The Press: Birth Of An Advertisingman

He was a “star reporter” for the New York Evening Post. When there was an especially good fire, murder, tempest or celebrity, he reported it. He got a “byline” over his stories: By Norman Klein. He was good at his job. He had worked on other papers—the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Daily News. For two years he had been War correspondent on the British front for the Chicago Daily News. He liked the life: he liked the excitement of beating a deadline, of turning in a good story in half the requisite amount of time; he liked meeting famed people, going queer places. Then, one day two months ago, he quit. Why?

Onetime Star Reporter Norman Klein told his reasons to the American Press (newspaper trade journal). Said he: “Newspapering is a young man’s game. . . . And a newspaperman is young only as long as he can successfully kid himself. I kidded myself because I kept on thinking smugly that I was Somebody. . . . [ Manhattan newspapermen] love to come into the office of a morning to remark. —met Noel Coward at Condé Nast’s roof party last night and Noel tells me —.’ Or, ‘— So John D. Jr., was standing in the stern of Vincent Astor’s yacht (he’s a swell guy when you get to know him) and I said —.’

“It was a grand 15 years of it, and I relished every minute. But lately I’ve had my doubts. . . .”

Newspaperman Klein, who is now 33, did not retire into the hills of Connecticut to write novels. Instead, he joined the staff of Benton & Bowles, Manhattan advertising agency.

Concluded Advertisingman Klein: “A newspaperman’s training—his ‘deadline’ habit of thinking on his feet—will get him further in a money way in advertising. . . . And why not, brethren? Ask your wives. These newspapermen’s wives— almost always superior in brains and breeding to their old school friends riding around in Cadillacs and Studebakers—will tell you that the boys are just trying to believe they’re still living in the glamorous 90’s.

“Boy, I’m out for the jack from now on. … And when I get a nice big pile I’m going to buy me a newspaper somewhere—and have some fun!”