How Page Six Became the Most Feared Gossip Column in the World

The gossip column is useless. With one exception. In November of 1976, proper after Rupert Murdoch purchased the New York Put up, he tasked James Brady with executing his broad idea for a full web page of quick information objects filed by quite a lot of contributors and edited with a constant, and persistently cheeky, voice. Brady and some stringers shortly pulled collectively what Brady named Page Six as a result of that’s the web page the place the column initially ran. Practically 50 years after its debut, Page Six is the solely gossip column nonetheless standing amongst these it competed with again then. Additionally it is the most profitable authentic model to emerge from the Put up, as nicely often called the paper itself; in the previous week alone, Page Six appeared in a solution on Jeopardy! and figured right into a plot line on Solely Murders in the Constructing. 

We each labored on Page Six — Susan Mulcahy from 1978-1985 and Frank DiGiacomo from 1989-1993 — at very totally different occasions in the paper’s historical past. Susan was there throughout the preliminary Murdoch years; Frank, when it was owned by the actual property developer, Peter Kalikow. Now we have included our experiences, together with these of greater than 240 former and present staffers, story topics and astute media observers into Paper of Wreckage, our oral historical past of the Put up, simply printed by Atria Books. However as reporters, we choose asking inquiries to answering them. So, we determined to interview ourselves. 

Has anybody ever died as the results of a Page Six merchandise? 

Susan Mulcahy: I can’t say for certain, however Bobby Zarem, the publicist who represented folks like Jack Nicholson, Cher and Woody Allen and who resembled Larry from The Three Stooges, repeatedly threatened suicide if an merchandise he was pitching didn’t seem on Page Six. Zarem died in 2021, however not from failing to put an merchandise in the column. 

Frank DiGiacomo: Not that I recall, though I as soon as wrote an merchandise that referred to the late Soupy Gross sales. The subsequent day, the cellphone rang. A really distressed Soupy Gross sales was calling to say that he was very a lot alive. “At least we’ll get a second item out of it,” Richard Johnson advised me. 

What about the Put up’s Cindy Adams? Isn’t she a gossip columnist? 

Mulcahy: At this level, Cindy is extra of a personality-driven opinion columnist, like a Borscht Belt Maureen Dowd. 

DiGiacomo: I gained’t write a ebook about Cindy, however I might. You recognize her tag line, “Only in New York”? She is strictly that. She’s a singular creature of this metropolis and there’ll by no means be one other columnist like her. It’s why when she acquired sick in 2010, Col Allan refused to rent a stand-in or a alternative. He simply stopped working the column. She’s additionally formidable. Invade her turf or slight her or her family members and he or she’ll go medieval on you. After I began at Page Six, I used to be very naïve. Her husband Joey Adams hosted some occasion, and I used to be instructed to jot down an merchandise and considering that together with a Put up columnist in the merchandise can be poor type. So, I left Joey out. A couple of days later, I acquired a name from Raoul Lionel Felder, a outstanding divorce lawyer then who cherished to see his identify in the columns. “Cindy is trying to get you fired,” he mentioned. I used to be incredulous that she would attempt to kill me, nevertheless it was an actual risk. Cindy is a Put up establishment, and I used to be a freelancer — not a union member — and will have simply been kicked to the curb. So, Felder brokered a détente, in half, I believe, so I might owe him a favor.  

Had been you ever confronted by a celeb who didn’t such as you or the Put up? 

Mulcahy: Certain. It harm extra for those who admired the celeb. I as soon as approached Paul Newman at a celebration, so dazzled I momentarily forgot he was on the Put up’s shit record, his identify by no means to seem in the paper in any respect, even in the evaluation of a movie he starred in, due to his common criticisms of the Put up. “I don’t like your newspaper or your newspaper’s owner,” he mentioned. “And I don’t have to talk to you.” One other time, I referred to as a quantity I believed was Katharine Hepburn’s workplace to search out out why she had given “special permission” for her photograph for use on a greeting card. A particular voice answered, which, upon listening to my query, mentioned, “What a silly ass thing to be calling me about.” Click on.   

DiGiacomo: The one encounter I keep in mind is the time I used to be masking leisure lawyer Allen Grubman’s marriage ceremony at the New York Public Library in 1991. The reception was a sea of fame and energy: David Geffen, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Clive Davis, Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell. I’m rubbernecking my approach via the crowd, and I spot Sony Music chairman/CEO Tommy Mottola, who I knew a bit. He was speaking to Robert De Niro and tried to introduce us. When De Niro heard my identify, he mentioned, “Where do you work?” “Page Six,” I replied. De Niro responded, “Page Six? You fucking prick.”  

