A friend is one who walks in when others walk out.
A pessimist is one who builds dungeons in the air.
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery.
Broadway is a main artery of New York life - the hardened artery.
Good evening Mr and Mrs America, from border to border and coast to coast and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press.
Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid.
Hollywood is a place where they place you under contract instead of under observation.
Hollywood is where they shoot too many pictures and not enough actors.
I usually get my stuff from people who promised somebody else that they would keep it a secret.
Never above you. Never below you. Always beside you.
Nothing recedes like success.
Remember that nobody will ever get ahead of you as long as he is kicking you in the seat of the pants.
She's been on more laps than a napkin.
The best way to get along is never to forgive an enemy or forget a friend.
The only ones who like Milton Berle are his mother - and the public.
The same thing happened today that happened yesterday, only to different people.
Today's gossip is tomorrow's headline.
Too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it.
We must not indulge in unfavorable views of mankind, since by doing it we make bad men believe they are no worse than others, and we teach the good that they are good in vain.
Winchell was a good newspaperman but a vain man, convinced he could change the course of world events -- slightly deluded, but never mind. He also fancied himself a ladies' man." - Lauren Bacall
Hollywood is a place that must be seen to be disbelieved.
Born at 7:30am-EST
His son committed suicide.
His adopted daughter died of pneumonia.
His daughter, Walda, was mentally unbalanced and was the only person at his graveside when he died.
Walter Winchell's grave is located at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, Phoenix, Arizona.
He was the most powerful and feared gossip columnist and radio commentator in America in the 1930s and 1940s. He briefly attempted a movie career in the 1930s. (In his youth he had been a minor Vaudeville singer.)
The columnist played by Burt Lancaster in the movie Sweet Smell of Success (1957) is somewhat loosely based on Winchell.
For years, Bob Hope wanted to produce and star in a biopic about Winchell, but he never got the project off the ground.
He never legally married June Magee, the mother of his children, because he had been introducing her as his wife for some time before the birth of their first child, Walda, and he did want anyone to know that Walda was illegitimate. He and June kept the secret successfully all their lives.
He was to star in Okay, America! (1932) as himself in his own biopic, but he dropped out due to a busy schedule. Lew Ayres played him.
Daughter Gloria born and adopted c. 1924. Daughter Eileen Joan "Walda" Winchell born March 21, 1927. Son Walt, Jr. born July 26, 1935.
Daughter Gloria died from pneumonia when she was nine. Winchell called it "the only tragedy in my life."
His son died at the age of 33 after shooting himself in the mouth. It was 36 years to the day after his daughter Gloria died.
Is portrayed by Stanley Tucci in Winchell (1998) (TV), by Joseph Bologna in Citizen Cohn (1992) (TV), by Joey Forman in The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) (TV), by Craig T. Nelson in The Josephine Baker Story (1991) (TV), by Michael Townsend Wright in The Rat Pack (1998) (TV) and by Mark Zimmerman in Dash and Lilly (1999) (TV)
Coined the phrase, "America - love it or leave it."
His wife's sister was the first wife of comic/writer Joey Adams, later the husband of NYPost Columnist Cindy Adams. (Source: Cindy Adams column, NYPost 9/17/06)
Wife Rita was a former vaudeville partner. They separated within a few years, not divorcing until 1928. By this time he had been living for years with June Magee who had given birth to his child Walda. The couple had three children in all, and each marked by tragedy.
Winchell announced his retirement on February 5, 1969, citing the tragedy of his son Walter Jr.'s suicide as a major factor, while also noting the delicate health of his wife. Exactly one year later, she died at a Phoenix hospital while undergoing treatment for a heart condition.
Winchell's final two years were spent as a recluse at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. He died of prostate cancer at the age of 74.
Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "winchell" as a generic description for a politically active gossip columnist. His 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land features a major character who is a winchell.
In song, Winchell was often a cynical lyric reference. In the Tony-award-winning "The Producers" musical, Leo Bloom (played by Matthew Broderick) sings, "I want to read my name in Winchell's column" during the song "I Want to Be A Producer"; the Cole Porter composition "Let's Fly Away," include the lines, "Let's fly away/ And find a land that's so provincial/ We'll never hear what Walter Winchell/ Might be forced to say." Pianist Buddy Greco's version of "The Lady Is A Tramp" features the lyric "why she reads Walter Winchell and understands every line." Winchell is also mentioned in Billy Joel's history-themed song "We Didn't Start the Fire".
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