The motives that move Columnist Walter Winchell's wormlike thrusts are mysterious to the average man—but not so mysterious to those who feel the pressure of his vermiform "journalism." Of late weeks, he has been relentlessly worming away at a little-known Manhattan restaurant called Chandler's. According to Winchell, the place is a "gyp joint" run by gougers and chiselers. Stork Clubber Winchell has never been seen in Chandler's himself, but in the past three weeks he has extruded no less than twelve items, even repeating one attack three times. Last week Chandler's owners retorted with a $1,000,000 libel suit against Winchell, the Hearst Corp. and King Features, which distributes his column.
What Was It All About? Those familiar with Winchell's vindictive memory and oblique methods of revenge had no trouble guessing that his real target was not Chandler's but its unctuous disk jockey, Barry Gray, 36, whose name Winchell never mentions in the attacks. Gray, who mixes only an infrequent record with his pretentious, long-winded, post-midnight "discussion program," broadcast by Manhattan's WMCA, committed an unpardonable sin last year. He turned his microphone over to New York Daily News Columnist Ed Sullivan for an hourlong, scathing attack on Winchell (TIME, Jan. 7). Those who knew Winchell waited to see how soon he would turn on upstart Disk Jockey Gray.
Late last month Winchell got his chance: Chandler's was named as one of 13 New York restaurants which the OPS accused of violating price ceilings. Hearst's Journal-American TV Columnist Jack O'Brian lent Colleague Winchell a helping hand with thinly disguised items about a certain "fishface" disk jockey, whom he accused of every crime from welshing on his debts to collecting graft to finance a trip to Europe.
Gray hustled back from a European vacation and resumed his broadcasts nine days early. He announced that he was ready to reply to "rabbit punches and low blows" from anyone. However, it was not Winchell but another Hearst columnist, the Journal-American's Frank Conniff, who first named Gray as the enemy. Wrote Conniff: "We say to these press agents and producers and personalities who give their support to Mr. Gray: 'That's just dandy. But surely don't be surprised if we here at the Journal-American invite you to keep getting your plugs from him, and not to expect very much from us. Mr. Gray is hot, red-hot, and he is all yours.' " Snapped back Gray: "Thinly veiled blackmail."
At week's end, Winchell quoted one of O'Brian's columns to pose a question to his readers: "One disk jockey so far hasn't discussed the fact that he wrote for the Daily Worker under a nom de Commie." Winchell had no intention of giving away a hot scoop like that by mentioning a name. The description fit nothing known about Gray, but if readers wanted to think Winchell and O'Brian were talking about Gray, it was apparently all right with them.