Sob Sisters - Heart Wrenching Journalism

Sob Sisterswould take Nellie to complete the trip. More than a
Newspaper publishers were early converts to themillion people entered the contest.
feminist movement inasmuch as lady journalists wereSongwriter Joe Hart, the most popular composer of
good with words and related easily to pathos whichhis day, wrote "Globe Trotting Nellie Bly" about her. A
boosted circulation.board game was created that traced her journey.
Everyone was asking: "What next for Nellie Bly?"
The next day, Editor George Madden received aThere were not any more trips, but she augmented
stinging - but well written - rebuttal from Miss Cochran.her salary as a lecturer and syndicated columnist. Her
He was impressed and asked her to do an article onincome for the next several years averaged $25,000 -
girls and their purpose in life.a substantial sum in those days of no radio, TV,
Elizabeth wrote the article right away and was invitedmovies, income taxes or inflation.
to drop around for a visit. Madden hired her as aNellie retired from journalism when she married Robert
reporter at $5 per week, a handsome sum for aSeaman in 1895. After his death ten years later she
woman in Victorian America.took over his failing factories and restored them to
Miss Cochran was an imaginative and persuasiveprofitability.
writer. She was the prototype of all women reportersShe ran her plants in enlightened fashion - establishing
who came to known in the newspaper business asphysical-fitness gymnasiums, bowling alleys, health care
"sob sisters."nurses, teachers and libraries for her employees. While
As was the fashion in those days, Elizabeth chose avacationing in Europe at the start of the first World
penname for her byline.War she was trapped behind the Eastern Front.
The famous French authoress Amadine Luci used theWhereupon, she filed war stories to various
male pseudonym of "George Sand" to gainnewspapers. She died in 1922.
acceptance. Elizabeth determined to use a feminineVera Brown
name. She chose "Nellie Bly" from a Stephen FosterEvery newspaper, of course, then had to have its own
song.sob sister, Usually she was one of the best paid
Right away, people began to ask questions aboutreporters and adopted colorful manners that went with
Nellie Bly. "Is the writer really a woman? Who evernotoriety.
heard of a woman reporter? Good grief! What next?"The last of the old-time sob sisters was Vera Brown
Nellie had a "nose for news." Sympathetic to problemswho wrote a front-page column "Our Times"of human
of the poor, she went into the slums to find stories.interest stories for Randolph Hearst's "Detroit Times."
She was a genius at wringing tears from her readersShe began her career by taking flying lessons and
over the plight of the unfortunate. The result was areporting her progress. She went on to other things
half-admiring, half derisive description for her specialafter crashing her plane into the Detroit River during
type of journalism.her solo flight.
After establishing a reputation, Nellie headed for NewVera had a heart as big as all outdoors which she
York City. It was then the era of newspaper publishingattempted to disguise by a steady stream of epithets
giants such a Horace Greeley, Charles Dana andwhich made stevedores blush.
Joseph Pulitzer.As a Navy Yeoman press liaison at Detroit, Mich., in
The "World" was Pulitzers flagship. It was setting thethe early years of World War II, I helped arrange a fly-
pace for dynamic journalism. Nellie went there to seekin by movie star Cary Grant on a new B-28 bomber.
a job.The event was a benefit for the Army-Navy Relief
"Name one idea the World might possibly be interestedFund. Vera Brown covered the story for the Times.
in," challenged Pulitzer.The plane was late and Vera demanded of the
She replied, "I want to pretend I'm insane and getgeneral in charge, "When is that g-d d-m bomber going
myself committed to the asylum on Blackwell's Islandto get here?"
and live there as an inmate. I have always wanted toThe general was taken aback and related the remark
find out how the insane poor are really treated and toto Vera's editor. The editor, accustomed to his sob
tell the story.sister's blue language, teased Vera about offending a
This was the kind of thing Pulitzer couldn't resist. Hegeneral.
gave her $25 for expenses and told her to go ahead.Vera, then a gray-haired grandmotherly type, had
Nellie convinced a policeman, a judge and a successionremoved her dress to type her story --as was her
of doctors that she had gone mad. They locked hercustom on warm days before air conditioning. She
up!never took off her hat, and always had a cigarette
Ten days later she came out with a sensational story:dangling from her lips.
"Behind Asylum Bars." It launched a major reform ofIndignantly she rose to her feet, straightened her slip
institutional care. Nellie Bly became Pulitzer's starand shouted to the crowded newsroom, "I did NOT
reporter and was given free rein as a crusader.say g-d d-m bomber. What I SAID was, g-d d-m B-26.
* * *Having defended her professional accuracy, Vera sat
The story that fired the imagination of the world anddown, lighted a new cigarette and turned out a
made Nellie a celebrity, was her pioneer,masterpiece of needs by the widows and orphans of
record-breaking trip around the world in 1889. Julesour service men.
Verne had stirred public interest with his fictionalAfter the war, I worked for awhile as a reporter for
"Around The World In Eighty Days."the Detroit Free Press. Our "sob sister" was a guy.
Nellie set out to better this imaginary race against time.Jimmy Pooler -- a superb wordsmith I tried to emulate
She left New York City on Nov. 14, 1889, and-- who penned a daily, front-page column "Sunny Side."
completed her trip in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes andToday, sob sisters like Nellie, and Vera, and Jimmy
14 seconds. She filed long telegrams to Pulitzer athave been liberated to the "beats" and editors' chairs.
every stop.Too bad. A lot of sensitivity and soul has gone out of
Readers of the World were invited to guess the time itnewspapering.