M
PAGE FOUR
THE DAILY TAR HEEL
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, nn
Not Movie -Romance --Bui 'Batty -M Out
Staff of 78 Puts in Much Work;
Little Glamor, But They Like It
Staff Work Begins
At 1:30 P.M., And
Ends at 1:30 A. M.
Bj Ernest Frankel
.The Daily Tar Heel has been
called "the pulse beat of the campus
and "a scoop sheet" and "a rotten
rag" and "Carolina historian," but the
real definition is written in the sweat
of patient managing editors, stingy
business managers, crusading editors,
freshman heelers, and brow-beaten
night editors. . -. . ...
-"; It is framed with the noise and in
sanity of the day office and the swear
ing and joking of the composing room.
It isn't the romance of movie news
papers; it's routine; it's excuses; it's
, accusations and deadlines and assign
ments; it's fun.
Things start moving around the
Tar Heel office in the general vicinity
of 1:30 p. m. when the managing edi
tor not the hard-boiled persecutor of
dime-novels takes' his place behind
his littered. desk and begins to rack
his brain and this morning's paper
for ideas for stories. -
Beginning
Each reporter is supposed to check
the office in person or by phone by 2
o'clock or 2:30 to notify the M. E
roughly what may be expected from
his beat today, and to get any assign
ments which the M. E. may have
thought up for him.
plow tne reporters edge around
their beats, trying to find at least one
good, juicy story, but more often find
ing a scolding for an inaccuracy in
this morning's paper for which any
one of a staff of 78 people might be
responsible. (
4:30 Changeover
By 4:30 the M. E. is nearly ready to
turn the paper over to the night edi
tor, having answered every conceiv
able kind of question from "Charlie,
how long do you want my feature ?" to
"How many K's in acquaintance?" He
has diplomatically refused to put a
six-column streamer on the story of
Mrs. Notzbottom's pink tea, and made
a lead story of the notice somebody
phoned in for the events column,
please.
Barring an airport fire or the bomb
ing of New York or Mitchell Britt's
sudden resignation from the Student
party, he now has a pretty definite idea
what the content of tomorrow's paper
is going to be and draws .a make-up
accordingly. Now he marks head sizes
on the copy which has accumulated on
his desk and the night editor enters
the picture. '
Editor's Troubles
Meanwhile the editor has been
fighting letter-writers of all kinds,
prodding slow-moving columnists and
editorial writers, and from the results
has planned page two for tomorrow.
He has allotted space for editorials,
and columns and has written a note to
tell "Shorty" Hoenig, night printshop
foreman, how to make up the page.
The business department, too, has
been fighting goblins to get ad copy
ready. Durham and Chapel Hill have I
v "'rv
L
' 'Xs
RECENT EDITORS AND MANAGING EDITORS of the Daily Tar
Heel, who carried on the burden begun 48 years ago by the University's
Athletic association: Charlie Gilmore, movie-managing editor, above left,
and Mac Smith, philosophic editor, above right, headed the staff in 1937-38
when a new system of streamlined heads was put into effect. Here Gil
more is scaring a freshman reporter while Smith, is demonstrating what
it's like to be editor. , .
1
Ir,v ?
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V
HOLDING THE REINS in 1938
39 were Will G. Arey, left, manag
ing editor, and Allen Merrill, editor,
whose picture flew out of the office
window yesterday. They lowered the
type size to the present "8-point,"
thereby adding four columns of
reading matter.
9
FRESHEST EXITS from the Daily Tar Heel executive portals have
been made by Morris Rosenberg, left below, managing editor, and Martin
Harmon, right below, editor. -In their term last year, United Press news
became a regular feature of the Tar Heel's front page and proved, to be
one of the most popular additions in the history of the paper. ,
- s y - '
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' VMnrniinilMui idnniini fiiiiini-aftiirriiriwirri-r-,l
been scoured for new ads and money
for advertising already printed. They
have managed to get mad at the stupe
THE ORANGE PRINTSHOP
Printers for the University and
the P. U. Board for fifteen years
Periodicals Oar Specialty
The Alumni Review
The Carolina Magazine
Tar an' Feathers
.Carolina Playbook
The South and World Affairs
In addition to
The Daily Tar Heel
which we have printed ever since it has been a daily.
The Orange Printshop
Chapel Hill
who wants the lead story on the front
page thrown in free with the two-inch
ad he is paying for on the back page.
Supper Time
Edit and business copy, then, are . ' T "
neoii r ' the niSht editors' sex lives with a color-
Those Tales
About Us Are
True-Some
Of Them
i
Those who have braved the terrors
of an afternoon visit to the second
floor of Graham Memorial bring back
wild tales of mild insanity to the
"outside world." They speak of bull
throwing and chair throwing and word
battles and spitball fights and hill
billy' singing and opera music They
compare it to the Morganton asylum
or the Playmakers theater or a Sound
and Fury rehearsal, but they've really
just dropped in on one of those few-
and-far-between days when it's relax
ing time in the Tab Heel office and
reporters, columnists, deskmen, edi
tors, feature writers, and editorialists
are letting loose.
When they're groggy from long
hours of night work or they're crying
in their beers, the Tar HEELers re
call. ...
When Elsie Lyon and Sara Shepard
and a freshman reporter decided it
would be good fun to write a little
love letter to the managing editor a
note from someone who wasn't there
and pandemonium broke loose when
the boss came back.
