Charles Michelson was an American journalist and political publicist.
Background
Charles Michelson was born in Virginia City, Nevada. He was the third son and youngest of eight children of immigrant Jewish parents, Samuel Michelson and Rosalie (Przlubska) Michelson. The oldest child, Albert A. Michelson, became a Nobel Prize-winning physicist; the next to youngest, Miriam, became a journalist and popular novelist. The family came to the United States in 1854 from Strelno, Prussia, and moved via New York, San Francisco, and the California gold fields to Nevada, where the father prospered for a time as proprietor of a dry goods store.
Education
Charles grew up in a bookish household that contrasted sharply with the frontier setting of Virginia City. He was not an eager scholar, and at thirteen, when the family's financial situation deteriorated, he left school and went to live with a brother in Arizona. There he worked at a copper-mining camp and later became for a time what he called "a frontier tramp, " until his family reclaimed him and sent him back to finish high school in Virginia City.
Career
Michelson began newspaper work as bookkeeper and assistant reporter on the Virginia City Chronicle. About 1887 he moved to San Francisco as a reporter on the Evening Post, edited by a brother-in-law, Arthur McEwen. He was soon attracted to the livelier San Francisco Examiner, recently acquired by the young William Randolph Hearst, and spent several years covering sensational crime and court cases. Following a short stint at the rival Call, Michelson was rehired by Hearst in 1896 and sent to cover the Cuban revolt against Spanish rule and the subsequent Spanish-American War. He was briefly imprisoned in Havana's Morro Castle as a result of running afoul of the Spanish authorities; thereafter he worked from the chartered ships of Hearst's "navy, " but observed no combat. Like other Hearst talents, Michelson was shifted about frequently. He was made managing editor of the San Francisco Examiner in 1906, just in time to restore the paper after the earthquake. Two years later he was sent to Chicago, where he alternated as managing editor of the two Hearst papers, the Examiner and the American. After an "efficiency" reduction in salary, he left Hearst and began writing movie scenarios for the Essanay Company. He rejoined Hearst in 1914, but when the publisher ignored his request to cover the war front, Michelson moved to the Washington bureau of the Chicago Herald, only to have Hearst buy the paper and fire him. Thus ended his thirty years in Hearst organizations. In 1917, Michelson joined the strongly Democratic New York World as chief Washington correspondent.
Michelson worked closely with the new Democratic chairman, James A. Farley, during the 1932 presidential campaign. With Roosevelt in office, the White House tapped Michelson for several emergency chores: press secretary to Secretary of the Treasury William H. Woodin during the banking crisis of March 1933; press officer in London for the American delegation to the ill-fated World Economic Conference; and publicity director of the National Recovery Administration. By 1934, he had returned to his post as party publicist. Some New Dealers, like Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, distrusted Michelson and complained that he was not really one of their number. Yet in 1936, he rejected an offer from his old employer, Shouse, to work for the anti-Roosevelt Liberty League. The veteran journalist also weathered complaints in 1937, when he briefly took a job as publicity consultant to the Crosley Radio Corporation, and in 1939, when he openly lobbied against passage of the Hatch Act, forbidding political participation by government employees. Michelson retired in 1942, but remained on the Democratic payroll as a part-timer into the 1944 campaign. He continued also as an elder of the Washington press community, a member of the Gridiron Club, and a domino-playing habitué of the National Press Club. Michelson died of congestive heart failure at his Washington apartment. An Episcopal clergyman conducted the funeral services, and his remains were cremated.
Achievements
Michelson wrote editorials for the New York American; he covered the trial of Leon F. Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley; he helped in the publisher's campaigns for public office, and he served as a city editor. For twelve years, he covered major national stories the fight over the Versailles Treaty, the death of President Harding, the Scopes "monkey trial, " the national political conventions and campaigns.
Politics
Michelson wrote a pro-Democratic column called "The Political Undertow. " After the Republican landslide of 1928, the Democratic national chairman, John J. Raskob, established a new party headquarters under Jouett Shouse, who in June 1929 hired Michelson as full-time publicity director. Michelson immediately took the offensive against the Republicans. His office turned out a steady flow of statements and speeches. Many were attributed to Democratic politicians, and "Charley" Michelson acquired a reputation as an able ghost.
Personality
His sharp phrasing, his aggressive tactics, and his sense of timing had a maximum impact on newspapers and radio and helped hearten a defeated party. These qualities also made him a center of controversy. Republicans charged that he had been hired to smear President Hoover; Michelson insisted that he was attacking only mistaken administration policies. Contemporaries, over-looking the importance of the depression, gave Michelson's publicity major credit for the Hoover administration's downfall.
Michelson had always depicted himself as a dispassionate professional, a hired hand; yet he remained loyal to one party and presented that party's case effectively. His virtuosity and his amiability were widely esteemed.
Quotes from others about the person
"To the extent that he put words into the mouths of public servants, the principle of representative government was distinctly blurred. To the extent that he resorted to smearing, public issues were subordinated to scintillating phrases and animosities. "
Connections
In 1896, Michelson married Lillian Sterrett of Brooklyn. They had one child, Benjamin Charles.
