The Personal Touch

"There hasn't been much of this sort of newspaperman stuff around of late," said Variety last week, but now "it's a fresh script almost daily." From the sidelines, Variety was gleefully cheering the new outbreak of warfare among Syndicated Columnists Leonard Lyons, Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan. In papers beyond Manhattan, the lines of battle were not always clear, since editors around the U.S. often cut out mysterious references to private feuds. But the columnists were not a bit discouraged.

A Speeding Truck. The bitter feud between Columnists Lyons and Winchell flared up when Lyons resigned as vice president of Winchell's pet project, the Damon Runyon Cancer Fund (TIME, Jan. 7, 1952 et seq.). Recently Lyons lighted a firecracker under Winchell by writing a letter to New York City's Police Commissioner George P. Monaghan. The letter suggested that Monaghan revoke Winchell's pistol-toting permit, unless Winchell could pass a "psychiatric" test.

Winchell, who knows how to use flattery as well as abuse, three days later became the first (and only) newsman to suggest that Monaghan was an excellent "dark horse" New York mayoralty candidate. A fortnight ago, he hit Lyons more directly. Wrote Winchell: "L.L. was made Vice President of the Fund one night when WW, the founder of it, said: 'Congratulations! You are now Vice President . . .' He 'resigned' after he was informed that if he didn't, Winchell . . . would force his resignation . . ." Added Winchell: "[Lyons] has written letters about me (now in my possession) that would win a libel suit and acquit me in a minute if I pushed him in front of a speeding truck."

In reply, Lyons wisely declined "to bore readers by devoting full columns to reprinting the minutes" of the Runyon Fund meeting. He resigned because he and Winchell disagreed about almost everything (especially each other) and because "the cause of cancer research was more important than a dispute between columnists." Columnist Lyons, who was once a practicing lawyer, was, however, fascinated by the suggestion that Winchell would be acquitted if he pushed Lyons under the wheels of a truck. Said Lyons in a "personal" to Commissioner Monaghan last week: "This ... is public notice to you to pick up his permits and the pistol he carries or else the City of New York shall be held accountable for any consequences." Lyons also challenged Winchell to a duel by intelligence test--"low I.Q. pays all." Then Lyons applied a needle to Winchell's most painfully vulnerable point. Said he triumphantly: "The true measure [of Winchell's good citizenship] is Winchell's admission . . . that he never, but never, has voted."

An Ingrate File. While Winchell and Lyons were firing salvos on the artillery range, another-bore cannon moved in on the flank. The New York News's Columnist Ed Sullivan, whose paper objects to his mentioning Winchell by name, blasted a speech Winchell made at a dinner given for him by the Los Angeles Friars Club. Winchell had used the occasion to pummel some of the "ingrates" who surround him, including Drew Pearson. Reported Winchell, reprinting a West Coast newspaper report: " 'WW said [at the Friars' dinner that] Pearson latched onto WW's gimmick of announcing the "Stop the Music" mystery tunes and when WW urged Pearson (via friends) to lay off, Pearson said, "Oh, tell him to go to hell." . . . That ended their long friendship . . . WW said he hoped to "return the compliment." So when WW was urged to [help] Pearson he told him to go to hell . . .' "

To Sullivan, the Friars dinner for Winchell was sheer "hokum," since the Friars permitted a "visiting newspaperman" (i.e., Winchell) "to acknowledge the dinner in his honor by blasting other New York newspapermen." But Winchell, as usual, had the last nasty word. This week, without mentioning his name, he suggested that Sullivan was nothing but a "style-pirate," just like all the other "3-dot larcenists whose letters of 'gratitude' are in the Ingrate File."

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