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Val Lauder Interviews Old Blue Eyes, 1948

Posted on June 30, 2011June 30, 2011 by Susan Dickson

A Thousand Words
By Jock Lauterer

Val Lauder, who retired this spring at 85 after teaching feature writing at the School of Journalism & Mass Communication for 31 years, had an illustrious career as a reporter and columnist for the Chicago Daily News, interviewing the likes of President Harry Truman, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower – and, as seen here, Frank Sinatra. Val, who was honored in 2009 as a “Town Treasure” of Chapel Hill, remembers this 1948 interview at a press party in Chicago’s Ambassador East hotel to promote the release of the movie The Miracle of the Bells. Sinatra, whose open distain for the press was legendary, was always very nice to Val. Looking back, she says, “I worked with and wrote about young people … who he liked. I was also one of them – 19, 20, 21, just turned 22 in the picture here. And we’d already worked together two or three times.” A pause. “He was charming,” she recalls, “and very nice to me. He wrote a guest column for me later that year. Typed it on the plane flying in for a benefit for the C.Y.O. at the Chicago Stadium, where I picked it up after his performance.”

A THOUSAND WORDS
Do you have an important old photo that you value? Email your photo to jock@email.unc.edu and include the story behind the picture. Because every picture tells a story. And its worth? A thousand words.
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