The Untold Story: My 20 Years Running the National Enquirer

Rating:
Summary: Iain Calder fired me! Great book ; buy it NOW!
Review: Hundreds of Tabloid pros were fired by America's Most Feared Editor, Iain Calder - I was one of them. No matter, one simply should not bugger off AWOL to Egypt and not tell the boss!

Iain's fantastic romp down Tabloid Memory Lane took me back to many forgotten NATIONAL ENQUIRER escapades.

Yes, we carried $ thousands in cash, yes, we hired helicopters by the dozen, yes; we got the story before the local press even knew we were in town. Small wonder the "legitimate press" dubbed us the Foreign Legion of journalism. Poor scribes, they simply could not compete.

The ENQUIRER was also used in classrooms as an educational tool; we exposed Government waste, published happy pictures of our staff dog, Lucky, visiting big name stars; we published Rags to Riches stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

NE medical reporters were the best in the media - diets that really worked; we broke the World's First Test Tube Baby story, too.

An editor on the NE during those swashbuckler days, even I was unaware of many of the UNTOLD STORIES so vividly described in this five-star adventure yarn - Can't wait for the movie.

Kudos to Calder!






Rating:
Summary: Great Read!!
Review: I absolutely loved this book.
It was full of interesting stories of how the management of Enquirer and its reporters got scoops on hot stories, even before any mainstream media knew what was happening.
I have been reading the Enquirer since I was about 10 yrs old, which is when I saw the cover showing Elvis in his coffin. The story on how they got that picture is worth the price of the book alone. Great read for an Enquiring mind!




Rating:
Summary: Homage to the Money God
Review: Iain Calder tells a good story about an American news icon.

One story tells about three employees making over $40,000 a year in the 1970s who risked their jobs and criminal prosecution to split a pie of $20,000 less expenses. Another tells tales of Jackie O, Ari and JFK,Jr. Then there comes a really big story about an Elvis coup that is not to be missed.

Do you need to know all these juicy details of the lives of the rich, famous, infamous, and weird, like the ugliest man's plastic surgury after and before pictures? I kept turning page after page excitedly looking for more.

I found that the "National Enquirer" was more than I thought it was after reading Calder's historical pictureless tome.

Yes, it was a huge disappointment that there was not one picture in this 314 page book except for Iain Calder on the jacket.





Rating:
Summary: easy, fun read
Review: Iain Calders book is an easy,fun read.Never having read the National Enquirer,I was surprised to learn what a serious publication it was.Their entrepreneurial out of the box methods to get the story were fascinating.Our journalism schools could do well to take notice.After reading this book I have become a reader of the National Enquirer.I highly recommend this book....Bob Reiss,Boca Raton,Fl.

Rating:
Summary: Stories that influenced the Enquirer's infamous reputation
Review: The National Enquirer has a bad reputation that can never be overcome, and the magazine is proud of it. No one working for the Enquirer will ever win the Pulitzer Prize, whether he or she deserves it or not. The rag's rep is based on gore and gossip and ever more shall be.

That's from the horse's mouth. Iain Calder, a Scotsman who left school at 16 and was a millionaire by the time he got his pink slip from the Enquirer, spent twenty years in the traces, sniffing out some of the best stories the paper handled. His breeze-easy journalistic style makes this book a fun read, and the stories he turns over like moss-covered rocks will keep you giggling, even if you don't approve of the Enquirer's tactics.

Largely the brainchild of Generoso Pope, Jr., who was rumored to be seriously mobbed up, the Enquirer's flame burned brightest during his regime. Pope lived up to his name by his love of hard-luck stories and his personal generosity to many of the causes the paper championed. In those days the Enquirer was purple but personal, with small features including rags-to-riches sagas as well as tales of those who had made it big and were getting away from the rat race. Sick kids needing medical treatment was another favorite theme. All had perennial appeal to the housewives of America, and getting the paper on the racks at supermarkets was one of the biggest strategic breaks of Pope's dynamic career.

