Walter Winchell

American Journalist

About Walter Winchell

Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the 1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes, and Jazz Age slang. Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence “turned journalism into a form of entertainment”.

He uncovered both hard news and embarrassing stories about famous people by exploiting his exceptionally wide circle of contacts, first in the entertainment world and the Prohibition era underworld, then in law enforcement and politics. He was known for trading gossip, sometimes in return for his silence. His outspoken style made him both feared and admired. Novels and movies were based on his wisecracking gossip columnist persona, as early as the play and film Blessed Event in 1932. As World War II approached in the 1930s, he attacked the appeasers of Nazism, then in the 1950s he aligned with Joseph McCarthy in his campaign against communists. He damaged the reputation of Josephine Baker as well as other individuals who had earned his enmity.

He returned to television in 1959 as the narrator of the 1930s-set crime drama series The Untouchables. Over the years he appeared in more than two dozen films and television productions as an actor, sometimes playing himself.

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Quotes by Walter Winchell

A friend is one who walks in when others walk out.

Walter Winchell

A pessimist is one who builds dungeons in the air.

Walter Winchell

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

Walter Winchell

An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery.

Walter Winchell

Broadway is a main artery of New York life – the hardened artery.

Walter Winchell

Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.

Walter Winchell

Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation.

Walter Winchell

Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.

Walter Winchell

I usually get my stuff from people who promised somebody else that they would keep it a secret.

Walter Winchell

Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you.

Walter Winchell

Nothing recedes like success.

Walter Winchell

Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.

Walter Winchell

She’s been on more laps than a napkin.

Walter Winchell

The best way to get along is never to forgive an enemy or forget a friend.

Walter Winchell

The only ones who like Milton Berle are his mother – and the public.

Walter Winchell

The same thing happened today that happened yesterday, only to different people.

Walter Winchell

Today’s gossip is tomorrow’s headline.

Walter Winchell

Too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it.

Walter Winchell

We must not indulge in unfavorable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.

Walter Winchell