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William Loeb (December 29, 1905 - September 14, 1981) was publisher of the Manchester Union Leader newspaper (later The New Hampshire Union Leader) in Manchester, New Hampshire from 1946 until his death in 1981. His pugnacious presentation of conservative political views helped make the Union Leader one of the best-known small papers in the country, benefiting from nationwide attention every four years during the New Hampshire primary. December 29 is the 363rd day of the year (364th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 2 days remaining. ...
1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ...
September 14 is the 257th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (258th in leap years). ...
1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The New Hampshire Union Leader is the daily newspaper of Manchester, the largest city in the state of New Hampshire. ...
Nickname: Queen City Location in Hillsborough County Coordinates: Country United States State New Hampshire County Hillsborough County Incorporated 1751 Mayor Frank Guinta (R) Area - City 90. ...
The New Hampshire primary marks the opening of the quadrennial U.S. presidential election. ...
Early Years
William Loeb III ("Bill") was born to William Loeb Jr. and Catharine (sometimes "Katharine") Dorr on December 26, 1905. Loeb Jr. was executive secretary to Theodore Roosevelt, and the son of William Loeb I, a German immigrant of Jewish descent. Bill Loeb's siblings were Louisa Loeb-Neudorf, Amelia Olive Loeb, and Lillian May Loeb.[1] Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt, Jr. ...
Young Loeb attended Williams College, and soon met and married Elizabeth Nagy, a faculty member at nearby Smith College. They were married on May 29, 1926. Nagy was eight years older than Loeb, and his parents objected to the union. Loeb's father excluded him from his will in light of the marriage.[1] The couple divorced on October 11, 1932, and Loeb received alimony from Nagy for several years. Later in his life, Loeb made efforts to hide the marriage, and records of the divorce (Loeb v. Loeb F-3144) were found missing at the time they were to be archived on microfiche.[1] Williams College is a private, coeducational, highly selective (18% admission rate in 2006) liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts. ...
Smith College, located in Northampton, Massachusetts, is the largest womens college in the United States []. Smith admits only female undergraduates, but admits both men and women as graduate students. ...
Early Career Loeb partnered with his friend Charlie Weaver to buy the St. Albans Messenger in St. Albans, Vermont in 1941 to enter the publishing arena. Loeb also received cash investments from a woman named Marka Loening, who indulged in an extramarital affair with Loeb while waiting for her divorce from her estranged husband to be finalized.[1] Loeb later used funding from Loening to buy the Burlington Daily News in 1942. One of Loeb's first infamous journalistic exploits was the publishing of his own baptismal certificate on the front page of both Vermont papers in an attempt to disprove rumors of his Jewish ancestry. [1]
Loeb cited ulcers for his medical exemption from service during World War II, allegedly drinking large quantities of alcohol before doctor's visits to ensure flare-ups.[1] Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...
In 1946, Loeb secured funding from Ridder Publications to buy the Manchester Union and the Evening Leader from the widow of former Navy Secretary William Franklin Knox, Annie Reid Knox. Mrs. Knox later regretted the sale, claiming she had not seen how Loeb handled his Vermont newspapers, and claiming that Loeb did not mention the involvement of the Ridder family.[1] Loeb used $250,000 in funding from his mother's accounts to fund the purchase of his share in the papers, and later used an additional $300,000 to buy out other shareholders and gain complete control of the papers, which he then merged into the Union Leader.[1] Frank Knox William Franklin Frank Knox (January 1, 1874–April 28, 1944) was the Secretary of the Navy under Franklin D. Roosevelt during most of World War II. He was also the Republican vice presidential candidate in 1936. ...
