Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961) was a crusading journalist who urged her fellow Americans to pay attention to the threat of Nazi Germany. She worked tirelessly in print and on the radio to warn Americans of the threat of fascism years before the official U.S. entry into World War II. Her efforts made her one of the most famous women in the United States and she is often regarded as the “First Lady of American Journalism.”
Today, we're talking about Dorothy Thompson (1893-1961), often regarded as the “First Lady of American Journalism.”
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Today we’re talking about a crusading journalist who urged her fellow Americans to pay attention to the threat of Nazi Germany. She worked tirelessly in print and on the radio to warn Americans of the threat of fascism years before the official U.S. entry into World War II. Her efforts made her one of the most famous women in the United States and she is often regarded as the “First Lady of American Journalism.” Meet Dorothy Thompson
Dorothy Celene Thompson was born on July 9, 1893 in Lancaster, New York, to Peter and Margaret Thompson. She was one of three children. When Dorothy was seven years old, her mother passed away, leaving her father to raise three children. Peter soon remarried but Dorothy did not get along with her stepmother, whom she said had "an allergy to children."
In 1908, Peter sent Dorothy to Chicago to live with his two sisters to avoid further conflict. There, she attended the Lewis Institute before transferring to Syracuse University. At Syracuse, she studied politics and economics and graduated with a degree in 1914.
After graduation, Dorothy devoted herself to feminist activism. Her first job out of college was stuffing envelopes for the Woman Suffrage Party in Buffalo, though Dorothy soon convinced her bosses to put her into the field. She spent the next few years fighting for women's right to vote, working in New York City and Cincinnati as well as in upstate New York. But activism did not pay well and Dorothy had dreams of being a journalist. In 1920, Dorothy and her suffragist friend Barbara De Porte boarded a ship to London to embark on careers as foreign correspondents.
The pair began work at the International News Service, which had bureaus all over Europe. Dorothy got her big break when she visited Ireland and was the last to interview Terence MacSwiney, one of the major leaders of the Sinn Féin movement. She later booked an exclusive interview with Karl the First, the overthrown former king of Hungary, by sneaking into a castle dressed as a Red Cross nurse. These interviews helped Dorothy make a name for herself and she landed a new job in Vienna as a foreign correspondent for the Philadelphia Public Ledger
During her time at the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Dorothy developed a deep understanding of central European politics, boosted by her fluency in German and her 1923 marriage to the Hungarian writer Joseph Bard. She was promoted to bureau chief for the Public Ledger and the New York Evening Post.
While her career trajectory was looking good, her personal life was more in flux. She filed for divorce in 1927. That same year, she met novelist Sinclair Lewis. A year later Dorothy accepted his marriage proposal and said goodbye to Germany in order to start a new life with him in Vermont.
Marriage did not end Dorothy’s interest in international politics. She took trips back to Germany to report on the growing threat of fascism. She had long been aware of Adolf Hitler and had previously attempted to interview him during his early rise to prominence.
In 1931, Dorothy was finally granted an interview with Hitler. She was allowed to ask three questions. They had to be submitted a day in advance. The interview became the basis for her book, I Saw Hitler, in which Dorothy wrote about the growing dangers of Hitler’s rise. Dorothy described Hitler in the following terms: "He is formless, almost faceless, a man whose countenance is a caricature, a man whose framework seems cartilaginous, without bones. He is inconsequent and voluble, ill poised and insecure. He is the very prototype of the little man."
Dorothy’s biting character assessment clearly rattled Hitler. In the summer of 1934, three years after the interview, Hitler retaliated. The Nazi government expelled Dorothy from Germany, making her first American journalist to be removed from the country by the regime. The move served as a warning to foreign journalists in Germany: Criticism of Hitler would not be tolerated.
Back in the United States, Dorothy devoted herself to publicly opposing the Nazis. She attacked the German government in her syndicated column, "On the Record," which ran in 170 newspapers and reached roughly 8 million readers. She also spread her message through regular radio broadcasts for NBC and a monthly column in Ladies' Home Journal. In 1939, she attended a rally for the German American Bund at Madison Square Garden. While seated among 20,000 Nazi supporters, Dorothy loudly ridiculed the speaker, even as she was removed from the event.
That same year she was featured on the cover of Time magazine speaking into an NBC radio microphone. The article said, "she and Eleanor Roosevelt are undoubtedly the most influential women in the U.S."
It is said that Dorothy was the basis of Katharine Hepburn’s character in the movie “Woman of the Year.”
Dorothy’s popularity did not last. In February of 1941, Pacifist mothers paraded her effigy outside the gates of the White House, denouncing her support of the war. They said she played a role in "a million boys' lives in blood and pain." Others said Dorothy was "perpetual emotion." This criticism intensified during her post war career, as her focus shifted surprisingly to Anti- Zionism.
After taking a trip to Palestine, Dorothy began speaking out against the creation of the State of Israel. As a result many papers dropped her column. However, Dorothy continued to write. She covered domestic stories for “Ladies Home Journal” until her death. She also began to write a memoir, but never finished.
Dorothy passed away on January 30, 1961 during a trip to Lisbon, Portugal.
All month, we’re talking about journalists.
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