Samples

Three photos of Dick Goddard with dogs and cats.

Dick Goddard: Pet Parade

Thanks to the generosity of my television employers, I have been able to offer dogs and cats for adoption since May 1980. We’ve had every emetic experience possible. My favorite was the time that Robin Swoboda’s cat (she was holding it on the anchor desk) presented her with not just vomit, but a nice selection of tapeworms. Great for the evening dinner-hour viewers …

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Neil Zurcher covered Prince Charles's 1977 visit to Cleveland for WJW-TV

I Met the Future King of England in a Cleveland Bathroom

We reporters would be close to Prince Charles, but we were told not to speak to His Royal Highness unless he spoke to us first. And we should never, ever attempt to shake hands with him unless he first offered his hand. So when Charles walked in on me in the bathroom, it was a bit awkward!

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Cleveland Press newspaper headline reading "Press halts publication"

The End of the Cleveland Press

The Press was proud of the way it handled obituaries. When I went to work for it in 1963, it was proud of the way it did everything. Proud of the fact that it paid the estimable Maxwell Riddle to spend his full time as a practicing expert on dogs. Proud of its brand new building at the end of Ninth Street … proud that it had convicted Samuel Sheppard of the murder of his wife …

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A man wearing a police hat and uniform stands near the edge of the roadway where the Silver Bridge collapsed. He looks out onto the Ohio River, where a floating crane is working.

The Silver Bridge Collapse

It was a Christmastime nightmare. The 1,750-foot-long Silver Bridge soared 102 feet above the Ohio river. On Dec. 15, 1967, it was bumper-to-bumper traffic as cars and trucks hurried home from work or a day of Christmas shopping. Then, at about 5 p.m., the unthinkable happened …

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Murder, Center Stage: Misadventures of a Clandestine Critic, a novella by Bob Abelman

Murder, Center Stage – Excerpt

The rough draft first paragraph of Gwen’s review of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was typed out on her computer just before she left her near west side efficiency apartment for downtown Cleveland’s Hedley Theatre. Very little was legible because of the blood.

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