When a few vengeful deskmen
pasted their toughest professor's pic
ture on the wall and tossed knives at
it. The picture was mutilated from
double chin-6 shiny head. So was
the wall. -
When Grady Reagan, hillbilly gui
tarist and senior reporter, entertained
the office and himself by first singing,
"You Are My Sunshine" and "Red
River Valley" and second, by watch
ing "Good Morning" and "Lend An
Ear" outbid one another in praise,
anticipating staff nominations for the
editorship.
When by common consent the entire
Hill. Stories on out-of-town games are
sent in by Western Union. If the story
comes in after the downtown tele
graph office closes at 10 o'clock, it will
be ticked of f , by direct . wire from
Raleigh on the Tar . Heel's own tele
type.
These stories are due late and every
thing is cleared in preparation for
them. The night sports editor must
edit all copy and write all heads and
answer a telephone which, every, night
without fail, asks "What was the score
and why haven't I been getting my
Tar Heel?"
Make-Up Now .
The compositors have made type of
the copy that has been shoveled at
them all night. The night news and
sports editors take the make-ups pro
vided by their respective bosses and
stand beside the make-up stone and
supervise the fitting of the stories in
to the forms. Here they make the
more or less minor decisions necessary
to apply the make-up to. actuality.
This of course is assuming that
nothing momentous has happened
which upsets all plans and requires
calling the managing editor from his
movie date to straighten things out.
Colorful Cussing
Here also some of the rarest conver
sations in Chapel Hill take place as
Shorty" intersperses comments on
Printshop with the news department's
mats between 4:30 and 5 o'clock. Be
tween 5 and 6 o'clock the mats are
cast and the night composing room
force has enough copy to keep them
busy from 6 o'clock, when they begin
work, till 7:30 when the night news
and night sports editors begin to
shoot out the main body of their, copy.
Between 4:30 and 6 o'clock the
night news editor and managing edi
tor have been checking copy for gram
mar, spelling, punctuation, facts,
style, etc., and writing heads. At the
same time the M. E. has been explain
ing his make-up to the night stooge.
Night Grind
Everybody goes to supper at 6
o'clock and the night grind begins be
tween 7and 7:30. The night news and
sports men sit behind antique type
writers in the night office at the print-
shop and write headlines, edit late
articles, curse dumb reporters who
don't give a "!$ how they write."
Everything is out to the linotype men
by 9 or 9:30 except late stories and
news briefs.
At 9:30 to the second, the long dis
tance operator inquires if the Daily
Tar. Heel will "accept the charges"
on a call from United Press in Ra
leigh. The wire editor, equipped with
a shorthand machine, takes latest
news, reports from all over the world
by phone.
All routine sport stories come in at
7 o'clock. Events taking place that;
night come after the games are play
ed, whether in New York or Chapel
f ul cussing about the ability in mark
ing copy. In dull moments he takes
a new dip of snuff and goes into a
soliloquy about his cabin in the woods.
All the while literally throwing type
m the forms with emphasis and ac
curacy. And it is now that the editors realize
anew the value of Joe Bissell, who
plays music on the linotype machine,
sets more type with less mistakes than
anybody can understand, and corrects
mistakes which should have been
caught by copyreaders.
Press Time
J. D. Wright, a University student,
operates the other linotype with some-1
what less than perfect accuracy, makes
up the sports .page, good naturedlyl
changing to suit the . sports man's
whims, and keeps everything cheerful
with his slow wisecracks.
Jackson and Hazel, who interchane-e- i
aoiy run the press and folder five hours
a night, drop in between 12:30 and 1
o'clock and kid everybody for being so
siow and for anything else they can
tnmk of.
After the forms are locked up and
page proofs rolled off and checked I
it.- . . '
tne composing room force eroes hom
the staff men go to Harry's, and Jack
son and Hazel go to work.
Then, if the press doesn't break
down, if the folder doesn't collapse, if
ii : i-a? i . . .
me circulation department isn't in th
infirmary, you will read this nice fresh
news in the morning.
That is, you will read it if you don't
kick it down the hall as you stumble
to your 8:30..
staff spent three hectic hours moving
furniture around like madmen with
out improving the looks or utility of
the office, after a half dozen blossom
ing hercules moved an 8-foot cabinet
weighing something like ten tons
over the rail of the it E.'s cubbyb0V
When staff members, who havA
slept all week, stay up all night J
make-up Anniversary editions $Z
write headlines and stories like this-!
when no one will read them anjhc
Sunday
THE MAGNIFICENT LOVE STORY OF A
BEAUTIFUL REBEL!
The new North and the
modern South at war
again for a lovely.
lady's heart I
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PARAMOUNT NEWS ' f
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the most publicized A4 1 ' I
cxrw in the 'world, :& f f
HI in 1 I
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT'S NOVEL
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KAY FRANCIS
JACK OAKIE
Geoto DAflCROFT
SlUlVf LYD0N
A Ann GILUS
CHARLES ESMOND
KKO RADIO Pictara
Tuesday
JOAN BENNETT
WARREN WILLIAM
"THE MAN IN THE
IRON MASK"
Wednesday
IRENE DUNNE
CARY GRANT
"MY FAVORITE
WIFE"
Thursday Friday
LILIAN HARVEY HENRY FONDA
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"SCHUBERT'S SERENADE" 'THE RETURN OF
xii rxcuui Tingiisn lines FRANK JAM o
Saturday
WILLIAM BOYD ANDY CLYDE
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"DOOMED CARAVAN"
"GONE TOH THE WIND"
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