and executives in
the entertainment
business.
Part
02hTIMELINE
/Harrison
Carroll, Newspaper
Columnist
•
1901
-
Born
June 23, 1901, in Waco, Texas.
He was
educated at Waco High School,
Rice Institute and Columbia
University. •
1922
- Receives a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Columbia
University. •
1922
-
Moves
to Los
Angeles. •
1922
-
Starts
working for the Times
as a
general reporter for $25 a
week.
His forte
was Hollywood and its mushrooming
film industry. •
1925-
Goes
to work for the
Examiner. •
1926
-
Shifts
to the Evening Herald as drama
editor. •
1926
-Starts
his column. •
1926
-
"Today's
Puzzle," the punch of his column.
which at first features one or
two stars. The format soon
changed to a news-type column,
but not the sensational gossip
kind often filled with false
information and innuendoes.
Carroll's news was authentic,
honest and fair. His style was
marked by an intimate touch with
short and to the point
sentences. •
1927
-
The
Central Press Association
syndicates his column in 48
newspapers. He battles - in print
- many noted contemporaries:
Walter Winchell, Jimmy Starr
(also of the Herald staff),
Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper,
to name a few. •
1969
- Retires on April 1, as
Columnist for the Herald
Examiner.
The last
"Puzzle" in the final column
ended a 47-year career as a
newspaperman, 43 of them as a
columnist. •
1971
- John
Wayne, Troy Cory and Brayden
Linden meet at John Wayne's
residence to establish the
Harrison Carroll Cinema Reporting
Prize Foundation, to honor
outstanding newspaper columnists
with the Harrison Carroll Award.
Wayne elected Chairman of the
Foundation. •1971
-
TheRightFix -
Harrison
Carroll, Los Angeles
Herald-Express •1971
-In
June meeting at
the
"Room at The Top," (later "Simply
Blues") in the Sunset & Vine
tower in Hollywood.
Establishes
the Harrison Carroll Award, and
the Harrison Carroll Cinema
Reporting Prize Foundation,
with
co-founders Troy Cory, Brayden
Linden, Jossi Sigl and Maria
Carroll.
On the
Board of Governors are Melvin
Belli, Marjory Oswald, John
Wayne, Ernest Borgnine, Sammy
Darvis, Jr., Stephen Crane, Glenn
Ford, Anthony Quinn and Zsa Zsa
Gabor, to name a
few. •1971
-On
July 1, the HCCRPF and John Wayne
host a star-studded banquet at
Martoni-Marquis on Sunset in
Hollywood.
•
•
Troy Cory
announces that Harrison Carroll
was endowing a permanent Cinema
Reporting Prize Foundation for
entertainment columnists
throughout the country. To fund
the Endowment, Harrison has
pledged as collateral his memoirs
his fantastic photograph
collection, and his other
memorabilia collected over forty
years. •
1972
-Died
in 1972, in Hollywood,
California.
•Harrison
Carroll Trivia: •
Gave
legendary American actor, John
Wayne his screen name. •
Preferred
to gather his own news by
personal contact over the
telephone or at night
spots. •
His
favorite hangout was "The
Daisy." •
Clara
Bow in her flapper days was close
to the writer. •
Confessed
to liking Hollywood
people. •
Clark
Gable was one of his frequent
callers. •
Never
revealed the characters in his
"Today's Puzzle"
column. •
His
friendship with the stars were
life-long lasting. •
Thousand
subscriber cancelled their
subscription to the Herald
Examiner upon his
retirement.
3.
Editor's Note /
Army
Archerd the "leg man". . .
•
•
Julian Myers, who started
at 20th Century Fox in 1948,
recalls Archerd's pre-Variety
stint as "leg man" for Los
Angeles Herald-Express columnist
Harrison Carroll. "Army was the
consummate interviewer," Myers
says, "a handsome young man, very
accessible.
•
•
"Army came out to Fox
every Friday. I was assigned to
take him to all the shooting
stages. The actors looked forward
to Army's visits because they
would read in Carroll's column
something interesting and honest
about them."
•
•
Aug. 31, 2005 / Veteran
"Tonight Show" publicist Charlie
Barrett remembers when press-shy
Johnny Carson was about to
celebrate his 25th anniversary on
NBC in 1987. Carson left a
message: "I'm not doing any
interviews, because if I do one,
I'll have to do them all. But if
Army calls, I'll speak to him."
•
•
That sums up Army
Archerd's clout in the biz rather
nicely. Longtime publicists --
most of whom were once known as
"press agents" -- are unanimous
in their praise for the Daily
Variety columnist.
•04
ByLines:
TVI
Bylines /
Related
Stories
Harrison
Carroll Award
Established Harrison
Carroll on April 1, 1969
"TO ALL YOU READERS, THIS IS
GOODBYE. I AM RETIRING. THIS IS
MY LAST COLUMN."
