25-02-2011, 03:52 PM
Random thoughts on Penn Jones, unrelated to deep political structures...
I love that picture of Penn holding the "Disgrace of Dallas" headline. It first appeared in LIFE mag, I think in 1991, during the media hoopla surrounding Stone's JFK.
In 2003 I went down to Midlothian when I was researching Penn. The office is no longer where it was in Penn's day, but is just around the corner. I can't remember the editor's name offhand, but he very kindly allowed me to snoop around and go through issues of the Mirror as far back as the 1940s, when Penn first took the helm. The papers were originals, nothing online, and quite brittle and flaking as I pressed them against a photocopy machine.
The Mirror by then was owned by a newspaper syndicate, but still felt like a small town paper that is, a small office with just a couple of guys working there. At one point the editor's young son came in looking for his dad ran in, slammed the screen door, called out hello it felt like a scene from Andy of Mayberry.
One thing seemed almost eerie. I was due to meet Penn's son Michael that weekend. The Jones family, of course, has nothing to do with the Mirror, hasn't for many years. Michael, who knew my schedule, called asking for me called not my cell, but the Mirror office. It was nothing, really, of course but seemed a little strange, taking a call in the Mirror office from Penn's son. One of just a couple odd episodes during my research phase.
Michael and I caught up with each other the next day in Dealey Plaza.
I love that picture of Penn holding the "Disgrace of Dallas" headline. It first appeared in LIFE mag, I think in 1991, during the media hoopla surrounding Stone's JFK.
In 2003 I went down to Midlothian when I was researching Penn. The office is no longer where it was in Penn's day, but is just around the corner. I can't remember the editor's name offhand, but he very kindly allowed me to snoop around and go through issues of the Mirror as far back as the 1940s, when Penn first took the helm. The papers were originals, nothing online, and quite brittle and flaking as I pressed them against a photocopy machine.
The Mirror by then was owned by a newspaper syndicate, but still felt like a small town paper that is, a small office with just a couple of guys working there. At one point the editor's young son came in looking for his dad ran in, slammed the screen door, called out hello it felt like a scene from Andy of Mayberry.
One thing seemed almost eerie. I was due to meet Penn's son Michael that weekend. The Jones family, of course, has nothing to do with the Mirror, hasn't for many years. Michael, who knew my schedule, called asking for me called not my cell, but the Mirror office. It was nothing, really, of course but seemed a little strange, taking a call in the Mirror office from Penn's son. One of just a couple odd episodes during my research phase.
Michael and I caught up with each other the next day in Dealey Plaza.