Breslin And Hamill: Deadline Artists: How Breslin And Hamill Blazed A Trail To Newspaper Glory

Robert Rorke at the New York Post offers a piece on an HBO documentary about New York newspaper columnists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill.

The boozy, brawling days of New York tabloids are vividly evoked in the documentary “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” a portrait of columnists Jimmy Breslin, who died in 2017 at age 88, and Pete Hamill, 83. They wrote for the New York Daily News and the New York Post. They were both Irish kids, one from Queens (Breslin), the other Brooklyn (Hamill), who transcended their extremely humble beginnings to become masters of their craft and celebrities in their own right. As co-director Jonathan Alter puts it, “They were there for every big story of the second half of the 20th century, between 1950 and 2001.” That included assassinations (the Kennedy brothers, Malcolm X), crime figures (Son of Sam, Bernhard Goetz), urban horrors (AIDS, the Crown Heights riots) and terrorist attacks (9/11).

…  How did Breslin and Hamill change journalism?

They personified an era when print journalists could be swashbuckling figures. It’s unimaginable now. Could you imagine a print journalist (Hamill) dating the most famous woman in the world (Jackie Onassis) and a top Hollywood star (Shirley MacLaine) at the same time? Or hosting “Saturday Night Live” (Breslin)? Before Woodward and Bernstein, Jimmy was the most famous journalist in America. He showed that you could write novelistically in a newspaper using facts. Breslin’s column, “A Death in Emergency Room One,” about the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, blew the doors off journalism.

You can read Robert Rorke’s interview with Jonathan Alter via the below link:

https://nypost.com/2019/01/25/how-breslin-and-hamill-blazed-a-trail-to-newspaper-glory/   

Note: Although I disagreed with Jimmy Breslin’s worldview, I enjoyed his comic gangster novels, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight and I Don’t Want To Go To Jail.  

Newspaper Columnist And Author Jimmy Breslin Dies At 88

Mark Moore at the New York Post reports that legendary New York newspaper columnist and author Jimmy Breslin has died.

Jimmy Breslin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who chronicled life in New York City for more than five decades and became known as the champion of the common man, died Sunday. He was 88.

Breslin, who may be best-remembered for interviewing John F. Kennedy’s gravedigger, passed away at his Manhattan home after suffering from a number of “problems stemming from pneumonia,” his wife, Ronnie Eldridge, said.

“He had a great life … he died just like that,” Eldridge, 86, a former city councilwoman, told The Post, snapping her fingers for emphasis.

“I’m going to miss him terribly.”

The Queens-born Breslin — who authored the books “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?” about the hapless 1962 Mets, and “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight,” about the Mafia — was known for his work on several New York daily newspapers: including Newsday, the New York Herald Tribune and the New York Post.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2017/03/19/pulitzer-prize-winning-journalist-jimmy-breslin-dies-at-86/

Note: Growing up I wanted to be a newspaper columnist and write crime fiction (which I've accomplished to some degree). Although I didn’t subscribe to Jimmy Breslin's politics and worldview, I used to read and enjoy his columns. I liked the humor and the sidelong observations. I also liked his novels, especially his organized crime comedies, The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight and I Don’t Want to Go To Jail. He will be missed.