The Press: Gorty Up

For 20 years Joseph Vincent Connolly plugged for Hearst, always hard, sometimes brilliantly. He signed up Bob ("Believe It Or Not") Ripley, saw that Popeye starred in Elzie Segar's comic strip Thimble Theatre, sent H. R. Knickerbocker to Vladivostok in 1931 because Knickerbocker, long before it broke, smelled an Incident in Manchuria.

Reward last year for Joe Connolly's loyalty was a $65,000 job as general man ager of Hearst Consolidated Publications, Inc. But there was a catch in the job: Hearst's empire was tottering. Hearst was getting on and Joe Connolly was expected to get the empire in order before the...