They're impossible to miss at grocery stores and newsstands in America: colorful, heavily illustrated tabloid newspapers with headlines promising shocking, unlikely, and sometimes impossible stories within. Although ubiquitous now, the supermarket tabloid's origin can be traced to one man: Generoso Pope Jr. (1921--1988), an eccentric, domineering chain-smoker who died of a heart attack at the age of sixty-one. In The Godfather of Tabloid, Jack Vitek explores the life and career of Pope and the founding of the mother of all tabloids, the National Enquirer. Upon graduating from MIT, Pope worked briefly for the CIA until he purchased the New York Enquirer with dubious financial help from mob boss Frank Costello. Working with American journalists and Brits from Fleet Street, Pope changed the name, format, and content of the modest newspaper until it resembled nothing America had seen before. Grounded in interviews with Pope and his detractors and associates, The Godfather of Tabloid is the first comprehensive look at the life of a man who created a newspaper genre and changed the world of publishing forever.

About the Author
Jack Vitek is associate professor of journalism and English at Edgewood College in Madison, Wisconsin. For many years, he was a professional journalist working for numerous publications, including the Washington Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsday. He is coauthor of Idol Rock Hudson.

Reviews
An entertaining look at this colorful and quintessentially American character. Vitek's will be the enduring study of Pope and the supermarket tabloid culture he spawned. - DENNIS McDOUGAL, author of The Last Mogul



Book Information
ISBN 9780813125039
Author Jack Vitek
Format Hardback
Page Count 296
Imprint The University Press of Kentucky
Publisher The University Press of Kentucky