Near the centre of the front row in this circa 1957 photograph of distinguished newspapermen is the white haired editor of The Sun , Sydney, Lindsay Clinch (1907-1984), nicknamed “Little Caesar”and “ The Little White God.” In the highly competitive tabloid world of those days, he was a prominent , influential figure who walked with a slight swagger and boasted that he could jump from his bed straight into his shoes, an unusual skill for a newspaperman . A keen yachtsman and boat builder , he had been born in New York and was brought to Australia by his parents and educated at North Sydney Boy’s High , starting his newspaper career as a copyboy on the Sun , working his way up to become chief sub editor and news editor of The Telegraph.
Based in New York during WW11, he was having coffee with some correspondents in the New York Times office, he the only one facing out a window, when he noticed smoke coming from the Empire State Building ; without alerting the others, he excused himself and discovered that a military plane had crashed into the building killing 13 , scooping the other reporters. At the Sun he did not tolerate management interference in editorial matters and ran dramatic headings on stories and racy posters .
On Clinch’s left is Sun chief of staff, Jack Toohey , and behind them is Jack Tier, later made editor of the paper. Sitting far right is the famous Sun Police Roundsman , Noel Bailey , who also figured in a radio series , Police Files. After all the drama in his life, Bailey fell out of bed, cut himself on a glass and bled to death. In front of the fan at the back is Lou D’Alpuget , father of Blanche , who in his younger days boxed under the name of Pancho D’Alpuget and was nicknamed The Sea Going Ox because of his build and the fact that he also was a keen yachtsman ; he wrote a book on Australian yachting .
The poet , war correspondent , leader writer , reviewer and president of the Australian Journalist’s Club , Kenneth Slessor , is also present. Always giving the impression of an albino , he stands out as that pale-faced person . Standing out in back row is tall Ian”Storky” Arnold , perhaps given that nickname because of his height and angularity of limb , like a stork, keen on baseball , sports editor and eventual editor of the paper, who left that post after Derryn Hinch was brought in to change the style of the paper. Hinch resigned soon after .
Further along from Arnold, on his left, is a person holding up a glass of beer- ideas man Reg Halliday ,who worked in the chief of staff’s office, tasked with perusing many publications , PR hand outs and invites for possible stories . He often told a reporter to attend a function, saying the speaker might not have much of interest to say , but there could be good catering . Once he told this writer to cover a talk by Kiwi promoter Harry M. Miller to an audience of aspiring businessmen at the Wentworth Hotel. It was a stirring speech, and Miller asked all those who wanted to be successful in business to stand up. All rose- except me . There were expressions of nervous disbelief on the faces of the cultish throng as they stared at me. Harry scratched his armpit or some other part of his anatomy , and asked me why I did not want to be to successful in business . I told him I was from the Press covering the pep talk ... really , Harry, I just wanted to succeed at gluttony because the Wentworth was noted for its choice tucker. Next to Reg’s left on the back line is longtime Canberra correspondent Neil O’Reilly and the last person there is smooth operator David Pynt .
On the far left of the photo at the front row is George Godfrey, president of the NSW Journalists’ Association, involved in many battles, one involving the right of journalists to be members of a political party, stand for election and continue in the employ of a paper . He also negotiated with News Limited following the strike at the NT News in Darwin over the removal of editor James Frederick Bowditch.
There are other familiar faces , but their names escape this viewer. The Sun folded on March 14, 1988 as a result of the scheme to buy back the Fairfax family company with junk bonds and got caught up in the Wall Street crash of 1987 . There is now an online publication called Sydney Sun which says the title existed in 1910. (Photograph by former Sun reporter,Warner G. Russell.)
