Lakewood Author Tells The Inside Stories

Lakewood author John Tidyman hesitates when asked to describe his new book, “Gimme Rewrite, Sweetheart: Tales from the Last Glory Days of Cleveland Newspapers (Gray & Co., Publishers, 254 pp., $24.95).”

“The book is many things,” he said. “Maybe first it’s an informal, oral history of Cleveland newspapering in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. It’s both eulogy and celebration. Also, Gimme Rewrite is a collection of first-person stories from the people who reported, photographed, and edited at the Cleveland Press and the Plain Dealer.”

And what stories these men and women tell!

A chimpanzee answering the City Desk phone at the Press and then typing. A Plain Dealer chief police reporter promising to beat the tar out of a Cleveland police detective who had threatened one of his reporters. Big Jaw Jackson and Johnny Pot, two fictional characters brought to life by a bored but creative Plain Dealer police reporter. A Press columnist fired for drinking whose next job was selling toilet seat covers in the basement of May’s Department Store. A Plain Dealer sportswriter landing the first punch on Sudden Sam McDowell’s jaw.

Plus the big stories about crime and politics: Dennis Kucinich, race riots, school busing, hostage-taking, murder by bomb, the Kent State shootings, the Sheppard murder, and finally, the death of The Cleveland Press.

Tidyman said, “Some of the other stories might seem minor, but they reflect the times as well as the way reporters saw themselves in the community.” Those stories include lost dogs, the death of a bum made famous with his sympathetic obituary, Ted Williams giving a batting lesson to a young sportswriter, and Zsa Zsa Gabor sashaying through the Press city room, stopping at reporters’ desk to charm them with her smile and Hungarian accent.

The author pointed out Lakewood was a great supplier of talent: Press aviation writer Charles Tracy, Plain Dealer chief police reporter Bob Tidyman (the author’s father, who is featured on the cover,) Press sports photographer Paul Tepley, Press society writer Marge Alge, Press columnist Dick Feagler, Plain Dealer city editor Mike Roberts, Press Action Line columnist Jim Ryan, Plain Dealer copy editor and reporter Bob Daniels, Plain Dealer photographer Diana McNess, Plain Dealer columnist George Condon, Plain Dealer sportswriter Dan Coughlin, Plain Dealer religion editor Darrell Holland and Cleveland Press religion editor George Plagenz.

Tidyman said he wrote the book because the newspaper era was almost gone in Greater Cleveland, yet many of its veterans remained. “Had to get them while I could,” he said. Between the first and last interviews (there are almost 50), three contributors died.

Tidyman lives in Lakewood and said two classes at Lakewood High (Class of ’67) were important in choosing a writing career. “J. Clark West was the journalism teacher and Robert Felty was the typing teacher; Mr. West showed me what went into a story and Mr. Felty showed me how to type it,” he said. “Good thing they were there. I had to take algebra twice and barely passed, so a technical career wasn’t on my wish list.”

After serving in a combat unit in Viet Nam, he joined the Press as a police reporter. His work has been honored many times by Sigma Delta Chi, the journalism fraternity, the Press Club of Cleveland and Akron Press Club. He is the author of seven books, four of them for Gray & Co. They include Cleveland Cops: The Real Stories They Tell Each Other, The Cleveland Golfers Bible, and Fifty Great Golf Getaways.

He is also the producer and host for “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again,” a show for U.S. military veterans broadcast Sunday mornings on WCNX 98.5, and the web site, which podcasts the shows, is clevelandwarveterans.com.

Gimme Rewrite, Sweetheart (256 pp, hardcover, $24.95 is available at Northeast Ohio bookstores, online from Amazon.com, and from the publisher’s Web site. For more information, call Gray & Company, Publishers at 1-800-915-3609, or visit their Web site: grayco.com.