It's a reference to the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was the first real media mogul. He owned many newspapers, wire services (how the news moved around), movie production, and a pile of popular magazines. I know a lot of intellectuals (of which Cerf was definitely considered) disliked Hearst. Sorta like a college professor today saying "She's a Trumper" which is accepted as derogatory by most college professors, so it's easy for them to assume everyone agrees with them on its derogatory value. Calling Dorothy a "Hearst girl" was definitely intended to be derogatory, and not so subtly suggest that could be reason enough to dislike her. I'm not taking sides either way, but I was a bit surprised at Cerf taking the low road. He apparently had enough legitimate negative things to say about Dorothy so calling her a "Hearst Girl" seems like it should have been beneath him. It would be similar for people my age talking about someone that we didn't really like and said "She voted for Jimmy Carter" as a reason to dislike them and fully expect the listener to agree. The movie Citizen Kane was a clear jab at William Randolph Hearst. It was meant to portray Hearst in a very poor light. Hearst disliked that and did a lot of things to try and stop the movie and/or otherwise harms its creators. Hearst died in 1951 when WML was still a brand new show and Cerf would have been 53 years old. I was surprised that he was still using that jab nearly 20 years later. There is a lot to know about William Randolph Hearst, and it's published all over the place, so don't base your opinion of him on the tiny bit of information here.

You didn't listen carefully. In this interview he said she was nice in person. His first impression from only her writing was what he didn't like.

How so?

Eric Stuart No Cerf doesn't fit the description of a clod. He may have been a bit stiff, some people may have found him obsequious or he may ha e been a bit square. But he was not stupid. If anything he was incredibly bright and intelligent. Hal was a pleb.

@@davidsanderson5918 yes , Block didnt quite fit in with Bennett Cerf , Arlene or Dorothy. It was a shame as Block was hard working , he wrote for Bob Hope , Abbott & Costello and many others. Block tried needed the WML job so he tried too hard to be funny and it didn't work

I agree! Unlike Dorothy, Bennett blabbed his mouth without checking for facts.

But I loved her. So I hated to hear this.

Although I like Bennett, I can not call anyone who maligned colleagues as “honorable.” Even today, people take Bennett’s personal opinions as facts.

By this time in his life, Mr. Cerf - and the other surviving panelists from the original WML run - were very bitter about the way Dorothy Kilgallen comported herself on the show's stage and behind the scenes. They were not fond of how Dorothy would try to monopolize as much screen time as she could at the expense of everyone else; they abhorred her endless schmoozing of celebrities; and they despised the way she would eavesdrop on conversations in the green room and take discussions assumed to be in confidence and later publish them in her column. You have to understand the social context of the time to realize how all of that behavior was frowned upon generally. It wasn't that she was a reporter - her peers universally admired her doggedness and skill in that area - it was that she exploited her relationships without regard to either courtesy or propriety. You mention "bad form" - Dorothy Kilgallen's "bad form" was what soured her relationships to her fellow panelists.

Tony, totally agree with you. We’ve been watching the show for a few years, and my husband and I both agreed, we were very annoyed with Dorothy and her monopolizing time with her automatic yes questions. I looked for some of her columns, and thought they were gabby, tacky, and too annoying. Also listened to threading show, I don’t know how she was able to hold on to these various jobs as long as she did. Then read the radio show was canceled when Dick did it drunk. Wonder how long she would have lasted had she lived?

Jeff di Giusto Wow calm down!!! He referred to one disgusting column she wrote, that's all. He also described her as "very nice" and how he hit it off with her very well. No big deal.

@@tonyjohns7310 The so-called comics monopolized the camera to a far greater degree than Dorothy ever did. Quite often, Dorothy was merely trying to help John use up the remaining time on the show after he warned her, “3 minutes left.” Bennett was no gentleman by publicly criticizing Dorothy after her death. Just because Bennett had an opinion, it wasn’t necessarily the truth.

Christy Widener What he means is that advertisements were so awash with deodorants, dental hygiene products, odour eaters, cleaning oroducts that an outside to the US could be excused for thinking 'wow these people must really stink.'

Dominique Pilon you too were named after a song? I am male, because of that my name is Eduardo. If I were a female I would have been Monica, because of a famous music in my native country, Eduardo & Monica.

How is that easier to wear than a tux.

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