A thought on how success doesn’t last forever

“Nothing recedes like success.”
— Walter Winchell

For decades an observer (and sometimes an instigator) of the news, the columnist and broadcaster Walter Winchell certainly witnessed and documented the rise and fall of many a celebrity or public figure.

For a writer like Winchell, the fall is often so much more interesting than the rise.

Winchell was controversial for years, known for crossing a friend in order to get a scoop. Not all of his scoops were factual, nor fair; often, he did not seem to care, at least from the many accounts from the era.

Winchell was at his height in the deades of the 20th century when the American journalism profession was standardizing things, like ethics, the rules of engagement, and conventions like story structure. Winchell struck me as someone who cut a swath through whatever topic he liked.

He peaked before modern newspaper tabloids hit their stride, but he paved the way for a gossipy kind of news that continues to evolve in the digital era.

This is the trailer for an American Masters documentary on Winchell, which looked at how he used gossip as a way to lure in audiences.

By the late 1950s, and before his own inevitable decline, Winchell lent his voice to the opening of the television show The Untouchables.