Ghost at Work

In the den of Robert Bernard Considine's nine-room apartment on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue hangs an autographed picture of William Randolph Hearst. It is inscribed to "A great writer on any subject, from his envious associate." Bob Considine is no great writer, but he is the Hearstling who regularly gets there first with the most words on almost any subject.

Considine manages to turn out a daily newspaper column ("On the Line"), two weekend features, magazine articles, movie scripts and a weekly radio talk, and he finds time to cover the big stories (Bikini, the Olympics, Election Night, etc.). But a large sheaf of the copy that pours from Bob Considine's overworked typewriter carries somebody else's byline above his own. At 42, he is one of the solidest, most successful and least anonymous of ghostwriters. His annual income: $100,000.

Last week Bob Considine was ghosting another surefire script for 150 newspapers: the story of Robert E. Stripling, longtime chief investigator for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. As usual, Considine faced a deadline that would have daunted a less workmanlike writer. The first of his 28, "as told to" articles (average length: 1,800 words) would go to press next week, just a month after he took on the job. As usual, Considine's first version would be the last.

No Dishonor. Ghostwriter Considine dashes off his fast-moving autobiographies while their heroes still rate Page One, takes one-third of the "author's" royalties as his cut. His General Wainwright's Story was in print before Wainwright was out of the hospital. While Ted Lawson was still recovering from wounds suffered in Doolittle's Tokyo raid, Considine finished Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo.

Considine also wrote The Babe Ruth Story, helped Harold Stassen with Where I Stand, and Poland's ex-Premier Mikolajczyk with The Rape of Poland. He thinks ghosting "an honorable profession." Says he: "There are lots of guys with a story to tell, and there's nothing dishonorable in their not being able to tell it, or in someone helping them tell it."

No Hollywood. A more nervous ghost would be scared stiff by Considine's working schedule, but he remains a calm 190 pounds. One day last week Considine got up at 9 a.m., wrote two Stripling articles, skipped lunch as usual, interviewed Stripling for five hours, wrote a sport column, had dinner, gave a broadcast, wrote two more Stripling pieces before bed at 3 a.m.

Considine became a newspaperman by accident. He started out as a Government messenger, typist and clerk in Washington. When the old Washington Herald spelled his name wrong, in an amateur tennis tournament, he went to the paper to complain--and got a job as tennis reporter.

Though he has made many a fast buck on movie scripts lately (Church of the Good Thief, Ladies Day), Considine has no intention of deserting Hearst for Hollywood. Says he: "Last year I spent time in Palm Springs, Paris and Mexico City. I covered the Kentucky Derby and talked to the Pope. I even saw the World Series. It's a pretty good job."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.