Título: Ben Hecht
Seção: Journalist
Background: Ben Hecht  (February 28, 1894 - April 18, 1964) was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, journalist, and novelist. A journalist in his youth, he went on to write thirty-five books and some of the most entertaining screenplays and plays in America. He received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some seventy films. At the age of 16, Hecht ran away to Chicago, where, in his own words, he "haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, madhouses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls, and bookshops".

Conteúdo: From 1918 to 1919, Hecht served as war correspondent in Berlin for the Chicago Daily News. According to Barbara and Scott Siegel, "Besides being a war reporter, he was noted for being a tough crime reporter while also becoming known in Chicago literary circles."  In 1921, Hecht inaugurated a Daily News column called, One Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago. While it lasted, the column was enormously influential. His editor, Henry Justin Smith, later said it represented a new concept in journalism:  the idea that just under the edge of the news as commonly understood, the news often flatly unimaginatively told, lay life; that in this urban life there dwelt the stuff of literature, not hidden in remote places, either, but walking the downtown streets, peering from the windows of sky scrapers, sunning itself in parks and boulevards. He was going to be its interpreter. His was to be the lens throwing city life into new colors, his the microscope revealing its contortions in life and death.  While at the Chicago Daily News, Hecht famously broke the 1921 "Ragged Stranger Murder Case" story, about the murder of Carl Wanderer's wife, which led to the trial and execution of war hero Carl Wanderer. In Chicago, he also met and befriended Maxwell Bodenheim, an American poet and novelist, later known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians, and with whom he became a life-long friend.  After concluding One Thousand and One Afternoons, Hecht went on to produce novels, plays, screenpla

user: How did Hecht do as a journalist?

assistant: From 1918 to 1919, Hecht served as war correspondent in Berlin for the Chicago Daily News.

user: Was he a good correspondent?

assistant: "Besides being a war reporter, he was noted for being a tough crime reporter while also becoming known in Chicago literary circles."

user: What else did he do as a journalist?

assistant: In 1921, Hecht inaugurated a Daily News column called, One Thousand and One Afternoons in Chicago.

user: Was his column successful?

assistant: His editor, Henry Justin Smith, later said it represented a new concept in journalism:

user: Did he ever receive any awards for any of his columns?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?

assistant: While at the Chicago Daily News, Hecht famously broke the 1921 "Ragged Stranger Murder Case" story, about the murder of Carl Wanderer's wife,

user: Did he do anything else in Chicago?

assistant: In Chicago, he also met and befriended Maxwell Bodenheim, an American poet and novelist, later known as the King of Greenwich Village Bohemians,