Hill to Hearst

All Eastern newsmen have known for two decades who Ed Hill is. So have readers of the New York Sim, for which Ed Hill was long an ace newshawk. But that was the horizon of his fame until two years ago when Radio discovered him, made him a "news commentator." Then. as in the case of Reporter Floyd Gibbons, Ed Hill became a Name (Edwin C. Hill to radio audiences). His deep timbred voice, easy delivery, intelligent interpretation of the day's news won him a tremendous following. His sentimentality was sufficient to endear him to the radio masses, yet not so cloying as to annoy most critical listeners. Last week the Hill career took a second turn paralleling Gibbons': Having become a Name, he was hired by Hearst.

Reporter Hill's new job is to write a daily editorial entitled "The Human Side of the News" (same title as that of his Columbia broadcast) for Hearst evening papers, in the space hitherto filled by Claude Gernade Bowers, new Ambassador to Spain.

Reporter Hill will be occasionally available to Hearst's International News Service to report momentous news. He was drafted immediately to cover the Morgan examination in Washington. His contract permits him to continue broadcasting.

Dapper, florid Ed Hill, whose wife and newspaper cronies call him "Bill." is distinctly of the Frank Ward O'Malley school of news reporting. Born 48 years ago in Aurora, Ind., he attended University of Indiana where his English professor would emphasize examples of journalism by pointing to the New York Sun. Hill determined to get a job on the Sun and, after pestering the city editor for weeks he finally did get a "temporary"' assignment, which lasted 22 years.

To Reporter Hill 1912 was the golden year of newsstories. He covered the Herman Rosenthal case, his "favorite"' murder of all time; saw the S. S. Carpathia steam into New York harbor with Titanic survivors; covered the three-cornered presidential campaign. He has covered every major political campaign since then (except 1924). His return to reporting last week was with a dazzling flash: he got photographed with his first big interviewee, John P. Morgan (see cut ).

Like most top newsmen Ed Hill had his turn at Hollywood. Fox Films sent him to Italy and Spain in 1926 to stage a beauty contest, bring home the winner. In Barcelona he was considering three candidates when he spied a non-contestant on the sidelines, handed her the palm. She is Maria Alba, who played opposite Douglas Fairbanks in Mr. Robinson Crusoe.

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