Why does Page Six write about professions not normally related to movie star? 

Mulcahy: From the begin, Page Six was in energy — who had it and who was making an attempt to amass it. And people individuals are usually behind the scenes. In the late Seventies, it made a celeb out of Fred Silverman, a schlubby however highly effective tv govt. And because it started writing about political consultants, some turned as nicely often called the pols they labored with. Bob Squier, a Democrat, and Roger Ailes, a Republican, appeared as dueling speaking heads on the At this time present in the Eighties in half as a result of their profiles had been elevated by common appearances on Page Six. As for movie star dentists, podiatrists, legal professionals and others whose names weren’t historically boldfaced, they have been a part of the movie star ecosphere, so why not? And for those who talked about a celeb dermatologist as soon as in some time, they might change into a supply. 

DiGiacomo: Precisely. The mainstream press badmouthed us whereas they have been stealing our tales and concepts with little or no credit score. Condé Nast journal editors acquired every day “gossip packs,” which compiled photocopies of the day’s gossip columns. I’m certain TV had the equal. Boldfaced names who appeared on Page Six acquired the consideration of editors and producers with nationwide platforms. Page Six — and New York’s tabloids — performed a big function in vaulting Donald Trump to nationwide consideration. We additionally introduced quite a lot of consideration to midget bowling.  

Who have been sources for Page Six? 

Mulcahy: There are two sorts: private sources and column sources. When a Page Six editor leaves, their private sources — largely folks they’d identified earlier than they started writing the column, or those that turned precise mates — go together with them. However a Page Six editor must be sensible. Most sources care solely about the column and never the individual behind it. When an editor leaves, they shortly transfer on to his or her alternative. Which is why Murdoch’s authentic idea was so good. The column is the star, not its editor. 

DiGiacomo: Certainly one of my favourite sources was Sy Presten, a press agent who represented the Stork Membership and the Copacabana in their glory days. Walter Winchell had as soon as tried to purchase his typewriter as a result of he preferred the look of the pages of things that Sy despatched him each week. Sy turned him down, and based mostly on the manually typed press releases he would ship us, he by no means stopped utilizing it. After I met Sy, he had this loopy quilt of purchasers that included the lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, who invented palimony; Bob Guccione and his Penthouse publishing empire; the racy-for-its-time musical, Oh! Calcutta!, Midge Moore’s Midtown Tennis Membership, and the proprietor of the Chock Full o’ Nuts espresso store chain. (By the ’90s, there was only one left in New York.) Sy would usually mix his purchasers right into a single merchandise — referred to as them “chunks” — say, “Bob Guccione and Marvin Mitchelson performed a number of matches at Midge Moore’s Midtown Tennis Membership to have a good time the new difficulty of Penthouse, and we might run them. I’ll admit that I usually puzzled if these mash-ups really occurred, however right here’s the factor. Sy gave us nice, unique tales — tales that had nothing to do together with his purchasers and made nationwide headlines — in alternate for his chunks. He turned one in every of my most trusted sources and ultimately an in depth good friend. Sy died in 2022, at the age of 98. Certainly one of his final needs was to create an archive together with his papers. I’ve them in storage, and it’s on my quick record of issues to do.  

How does the Page Six of in the present day examine together with your time there? 

Mulcahy: The web, particularly social media, has turned celebrities themselves into competitors for Page Six. And as the Page Six model has expanded, in order its viewers outdoors New York. To feed that beast, Page Six has to focus extra on actuality tv stars and fewer on the only-in-New York characters who populated the column in its early incarnation. 

DiGiacomo: And since the early 2000s, web sites have been popping up that specialize in many topics that have been as soon as Page Six’s area: politics, Hollywood, media, eating places, actual property and so forth. It’s tougher than ever to get an actual scoop. 

What’s one factor that’s the similar about Page Six then and now? 

Mulcahy: You’ll be able to usually inform who planted an merchandise. If Page Six writes about what occurred at an occasion at, say, the Metropolitan Museum, and Melinda Gates, Nicole Kidman, Bono and lawyer Shelly Bernstein are amongst the company, guess who gave them the merchandise? 

DiGiacomo One factor I like is that the Page is witty once more. There was a protracted stretch the place it was a bit just-the-facts. I’m guessing it’s Ian Mohr who’s introduced the enjoyable again. I repeatedly giggle out loud at objects nowadays. After I was there, writing a humorous merchandise and utilizing intelligent wordplay — like “courtus interruptus” to explain a trial that was disrupted in a case that had sexual undertones was simply as essential as getting scoops. And look, they’re getting Elon Musk to return their calls or emails, and so they’ve finished nice stuff on Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez. I’m fairly certain Page Six broke that story — at the very least, I examine it there first. That’s energy in the present day. 

