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Cronkite a giant in print and broadcasting
Five O'Clock Shadow
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Published: July 26, 2009
A member of most American families for 19 years as the CBS News anchor, Walter Cronkite spent the first half of his working life as a newspaper reporter. At age 13, he was doing news items for the Houston Post.
His first prime assignment was in service as a war correspondent for United Press. He landed in France in a glider shortly after D-Day.
Later, he covered bombing raids over Germany in a B-17 heavy bomber from altitudes so high that a leather heated suit was a must.
Following Douglas Edwards, it didn't take long for the new news anchor to be affectionately known by many as "Uncle Walter."
Self-deprecating, he once observed that he couldn't understand why CBS paid him so much money to read the news. His program, he admitted, amounted to less than a half page of a newspaper.
I never met the famed broadcast journalist, who rivaled Edward R. Murrow, but I did get a little space on his CBS Evening News.
Editor of The Keynoter at Marathon in the Florida Keys, I did a few on-the-spot news commentaries for Channel 8 in Tampa, where brother Arch was the news anchor. The Keys being big in news, he suggested I acquire a Bell and Howell camera and sell some film to his station.
Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959 opened a big window for news film. After Fulgencio Batista fled, many of his top officials were taken to the wall and executed. "Boat people" followed, many arriving in the Keys. An untold number of bodies washed ashore from less than seaworthy boats and rafts.
Before long, I was doing the weekly Keynoter, running a news bureau for The Miami Herald, plus a Saturday column and shooting still photos. Hard-hit by Hurricane Donna, the Keys had neither bridges to the mainland, water, power nor phones.
If the hurricane was a hot news spot in 1960, the next year, 1961, provided one international story after another. In the final days of his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower ordered the CIA to train Cuban exiles for an invasion of Cuba.
In his first four months as chief executive, President Kennedy approved the invasion but called off U.S. Air Force cover of the landing. The Bay of Pigs landing was a failure. Exiles who weren't wounded or killed became long-term prisoners.
After missiles supplied by Russia began to appear on film from U2 surveillance flights, prospects of a nuclear war surfaced. Overnight, the Keys became an armed camp. Barbed wire was strung on a beach at Marathon, encircling a long row of missiles.
Complete with warheads, each was aimed at Cuba, just 60 miles away.
While world politics swirled between the U.S. and Russia, supermarkets were stripped bare of canned goods and underground bomb shelter construction boomed.
A call from CBS News asked for coverage on military training for a possible invasion by Cuban exiles.
My first film covered hand grenade training. There being no grenades, live or otherwise, small coconuts were tossed. The results were comedic.
However, a mock invasion attracted a host of media reporters. We waited on a beach on No Name Key, better known by locals as Bird S—- Key. The name change was for tourists.
Suddenly, as we watched, a flotilla of boats began to appear, but nothing in common with Navy hardware.
A photographer from Life Magazine and I laughed at the mock invasion. When small arms fire commenced, the mirth was over. Twigs and limbs from trees began to rain on us.
"These guys are using live rounds," someone yelled. Bodies fell prone on the beach.
Unfortunately, no one had a white flag for a proper surrender.
The bullets stopped whizzing when the supply was exhausted. The best news: No one was hurt.
Some of my mock invasion film coverage was used, maybe 15 to 30 seconds. It was a good payday, plus expenses, because of a CBS and union agreement.
As Walter Cronkite, who died last week at age 92, said, "and that's the way it is."
Charles Deal is a former newspaper editor and publisher. His column has been moved to Sunday. Reach him at chazdeal@aol.com.
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