In 1947, Loeb brought in investor Leonard Finder as a business partner in the paper. Marka Loening, increasingly resentful of the presence of Scripps-Howard heiress Elizabeth "Nackey" Scripps-Gallowhur in the newspaper offices, withdrew her interests in Loeb's papers that same year.[1] Loeb's mother had been under the impression that he and Loening were to be married, but discovered upon Loening's departure that Loeb had been secretly married to Vermont resident Eleanore McAllister since 1942. Afterwards, Loeb publicly disclosed the marriage in his papers, but claimed it had taken place in 1947 and not 1942.[1]
Meanwhile, new competition emerged in Manchester with the return of Bernard J. McQuaid, a former reporter under the tenure of Colonel Knox, from military service in Europe. McQuaid founded a rival paper, The New Hampshire Sunday News, with his brother, Elias. Loeb quickly wooed Bernard McQuaid over to the Union Leader, and bought the Sunday News outright in 1948. With no other statewide media (radio signals being blocked by mountains, and other papers only local to their towns), Loeb essentially gained a media monopoly in the state for himself. He later bought a controlling interest in the television station WMUR.[1] WMUR, an ABC affiliate, is a Manchester, New Hampshire based local television station. ...
Loeb and McAllister gave birth to a daughter, Katharine Penelope, on October 29, 1948.
In 1949, Loeb used the additional $300,000 from his mother and cash from various state politicians he endorsed to buy out Leonard Finder. Also in 1949, Loeb founded the Vermont Sunday News, largely a copy of the New Hampshire edition's content.[1]
On August 5th, Loeb took Nackey Gallowhur to meet his mother in New York. There, George Gallowhur, Nackey's husband, attempted to serve her divorce papers. Loeb refused to permit Gallowhur's agents from serving her, and he was jailed briefly for interfering.[1] Gallowhur sued Loeb for alienation of affection in accordance with an old Vermont law. Mrs. Loeb, infuriated at her son's mistreatment of Eleanore, excluded Bill from her will and sued him for one million dollars for the funding he obtained from her to buy the Union Leader in 1946 and 1949.[1]
Later Life Bill continued to see Nackey. In 1949, he fired the print staff at his Vermont newspapers when they attempted to unionize. Nackey was initially placed in charge of printing, but the couple left the state in 1952 in the wake of his mother's lawsuit, and moved to Reno, Nevada, where Loeb sued for divorce from McAllister and then married Nackey Gallowhur.[1] The Vermont papers flailed in the absence of Loeb's attention, and also suffered from negative reader and advertiser reaction to his long-distance editorials. The Daily News ceased operations in 1959. Loeb did not visit the Burlington paper offices again until 1973.[1] City nickname: The Biggest Little City in the World Founded May 13, 1868 County Washoe County Mayor Bob Cashell Area - Total - Land - Water 179. ...
In 1950, Loeb reran his baptismal certificate, this time on the Union Leader front page, again hoping to dispel gossip about his Jewish heritage.
Loeb moved to Pride's Crossing outside Beverly, Massachusetts in 1955 to be closer to his New England newspaper operations. In 1957 he attempted to launch a paper in nearby Haverhill, Massachusetts, the Haverhill Journal, but the publication proved to be a drain on the staff and presses shared with his other newspapers.[1] The Journal folded in 1965, and Loeb blamed union activity for the closure.[1] During a newspaper strike in Boston, he imported copies of the Union Leader into the city, but stopped after incorrect sports information in the publication led to threats from figures in the city's crime world. Loeb purchased the rights to the Connecticut Sunday Herald name (but not its presses), and relaunched it from Bridgeport, Connecticut, but once again his editorial stances alienated readers, and the paper closed.[1] Settled: 1626 – Incorporated: 1626 Zip Code(s): 01915 – Area Code(s): 978 / 351 Official website: www. ...
Location in Massachusetts Coordinates: Country United States State Massachusetts County Essex County Settled 1640 Incorporated 1641 Government type Mayor-council city - Mayor James J. Fiorentini Area - City 35. ...
Nickname: Location in Connecticut Coordinates: NECTA Bridgeport-Stamford Region Greater Bridgeport Incorporated (town) 1821 Incorporated (city) 1836 Government type Mayor-council - Mayor John M. Fabrizi Area - City 50. ...
