Newsday, Newsday, read all about it.
ob Hoffman on November 15, 2018 at 5:30 AM
My brother David is the only one of the three Hoffman boys who stayed on Long Island. One of my brothers lives in New York City, (I”d be more precise about his location but that would interfere with his plan to stay as far away from the “grid” as possible, and allow others to know that he actually exists.) while I’ve sought my fame and fortune up here in the Capital Region. As such, my brother David still enjoys home delivery of my all-time favorite newspaper, Newsday. Once in a while he will even send me a copy of one of their special editions such as their July 4th 1976 bicentennial edition. As soon as I gaze upon a copy of Newsday, new or classic, it brings me back to a simpler time.
Do you remember this edition? If you do, then you have a head and a heart for nostalgia. Oh, and you’re old, very, very old. (Hoffman Collection)
Newsday was and is a tabloid newspaper, but with a decidedly liberal slant. If I may stereotype, it’s for ex-New York City people who used to love reading the New York Times but ironically don’t have the time, or for those who are older (Is there anybody alive today who reads the newspaper who you wouldn’t classify as being “older?”) and remember the halcyon days when the New York Post was actually New York City’s liberal paper, and the Daily News was the voice of the Archie Bunker Conservative.
As a child growing up in North Massapequa, (If you’re not familiar with “North” Massapequa, imagine Massapequa without the Baldwin’s, Jerry Seinfeld, and Joey Buttafuoco. but with a healthy dose of Steve Guttenberg, and you understand how radically different North Massapequa is from regular old Massapequa.) we received a copy of Newsday everyday, usually delivered by somebody I knew from school on their bicycle. (Does that even happen anywhere anymore?) As a young sports fan, I loved Newsday thanks to its wonderful sports section. Before the internet came along and changed the world for both better and worse, the newspaper was how you followed your local heroes. I was only about seven years old when I became enamoured with all things sports. I used to bug my parents as well as my older brothers to tell me what happened the night before in the newspaper. Finally my oldest brother said to me, “You can read right?” “Yes,” I responded. “Fine, then go read about it yourself, why do you need me to read it to you for?” At that point, I picked up a copy of Newsday, and I didn’t put it down until I moved to the Capital Region in 1993. To this day, it’s one of the things about Long Island that I miss the most.
Nobody has chronicled the story of Long Island better than Newsday. (Hoffman Collection)
The newspaper always held a special place in our house. For my father, it was how he relaxed after dinner. He would retire to the “library,” aka the bathroom, and it was where he achieved a little peace and quiet. No bosses to give him grief, no kids to bug him, and even my mother knew not to enter the study, or even disturb him until he was done. On Sundays, my house became a shrine to the printed media. First, we would have delivered the Sunday edition of Newsday. This was the version that came with the extended sports section which was for me the equivalent of porn for a 10-year-old sports fanatic. Inside in beautiful black and white I would discover a preview of the Sunday football games, a review of all of the college games from Saturday, plus if it was still September, not only would I be able to pour over the box scores from the day before, but they would have the statistics for all of the MLB players. It was an orgy of sports information. I sat at the kitchen table, and as George Costanza himself once said, you could have lit my hair on fire, and I wouldn’t have even looked up or taken notice. The only thing that interrupted this lover affair of the Sunday edition of the Newsday sports section was the dreaded phrase, “Robbie, it’s time to go to Hebrew School. “Nooooo! But Mom, my stomach hurts.”
My constant companion as a youth, the Newsday sports section. (Hoffman Collection)
My father was an accountant, and yes, it’s as sexy as it sounds. In addition to his full-time job, he also had a series of clients on the side. One of those was a small pharmacy in Massapequa Park, New York called Arlo Pharmacy. Every Sunday my father went to Arlo to do whatever it is accountants do, count things I would imagine, and on his way home he would always make two stops. First of course would be the bagel store on Hicksville Road in order to pick up fresh bagels, or bialys, and then to the Calvert Manner luncheonette in order to purchase both the Sunday editions of the Daily News and the New York Times. My father and I loved the Daily News sports section, especially a young, fiery sports columnist by the name of Mike Lupica, and the reactionary curmudgeon who unforgivably drove Tom Seaver from the New York Mets, Dick Young. My oldest brother loved the Times and still does. Even as a child, I remember thinking that our family was on to something that perhaps others were missing out on. I had a sense that my family somehow was more informed perhaps than other families who seemed to me anyway to be wallowing in a bit of ignorance, or at the very least, not taking advantage of all of the information that was available to them.
