Doris O'Donnell's Cleveland

Doris O'Donnell's Cleveland
Coming Attractions:

Episode #4
Rosie the Reporter
June 2008

Episode #5
A Riot Goin' On
July 2008

Produced in partnership with the
Cleveland Police Historical Society & Museum

Production support by
The
Allegheny
Foundation

Few print reporters have known Cleveland as well or for as long as Doris O'Donnell Beaufait. Daughter of a ward leader, niece of a sheriff and wife of another newspaper legend, Doris beat the pavement and reported the daylights out of a city on the make and on the move. She competed in the clubby world of men & sports, but still donned society-white gloves. Never afraid of a press stunt, Doris also breached the Iron Curtain, prowled Cleveland's underworld and went in search of the gun that killed Robert Kennedy.

On the heels of her candid memoir, Front Page Girl (Kent State University Press, 2006), comes a new media series called Doris O'Donnell's Cleveland. Interviews with Doris' friends, colleagues & collaborators, both then and now, lend color and corroboration to this witness to Cleveland history -- recollections of a time gone by, but as vivid as a stiff breeze off the lake.

Reporter O'Donnell in the Cleveland News city room, 1946. Photo by Bill Nehez

Watch/download the complete half hour programs
(click links below to stream, or right click>Save Target As... to download for later viewing)
Episode #1 The Day Marilyn Died
Sam Sheppard always blamed it on everybody else
Episode #2 The Golden Age of Print
Journalism back then was "history in a hurry" and they broke a few rules
Episode #3 The Indians Swing
Boys will be boys! Then came Doris O'Donnell