The Death of the Toronto Telegram

I recently picked up this book, published by Pocket Books in 1971. Growing up in Toronto, I recall the demise of the Telegram, one of Toronto's great newspapers, under the helm of John Bassett from 1952 until 1971 when it closed its doors.  Carroll was working there when it folded, and he does a masterful account of explaining the events that led up to this tragedy.

Jock Carroll (1919-1995), worked as a "two-way man" (writer and photographer).  He was an RCAF pilot during the second world war, then a war correspondent and a professional photographer.  In this book, his columns include interviews he did with Elvis Presley in 1956, Marilyn Monroe in 1952, Hugo Zacchini (The Human Cannonball) in 1950, as well as with Toronto personalities of the time, strippers, cartoonists, and his visit to Moscow in 1964.  His writing style is highly entertaining.

In 2006, his family donated his collection of 21,000 photographs to Library and Archives Canada.  These included a number of unposed photographs of Monroe during the filming of the movie Niagara, which can now be viewed at Immortal Marilyn.