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Louis Sobol (August 10, 1896 – February 9, 1986) was a journalist, Broadway gossip columnist, and radio host.[1] Sobol wrote for Hearst newspapers for forty years, and was considered one of the country's most popular columnists.[2] Sobol wrote about celebrities during the years when well-known columnists themselves became celebrities.[1]

Early life

Sobol was born in New Haven, Connecticut.[3] He attended Crosby High School and was the chairman of the Dramatic Club, business manager of the school paper, and manager of the baseball team.[4]: 136–138  While still in high school, Sobol worked as a reporter for the Waterbury Republican.[4]: 163 

Career

Sobol continued to work on the Republican after high school, then left the Republican to work for the Bridgeport Standard.[4]: 187  He served in the Army during World War I.[4]: 105  After the war, Sobol returned to Connecticut where he became acting city editor on the New London Day[4]: 204  and was an occasional contributor to Variety.[5]: 385  He then moved to New York[4]: 77  where he worked for the Famous Features Syndicate, ghost-writing first-person stories which appeared in the New York Evening Graphic and New York Journal on behalf of clients, among them "Daddy" and Peaches Browning and Queen Marie of Romania.[4]: 199–200 

On May 31, 1929, Sobol took over Your Broadway and Mine column from Walter Winchell for the New York Evening Graphic.[5]: 14  He added a second column, Snapshots at Random, in October, 1929.[5]: 26  Sobol resigned from the Graphic in 1931, taking his column to New York Evening Journal[5]: 37–38  and renaming it The Voice of Broadway.[6] The column was later called New York Cavalcade.[3] Sobol's radio shows included the Borden Show and Ludwig Baumann Show on WOR, the Lucky Strike Hour on WEAF, and daily broadcasts for the American Broadcasting network.[5]: 206 

During 1932, Sobol performed in a vaudeville revival at the Palace Theatre[5]: 195 [7] In 1933, he hosted a series of short films called "Louis Sobol shorts".[8] In 1938, Sobol was given a luncheon to recognize his work for the New York and Brooklyn Federations of Jewish Charities.[9]

Sobol published two memoirs and a novel. His novel Six Lost Women was recommended by the reviewer in The New York Times for "the sentimental reader".[10] Sobol's book Some Days Were Happy is a memoir of his youth and early career.[11] His memoir The Longest Street, which Maurice Zolotow described as "the longest Broadway column ever written" and "a truthful rendering of a certain way of life at a certain period in New York history",[12] describes the people he met and wrote about, the parties they all attended, and what it was like to go from being a small town journalist to a chronicler of Broadway, New York City, and Hollywood.[5] Sobol wrote one play, The High Hatters,[13] which received disappointing reviews.[5]: 15–16 

Sobol played himself in the 1947 film Copacabana.[14] In 1953, he was called "one of the nation's most popular columnists"; at that time, his New York Cavalcade column had a combined readership between 10 and 14,000,000, being syndicated throughout the country.[15] In 1962, Sobol was honored as "Man of the Year" by the March of Dimes.[5]: 362  Columnist Dan Lewis described Sobol as "a monumental influence in the world of show business".[16] Sobol retired from journalism in 1967.[3] Jim Bishop called Sobol "the most beloved" of the Broadway columnists.[17]

Personal life

Sobol married Leah Helen Cantor in 1919. They had one daughter. Leah died at age 51 in 1948.[18] Sobol then married Peggy Strohl, a publicist, at City Hall in Santa Barbara, California on July 29, 1950.[19]

Sobol died at Roosevelt Hospital[20] on February 9, 1986, at age 90.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c Hanscom, Leslie (February 25, 1986). "When Gossip Reigned". Newsday. p. 3. ProQuest 285341230.
  2. ^ D, T.P.S.P. (2013). Heirs to Dirty Linen and Harlem Ghosts: Whitewashing Prohibition with Black Soap. Balboa Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-1-4525-7376-2. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  3. ^ a b c "Louis Sobol, Columnist". Newsday. February 11, 1986. p. 35. ProQuest 285255118.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Sobol, Louis (1947). Some Days Were Happy. Random House.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sobol, Louis (1968). The Longest Street. Crown Publishers. LCCN 68-20479.
  6. ^ New York Supreme Court. p. 1-PA2. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  7. ^ Slide, A. (2006). New York City Vaudeville. Images of America. Arcadia. p. 47. ISBN 978-0-7385-4562-2. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  8. ^ Soister, J.T. (2015). Of Gods and Monsters: A Critical Guide to Universal Studios' Science Fiction, Horror and Mystery Films, 1929-1939. McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-4766-0499-2. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  9. ^ "Folk of Broadway and Charity Drive". The New York Times. January 15, 1938. p. 19. ProQuest 102728356.
  10. ^ "Six Lost Women by Louis Sobol". The New York Times. May 17, 1936. p. BR20. ProQuest 101883567.
  11. ^ Robbins, Lewis (August 31, 1947). "A Publicist's Salad Days". The New York Times. p. BR10. ProQuest 108006976.
  12. ^ Zolotow, Maurice (December 29, 1968). "The Longest Street". The New York Times. p. BR8. ProQuest 118444513.
  13. ^ "Radio Programs and Personalities". Shelby County Reporter. May 12, 1932. p. 7. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  14. ^ "Copacabana Review". TV Guide. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  15. ^ Yerxa, Cabot (May 14, 1953). "On the Desert". Desert Sentinel. pp. 3, 8.
  16. ^ Lewis, Dan (March 5, 1969). "Sobol Relives His Broadway". The Morning Call. p. 14. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  17. ^ Bishop, Jim (June 8, 1959). "The Broadway Columnist Part One". The Lima Citizen. p. 8. Retrieved January 14, 2021.
  18. ^ "Mrs. Louis Sobol". The New York Times. January 20, 1948. p. 23. ProQuest 108138056.
  19. ^ "Louis Sobol Marries". The New York Times. July 29, 1950. p. 17. ProQuest 111704154.
  20. ^ "Louis Sobol, 90, Dies; Broadway Columnist". The New York Times. February 10, 1986. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
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