It wasn’t just the sports section of Newsday that I was enamoured with. I also enjoyed their television reviewer, a writer by the name of Marvin Kitman. Kitman had a column named “The Marvin Kitman Show,” and in it he wrote reviews of television programs, and if he liked your program, your show had a good chance of making it, and if he hated your show, then let’s just say, the clock was ticking. I once wrote a letter to Kitman. He was having a contest where the winner would get to accompany him to a taping of the Warner Wolf Show. Warner Wolf was the sports reporter on CBS 2 in New York City. He became so popular that he had his own program which he taped in front of a live studio audience. I wanted to be the next Warner Wolf, so the chance to see his show would have been a dream come true. Kitman asked potential contest entrants to write to him with a reason why we should get to go with him to see a taping of Wolf’s broadcast. This was when the show Dallas was the biggest program on television, right around the time that the character J.R. had been shot. I sent Kitman a letter saying that I should get to go because I was the only person in the world who didn’t care who had shot J.R. Kitman wrote me back saying that I didn’t win, but that I was one of the finalists and thanked me for entering.
That alone would have been enough to make me feel like a winner, but several days later, I was reading “The Marvin Kitman Show,” and lo and behold, there was my name. Kitman began his column by saying:
Here’s a list of everybody in the world who doesn’t care about who shot J.R.: Robert Hoffman of North Massapequa.
At the time it was one of the greatest moments of my life, which admittedly in and of itself is somewhat damning. Still it was quite the thrill to see my name being used by one of my favorite writers in my favorite newspaper.
One of my favorite writers, the venerable Marvin Kitman, still hanging in there at 88. He almost made me a star…almost. (You Tube)
At first, Newsday was rivaled on Long Island by a newspaper called the Long Island Daily Press. The Long Island Daily Press was founded in 1821, and was published out of Jamaica, Queens. However, as the paper became more popular, it made inroads out into both Nassau and Suffolk counties. Eventually though, as the economy on Long Island struggled in the 1970s, and advertising dollars began to dry up, coupled with the fact that Newsday began to really up its game regarding its quality, the Long Island Daily Press couldn’t quite keep up with the competition. Eventually by 1977, the Long Island Daily Press ceased its publication.
Despite its near monopoly of the Long Island market, Newsday, like pretty much every other newspaper in America is going through tough times. Whenever I’m out on Long Island I’m always dismayed by how thin the paper has become. Newsday was the place I turned to in order to see if they had caught “Son of Sam,” as well as which movies I should go see, or which television programs were worth watching, and of course, the place where I could turn for unparalleled coverage of the Mets, Yankees, Jets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers, and Islanders. Sadly in many ways, the paper has become a shell of its former self. However, their quest to promote all things Long Island has never ceased. In addition to their quality sports section, Newsday always took pains to promote its native sons who had done well such as Rodney Dangerfield, Billy Joel, and Jerry Seinfeld amongst many others.
Few performers have embraced their Long Island roots as much as the great Billy Joel, and Newsday has been there for all of it, proud to claim Billy as its ultimate native son. (You Tube)
While to many, Newsday may have been seen as an inferior product to the journalistic endeavors that were being produced across the water in Manhattan, slowly but surely, Newsday began to attract top journalistic talent, including the ultimate New York City reporter, Jimmy Breslin. Many Newsday sports writers went on to write for other national publications such as Sports Illustrated, while others would end up working for the New York Times, or one of the other big city tabloids.
What Newsday was able to accomplish in its hey-day was pretty impressive. It covered Long Island, Nassau and Suffolk counties, an area with over three million people, and yet created the feeling that in many regards, “The Island” was really much more an enclave of small towns, and close-knit neighborhoods. Cosmopolitan in some ways, and yet still dotted with fisherman and potato farmers. A small town vibe, in an area existing in the shadow of the greatest city in the world. Newsday could give you the illusion of being able to celebrate all that was great about living next to New York City, and yet still being a safe distance from its noise and turbulence.
Unfortunately, like so many great publications, Newsday is literally shrinking before our eyes. The paper is getting smaller and smaller, both in its scope and its size. While it’s still around, and still does what it can to cover Long Island and the world at large, as has become the case with all newspapers, it simply can’t compete with the internet. While I’m as guilty as anybody for this occurrence, I still miss the paper. Nothing against the Times Union, but when I got a glimpse of the newspaper that was going to replace my beloved Newsday in 1993 when I moved up to the Capital Region, it was almost enough to call off the relocation. My dream in high school was to be a sportswriter for Newsday. I wanted to be Rich Cimini, Wallace Matthews, William Nack, Joe Gergen, or Steve Jacobson. However, that dream will unfortunately go unrequited, and it looks like when I walk into my classroom in the morning, I’ll have to settle for being known as Mr. Hoffman instead. I suppose that will do, but if you’re out there Marvin Kitman, and you’re still listening, I’d be happy to help you resurrect the “Marvin Kitman Show” again, except this time, you and I are going to share the byline. If it helps, I still don’t care who shot J.R..
Newsday’s New York City bonafides received a big boost when they poached the great Jimmy Breslin from the Daily News. (Getty Images)