The ''Memphis Press-Scimitar'' was an afternoon newspaper based in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mo ...

, United States, and owned by the E. W. Scripps Company. Created from a merger in 1926 between the ''Memphis Press'' and the ''Memphis News-Scimitar'', the newspaper ceased publication in 1983. It was the main rival to ''

The Commercial Appeal ''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, als ...

'', also based in Memphis and owned by Scripps. At the time of its closure, the ''Press-Scimitar'' had lost a third of its circulation in 10 years and was down to daily sales of 80,000 copies. From 1906 to 1931, ''The Memphis Press'' was edited by founder Ross B. Young, a journalist from

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

brought down by local business interests looking for a voice to speak to the stranglehold that E. H. "Boss" Crump had on city government, employment, and contracts. From 1931 to 1962, ''The Press-Scimitar'' was edited by Edward J. Meeman.

History

The ''Memphis Evening Scimitar'' was published from at least 1891 to 1904. It was partly owned by Memphis merchant tycoon

Napoleon Hill Oliver Napoleon Hill (October 26, 1883 – November 8, 1970) was an American self-help author. He is best known for his book ''Think and Grow Rich'' (1937), which is among the best-selling self-help books of all time. Hill's works insisted th ...

who commissioned the

Scimitar Building Scimitar Building, also known as the Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Building, Winchester Building and most recently Hotel Napoleon, is a five-story stone-veneer structure in Memphis, Tennessee. Its architecture features a combination of Beaux-Arts ...

in 1902. Memphis architects August A. Chigazola (1869-1911) and William J. Hanker (1876–1958) designed it. Hill, known as Memphis' original "merchant prince", lived on the other side of Madison Avenue in a mansion on the site where the Sterick Building is now. Hill's are on the façade of the building. The paper condemned U.S. president

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

's dinner with

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

( Booker T. Washington dinner at the White House).

In fiction

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Ame ...

's novel ''

The Client Client(s) or The Client may refer to: * Client (business) * Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer * Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuabl ...

'', the ''Memphis Press'' is fictionally presented as still existing and flourishing as a major Memphis paper into the 1990s. In the 2004 movie ''The Ladykillers'', during the basement scene where

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

's character Professor Goldthwaite Higginson Dorr describes forming the crew for the heist, he references having posted an ad in the ''Memphis Scimitar'', which the would-be thieves responded to. The 2013 Newberry Award winning novel '' Paperboy'' by former Press Scimitar copy editor Vilas Vince Vawter has its main character working as a paper carrier delivering the Press Scimitar. A second novel, ''Copyboy'', published in 2018, has the same character working as a copyboy in the paper's newsroom.

History

In fiction

See also

References

Further reading