Walter Winchell's ghost writer dead at 90

Herman Klurfeld died at his Boca Raton home of a heart arrhythmia on Monday, December 18. Klurfeld's talent for writing caught the attention of pioneering gossip columnist Walter Winchell at the New York Daily Mirror. From 1936 to 1965, Klurfeld wrote two to four of Winchell's columns a week and at one point wrote large segments of Winchell's Sunday evening broadcasts that were simulcast on radio and NBC's Blue Network (later ABC). He also wrote numerous books, including a memoir of Winchell that was turned into an HBO film. The New York Post revealed Klurfeld as Winchell's ghostwriter in 1952. James Klurfeld, vice president and editorial page editor of Newsday, said his father was most proud of the work he and Winchell did in the 1930s warning Americans of the rising threat of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Klurfeld was 90.

Sources: Radio Hall of Fame, Associated Press, Wikipedia