Tuesday Teaser/Opener ~ The Untold Story

The Untold Story: My 20 Years Running the National Enquirer by Iain Calder isn't something I would normally read, but I'm writing a rom-com where the heroine goes to work for a tabloid, so this is research. (One of my favorite things about being a writer is that I get to research so many things.) I've actually read this once already, but I'm about to start rewrites, so I'm reading it again. I did learn all sorts of things about the Enquirer that I didn't know that gave me more respect for them (something they were seriously lacking before I read this.)


The Blurb:
The flashing bulbs of the paparazzi. The iconic names: Liz, Michael Jackson, Jackie O, Jen and Brad. Americans are obsessed with the famous and the beautiful, their lives, loves, break-ups, and breakdowns. From Entertainment Tonight to People, from primetime to the E! channel, our appetite for celebrity news is seemingly insatiable. But in the beginning only the National Enquirer went boldly where other publications feared to tread.

In this no-holds-barred account of the most infamous tabloid in America, Iain Calder, its former editor-in-chief, tells all. Over the course of a career that spanned four decades, Calder brought the lurid newspaper to new heights, dramatically raising circulation by combining his streetwise journalist background with the genius of Enquirer publisher Generoso Pope, Jr.

Calder was born in a small village in Scotland, left school at sixteen, and rose through the ranks of the Glasgow newspapers. His intense work ethic, ruthless tricks to throw competitors off his scent, and nose for a story served him well, and he was tapped to head the Enquirer's London bureau. At that point, the lowly Enquirer was a collection of gory photos of car crashes and murder victims, but Calder corralled the best freelance journalists in Europe and started honing the formula that would transform the tabloid: a unique mix of celebrity scandal, hard-nosed reporting, and feel-good stories. Pope moved him to the American offices of the Enquirer, and the duo transformed the tabloid and, in the process, American journalism.

Calder exposes the stories behind the headlines and the wickedly intrepid Enquirer tactics for getting the scoops. With Calder at the helm, the National Enquirer ran the infamous shot of Gary Hart and Donna Rice and the record-breaking photo of Elvis in his coffin. And it was the New York Times that dubbed the Enquirer "the Bible" of the O.J. Simpson trial after reporters infiltrated O.J.'s inner circle. From the contents of Henry Kissinger's trash and the identity of John Belushi's drug dealer to Princess Grace's tragic death, the Enquirer told us what inquiring minds wanted to know as it took celebrity news from the back pages to the front pages and television screens of mainstream publications and programs.

Calder re-creates the exhilaration of being at the Enquirer during its most extraordinary period and details the way he and his staff broke the biggest exclusives of the day. At its core, The Untold Story is also a love letter from Calder to the glorious tabloid he helped create.

The Opening:
  It was 1964, and life was good.
  I was twenty-four years  old, with almost nine years of journalism under my belt. I'd covered every kind of story from airline crashes and coal-mind disasters to murders and national elections, and now I was a member of the Glasgow Daily Record's Heavy Mob, the reporters sent out on the front lines of the cutthroat Scottish tabloid wars. I was well paid, with work that was exciting and fulfilling. I was engaged to a special woman, Jane Bell, a a hair stylist, who seemed ready to put up with me and the demands of my career.

Teaser:
  We were way ahead of our time covering BDG. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally approved BCG as a cancer-fighter for bladder malignancy, and the "new" treatment got wide press coverage in May 1990--eighteen years after we first reported on it.

Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current readOpen to a random pageShare two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! To see what others are sharing on the Teaser Tuesdays, check the comments at: http://adailyrhythm.com/






Share the first paragraph (or a few) from a book you are reading. Here's the link: Bibliophile By The Sea