Ripped From the Wire

“History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” – Maya Angelou

By DAVE BERRY

I’ll admit it. I collect stuff. I keep things for their historical significance. Some would say that’s a stretch, but today, digging through old files, I discovered a folder of treasures that live up to my “slice of history” reasoning.

The assortment of photos and clippings included a stack of yellow and brown scraps of paper – Flashes and Bulletins ripped from the wire machines of the Associated Press and United Press International.

FLASH

WASHINGTON – NIXON RESIGNS (UPI 08-08 09:05 PED)

I enjoyed the walk down memory lane. After all, the clattering wire service teletypes were the background music to the first dozen years of my career. I’ve ripped wire, pasted new leads atop fifth write-throughs, replaced ribbons and dug wads of paper from jammed machines with a long-bladed screwdriver.

I love the sound of those clattering boxes that typed out today’s news at a blistering 60 words a minute, producing lots of noise and endless streams of paper. The wire editor’s job was to sort through the stacks, rip stories apart with a metal ruler and sort them for editors.

It was the bells, however, that brought you to your feet. Wire services used a system of alarm bells to alert editors of momentous news. Three bells was an advisory, meaning something important was coming soon. Four bells meant “Urgent” and could signal a new lead or correction to a working story.

Five bells alerted us to a “Bulletin,” a signal that something significant was happening.

The ultimate alarm was the FLASH, reserved for – in AP’s words – news “of transcendent importance.” Signaled with 12 bells by AP and 10 bells by UPI, a Flash meant banner headlines, tear up your plans for the front page and prepare for a busy day.

Wire services were stingy with flashes. But when they came, the world stopped. Everyone raced to the wire room, huddling around the teletype as it tapped out its secret.

Takka dakka tak. Takka dakka tak.

FLASH

WASHINTON – CARTER WINS PRESIDENCY. (UPI 11-03 02:03acs)

Tak tak tak. Takka takka takka.

FLASH

TOKYO — MAO DEAD, PEKING RADIO REPORTS. (UPI 09-09 04:12 AED)

Bulletins were big, but much more common. If you heard those five dings, news junkies would still rush to the wire room.

BULLETIN

TEHRAN, Iran AP – A plane carrying the 52 American hostages took off today from Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport, a policeman at the airport told reporters.  ap-dn-0120 1025cst

Takka dakka tak. Takka dakka, tak.

BULLETIN

NASHVILLE, Tenn. AP – James Earl Ray, serving 99 years for murdering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was among six prisoners who escaped Friday from Brushy Mountain State Prison in East Tenessee, officials said. 2059ped 06-10

Takka dakka tak. Tak tak tak tak.

We scrambled to bulletins on the capture of Patty Hearst, the assassination of President Anwar Sadat, the fall of Phnom Penh and a hundred other stories.

When I came upon this bulletin, it took me back – four decades to a round copy desk in the newsroom of the now-defunct Tulsa Tribune.

BULLETIN – Viet 4-29

saigon (upi ) — The UITED STATES PULLED OUT OF SOUTH VIETNAM TODAY AND SAIGON GOVERNMENT SOURCES SAID THE ADDMINISTRATION AND THE VIET CONG HAD REACHED AGREEMENT IN PRICIPLE ON A CEASE-FIRE.

Takka dakka tak. Takka dakka tak.

The copy that day was endless. Flashes, Bulletins, Urgent New Leads, fourth and fifth adds, full write-throughs. More new leads.

It was late in the day, April 29, 1975. Saigon would fall the next morning, and America’s long involvement in Southeast Asia would come to an end. That was 40 years ago and it was my story.

On a large desk, patterns develop and certain stories might regularly be shoveled to the same editor to allow for consistency in coverage. Ralph had taken the lead on Watergate, all the way through to President Nixon’s resignation the year before. Rosemary followed the saga of Patty Hearst’s kidnapping through to its fiery end in a shootout with the Symbionese Liberation Army.

I had returned from Vietnam three years before and done much of the work on stories out of Vietnam and Cambodia. I had edited hundreds of stories and written as many headlines about South Vietnam’s struggles during those final days.

This was different.

I typed a headline and attached it to a carefully edited story pieced together from a dozen new leads and multiple rewrites from both wire services. I delivered the main story – a long strip of pasted-up, marked-up copy – to the slot man, then followed that with a half-dozen sidebars. My work now in the hands of the linotype operators downstairs, I got up without saying much and went for a cup of coffee.

 I remember feeling terribly sad and empty.

That was 40 years ago next week (Fifty years now. I wrote this on April 22, 2015).

Time dulls the pain, and I made my peace with Vietnam long ago. Museums are now the resting places for AP wire machines and many of the remaining Huey helicopters from my war. But I still have my “boonie hat,” Pentax camera and boxes of negatives.

I also treasure those flashes and bulletins, my glue pot, the steel ruler used to rip those stories from the wire… and more than enough memories.

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Dave Berry is the retired editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph. This Focal Point column was published on April 23, 2015. The flashes, bulletins and urgent leads in the photos above are from his collection. The photo of the AP Teletype was taken from Wikipedia.