Earl Wilson

Earl Wilson was born on May 3, 1907 in Rockford, Ohio, USA as Harvey Earl Wilson.

In 1935, Mr. Wilson made it to New York with the help of Ruth McKenney, who had been a colleague of his on The Ohio State Lantern, and went on to work for The New York Post and later gained fame as the author of ''My Sister Eileen.''.

Their only child, Earl Wilson, Jr., a Grammy-nominated composer/lyricist and author, was born on December 1, 1942.

Wilson appeared in a few films as himself, notably Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda, A Face in the Crowd (1957) with Andy Griffith, College Confidential (1960), and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) with Buster Keaton, Paul Lynde and Don Rickles. Wilson also hosted the DuMont TV show Stage Entrance from May 1951 to March 1952.

He was an actor and writer, known for Cavalcade of Broadway: Leon and Eddie's (1950), Cavalcade of Broadway: Village Barn (1950) and Copacabana (1947). He was married to Rosemary Lyons.

Wilson also worked with Kupcinet and their fellow New York City gossip columnist counterpart Hy Gardner for a short 13-week stint in television hosting the late-night talk show that replaced Steve Allen's popular "Tonight!" show on NBC in 1956. It was called "America After Dark," and it featured newspaper columnists from around the country making their nightly rounds to nightclubs and Broadway show openings for live segments. When this "fluid" format failed to work, it was Wilson who suggested Jack Paar step in to host what became today's still ratings success story "The Tonight Show.".

In the late 1960's his column was carried by 175 newspapers across the country. Accompanied by 'B.W.'.

His chronicling of the Broadway theatre scene during the "Golden Age" of show business formed the basis for a book published in 1971, The Show Business Nobody Knows. He signed his columns with the tag line, "That's Earl, brother." His nickname was "Midnight Earl". In later years, the name of his column was changed to Last Night With Earl Wilson. In his final years with the Post, he alternated with the paper's entertainment writer and restaurant critic, Martin Burden, in turning out the column. (Burden, who died in 1993, took over the Last Night column full-time upon Wilson's retirement.).

The veteran newspaperman and self-described "country boy from Ohio" objected to the tendency to label the fare he served as gossip. Describing gossip as rumor, he told an interviewer in 1976 that his column was "not gossip; it's factual.".

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 906-907. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

Wilson died in a hospital in Yonkers, New York, in January 1987, after suffering from Parkinson's Disease for several years. He had been admitted to the medical center on Dec. 14 with pneumonia and subsequently suffered a stroke. The former columnist died at 4:30 P.M.,.