The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-02-14
Ernie Pyle, Times Writer,
Globe Trotter, Even as
Student at Bloomington
Rowing Reporter Belonged
to Hoagy CarmichaelS'
'BohemianS.'


college DAYS has netted more IMAM
1925. 5000 miles of travel for Ernie
pyle. rowing feature writer Tor Inc
indianapolis Times and otner
Scripps- Howard newspapers.
AS aviation editor of these news
PAPERS. Ernie flew more than lOo,-
200 miles during the four-year
period. 1928-1932. In his daily col
umn on aviation. he wrote the
equivalent of more than 20 fuii
length books.
1t was Is years ago that Ernie
pulled out of Bloomington as an
Indiana University senior when ne
got an offer of job on the La
Porte 1nd.) Herald-Argus, pub
lished by Charles Earl, an I. U.
graduate. He had been on the stan
of the Indiana Daily Student.
Won Many Honors
Ernie won all sorts of honors on
the campus. He was one OF the
group of Bohemian students VINO
have since become well-known for
their writings. Hoagy Carmichael,
nationally acclaimed song-Wrlter,
was in the Book Nook crowd. Mel
son Poynter, former executive OF
the Washington Daily News, and
now editor of the Columbus (O)
Citizen, was a member of the old
gang. Amid the thick smoke and
unorthodox ways of Book Nook Bo-
hemians, Ernie talked, read and
dreamed of strange places and
strange faces.
Ernie was cosmopolitan. He
made" membership in Sigma Delta
Chi. professional journalism frater-
nifty; Cootie Club, military students
organization; the Booster Clu b,
campus promoters; the all-campus
memorial committee, which put
over the $1,500,000 campaign for
three war memorial buildings on the
campus; Travellers Club, Masonic
students organization; Sphinx Club,
purely social the economics hon
orary, substantial academic or
ganization; Aeons, right-hand men
Oh HTGSlQ6IlG w. IL. ID OH.
With all that, Ernie was football
manager in 1922. He had time to
do special publications; the hu-
morous "Smoke-Up" was one of his
accomplishments as student edi-
tor. The S. A. Els we're his fra
ternity brothers.
He Gets Badly Fooled
Lust for world travel showed itself
before Ernie ever left the campus.
In 1922 he decided to take the
iunket to Japan when ne learned
that the Indiana University baseball
team had been invited to the Orient
as guests of WaSeda University.
Ernie pulled out on the steamship,
keystone State, which carried the
team.
With Ernie working their way
across were Joe Benhanl, Harold
Kaiser and Warren Cooper. After
they set sail, then discovered they
could not hold their jobs on the
ship and get off in Japan, so the
young world travellers went on to
Hong Kong and Manila. That was
a 14,000-mile jaunJ, Ernie's first long
trip.
Back on the campus, Ernie was
offered a job on the La Porte
Herald-ArguS, where he got his first
real taste of practical newspaper
work Four months later mys-
ferrous telegram reached Ernie from
Indianapolis offering him a job with
ScrippS- Howard newspapers.
The telegram didn't say where,
when or how much. If interested,
he was to meet newspaper man in
Cleveland the next day and talk it
over. 1t sounded like. another adj
venture to Ernie so he quit his job
forthwith, packed his trunk and left
that night for Cleveland.
Trip to Puerto Rico
The man whom he was to meet
was Earl Martin, then editor of the
Washington Daily News, now editor
of the Cleveland Times, and former
indianapolis newspaper man. He
hired Pyle and took him to Wash
ingtop. He also took on Nelson
Poynter, Ernie's pal Ernie tells the
story:
Il was there three years that
first stretch. as reporter, desk man,
telegraph editor and makeup edi-
tor-broken into the first year by
trip to Puerto Rico (where I had
all my money stolen) and Panama,
on an Army transport. working as
seaman.
In the spring of 1926 I bought
new Ford, took all my money out
of the bank Gas did also the beau
tiful girl I had just married. started
out. We went around the rim
Texas, California, Montana, and
wound up six weeks later in New
York, broke. Had to sell the new
Ford for $3.50 to get money for the
next meal.
Luck Feels Good Again
MY childish luck was with me,
and I got job the second day of
looking on the lobster trick of the
Evening World-midnight till 8 a.
m. Six months later I went over to
the copy desk of the New York Eve
ming Post, which in those days had
the ablest desk in New York. Lived
in a basement and never had money
enough to go to a show, and hated
New York"
About a year later. Ernie came
home" to the Washington Daily
News as telegraph editor. He started
little aviation column on the side
and carried it on, with his tele-