Chicago Icon Irv Kupcinet dies

BY NEIL STEINBERG STAFF REPORTER (Chicago Sun-Times)

Irv Kupcinet knew everybody before they were anybody. He knew CBS's Mike
Wallace when he was still Myron Wallace, an obscure announcer on a Chicago
variety show. He reported from Israel when it was still British Palestine. And
when he met Marilyn Monroe, she was still a brunette.

He even knew this newspaper before it was the Sun-Times, back when it was just
the Times and had yet to have its 1948 union with the Chicago Sun.

Mr. Kupcinet -- Kup, as he was known to one and all -- wrote his column so well
and so long that he seemed connected to every celebrity around. Kup had the
phone numbers nobody had; stars who weren't taking calls took a call from Kup. 

Kup died Monday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted Sunday
with respiratory complications from pneumonia. He was 91.

"He was the best of the best in the business,'' said Stella Foster, his
assistant for 34 years. "There will never be another. Never.''

Kup was friendly with presidents, barbers and the top A-list of Hollywood. It
wasn't a press agentish, fake kind of friendship. He stayed at their homes --
at Jack Benny's, at Danny Thomas', at Joan Crawford's. When he went on
vacation, Bing Crosby might pitch in to write his column, or Mike Todd, or
Betty Grable. Bob Hope spoke at the 1968 dinner honoring Kup's 25th anniversary
as a columnist.

He was known for nightclubbing, but he also gave dinners, and John Wayne might
show up. Or Frank Sinatra, with Ava Gardner in tow, or Cary Grant, or Clark
Gable, or too many others to mention.

But he was no relic. Kup survived the changing times, on sheer determination,
hard work and good contacts. He never retired. He never slowed down except
under a doctor's orders. While his health deteriorated over recent years, Kup
insisted on coming in to the office to write his column, always quipping that
he wanted to be "terminal at the terminal," and he nearly was. His last column
ran Nov. 6. 

Nobody could match Kup. He was a Chicago institution, the link between local
celebrity and international fame. 

"Irv Kupcinet was as closely identified with Chicago as the Picasso, the
Hancock Building and the Sears Tower -- and he was an important part of this
city long before they were,'' said Mayor Daley. "In six decades of columns, he
had thousands of scoops -- and when something was in Kup's Column, you knew it
was true ... Chicago won't be quite the same without him."

His passing "marks the end of an era,'' said Gov. Blagojevich, who offered
condolences to readers of his column along with Kup's family. Kup's Column "was
the source of information for all Chicagoans,'' the governor said. "Kup was a
part of the fabric of Chicago. With his passing, he has now joined the pantheon
of Chicago legends: Harry Caray; Walter Payton; Jack Brickhouse; Mayor Richard
J. Daley; Mike Royko and Ann Landers.''

He "was a great colleague and a great friend,'' said John Cruickshank,
Sun-Times vice president of editorial. As "Mr. Chicago,'' he helped solidify
the reputation of the paper, which takes "enormous pride'' in his career,
Cruickshank said. "Kup's greatness was as a connector of the disparate
communities that make up Chicago,'' Cruickshank said.

Indeed, when Cruickshank and Editor in Chief Michael Cooke arrived to lead the
Sun-Times, Kup welcomed them to the city, Cooke said.

"He had a work ethic that was staggering, but he also had the good sense to
have the fun that journalism can give,'' Cooke said.

He was the man in Booth One at the Pump Room, chatting easily with stars making
the layover on the Super Chief and the California Zephyr. (A.J. Liebling, in
his classic essay on Chicago, pointed out that the stars frequently stopped in
Chicago specifically to talk to Kup; otherwise, they'd take the express).

"He was unique because he represented an era of the gossip columnist, the
sportswriter and the political columnist all rolled into one,'' said Ald.
Bernard Stone (50th). "What I remember best was that Kup never printed a story
about me where he didn't call me first and check with me to make sure it was
true."

Kup lunched with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at the Pump Room the day
after they married in 1945. Harry Truman would phone to remind him to look
after his daughter, Margaret, when she was in town. 

Kup covered every Academy Awards ceremony from 1945 to 1986. He went to London
for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and crashed the dress rehearsal by
flashing his Chicago police press card.

Over the years, Kup's Column was distributed to more than 100 newspapers around
the world and its author showered with innumerable awards. In 1982, he was
elected to Chicago's Journalism Hall of Fame. The city renamed the Wabash
Avenue bridge over the Chicago River in his honor in 1986.

His other accomplishments were enough to fill several careers. He broadcast
Chicago Bears football games, with Jack Brickhouse, for 24 years. He appeared
in two movies, produced by friend Otto Preminger, "Advise and Consent" and
"Anatomy of a Murder."

He appeared on television as early as 1945 and was a pioneering television talk
show host -- he started on CBS in 1952 with a late-night news/interview
program. In 1957, he replaced Jack Paar on NBC's "America After the Dark,"
which eventually became "The Tonight Show." His own television program ran from
1959 to 1986, syndicated at one point to 70 stations nationwide, and featured
newsmakers from Richard Nixon to Alger Hiss to Malcolm X -- with whom he forged
an improbable friendship.

The show was known for its spontaneity. Carl Sandburg once walked off the set
in mid-broadcast, declaring he had to "wee-wee." Radical Abbie Hoffman lit up a
joint on the air and was asked by Kup to leave.

Ann Landers shocked the audience -- and Kup -- when, on a show that paired her
with porn star Linda Lovelace, the advice columnist described in precise detail
the act Lovelace was famous for.

The show won 15 local Emmys and the prestigious Peabody Award.

He was a close friend of Truman, who gave Kup and his family a personal tour of
the White House while he was president. Eight years out of office, when Truman
finally revealed why he had fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War,
he gave the scoop to Kup: The general had been chaffing to attack Communist
China with atomic bombs.

A sign of Kup's lasting influence was that, decades later, when Nation of Islam
leader Louis Farrakhan wanted to make a public relations gesture toward the
Jewish community, he did so by having dinner with Kup.

(you can read the rest of the tributes at Suntimes.com)


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