Amanda Smith - Newspaper Titan: The Infamous Life and Monumental Times of Cissy Patterson

The former Cissy Patterson at the time of her marriage to Count Josef Gizycki, in 1904

This Is a Borzoi Book
Published by Alfred A. Knopf

Copyright 2011 by Amanda Smith
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.aaknopf.com
Knopf, Borzoi Books, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Amanda.
Newspaper titan : the infamous life and monumental times of Cissy Patterson / by Amanda Smith.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN: 978-0-307-70151-0
1. Patterson, Eleanor Medill, 18811948. 2. JournalistsUnited StatesBiography. 3. Publishers and publishingUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.
PN 4874. P 3528 S 54 2011
070.41092dc22
{B} 2011009019

Front-of-jacket painting: Portrait of Mrs. Eleanor (Cissy) Patterson by H. G. Cushing, 1903. Courtesy of the Chicago History Museum
Jacket design by Carol Devine Carson

v3.1

TO CARTER ,
WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE

(and may you never become embroiled in anything like
Shelton, Waldrop and Brooks v. Gizycka)

Cissy Patterson, ca. 1904

The Countess Gizycka, Chicago, 1909

Joseph Medill, 1850s

Joseph Medill, ca. 1892

Elinor Medill Patterson, Cissys mother, ca. 1875

Chicago Tribune editor Robert Wilson Patterson, Jr., Cissy and Joe Pattersons father

Elinor Josephine Patterson, Cissy, ca. 1882

Portrait of three-year-old Cissy, March 22, 1884

Cissy, ca. 1884

Joseph and Kitty Medills eldest daughter, Katherine Medill McCormick

Eleven-year-old Cissy Patterson, 1892

Sixteen-year-old Cissy Patterson

Joseph Medill and his grandchildren, 1899

Dupont Circle, as it looked in the early decades of the twentieth century

Dupont Circle at the dawn of the twentieth century

Cissy Patterson, Lake Forest, Illinois, ca. 1900

Self-portrait by Cissy, 1899

Cissy riding in formal attire, ca. 1900

Ruth Hanna and Cissy Patterson, Thomasville, Georgia, 1900

15 Dupont Circle, ca. 1927

The balcony of Patterson House from which young Captain Charles Lindbergh would address the throngs who came to cheer for him, 1927

Nellie Patterson by Carolus-Duran, Paris, 1901

Robert Sanderson McCormick, ca. 1901

Sketch by Cissy, ca. 1902

Sketch by Cissy, ca. 1902

One of Cissys self-portraits from Nellie Pattersons scrapbook, ca. 1900

Count Josef Gizycki, 18671926

Self-portrait by Cissy, ca. 1900

The newlywed Count and Countess Gizycki, Novosielica, 1904

3000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, residence of Ambassador and Mrs. Robert Sanderson McCormick

Twenty-two-month-old Countess Felicia Gizycka, Novosielica, July 1907

Joseph Medill Patterson and Robert Rutherford McCormick, Lake Forest, Illinois, 1907

From the San Antonio (Texas) Light, March 21, 1909

From the Olean (New York) Evening Times

The two Countesses Gizycka, August 1909

Mrs. Medill McCormick, Lake Forest Horse Show, 1907

Robert Rutherford McCormick, Onwentsia Club Horse Show, ca. 1907

Sunday Oregonian, October 8, 1916

The Countess Gizycka, 1913

Imperial German ambassador Count Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, Chicago, 1914

Nellie Patterson with her granddaughter, Countess Felicia Gizycka, Newport, Rhode Island, ca. 1916

Cal Carrington, 1930s

Joseph Medill Patterson, Chicago, 1909

Joseph Medill Patterson, with his dog Billy, 1914

Medill McCormick, October 9, 1916

Felicia Gizycka, 1920s

The Countess of Flat Creek, 1920s

The Countess Gizycka hunting, 1920s

Rose Crabtree, 1940s

Cissy in the late 1920s

Newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Drew Pearson, San Diego, California, March 1925

Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Schlesinger, August 8, 1925

Drew and Felicia Pearson, ca. 1926

Felicia Pearson, 1925

Drew at work in Asia, 1925

Felicia Pearson, 1925

Novelist Eleanor Gizycka, ca. 1925

Cissy in fancy dress, 1920s

Felicia Gizycka and Ellen Pearson, ca. 1930

13171321 H Street, NW, Washington, D.C., ca. 1930

ANNOUNCEMENT , Washington Herald, July 23, 1930

Cissy, Marion Davies, and William Randolph Hearst, 1930s

Eleanor Medill Patterson, December 1931

Ellen Pearson, Southampton, New York, 1929

Cissy Patterson with mechanical superintendent J. Irving Belt, 1930s

Jackie Martin and Cissy, 1930s

CISSIES CIRCLE : Town & Country magazine, April 1935

Cissy, 1940s

Cissy, Dower House stable, 1938

William Randolph Hearst, 15 Dupont Circle, April 1939

Cissys Hen House, 1940s

FDR memorandom with photo, 1938

Cissys holiday card, 1939

Cissys New Years greetings, 1941

Cissy and Joe Patterson, 15 Dupont Circle, late 1930s

Arthur Brisbane with his colleague, editor Walter Howey, 15 Dupont Circle, 1930s

William Randolph Hearst and T. J. White, 1930s

William Christian Bullitt, Jr., late 1930s

Doris Duke, 15 Dupont Circle, 1940s

Gwen Cafritz and J. Edgar Hoover, 1940s

Cal Carrington, 15 Dupont Circle, 1940s

Luvie Pearson, 1940s

Evie Robert, 1940s

Count Igor Cassini, Austine (Bootsie) McDonnell and Senator Arthur H. Vandenburg, 15 Dupont Circle, 1940s

Ambassador Warren Austin, Cissy Patterson, and Senator Burton Wheeler, Georgetown

Ellen Pearson, late 1930s

Cissy, early 1940s

Eleven-year-old Ellen Pearson and her mother, Felicia Gizycka, Dower House stable, 1937

Cissy, Dupont Circle, 1940s

Felicia Gizycka and her ex-husband, Drew Pearson, on Ellen Pearsons and George Arnolds wedding day, March 1946

Ellen Pearson weds George Arnold

Captain Joseph Medill Pattersons burial at Arlington National Cemetery, May 1946

Cissy, 15 Dupont Circle, 1940s

Business manager Bill Shelton, mechanical superintendent J. Irving Belt, associate editor Frank Waldrop, advertising director Edmund F. Jewel, night managing editor Mason Peters, and circulation director Happy Robinson, 1948

The Washington Times-Heralds supervising managing editor Mike Flynn, 1948

Frank Waldrops holiday card, following Cissys death

Like Blanche Dubois, the biographer has always depended upon the kindness of strangers. My research into the life of Cissy Patterson was responsible for introducing me to a host of people to whom I am deeply grateful for so generously sharing their time, their recollections, their mementos, their family letters and photographs, their expertise, and their assistance. I am especially indebted to Ellen Pearson Arnold, for the many hours she spent with me discussing her grandmother, her mother, and herself, for allowing me access to her family papers and photographs, and for giving me her permission to quote from those materials. I am extremely grateful also to Mrs. Arnolds children, especially the Rev. Drew Pearson Arnold, for their assistance. Alice Arlen was very generous in providing me with her reflections, advice, and suggestions. Joseph Albright also lent valuable insight on such varied subjects as Flat Creek Ranch, its first owner, and Patterson family copyrights. Tyler Abell provided me not only with his memories of his godmother and her colorful circle but moreover with a view into her intertwined personal and professional relationships with his parents and stepfather. I will always be grateful to Andrew Waldrop not only for his unfailingly good company but also for his generosity in providing me with his recollections of his father, his fathers tempestuous boss, and the tenor of daily life at the