Leonard Lyons (born Leonard Sucher; 10 September 1906 - 7 October 1976) was an American newspaper columnist, best known for his ''New York Post'' column called "The Lyons Den."
Background
Leonard Lyons was born Leonard Sucher on September 10, 1906, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. He grew up in a large family of
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish immigrants from the town of
Horodenka
Horodenka ( uk, Городе́нка, pl, Horodenka, occasionally ''Horodence'', yi, האראדענקע ''Horodenke'') is a city located in Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in Western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Horodenka u ...
in the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father Moses, a tailor, died when he was six. His mother sold cigarettes and candy on the Lower East Side. He graduated from the High School of Commerce, where his classmates included
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
. He graduated from the
City College of New York and was in the first class of graduates from
St. John's University School of Law.
Career
Lyons was admitted to the New York State bar in 1929, and practiced law for five years.
As a side activity, Leonard Sucher began a weekly column for the English-language page of the ''
Jewish Daily Forward
''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ' ...
'', called "East of Broadway". He applied for a post as a Broadway columnist with the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', and won the job. The editor of the ''Post'' gave Sucher an alternative last name, Lyons, for professional use, and thus he became "Leonard Lyons", an alliterative name reminiscent of
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...
, another noted newspaper columnist of the day.
Lyons' first column appeared May 20, 1934, under the banner of "The Lyons Den", a name devised by
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...
. Lyons worked on "The Lyons Den" 6 days per week, producing as many columns per week, covering theater, movies, politics and art, a total of which by the end of his career would reach 12,000 columns.
Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...
once said of Lyons: "Imagine how much richer American history would have been had there been a Leonard Lyons in Lincoln's time..."
Lyons travelled the world and sent back daily columns, sometimes giving his column to New York-bound travelers with a request they contact the paper upon arrival. He avoided writing about scandal in his column, and thus earned the trust of the many figures he met.
One characterisation of his column was as follows: "Lyons... never breaks a confidence, and except for a few personal feuds, notably with
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and co ...
and
Bennett Cerf
Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearanc ...
, never spits venom in his column." The column became a New York institution, and was syndicated nationally first by
King Features Syndicate. In 1941, the
McNaught Syndicate took over syndication of the column. By 1974, the circulation of "The Lyons Den" had diminished to 18 columns,
and Lyons retired with his last column on the exact 40th anniversary of the column, 20 May 1974.
Personal life and death
Lyons and his wife Sylvia were married in November 1934. Their marriage lasted until Lyons' death, and produced four sons: George, a stock broker, Warren, a theatrical producer and singing coach,
Jeffrey, a film and theatre critic, and Douglas, a criminal defense attorney. Leonard Lyons' grandson and Jeffrey Lyons' son is the television personality
Ben Lyons
Ben Lyons (born October 8, 1981) is an American entertainment reporter and sportscaster. He is the co-host of Bonjour Sports Talk on Amazon Prime Video Sports Talk.
Early life
Lyons is the son of entertainment reporter Jeffrey Lyons and the g ...
. Both Jeffrey Lyons and Ben Lyons have continued to use the name "The Lyons Den" in their respective media outlets for their work.
Leonard Lyons died age 71 on October 7, 1976, in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
.
Honors, awards
New York Mayor
John V. Lindsay invited him to City Hall and presented him with a medal and a proclamation honoring him. On the 100th anniversary of his birth, New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg issued another proclamation in his name.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyons, Leonard
1906 births
1976 deaths
Writers from New York City
20th-century American Jews
20th-century American writers
20th-century American male writers