The Press: Goodby, Broadway

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Dream of many a big-city newspaperman is a small-town newspaper all his own. For 99%, it remains a dream. One of the one-percenters is Theodore Friend, 45. Last week he gave up his job on the New York Mirror to go west to publish the Lassen Advocate—a pint-sized (cir. 2,100), 78-year-old weekly in Susanville, Calif, (pop. 6,000).

Some Broadwayites were shocked: chunky Ted Friend had been amusement editor of the Mirror for eleven years—a job for which many a small-town newspaperman would give a brace of linotypes. He had reported the Broadway scene, nightclubs, theaters, restaurants, froufrou. Who could ask for more?

The wise guys did not know that Ted Friend did not like New York: it was not lonesome enough. He says: "People should be lonely once in a while; it's good for you." He tried to escape to a farm in New Jersey. Even that didn't arrest his thinning hair, and it meant 80 miles of commuting daily. He bought the Lassen Advocate for some $25,000 and stopped commuting.

Susanville is no Hollywood suburb; it lies in the shadow of the High Sierras, 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nev. It is tough, rich lumber and ranch country, and Ted Friend expects to buy a ranch when he gets there. His wife and their daughter, Suzy, hope he can make it go. They have questioned the functional utility of the first item of house-furnishings on Publisher Friend's list: twelve hammocks. He doesn't. He wants them all over the place. Sighs city-weary, country-struck Ted Friend: "I love hammocks!"