Noted photojournalist Ted Polumbaum worked in York, Pa., for Gazette and Daily
J.W. Gitt, 1884-1973, well-known owner of The Gazette and Daily in York, Pa., reads in the library of his Hanover home. Many noted journalists began their careers at Gitt’s left-leaning daily newspaper. His home is now the Gitt Memorial Library. Also of interest: Also of interest: Sixty years ago, Dem upset GOP incumbent for York County congressional seat and York, Pa., publishing legend J.W. Gitt vocal about nuclear power and Cartoonist made York newspaper owner’s views an art form
Judy Polumbaum is a professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communications at the University of Iowa.
And she has a link to York County through her father, Ted, a former Gazette and Daily journalist. The Gazette and Daily was the predecessor to the York Daily Record.
“My dad worked at the York Gazette & Daily in the late 40s — and is mentioned in Mary Hamilton’s book as one of those New York boys who just passed through — but the really interesting story comes later, and is not irrelevant to that paper’s legacy; a footnote touches on this,” she wrote.
Judy is researching a book about her dad’s (1924-2001) life and times, and views his time in York as a small but important piece of his experience… .
“At some point, I need to get to York and read the Gazette & Daily bound volumes myself, and try to figure out what stories my dad might have written (I realize they didn’t have bylines! But I know at least a couple of topics he covered) as well as get a sense of the two years or so that he and my mom lived there (in fact they left when they did not so much because of my dad’s ambitions but because my mom, a Brooklyn/Manhattan bohemian artist, didn’t want to stay),” she wrote.
I responded that bound volumes are probably gone, but a rich microfilm repository of old Gazette and Daily newspapers is available at the York County Heritage Trust library.
She’s looking for anyone with memories of her father to contact her.
“I’m interested not only in who might have known my dad Ted Polumbaum (he became a freelance photojournalist, his archives are at the Newseum in DC, passed away in 2001) and/or my mom Nyna Brael Polumbaum (still kicking) — but who remembers news from 1948 and 1949 (other than the Progressive Party action), especially local York news, including some story about the public swimming pool closing down rather than admitting blacks.”
Washington, D.C.’s Newseum has a short bio and galleries of Ted Polumbaum’s internationally known photojournalism, a demonstration of skills honed, in part, in York, Pa.
Also of interest:
– York cartoonist’s work helps celebrate peace activism.
– Cuban expert and York editor Jim Higgins: ‘He was just another journalist … with opinions’.
– York, Pa., newspaper publisher J.W. Gitt: ‘Just say it … straight out’.
Archives:
– All York Town Square posts from the start. (Key word search by using “find” on browser.)
– Of course, you can always search for York Town Square posts on Google. For example, search for yorktownsquare and J.W. Gitt and you get this.