Had been the editors of Page Six loopy characters themselves? 

Mulcahy: Filling a column with eight to 12 tales a day, and nowadays, much more, doesn’t enable for extra eccentricity. However Richard Johnson, who was Page Six’s iron man — he labored for me for 3 years as reporter after which was editor of the column for one thing like 25 — comes closest. A debonair man about city, Richard was at all times getting calls from glamorous-sounding ladies with accents and names like Bettina and Graziella. And although he at all times arrived at the workplace on time and reliably did his work, he typically took lengthy lunches, which led us to invest that his noon breaks have been nooners. However in interviewing him for Paper of Wreckage, we realized that, as an alternative of passionate encounters with Bettina or Graziella, his lengthy lunches have been spent recovering from an evening out with a nap on one in every of the benches behind the Put up’s outdated constructing on 210 South Road. 

DiGiacomo: Richard was a little bit of a efficiency artist when it got here to fielding calls from pesky publicists who would inundate us with the most doubtful of tales. Certainly one of my favorites: a flack calls him, most likely for the fifth time, and I hear Richard say, “Yes, I got your press release. It’s at the bottom of my pile.” After which hung up. He additionally knew that feuds have been good for readership. His back-and-forth with Mickey Rourke was notably amusing. Rourke didn’t like the objects we have been publishing about him, and at one level challenged Richard to a boxing match. Richard accepted however Rourke ultimately dropped out. Their feud lasted a very long time, and I don’t keep in mind if Richard wrote this at Page Six or the Day by day Information column he had when he left the Put up: “The only thing Mickey Rourke is fit to box is pizza.”  

One unusual cat who labored at the Page was Alan Whitney. He was assigned to be our copy editor, which was the equal of Siberia as a result of he was in sizzling water with administration for sexual harassment. He would depart panties on the desks and chairs of girls reporters on their birthdays and was at all times making an attempt to spank them. Earlier than my time there, he would typically affix satan horns to his head.  

Had been you ever sued on Page Six? 

Mulcahy: Lawsuits have been threatened, however none filed. Not once I was there anyway. We didn’t make errors that usually and after we did, we corrected them shortly. Page Six objects have been reported like every reliable information story. The upper-ups at the Put up could have performed quick and free with accuracy in different elements of the paper, however not on Page Six. Ironic, given Page Six’s “gossip” label. However in some way the Put up’s editors knew that if Page Six began to be crammed with inaccuracies, it might lose its luster. 

DiGiacomo I used to be named in a lawsuit as soon as for a narrative I helped report, nevertheless it was printed in the information nicely, not Page Six. I can’t keep in mind the thrust of the story, nevertheless it concerned Marla Maples’ publicist. For some time, I believed each unusual face was a course of server — till the publicist referred to as me up and mentioned that he was dropping my identify from the swimsuit. As for Page Six, my expertise was the similar as Susan’s. We have been threatened rather a lot — I might have wallpapered my house with all the snarling letters Page Six acquired from lawyer Marty Singer threatening litigation if we wrote about the movie star who had simply retained him — however our mandate was accuracy, and when any a part of a narrative was probably actionable, we ran it by our legal professionals.  

How did Page Six have an effect on you personally? 

Mulcahy: In good and unhealthy methods. It’s onerous to complain about masking Swifty Lazar’s Oscar occasion or a ballooning weekend at Malcolm Forbes’ chateau in France, however I used to be typecast as the editor of Page Six to such an extent, it turned a problem to search out work doing the rest. I keep in mind interviewing for a job in the L.A. bureau of the Wall Road Journal. I broke quite a lot of Hollywood boardroom tales, and Norm Pearlstine, who was working the Journal in the ‘80s, thought I might be a good addition to that office. But the bureau chief was disgusted that he’d even been requested to talk with me. He acted as if I used to be a decrease life type. I didn’t get the job. 

DiGiacomo: I had the similar expertise when it got here to job-hunting. Along with the condescension, I might get, “I can’t tell if you can write” as a result of a typical Page Six merchandise is like 100 phrases lengthy. Additionally, working there made me paranoid for some time. If you area numerous cellphone calls from people who find themselves dropping dimes on folks they know — mates even — and from trusted sources who’re at all times on the lookout for some movie star’s epic fail, you begin to suppose that the partitions have eyes. Took fairly a little bit of remedy to get previous that. The perfect half is that I got here away with a invaluable understanding of who wielded energy — and who the posers have been — in New York and Hollywood. If I hadn’t labored at Page Six, I believe my profession path would have been totally different.