The Journalist and the Gangster

Abstract

Ben Hecht grew to personify the mix of cynicism, sentimentality and mischief of the Chicago newspaper reporter, a historical type that he immortalized in his stage comedy, The Front Page. Treating Hecht as an “ideal type,” this study looks at the antics and chicanery of Chicago crime reporters, and the extraordinary bonds that Chicago journalists forged with the city's gangsters. It argues that the temptation of the Mephistophelean bargain, the proposition that rules are made to be broken, explains both Hecht's Romanticist style, emblematic of Chicago journalism, and the fascination with criminals and gangsters that Hecht shared with his fellow newspapermen.

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Julien Gorbach

JULIEN GORBACH is an assistant professor of mass communication at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. This article is based on a chapter from a complete biography of Ben Hecht, which he wrote as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Missouri.