Errol Flynn wounded in Cuba; Gehrig's widow praises Ted Williams, January 6, 1959

California gets its second Democratic governor since 1900, Pat Brown. Errol Flynn is wounded in Cuba. He says he was hit by a bullet or a piece of masonry that ricocheted but Cuban officials are a bit skeptical. [Look what's on the sports page: A Glen Binford byline! Binford predates me at The Times, but as a line editor in the 1970s, back in the days of Bob "The Basher" Harlow, he figured prominently in something known within the paper as the Metro Desk Diaries. --lrh].

Ted Williams received high praise from the widow of baseball's tragic star, Lou Gehrig. Eleanor Gehrig talked with The Times' Jeane Hoffman while in Los Angeles as part of her work with the Muscular Dystrophy Assn. She recalled asking Williams for permission to use his name in their campaign. "He wired back both his permission and a large financial donation. People can say what they want about his personality, I have found him a great gentleman and I consider him one of baseball's two or three all-time greats," she said. "He is poetry in motion." It had been only 20 years since Gehrig's illness forced him to retire in 1939. He died in 1941. --Keith Thursby

Comments

[Pete Johnson]

I want to know more about the Metro Desk Diaries! I was a young reporter at the Times circa 1965, working in the City Room on the night shift with Glen Binford and other memorable characters (including Eric Malnic, whose byline I see here). I idolize Binford: he was an excellent copy editor who made me a much better writer, a perfect antidote for a college grad smitten with William Faulkner. The other City Editors I worked with were less impressive as copy editors. Some were downright sloppy. But Binford was sharp and crisp.

Do you guys know about Spud Corliss, the veteran cigar-chomping police beat reporter? George Bisenius (sp?), who was a 60-something perpetual copyboy when I arrived? (He rationed #2 pencils to the City Room; some said he built a house with the money from black-market pencil sales.)

What a great site! Thanks.