Florabel Muir
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Florabel Muir (May 6, 1889 – April 27, 1970) was an American reporter,
newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as poli ...
columnist and
author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...
. She became known for covering both Hollywood celebrities and underworld gangsters from the 1920s through the 1960s.


Career

Muir was born in the mining town of
Rock Springs, Wyoming Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 23,526 at the 2020 census, making it the fifth most populous city in the state of Wyoming, and the most populous city in Sweetwater County. Rock Springs is ...
. She attended the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
, where she worked as the assistant editor of a student paper. She also studied at the University of Nebraska and University of Wyoming. After graduation, she briefly worked as a teacher before quitting to pursue a career as a newspaper reporter. She began her professional newspaper career at ''The Salt Lake Herald'' after convincing the city editor to break with tradition and hire their first female reporter. Eventually, she moved to ''
The Salt Lake Tribune ''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871." History ...
'' where she was, again, their first female reporter. She worked the night shift covering the police beat. After brief stints at other papers, she went to work for the ''
New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...
'' as a police reporter in 1927. In 1934, she attempted to quit her newspaper career and become a fiction writer. However, she received and accepted an offer from the ''
New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...
''. As a crime reporter, During her years on the crime beat, "she covered the
Ruth Snyder May Ruth Snyder (née Brown; March 27, 1895 – January 12, 1928) was an American murderer. Her execution in the electric chair at New York (state), New York's Sing Sing Prison in 1928 for the murder of her husband, Albert Snyder, was recorded in ...
murder case and delivered a first-hand account of the murder of gangster Jack (Legs) Diamond" who was gunned down across the street from where she was walking. Later, she and her husband left for Hollywood after receiving an offer to write screenplays at Fox. She is credited with one screenplay, '' Fighting Youth'' (1935), produced by
Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...
. She went back to the ''Daily News'' as their Los Angeles correspondent when her former editor was having trouble covering a story in Hollywood. While still writing for the ''Daily News'', she also contributed stories to the ''
Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'', ''The Los Angeles Mirror'', and began writing a column, Just for Variety, for ''
Daily Variety ''Variety'' is an American trade magazine owned by Penske Media Corporation. It was founded by Sime Silverman in New York City in 1905 as a weekly newspaper reporting on theater and vaudeville. In 1933, ''Daily Variety'' was launched, based in ...
''. She also hosted programs on radio and television ( KFI). Muir knew several mobsters, including Bugsy Siegel, who she claimed had threatened her over "what she had written about him" during his trial for the murder of Harry Greenberg in 1941, saying "You think because I'm locked up here a punk like you can write anything you please ... Maybe you won't be using that typewriter anymore. Maybe your fingers won't be on your hands. I have people outside who'll break your legs or drop you in a hole if I say the word." After Siegel's murder on 20 June 1947, Muir (who had spoken to Siegel earlier that day; he had called "to thank her for a favourable review" of a show at his Flamingo Hotel) was "one of the first reporters at the scene"; noticing his left eyeball, which "had been blasted out of his head", lying on the floor, she allegedly "picked up the sliver of flesh from which his long eyelashes extended." Muir was also injured during an attempted assassination of mobster Mickey Cohen at Sherry's restaurant on the Sunset Strip at 3:55 a.m. on July 20, 1949. Cohen was struck in the shoulder. Three others were also wounded, including Cohen henchman Neddie Herbert, who later died from his wounds. Muir was struck in the backside when a slug ricocheted and left a large bruise. Her first instinct was to call the ''Mirror'' and get a photographer to the scene while her husband screamed for her to get down. She was also a confidant of Cohen and enlisted her husband to improve Cohen's reading and vocabulary skills. In 1950, she released her memoirs, ''Headline Happy''.


Personal life

Muir was married to ''
The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine published six times a year. It was published weekly from 1897 until 1963, and then every other week until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely circulated and influ ...
'' writer Denis A. "Denny" Morrison. The couple had no children and remained married until Morrison's death on September 24, 1966.


Death

Muir died in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
on April 27, 1970, at the age of 80. She was interred next to her husband at the Holy Cross Cemetery in
Culver City Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights to the ea ...
.


Works

*


References


Further reading

*


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, Florabel 1889 births 1970 deaths 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American women journalists 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American memoirists American women short story writers American short story writers Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City New York Daily News people American gossip columnists American women columnists New York Post people Variety (magazine) people People from Rock Springs, Wyoming The Salt Lake Tribune people University of Washington alumni American women memoirists American women screenwriters Journalists from California Journalists from Wyoming 20th-century American short story writers The Daily of the University of Washington alumni 20th-century American screenwriters