The Enquirer, while noted for its nasty photos of beheaded animals, ghastly human follies and bloody death, scooped more than poop. It was often the first with an important story (Jesse Jackson's love-child, Clinton's pardon of an errant brother-in-law and subsequent $200,000 kick-back) and its rivals never seemed ready for the rag's rough-and-tumble determination to be fustest with the mostest. When Princess Grace died in a tragic car crash, the Enquirer staff "bought" the gardener in whose yard the wreckage landed and held him hostage in his own home to keep him from talking to other papers. After a week the poor man got so stir-crazy that he took a rifle and shot a hole through his cottage roof. To be fair, they had offered him what they often handed out to other sources --- a holiday. The man was just too dumb to take it.

But then we have the seaman on board Aristotle Onassis's yacht who was easily bribed and blabbed about everything going on with Ari and Jackie. He even took photos and was sent back to Greece where his fiancée awaited, all on the Enquirer's tab. And the distant relative of Elvis who was paid surprisingly little money to take flash photos of the corpse as it lay in state at Graceland. There was an absolute ban on photos, but whatever the Enquirer wanted, it usually got.

The book is chock full of such stories, but Calder manages to keep his sources safe from detection, even now. The one major exception is Tom Arnold, who actually ratted on his bride-to-be, the famously profane comedienne Roseanne Barr, who had threatened to sue the paper for its outrageous stories of her and Tom. When an Enquirer staffer held up the canceled check signed by her inamorata on Geraldo Rivera's TV show, Roseanne was furious --- not so much at Arnold (whom she married anyway) but at the Enquirer operative, who was later sent a punch in the schnozz and a bouquet of flowers, compliments of the unsinkable Ms. Barr.

Calder praises, rather than buries, the Enquirer, so those expecting the worst may be disappointed. But even when only mellow yellow, the paper's scurrilous tactics and its staff's plucky antics make for a great read.

--- Reviewed by Barbara Bamberger Scott

Rating:
Summary: A tribute, not an expose
Review: The Untold Story is a tribute to the people that made the National Enquirer a journalism trendsetter and one of best selling newspapers in the nation. Iain Calder, the former editor-in-chief of the Enquirer, has written the biography of a newspaper with obvious affection and pride. Included in this accolade are the hardworking and colorful employees of the Enquirer-writers, photographers, editors, and business managers. The celebrities, physicians, stars, and ordinary people that filled the pages of the Enquirer appear in The Untold Story treated with obvious respect and affection. Interwoven through most of the book is Gene Pope, an extraordinary man and boss with rare vision, insight, and daring, albeit often coupled with a complex personality mix of compassion and uncompromising demands.

Calder has done a fine job with The Untold Story-the book has a brisk pace, flows well, and always keeps the reader engaged and entertained. The Untold Story is not an expose, and anyone looking for a detrimental gossip or the airing of nefarious deeds or secrets will be disappointed. The book will not disappoint any reader looking for a clear and compelling story of one man's unique, challenging, and interesting career.



Rating:
Summary: A remarkable read...
Review: This is a remarkable read and provides a series of wonderful anecdotes on what just might have been one of the most exciting, stressful, rewarding, intimidating and funny places in the world to work - the newsroom of the National Enquirer. "Enquiring minds" will certainly be pleased - and maybe shocked - to learn of the amazing stories behind the scenes that produced the blockbuster stories inside its cover week after week.

But much more than just a simple narrative explaining the history and origin of the publication and its content, this is a story about a man and his drive to succeed - Iain Calder. The reader cannot help but feel how much fun Calder is having while recounting his stories. His pride for being an integral part of something very special that changed the course of journalistic content. His reverence and respect for those with whom he worked. And his love and adoration for his friends and his family, especially his wife, who always fiercely and devotedly stood by him. But don't worry, if you're hungry for the delicious dirt on O.J., Rosanne, Elvis, Belushi and the scores of celebrities that made the Enquirer America's biggest and baddest tabloid, you'll be more than satisfied.

So, if you are a fan of the Enquirer, then this is must-read. And even if you have ever stood in line at the check-out at the supermarket and just looked at the Enquirer's headlines and wondered to yourself, "Where do they get this stuff?", then this is also a must-read. You'll probably kick yourself for not being brave enough to buy a copy.