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R. Scott Williams
Author
An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York
As the highest-paid and most-read columnist of his era, Odd McIntyre achieved great fame and fortune in the early twentieth century. Raised in Gallipolis, Ohio, eventually he moved to New York and became close friends with many of the leading personalities of the day, including writers Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; entertainers Fred Astaire, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Billie Burke, and Will Rogers; composers George Gershwin and Meredith Willson; actors Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin, and many others. Buried under a century of change, Odd’s unique life story provides a unique glimpse into one of the most fascinating periods in American popular culture.
Reviews
Williams (Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton) evokes the glamour and glitz of New York high society in this biography of Oscar Odd McIntyre (1884–1938), whose syndicated column, “New York Day by Day,” made him one of the highest-paid reporters of his era. The book chronicles McIntyre’s life from his upbringing in Ohio, where he dropped out of high school and wormed his way into a job as staff reporter at the Dayton Herald, through to his later years in the city that never sleeps, living on Park Avenue and hobnobbing with celebrities such as impresario Flo Ziegfeld and movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Rudy Valentino. Williams provides readers with a solid sense of his subject’s character, whether through descriptions of his early clashes with his father or of his social anxiety and general demeanor (McIntyre dubbed it “chronic melancholia”), and draws heavily on McIntyre’s prodigious output of columns as well as his unpublished autobiography and personal correspondence to give readers a sense of his voice as a writer. The strength of the book lies in the backdrop: Williams traces the changing tides of the newspaper and entertainment industries in the early decades of the 20th century while telling this little-known rags-to-riches story. (BookLife)
News
02/24/2017
“An Odd Book” Explores Life and Career of First Modern Pop Culture Reporter

New biography tells the story of writer who achieved great fame and fortune in the early decades of the 20th century.

WASHINGTON — On April 1, 2017, R. Scott Williams will release “An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,” a biography of the life of Oscar Odd McIntyre, the first modern pop culture and entertainment reporter. It will be available at select bookstores, on Amazon and through IngramSpark.

As the highest-paid and most-read columnist of his era, Odd McIntyre achieved great fame and fortune in the early twentieth century. Raised in Gallipolis, Ohio, eventually he moved to New York and became close friends with many of the leading personalities of the day, including writers Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald; entertainers Fred Astaire, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Billie Burke, and Will Rogers; composers George Gershwin and Meredith Willson; actors Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin. and many others.

In his daily column, “New York Day by Day,” and in national magazines like Cosmopolitan and Life, Odd captured a time and place undergoing great transition and innovation in communication, politics, art and entertainment. As the country shifted from the Gilded Age to the Progressive Era and through the Great Depression, new technologies and methods of communication were being quickly adopted around the world, as were new ideas regarding journalism and the role of media in American politics and society. Odd, living and writing in New York, was at the epicenter of this new modern age.

“Odd documented the stories of what was happening backstage and behind the scenes with popular culture around the world,” said Williams, who is the chief operating officer of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. “Odd was there as the telegraph changed the news business, and then as radio changed everything. He covered live entertainment as it shifted from vaudeville to something new and exciting on Broadway, and he had a literal front-row seat as moving pictures evolved first to nickelodeons, then to silent films, and finally to talkies.”

 

As a young journalist and editor in Ohio, Odd was one of the very first reporters to interview the Wright brothers in Dayton, and he worked side by side with early muckrakers to fight government corruption in Cincinnati. After moving to New York and working briefly as an assistant editor for Hampton’s Magazine, he got a job as a Park Row newspaper reporter. One of his first assignments was interviewing Titanic survivors as they stepped onto the pier in New York. Later, McIntyre began working for music publisher Leo Feist on Tin Pan Alley, promoting songwriters, vaudeville and Broadway performers, musicians, and “song pluggers.”

His success there led to many years as the press agent for Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., where he got to know many of the most popular performers of the day. In Paris, he became friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and others who came to be known as the “Lost Generation,” while back in New York, he had a long-time feud with members of the group known as the “Algonquin Round Table.”

His experience and connections in New York allowed him and his biggest champion, his wife Maybelle McIntyre, to start a daily column that they mailed from their small New York apartment to newspapers around the country. Eventually, Odd’s column grew to reach more than seven million readers each day, making him a media superstar. In his 1938 obituary, a reporter for The New York Times wrote, “His greatest stock-in-trade was his incarnate rapture at the glories of a New York recognizable to none but himself. To him the towers of Manhattan were studded with minarets and the neon lights of Broadway flickered like jewels.”

Only Odd’s wife and closest friends knew his biggest secret. Throughout adulthood, he struggled with social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder and severe depression that were likely brought on by undiagnosed pernicious anemia. Despite the extroverted “man-about- town” image he projected to the world, his disorder eventually drove him to a reclusive lifestyle. He left his home only at night, and observed New York’s nightlife from the window of his chauffeur-driven Rolls-Royce.

A special launch event will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre in Odd’s hometown of Gallipolis, Ohio where The Ohio Valley Symphony will perform Meredith Willson’s “O.O. McIntyre Suite.”

