Front Page Drama

Sunday is a Day of Rest for most Americans, which means that there is an army of workers whose job it is to see that they get the most out of this one day of leisure. One important group of these workers were the ones who tirelessly ensured that the Sunday Newspaper landed on the front porch every Sunday Morning with a mighty thump.

Reading the Sunday Paper was an important and enjoyable tradition in many homes. The paperboy could easily toss a rolled daily edition on the porch (or often in the bushes); the Sunday Edition could be five-times the bulk and too massive to be rolled. The extra effort paid off for the subscriber, along with the usual front-page headlines here was an extended colorized Funny Page, more sports coverage, expanded Want Ads, and often a Sunday Magazine Supplement.

The Sunday Magazine was printed on higher quality paper than normal newsprint, which allowed for higher quality color photos to be printed (often of scantily-clad young women). The Magazine usually contained "light news", sometimes borderline tabloid fare. One editor quipped of the Hearst supplement, "nothing is as stale as yesterday's newspaper, but The American Weekly may be around the house for days or weeks".

The competition between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal is the stuff of American legend. Both papers tried to boost circulation with Sunday Supplements. Hearst papers included the eight-page Women's Home Journal and the sixteen-page Sunday American Magazine which were later refashioned as The American Weekly. 

In an effort to increase readership, in the 1930s the Hearst Empire turned to radio, sponsoring the weekly Front Page Drama in syndication. The program featured a story from that week's American Weekly with enough detail to satisfy listeners while whetting their appetites for more salacious details to be found in the print edition.

Front Page Drama was notable for the sheer variety of stories it presented over the years. Strange stories of princesses and peasants, movie stars and confidence men, cowboys, pirate, politicians, lucky breaks, and tragic circumstances all made it to the pages of The American Weekly and thereby to Front Page Drama.

A side note to the Front Page Drama story is writer Paul Keyes, who would gain infamy as the comedy writer who helped get Richard Nixon elected President. Keyes was entranced with show business from the time Rudy Vallee came to his hometown of Dorchester, Massachusetts. He got an on-air job with the Yankee Network but lost the position when he flubbed the pronunciation of "psoriasis". During the War, he wrote stories for the Armed Forces Radio Service, the job which helped him to nail a spot with Front Page Drama. In the 1950s, he moved to NBCTV and became a writer for Jack Paar's The Tonight Show. In 1960, he met and became friends with Vice President and Presidential-hopeful Richard Nixon. By the late-1960s, Keyes was the head writer for Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and his pal Nixon was about to launch another presidential bid. Keyes convinced Nixon to appear on the program. The famously dour candidate turned toward the camera and quipped the catch-phrase "Sock it to me!"

Although a relatively minor incident of the 1969 Race, it is the sort of story that would wind up on Front Page Drama