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1949 Fulton Lewis Jr Letter Signed Conservative Talk Radio Pioneer Joe McCarthy

$ 13.17

Availability: 100 in stock
  • Item must be returned within: 30 Days
  • Condition: Very Good with some toning from age and a bit of foxing to envelope
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
  • Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
  • Signed by: Fulton Lewis Jr
  • Original/Reproduction: Original
  • Refund will be given as: Money Back

    Description

    This is an original vintage typed letter signed from pioneer of conservative talk radio Fulton Lewis Jr.  This letter is still in the original mailing envelope postmarked June 21, 1949 and is addressed to Mrs. Therese S. Jose of San Mateo, California.   The letter is a single typed sheet on Fulton Lewis Jr. personal stationery and concerns a favorable editorial about Lewis that appeared in the Pony Express Courier magazine with which Jose was associated.  This letter is bolding signed in blue ink “Fulton Lewis Jr.” and is in very good condition with just some toning from age.    The outer envelope has a bit of foxing not affecting the letter or autograph.  Email any questions.  Thanks for looking.
    The following is some information on Fulton Lewis Jr. from Wikipedia:
    Fulton Lewis Jr. (April 30, 1903 in Washington D.C. – August 20,[1] 1966 in Washington D. C.)[2] was a prominent conservative American radio broadcaster from the 1930s to the 1960s.
    Early life and career
    Lewis was born into influential circles in the nation's capital.[3] He remained close to the circles of power all his life (President Herbert Hoover and his wife attended the wedding of Lewis and Alice Huston, who was the daughter of former Republican National Committee chairman Claudius Hart Huston)[1] He was an indifferent student; he attended the University of Virginia for three years (where he was a member of the Virginia Glee Club[4] and wrote the music for that school's official fight song, The Cavalier Song[5]). He dropped out of UVa, but soon after enrolled in the George Washington University Law School. He left that institution when he obtained a reporting job with the Washington Herald newspaper. He found his niche in news reporting, and within three years was the paper's City editor. During that time he met and courted his future wife.
    Radio career
    On the left, a suited man seated before a microphone, smiling and holding a script. On the right, radio station advertising copy.
    Advertisement for Fulton Lewis Jr.'s radio show on WKIC in Hazard, Kentucky.
    Lewis left the Herald to join Universal News Service, run by the Hearst family. Between 1933 and 1936 Lewis wrote a newspaper column called "The Washington Sideshow" which was syndicated by King Features. His radio career began when he volunteered to fill in for a vacationing news reporter. The head of Washington AM radio station WOL was impressed with Lewis' "on-the-spot" reporting and offered him a full-time position. His commentaries were broadcast nationally by the Mutual Broadcasting System.
    Lewis' commentary program (presented as a "news" program, but which allowed him to choose his topic and to give his opinions in depth) ran from 7:00-7:15 p.m. Eastern time, five days a week. His audience liked Lewis' folksy broadcasting style. At his commercial peak, Lewis was heard on more than 500 radio stations and boasted a weekly audience of sixteen million listeners. His signature closing was "That's the top of the news as it looks from here." He also transitioned briefly to television in the early 1950s[1] but the format of his program did not appeal in that medium, so he returned to radio for the remainder of his career.
    Lewis was a conservative commentator who supported Barry Goldwater for President, supported limited government and federalism, and opposed liberal leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and their policies. He first made his mark by opposing the New Deal policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (although he initially admired the man upon his first election), and as the world lurched toward World War II in the late 1930s he strongly supported the America First Committee, along with famed aviator Charles Lindbergh in their efforts to keep the US out of what he considered "the European War". He strongly opposed FDR's re-election in 1944, and also the election campaign of FDR's successor Harry S. Truman in 1948.[2]
    After the war, Lewis was avidly anti-communist, and strongly backed Senator Joe McCarthy. He was one of the first broadcasters to expose Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as the communist spies that the Venona papers proved they were, although he was later accused of antisemitism as well.[6] He despised Earl Warren, even, at one point, calling to lynch him: "I wouldn't impeach him. I'd lynch him.[7][8]" Even after McCarthy was disgraced nationwide, Lewis continued to strongly champion him, and this did much to reduce his nationwide radio audience and appeal. He continued on air, however, until his death in 1966, after which his son Fulton Lewis III kept the broadcast running for another twelve years.
    Legacy
    Lewis was influential in persuading the U.S. Congress to allow radio broadcasting of Congressional activities.
    Among those who worked for Lewis was Kenneth Tomlinson, former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), an agency whose existence Lewis would have denounced.[citation needed]In this position, Tomlinson has worked to eliminate what he calls liberal bias at the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. One of CPB's ombudsmen, Bill Schulz, was a writer for Lewis and for Human Events. Schulz and Tomlinson were also colleagues at Reader's Digest.
    Lewis wrote the words for "The Cavalier Song" for the University of Virginia while a student there. The song was featured in the 2000 movie Bring It On.
    In 1942 Lewis was the first recipient of the Alfred I. duPont Award.
    Lewis's name is remembered in the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in a star placed on the South side of the 6200 block of Hollywood Boulevard.[10]
    Lewis is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
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