TODAY'S PUZZLE: What Hollywoood
beauty's wealthy father will
disinherit her if she marries the
actor she has been dating for a
long time?
And now to the news . . .
The Harrison
Carroll Award
•
•
Entertainment columnists
will henceforth be honored by the
newly organized Harrison Carroll
Cinema Reporting Prize,, it was
announced at a star-studded
banquet held at the Marquis
Restaurant recently. The prizes,
to be awarded early next year,
will be in honor of Harrison
Carroll who devoted more than 40
years to show-business reporting
until his retirement in
1969.
•
•
Hosts of the Cinema
Reporting Prize Foundation -
Co-founded by Brayden Linden, and
Troy Cory-Stubblefield, were well
represented at the banquet,
including actors John Wayne,
chairman, and Brayden Linden,
president; movie director Gerd
Oswald, vice president;
singer-actor and executive
coordinator Troy Cory, and many
film executives such as producer
Terry Moore, ("Bunny O'Hare"),
Josie Cory, Troy Cory's daughter
Priscilla Cory, Vikki Dugan,
Jossi Sigl, just to mention a
few. Mr. Carroll, star for the
night was accompanied by his
lovely
wife.
•
•
Other well-known
celebrities on the Board of
Governors, are Melvin Belli, John
Wayne, Ernest Borgnine, Sammy
Darvis, Jr., Stephen Crane, Glenn
Ford, Anthony Quinn and Zsa Zsa
Gabor, to name a few. Portrait
of
Harrison
Carroll "TODYA'S PUZZLE: What
Hollywood beauty's wealthy father
will disinherit her if she
marries the actor she has been
dating for a long time?"
•••
That was the last "Puzzle"
in the final column written by
Harrison Carroll on April 1, 1969
that ended a 47-year career as a
newspaperman, 43 of them as a
columnist.
•••
During those 47 years he
wrote about Hollywood and its
motion picture stars, especially
in his column, a great favorite
with the people he wrote about
because of his integrity and
fairness. He had four telephones
at his home, and it wasn't
unusual for 200 calls to be
logged during a single day from
persons in the industry, calling
him from all over the world
despite the hour of the day--and
night.
•••
Carroll was born in Waco,
Texas, one June 23, 1901. He was
educated at Waco High School,
Rice Institute and Columbia
University, receiving his
Bachelor of Arts degree from the
latter in 1922. He came to Los
Angeles the same year and went to
work for The Times as a general
reporter for $25 a week. His
forte was Hollywood and its
mushrooming film industry. His
coverage of the Charles Chaplin
and Rita Gray romance saw him
score repeated scoops, impressing
the rival Los Angeles
Examiner.
•••
He went to work for the
Examiner in 1925 and the very
next year shifted to the Evening
Herald as drama editor. Three
months later he started his
column, which at first featured
one or two stars. The format soon
changed to a news-type column,
but not the sensational gossip
kind often filled with false
information and innuendos.
Carroll's news was authentic,
honest and fair. His style was
marked by an intimate touch with
short and to the point
sentences.
•••
He was widely read,
particularly when the Central
Press Association syndicated his
column in 48 newspapers. He
battled - in print - many noted
contemporaries: Walter Winchell,
Jimmy Starr (also of the Herald
staff), Louella Parsons and Hedda
Hopper, to name a few. And
although all his rivals made
friendships with the screen idols
of millions, Carroll had a closer
rapport because of his credo to
never hurt anyone. The closest he
came to breaking it was once he
started his "Today's Puzzle," the
punch of his column. But he never
revealed his characters - even to
this day!
•••
"I like Hollywood people,"
he once told an interviewer.
"They don't have to worry about
me. I give them every
break I can. I don't write a
bitchy column. In fact, he turned
down invitations to parties,
pointing out that if he were at
one and something happened and he
reported it he would feel he had
violated his host's hospitality.
Carroll preferred to gather his
own news by personal contact over
the telephone or at night spots,
"The Daisy" being one of his
favorite haunts.
His friendship with the stars
were life-long lasting and has
included the unknown bit players
as well as those whose names were
flashed in large letters on the
theatre marques. John Wayne is
one who insists Carroll helped
him not only to get started, but
also with his screen name. A
frequent caller was the late
Clark Gable. Clara Bow in her
flapper days was close to the
writer. And the list could go on,
and on, and on, infinitum.
•••
When susbcribers learned
of his retirement, thousands
cancelled their subscriptions to
the paper. He has been living
with his second wife, Maria,
quietly in Los Angeles residence
of 46 years. Carroll has one son
by his first wife, Corrinne. The
son is in business in Los
Angeles.
--The
Harrison Carroll Cinema Reporting
Prize Foundation, July
1971.
Part
05h
- Editors
Notes •
Reviews
/
Editorial Chart • Editorial
Calendar / Events Calendar /
NBS100
TeleComunication Study -
Regulatory Frequency
Seizure