In anticipation of the book, Williams has also launched several social media initiatives to help the public learn more about Odd McIntyre and his work. Photos of the people, places and pop culture icons that Odd covered in his daily column will be featured on Instagram, and short excerpts from Odd’s articles will be shared on Twitter. Every Friday, samples of Odd’s columns will also be shared in a weekly blog on the book’s website.

Williams noted, “Because Odd’s writing style frequently included short, cleverly written sentences, they still resonate remarkably well today.” Additional content about Odd McIntyre and “An Odd Book” will be shared on YouTube and Facebook. Links to these social network accounts, along with much more information about Odd McIntyre and the book launch, can be found at AnOddBook.com.

 

About R. Scott Williams

R. Scott Williams is the author of “An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,” available April 1 on Amazon.com and through IngramSpark. Williams is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Williams earned his degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. He then held positions at several advertising agencies and organizations, including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. He currently serves on the board of the D.C. chapter of the American Advertising Federation and on the board of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. He lives with his wife and daughters in historic Arlington, Va. Passionate about discovering and sharing forgotten stories from the past, in his spare time he explores the history of the American South, especially around his home in West Tennessee. His first book was “The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton: From Tennessee to Timbuktu.”

12/15/1016
‘An Odd Book’ Launch

R. Scott Williams, author of upcoming Odd McIntyre biography, to hold launch program before historic performance of Meredith Willson’s “O. O. McIntyre Suite” at the Ariel Theatre in Gallipolis, Ohio

WASHINGTON — R. Scott Williams and the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre announced today that the launch program for “An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,” will take place on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 4:30 p.m. at the Ariel Opera House in Gallipolis, Ohio.

At 7:30 p.m. that evening, a special concert honoring Odd McIntyre is planned. In addition to a performance featuring tenor Philip Armstrong, The Ohio Valley Symphony will perform Meredith Willson’s O.O. McIntyre Suite.

After a search of almost 30 years, Lora Lynn Snow, founder and executive director of the Ariel Opera House, discovered the original orchestral parts of the suite. The performance on April 22 will feature a new arrangement by Tim Berens, the principle arranger for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Odd McIntyre, who was raised in Gallipolis, Ohio by his grandmother, overcame great personal and professional challenges to become the highest-paid and most-read columnist of the early 20th century. In his column, “New York Day by Day,” and in national magazines like Cosmopolitan and Life, McIntyre captured a city undergoing great transition and innovation in communication, politics, art and entertainment. His unconventional writing style, which frequently invoked his small-town roots, endeared him to readers across the country.

McIntyre, who died in 1938 at age 54, was close friends with many of the leading personalities of the day, including writers Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald; entertainers Fred Astaire, Florenz Ziegfeld Jr., Billie Burke and Will Rogers; composers George Gershwin and Meredith Willson; actors Rudolph Valentino and Charlie Chaplin, and many others.

“Odd McIntyre was incredibly proud of the town in which he grew up, and he often mentioned Gallipolis in his columns and articles,” said Williams, who is the chief operating officer of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. “I can think of no better place to celebrate his life, career, and love of Ohio than in the theater where he first worked and was first exposed to the arts.”

The first performance of the O. O. McIntyre Suite was by Paul Whiteman’s orchestra in 1934. Whiteman was the bandleader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. At Whiteman’s request, Willson composed an additional movement titled “Sunday Night in Gallipolis.”

Willson also composed the music and lyrics for the hit Broadway musicals “The Music Man” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” and the songs “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and “May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You.”

“While many of the people in our community here in Gallipolis are proud of our connection to Odd McIntyre, he has been forgotten in many other places,” said Snow. “I’m hoping this concert will be an opportunity for us to celebrate his connection to Gallipolis, Ohio while sharing his story with new generations.”

The 4:30 p.m. program with R. Scott Williams featuring a discussion of “An Odd Book: How the First Modern Pop Culture Reporter Conquered New York,” is free and open to the public. More information about the book and Odd McIntyre, including high-resolution images, is available at AnOddBook.com.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. concert and more information about the Ariel Opera House is available at ArielTheatre.org.

About R. Scott Williams
Scott Williams is chief operating officer and senior vice president of sales and marketing at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Williams earned his degree in journalism from the University of Memphis. He then held positions at several advertising agencies and organizations, including Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc. He serves on the board of the Washington D.C. chapter of the American Advertising Federation and on the board of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. Williams lives with his wife and daughters in Arlington, Va. Passionate about discovering and sharing forgotten stories from the past, in his spare time Williams explores the history of the American South, especially around his home in West Tennessee. His first book was “The Forgotten Adventures of Richard Halliburton: From Tennessee to Timbuktu.”

About the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre
The Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre was built in Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1895. Luminaries like Will Rogers, Sarah Bernhard and Daniel Emmett performed in the theater, and ensembles like the Chicago Opera and the Ziegfield Follies performed on the Ariel’s stage in the early decades of the 20th century. In 1988, after years of neglect and decay, a group of volunteers undertook its restoration. The grand opening of the newly restored theater took place in 1990. In 2005, Ann Carson Dater purchased the entire complex including the opera house, and presented it to the community as a permanent home for The Ohio Valley Symphony and for use as a performing arts center.

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