A treasure trove of stories and interviews from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s — small town to Washington DC to Hollywood — My work as a Washington journalist began in 1970 when my husband, Murray Flander, and I moved to D.C. from Coalinga, CA. We had been putting out our newspaper, The Coalinga Record, a prize- winning weekly, for the past eight years. Murray had accepted the position of press secretary to…

Either he is a ‘short, dumpy, rumpled man,’ or he is a ‘tall, lean and pantherlike.’ — The Washington Star, August 28, 1977: Frank Mankiewicz, then press secretary to Robert Kennedy, and Dick Drayne, Mankiewicz’s counterpart for Edward Kennedy, used to get together to pool their humor and spice speeches for their respective bosses. In 1966, shortly after Bobby Kennedy survived charges of being a carpetbagger and…

The Washington Star, August 2 1978: NEW YORK — When Derek Jacobi, visiting briefly from London, arrived at WABC-TV recently for a guest shot on Stanley Siegal’s talk show, he was greeted with a tacky sight. A half-dozen psuedo-Roman couches were strewn around the studio, and strewn on each was…

“These long floating chiffons make any woman — small, tall, fat or skinny — pretty. But at $600 I could buy a color TV.” — The Washington Star, November 17, 1974 Every year about this time, the siren call of fashion lures me, a willing victim, to the shores of financial destruction. But this year, those insistent entreaties seem to be going over my head. I’m barely 5 feet tall, after all. …

His beguiling book, “More Than What You See,” illustrates with a profusion of his poetry, art, and photographs. — By Judy Flander, January 5 2021, Philadelphia, PA. John Creveling is sitting in his “Man Cave,” which is what his wife calls the third floor of their house, which is his sanctuary. The space has his gym and his many collections — books, coins, cameras, paints, guitars, a harmonica and…

The Record, October 24, 1963 — I have been addicted to newspaper and magazine advertising for years now: in fact, it is among my favorite reading matter. I figure there are roughly three levels or kinds of advertising (there are many finer distinctions to be made but not this week): 1. The black, blaring kinds of…

The Record, February 28, 1963 — Out in the backyard things are quieter these days. The sound of Civil War artillery has ceased. Armed attacks against the Nazis are no more, Instead, there are the more ordered sounds of serious young men at work on manual of arms’ exercise. …

California before Coalinga — Before the Flanders moved to Coalinga and Judy and Murray became the editors and publishers of the The Record, the family moved to the Mohave Desert town of Apple Valley and Murray (this was before Murff) became the Editor of the the Victor Press, the semi-weekly newspaper in nearby Victorville. Judy worked there part-time as the ‘society page’ editor and contributed the earliest versions of Personally Yours. Not many clippings remain from those days, but here are a few to get the flavor of life in California.

The Victor Press, 1959 — Last week we had, what I mean, a TIGHT newspaper … 800 inches of editorial matter. Compare this with the 1,500 inches we had the week before and a comfortable (for me) average of about 1,100 and it will help explain why the roof fell in last Thursday! My dear…