Bill's mother, Katherine Loeb, died on November 24, 1968. Her will acknowledged Loeb's siblings, ex-wife McAllister, and his daughter, but left him nothing. He went to court, beginning a five-year legal battle that lasted through 1973, claiming that he had reconciled with his mother and that she had promised him 75% of her estate. He settled for less than 10%, after her estate had been drained of its funds through his legal maneuvers.[1] When daughter Katharine Penelope was almost fatally injured in an equestrian accident, Loeb paid her no regard.[1]
Loeb's journalism resume was the subject of skepticism in 1974, when he claimed in a front-page editorial to have worked for the Hearst conglomerate, as a reporter for the New York World for eight years before buying his St. Albans paper. Hearst Corporation denied he had ever been employed there, and the World had actually ceased operations eight years before Loeb said he had started work there. Toledo Blade chairman Paul Block, Jr. also denied ever seeing Loeb on the assignments he claimed to have worked.[1] The New York World was a newspaper published in New York from 1860 until 1931. ...
The Hearst Corporation is a large privately-held media conglomerate based in New York City. ...
Loeb died in 1981 and left control of the Union Leader to his wife, Nackey. She continued to publish the paper until her death in 2000, when control fell to Bernard McQuaid's son, Joseph McQuaid. The Union Leader now controls the content of several Neighborhood News, Inc. papers in southern New Hampshire, and the NewHampshire.Com website. Neighborhood News is the publisher of five free weeklies, based in Manchester, New Hampshire. ...
Legacy Loeb is best remembered nationally for his alleged role in attacking Edmund Muskie through the Union Leader in what is known locally as the Canuck Letter, derailing the Maine senator's 1972 presidential bid. Loeb is said to have helped in the forgery and publication of the letter in the paper's op-ed section. The letter slandered French-Canadians, and implied Muskie was prejudiced against them. Muskie's tearful defense of himself in front of the Union Leader offices in Manchester was seen as a sign of weakness and instability. Edmund Muskie (March 28, 1914 – March 26, 1996) was an American Democratic politician from Maine. ...
The Canuck Letter was a forged letter to the editor of the Manchester Union Leader, published 24 February 1972, two weeks before the New Hampshire primary. ...
Loeb also gained infamy for attacking governor Walter Peterson's teenage daughter for allegedly smoking marijuana. She suffered an emotional breakdown as a result of the stress and public scrutiny thrust upon her in the wake of the allegations.[2]
William and Nackey had one daughter, Edith Roosevelt Loeb-Tomasko.[3] Nackey and George Gallowhur had a daughter from their marriage, Nackey E. Gallowhur-Scagliotti.[4]
Author Kevin Clash published a biography of Loeb entitled Who the Hell IS William Loeb? in 1975. Loeb's legal threats forced Cash to create his own publishing company, incorporated in Delaware, out of Loeb's reach. After four New Hampshire publishers balked at printing it, Cash had the book printed in Vermont.[2]
In New Hampshire, his major legacy is an anti-tax pledge that is still taken by many conservative political candidates.
Loeb did not hesitate to castigate fellow Republicans, once writing: "This newspaper now solemnly charges that President Eisenhower has done more to destroy the respect, honor and power of the United States than any President in its history." (Editorial, "Prince Of Appeasement," June 23, 1955, referring to the Austrian Treaty that allowed the Soviet Union to continue influence over Austria.) Loeb also stood alone among conservatives in his staunch support for Jimmy Hoffa, despite otherwise being a foe of labor.
With the advent of satellite, cable, and internet service, the Union Leader no longer holds a monopoly on New Hampshire media. Local papers from Concord, Nashua, Dover and Keene are available throughout the state, as well as papers from Boston and national publications. Additionally, the paper no longer holds a stake in WMUR.
Notes and References - ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Kevin Cash, "Who the Hell IS William Loeb?", Amoskeag Publishing, 1975
- ^ a b Time Magazine, "Loeb Blow", January 12, 1976
- ^ Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications, Mission Statement
- ^ Nackey Scripps-Loeb Family Tree
- John Gfroerer, "Powerful as Truth: William Loeb and 35 Years of New Hampshire". Accompany Video, Concord, NH: 2001.
- Eric Veblen, "The Manchester Union Leader in New Hampshire Elections". HarperCollins, New York: 1975.
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