Writers Tricks of the Trade ISSUE 1, VOLUME 9 | Page 25

in which a Ford, with a report-
er/photographer team started monitoring
police radio calls at 5 a.m. while driving
around the Hollywood-Beverly Hills area.
Biz,” about the business end of the enter-
tainment industry,
This also included dropping into LAPD’s
Hollywood station to see who was arrested
during the night. Famous names often
were locked up, thus making interesting
stories. Our vehicle often was mistaken as
a detective’s car since it had two antennas,
direct radio communications to the city
desk and flashing red light capability in
rear window.
WTT: What was the most unusual experi-
ence you had as part of the team in the
cruiser car?
HM: One time, in Beverly Hills, we received
a police call about a shooting at a swank
apartment complex. We actually got there
ahead of a police unit, opened the front
door — and stumbled over a dead body.
WTT: I’d certainly say that was unusual—
and scary. Tell me what types of columns
you wrote while you were at The Mirror.
HM: Over the years I wrote four different
columns for The Mirror, including one as “a
foreign correspondent” from overseas
while I was in the Army in the Far East. My
first Mirror column was a daily “man on the
street.” I interviewed five people on topics
of the day, then snapped a photo of each
person. Through the years my other col-
umns were “Off the Record," which dealt
with latest recorded music, and “Show Biz
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE
As a young man writing for Stars and Stripes while on military
duty in Japan
WTT: Was that everything? I know you
were very versatile. Anything else?
HM: Back in the newsroom, I worked in
every department except sports.
WTT: Every department?
HM: Yes, so that included editing copy at
the main copy desk and later in what was
then called the women’s department (with
a separate daily multi-page section plus
Thursday food section). I also wrote for the
entertainment pages, focusing on music in
covering the Hollywood Bowl, Hollywood
Palladium and Shrine Auditorium. In those
days, reviews appeared in the next morn-
ing’s paper.
WTT: You also became an editor.
HM: Yes, I was selected to be news editor in
the business news section. Linked to that,
was editor of special sections, a tabloid
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S PRING 2019