Background

Howey was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1882. He was the son of Frank Harris and Rosa Crawford Howey. His father ran a series of small businesses, and Howey grew up in a typical small-town, middle-class environment.

Education

Educated in Fort Dodge public schools, he developed artistic aspirations and studied at the Chicago Art Institute for a brief period during 1899-1900.

Career

Failing in his artistic endeavor, Howey became a reporter for the Fort Dodge Messenger in 1902 and then worked for the Des Moines Daily Capital before joining the old Chicago American in 1904. According to his friend Charles MacArthur, he roared into the city "like thunder out of China. " He arrived in Chicago on October 11, was hired on October 15, and on October 28 became assistant day city editor. His opportunism was demonstrated early. Walking along in Chicago, he was startled to see a knight and three elves climb out of a manhole. He had stumbled upon four actors escaping the fire that killed 600 people in the Iroquois Theater. As more people escaped via the theater cellar through the sewers, Howey reported his scoop, and the story, one of the biggest in Chicago's history, established his reputation for speed, resourcefulness, and skillful writing.

Howey spent eighteen years in Chicago, including two years as a reporter for the Evening American; a year as the youngest city editor in the country, with the Inter-Ocean; and ten years as city editor of the Tribune. He left the Tribune in 1917 after a dispute with copublisher Joseph M. Patterson. He was hired immediately by William Randolph Hearst as managing editor of the Herald-Examiner at the princely salary of $35, 000. Howey was immortalized as Walter Burns in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play The Front Page (1928). MacArthur always claimed that the play was understated; the real action in the newsroom of the Herald-Examiner could not be presented to a theater audience.

With a flamboyant exuberance and an iron drive, Howey competed for stories as if he were waging war. He usually won the contest by a combination of chance, chicanery, and competence. His emphasis on a masterful use of photographs and attractive page makeup complemented the brilliant team of reporters that he collected. Howey insisted on unusual leads, sustained interest stories, and continuously fresh styles. Although he was not a great copyreader, he prided himself on being a "great condenser" – stories in any Howey-edited newspaper contained no extraneous material. Howey was also responsible for the first movie, radio, medical, and (during World War I) "Soldiers Friend" columns. He concentrated his major efforts, however, on covering local stories of scandals, crimes, and human interest. He put police switchboard operators on his payroll in order to get tips and even planted fake stories in opposition newspapers.

But his most significant success came after William Hale Thompson's election as mayor of Chicago in 1919. Thompson was considered of poor mayoralty quality and a sure loser by all of the Chicago press except the Herald-Examiner. After his victory, a grateful Thompson stationed two patrolmen and a sergeant in the city room of the Herald-Examiner – subject to the orders of reporters. He provided a private interrogation headquarters in a nearby hotel and ordered policemen to keep rival reporters away from disaster and crime scenes. While his competitors fumed and ranted, Howey printed one exclusive story after another.

In 1922 Howey moved to Boston as editor of Hearst's American and then, in 1924, to New York, where in ten days he set up the tabloid New York Mirror. He had long possessed the "tabloid philosophy" of conveying sensational and fresh news items in a concise and visually attractive package. In 1939, after spending many years as organizational assistant to Hearst, who respected and trusted him completely, Howey returned to Boston as editor of the Record-American. From 1942 to 1944 he edited the Chicago Herald-American, after which he served again as special editorial assistant to Hearst from 1944 until Hearst's death in August 1951 (during this period he also edited the American Weekly). Returning finally to Boston, Howey served until his death as executive editor of the Boston Evening American, the Daily Record, and the Sunday Advertiser, adopting a more orthodox and sedate journalism characterized by professional excellence and leadership in public affairs.

Howey pioneered in several areas of journalism, inspired younger reporters, turned unprosperous newspapers into prosperous ones, and helped make the city room a more important part of newspaper publishing. In addition, he insisted that the visual aspects of newspapers were as important as story content and emphasized the proper transmission and skillful use of news photographs. In 1931 he patented an automatic photoelectric engraving process, and beginning in 1935 he successfully developed the soundphoto system of transmitting photographs by wire. Howey's flamboyant style was confined to the city room. He was a private person and not much is known about his life away from the newspaper world.

Howey was critically injured on January 14, 1954, in an automobile crash, but he continued to run the papers until he died unexpectedly while recuperating at home in Boston.

Achievements

• He is remembered as a Hearst newspaper editor and the model for Walter Burns, the scheming, ruthless managing editor in Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's play The Front Page.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Fighting Editors / Edited by Walter Howey

    (Intriguing look at the stories behind selected news event...)

Connections

In 1900 he married Elizabeth Board, who died in 1935. On September 1, 1936, he married Gloria Ritz; they had one son, William Randolph.

Father:

Frank Harris Howey

Mother:

Rosa Crawford Howey

Spouse:

Elizabeth Board

Spouse:

Gloria Ritz

Son:

William Randolph

References

• The Front Page: From Theater to Reality (The Art of Theater Series)