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
-
TheRightFix -
Harrison
Carroll, Los Angeles
Herald-Express •
1971
- In June meeing 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
