"Ghosts"

"Captain Lindbergh arose from a well-earned sleep about 1 o'clock this afternoon, and I had the privilege of talking with him. . . .

"We discussed his flight at length as he dictated to a stenographer his special story published elsewhere in the New York Times."

--from the May 23 Lindbergh story written by Edwin L. James, appearing in the New York Times.

"An hour later I saw land. I have forgotten just what time it was. It must have been shortly after 4 o'clock. It was rocky land and all my study told me it was Ireland. And it was Ireland!

"I slowed down and flew low enough to study the land and be sure of where I was and, believe me, it was a beautiful sight! It was the most wonderful looking piece of natural scenery I have ever beheld."

--From the story appearing in the May 23 issue of the New York Times and signed by Colonel (then Captain) Lindbergh.

Millions of U. S. citizens have thrilled to the stories of the Lindbergh flight, written by the hero himself. Copyrighted by the New York Times Co., in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, South America, Europe and the British Empire, they were widely syndicated. Countless breakfast eggs grew cold while readers feasted upon "Lindbergh's own story," devoured the flight-tale as told in the first person by the flyer himself.

Then, last week, in Editor & Publisher, "trade" magazine for newspapermen, one Philip Schuyler related that the Lindbergh-signed stories were not written by Lindbergh. He named their true author--one Carlyle MacDonald, a member of the New York Times European staff. Thus, if Mr. Schuyler wrote correctly, when Mr. James of the New York Times referred to Colonel Lindbergh's dictating his story to the stenographer, it was the story of Mr. MacDonald of the New York Times that the stenographer was really transcribing. Even the compliment to the beauty of Erin may have been a MacDonald heartthrob rather than a Lindbergh emotion.

To be sure, there is nothing new in the "signed" story written by the celebrity whose signature is his only contribution to his article. Mr. Schuyler said that the newspapermen who do the writing that heroes sign are known as "ghosts." But, whatever they may be called, their existence has long been common knowledge. "I wonder who writes his stuff?" gibe even mildly sophisticated U. S. citizens when a heavyweight prizefighter or a matinee idol sets down the story of his life. The "I" story is part of the modern news-exploitation system; accepted as such without particular ado.

But that Colonel Lindbergh, the naive, the non-commercial -- the Lindbergh who carried a passport and letters of introduction with him on his flight--should have given his name to the ancient journalistic hoax came rather as a shock. Readers shook heads, shrugged shoulders, mumured: "Say, it isn't true, Lindy, say it isn't true." But, on reflection, they decided that, after all, it did not so much matter whether Colonel Lindbergh did or did not write his signed stories--they made excellent reading, they were presumably at least based on interviews with him, and Colonol Lindbergh, if he had a "ghost," was only doing what many famed persons had before and would do again. As Mr. Schuyler pointed out, every light has his shade.

Other heroes, more or less heroic, and their ghosts (as given by Mr. Schuyler) are, or were:

Christopher Mathewson--John L. Wheeler, president of the Bell Syndicate, Inc., onetime editor of Liberty magazine.

George Herman Ruth--Ford Frick, baseball writer for the New York Evening Journal.

Luis Angel Firpo--William Slavens McNutt, onetime sporting writer.

Jack Sharkey--Ned Brown, boxing writer for the New York World.

William Harrison Dempsey--Frank Mencke, staff writer for the King Features Syndicate.

"Peaches" Browning--B. S. Garden, of the Famous Features Syndicate.

Ruth Brown Snyder--Jack Lait, of the King Features Syndicate.

Celebrities who Mr. Schuyler says write their own stories are Robert T. Jones, Mary K. Browne, Helen Wills. Miss Wills also illustrates her stories, though artists have remarked that her drawings might sometimes profit by ghostly aid.