Written for The New York Post in 1983, by editor Vincent Musetto, who has died at the age of 74, and has a nice, long obituary in the NYT.
(The corresponding headline in The New York Times that day proclaimed, genteelly, “Owner of a Bar Shot to Death; Suspect Is Held.” Headlessness was not mentioned until the third paragraph; toplessness not at all.)
Mr. Musetto’s headline, exquisitely emblematic of The Post under Rupert Murdoch, quickly insinuated itself into popular culture.... But... it was not Mr. Musetto’s favorite among the many headlines he wrote for the paper. That honor, he often said, went to one composed the next year: “GRANNY EXECUTED IN HER PINK PAJAMAS.”
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My favorite is a fairly recent AP headline "No charges in Snow Kone Joe - Mr. Ding-a-Ling ice cream fight"
Greatest headline EVER, anywhere, seen on front cover of the National Enquirer, circa Aug/Sept, 1967: "She cut out his heart and stomped on it!" LOL!
Always had a fondness for the New York Daily News headline, "Ford to City: Drop Dead."
The Granny was Velma Barfield, and she was quite some cookie. She confessed to having murdered six people, and was the first woman executed by lethal injection. She really was executed wearing pink pajamas.
"Man Accused In Decapitation Called `Nice` By Victim`s Mom"
The cops were called about a disturbance. The first officer was hit in a chest by what he thought was a basketball thrown by the suspect. Wrong.
When we found the girlfriend's body (sans tête), she was wearing a t-shirt that said "Sticks and Stones will Break My Bones, But Whipe and Chains Excite Me"
All true.
The secret to any relationship: make sure you get along with your SO's mother.
Onassis looking to buy Buster Keaton's estate, caption: Aristotle contemplating the home of Buster.
Someday it'll be somebody's job to say something nice about the inventor of clickbait.
Weiner: "I'll Stick it Out."
http://www.villagevoice.com/news/did-you-know-the-new-york-posts-anthony-weiner-headlines-include-wordplay-6685773
Hix Nix Stix Pix
Variety, July 17, 1935
Hix Nix Stix Pix
Actually: "Sticks Nix Hick Pix." Although the popular misquote is, "Stix Nix Hix Pix."
http://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/stltoday.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/5/ee/5ee9fc36-0eed-11e1-92a5-0019bb30f31a/4ec15c022050e.preview-620.png
Or the one word headline when bright lights showed the upper part of John Kerry's daughter's dress to be translucent at a certain film festival in France. "Cannes"
Mental institution patient escaped, and started a raping rampage.
Headline: NUT, BOLTS, AND SCREWS!
A local columnist for the Albany Times Union in the 70's said that the greatest headline ever was ...
Sex Slayer Bares Love Diary
This was on the grounds that every word had what he called "Punch"
I thought he came up with the headline about the midget spiritualist on the lamb:"Small Medium At Large" - but I don't see it mentioned.
My favorite headline was from a British tabloid: QUEEN'S KNICKERS IN TWIST OVER FERGIE TOE-SUCK. I think that was it.
I would second the motion that the greatest headline of all time is "FORD TO CITY: DROP DEAD" in the New York Daily News. It changed the outcome of a presidential election.
I thought he came up with the headline about the midget spiritualist on the lamb:"Small Medium At Large" - but I don't see it mentioned.
Soooo close....it's lam
No, I think it was the NY Post which greets the news of Yasser Arafat's death with a picture of his crying widow behind the headline: "The Arafat Lady Sings".
(Suha Arafat, the paper says, has cut a deal with the Palestinian authorities that gives her $22m a year in exchange for "divulging the secrets of her husband's fortune." The Jerusalem Post also seizes on similar reports about Mrs Arafat as evidence of deeper corruption within the Palestinian authority.)
There's the great Onion headline about the sinking of the Titanic, "World's Largest Metaphor Hits Ice-berg".
The Post headline "Ford to City: Drop Dead" became so much a part of modern culture that it was satirized (or alluded to) in the movie "Superman IV." The Daily Planet has been turned into a tabloid:
http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/drop%20dead.jpg
My favorite headline won't be printed for several more centuries.
Fox Exex Bax Sex Pix, Flix Lax Crux Bux, Stox Sinx, Ax Prex"
I once executed a grandmother in my pajamas. How she came to be wearing my pajamas I'll never know.
My favorite headline of all time came from the Badger Herald of all places: Turnout Low For Apathy Forum.
Gahrie -
Now I'm sheepish.
Darkness...has descended upon Althouse Blog-
Read through the past entries...
Meade- take her camping, a road trip, buy her flowers, sing her a song...or run for your life!
Imus had one of the best NY Post headlines of all time...
'Marv Albert Found Tied To Dead Dominatrix'... not verbatim but something close to that.
Turns out Marv's phone number was in the dead dominatrix little black book. It was nothing like what the career ending headline insinuated.
Imus found it amusing enough to re-tell the tale every once in a while.
The Granny executed in her pink pajamas was Velma Barfield who murdered at least four people by arsenic poisoning, and possibly two others. She was the first woman to be executed by lethal injection on 2 November 1984. Her last meal was Cheez Doodles and Coke.
Writing headlines for a physical newspaper way back to just even then, in 1983, was no easy task. I think that those who celebrate that headline yet don't instantly get what I just said truly don't--maybe can't--understand what an achievement Musetto's hed was.
R.I.P., Vincent Musetto.
I'm going to give you all a hint here:
Look, see, think.
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