O. O. McIntyre Weighs In

Biography book jacket

Today, a few words from O. O. McIntyre, famed New York newspaper columnist of the 20s and '30s. His syndicated daily column, New York Day by Day, ran in more than 500 newspapers at its peak, earning him the princely salary of $200,000 a year.

Written in a folksy, letter-from-home style, the column glorified New York and thrilled small-town America, who saw McIntyre as a local boy turned foreign correspondent. Actual New Yorkers were skeptical. "It was the New York fashion to sniff at him," wrote the Times, given the "breathless wonder" of his prose. "Accuracy was his enemy and glamor was his god."

New York Day by Day featured a number of Tudor City items over the years. The first, on August 7, 1928, established the colony's "swank" reputation:

Below, an item on the "peaceful new development," undiscovered by the "rabble," that ran September 1, 1929.

O. O. McIntyre died of a sudden heart attack in 1938, aged 53. New York Day by Day (continued by writer Charles Benedict Driscoll) expired in 1951.