Emile Gauvreau

Emile Gauvreau (1891–1956) was an American journalist, newspaper and magazine editor and author of novels and nonfiction books. He is best known as editor of two of New York's entertainment and sensation oriented "jazz age" tabloid newspapers.

Gauvreau was born in Centerville, Connecticut.

Gauvreau got his start in newspapers at the New HavenJournal-Courier. In 1916, he moved on to the Hartford Courant, as a reporter, becoming legislative reporter, Sunday editor and assistant managing editor.^[1] Reference sources say he became managing editor at age 25, but there may be an error in either that age, his birthday, or the year he began working at the Courant.^[2]

He launched the newspaper's Artgravure Picture section and its Sunday magazine, and developed a strong partiality for the banner headline. His sensational style led to his dismissal from the newspaper in 1924 over a series alleging that medical quacks were operating in the state with credentials from diploma mills. He was asked for his resignation, but left with strong finances, thanks to his company stock.^[3]

Having helped compensate for a lame leg with exercises from Physical Culture publisher Bernarr Macfadden, and having written confession-style stories for Macfadden's True Story magazine, Gauvreau went to New York to inquire about freelancing for Macfadden publications. He did not expect to be offered the opportunity to start a daily tabloid newspaper for Macfadden, he wrote. It was to compete with the New York Daily News, America's first tabloid, which was soon joined by Hearst New York Daily Mirror. Macfadden had wanted to call his tabloid The Truth, but eventually settled for New York Evening Graphic, with Gauvreau as managing editor.^[4][5]

Además de historias de crímenes, fotografías y las cruzadas de salud de Macfadden, sus políticas experimentales incluían relatos en primera persona de periodistas con la ayuda de escritores fantasma y fotografías compuestas que ilustraban escenas para las que el periódico no podía obtener una fotografía real. En su autobiografía, Gauvreau, quien había dibujado caricaturas periodísticas en sus inicios, asumió tanto el mérito como la responsabilidad del uso de la composición fotográfica y admitió haberse dejado llevar por ella, especialmente al crear escenas de alcoba ridículas para acompañar historias sobre un caso de divorcio sensacionalista. ^{[ 6 ] [ 7 ]}

Se atribuyó parte del mérito por descubrir y promocionar a miembros del personal del Graphic como Walter Winchell , Ed Sullivan y otros. Sullivan fue editor de deportes antes de reemplazar a Winchell en la columna de Broadway. Posteriormente, Sullivan pasó al Daily News, y tanto Winchell como Gauvreau dejaron el Graphic para unirse al Daily Mirror de Hearst, continuando una larga rivalidad entre editor y columnista hasta la década de 1930. ^{[ 8 ]}

El libro de Gauvreau de 1935 sobre un viaje a Rusia , titulado What So Proudly We Hailed (Lo que tanto ensalzábamos), provocó su despido de Hearst, pero continuó escribiendo y, más tarde, editó una revista ilustrada, Click, para Moses Annenberg de The Philadelphia Inquirer .

Entre sus libros, que comienzan con dos novelas casi autobiográficas sobre la "sensacionalismo", se incluyen Hot News (1931), The Scandalmonger (1932), What So Proudly We Hailed (1935), Dumbells and Carrot Strips (con Mary Macfadden, 1935), My Last Million Readers (1941), Billy Mitchell: founder of our Air Force and Prophet Without Honor (1942) y The Wild Blue Yonder: Sons of the Prophet Carry On (con Lester Cohen, 1945).

Gauvreau fue objeto de un perfil escrito por Michael Shapiro para la Columbia Journalism Review en 2011, bajo el título The Paper Chase, condensando compasivamente las 488 páginas de My Last Million Readers de Gauvreau a la extensión de un artículo de revista. ^{[ 9 ]}