Chapter 30/My hero at the Milwaukee Journal

Dear Glen Loyd:

The gyp outfit that had the "too-good-to-be-true" offer did finally respond after your agency took action. I expect they will be just a little more careful in the future when they try to pull their scams on the yokels from the dairy state.

Walter Zahn
Green Bay

Since I turned 31 in 1971 and began appearing on TV, people have been recognizing me and even asking me for my autograph. I am still giving a few at age 65.

At first, I was uncomfortable about these requests because I didn't think I merited that kind of attention. Eventually, though, I was happy to sign and would tell the seeker it was an honor.

But I try not to take myself seriously. Eventually, this thin memoir is likely to be selling for 10 cents at some resale shop.

That 's where I recently discovered a great but dusty book written by a hero of mine, Arville Schaleben who worked for the Milwaukee Journal as a reporter and editor for 42 years. He died in 1992 at age 92.

Like me, he was a participatory journalist. He just didn't write stories, he took an active part in them.

For example, in the 1930s, he helped solve America's largest mass murder case by finding clues to show that a Muskego, Wisconsin, farmer dynamited his wife and eight children to death because they preferred listening to the radio to milking cows.

In another investigation, he helped convict swindlers who had promised investors from Wisconsin and elsewhere $5,000 for every $1 they invested.

Several of his stories were turned into national radio dramas. The dynamiting was dramatized by the national radio show Big Story and later by a television show of the same name.

He was also a pioneer in the Journal's environmental reporting and led the paper's efforts to expose controversial U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s who made unfounded accusations while on a communist witch-hunt.

According to his obituary in the Milwaukee Journal, Schaleben was "known for his candor and, by several accounts, was often out of favor with the newspaper's corporate management."

In his dusty book entitled Your Future in Journalism, Schaleben seemed to be summing up my past in journalism:

"It makes a person feel good to know when day is done that his work and words pierce other minds."

"Think a good thought for the man who went out with a paper and pencil and reported facts to you. As long as he is free to ask questions, you are free. As long as his eyes are open, so are yours." #


© 2004 F. Glennon Loyd Jr.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from Glen Loyd, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.