And it’s true
It was in the City Paper many years ago. When Andrea graduated from Penn, she took a job with KYW which was the Westinghouse/NBC broadcaster in Philadelphia. She was almost immediately assigned City Hall and the mayor of the time was Frank Rizzo. She apparently always had a predilection for older men and quickly married a gentleman who was the head of public relations for what was then known as Smith Kline and French, Which later became known as Glaxo Smith Kline after a few iterations. This gentleman was not only older, he was African-American and had I believe two mature sons from his previous marriage. He very soon after the marriage, developed a debilitating disease.
Mayor Rizzo, Of course, learned about her husband and would call on her and press conferences by the appellation “Mrs. whatever his name was”, rather than “Miss Mitchell”. He was that kind of guy and was one of the most fascinating people in politics in the history of this region in so many ways, most of them frightening but some remarkable . But back to the story: one day he saw Andrea walking down the hallway of City Hall wearing sunglasses and clearly upset. He stopped whatever he was doing and asked her if she was all right and she burst into tears and being an ex cop, he had her remove her sunglasses revealing two black eyes. He sent a couple of his deputies, who were known as pretty violent gentlemen, to her home to retrieve her personal effects and to let her husband know that if he ever touched her again the consequences would be dire. She divorced her husband not long after.
Now the reason I know that this is all true, is that one of my patients was one of the officers who was sent to the house. He had a reputation for exacting justice in the manner of the Michael Douglas film The Star Chamber where he would take one of these “miscreants” whom the powers that be “had to go” up to an upper floor of their home or businessand throw him out the window to his death. I know it sounds insane and impossible but it is true, This is what was going on in Philly. By the way, this guy who is now deceased was one of the biggest Jewish men I have ever met. He was about six foot six and nothing but muscle. He liked me, parenthetically, because we could speak Yiddish and he could talk in front of staff members and tell me the most horrific stories.
Andrea herself was never a controversial figure here and was simply a reporter who moved on to bigger and better things. KYW for a fair number of years was renowned as the great investigative station, but due to retirements and changes at the top ceased it’s dominance And the ABC action news with Larry Kane took over the broadcast leadership with the “if it bleeds it leads” methodology of reporting.
Thanks for your post, btw. Enlightening and perceptive.
= new reply since forum marked as read
