Florabel Muir

Florabel Muir (May 6, 1889 in Rock Springs, Wyoming - April 27, 1970 in Los Angeles, California) was an American reporter and newspaper columnist from the 1920s through the 1950s. She was famous for covering both Hollywood celebrities and underworld gangsters.

Muir prepared herself for a career in teaching by attending the University of Washington in Seattle where she worked as the assistant editor of a student paper. She began her professional newspaper career at the Salt Lake "Herald" after convincing the city editor to break with tradition and hire their first woman reporter. Eventually, she moved over to the Salt Lake "Tribune" where she was, again, their first female reporter. After brief stints at numerous other papers all across the country, she went to work for the New York Daily News as a police reporter in 1927.

In 1934, she attempted to quit her newspaper career and become a fiction writer. She quickly grew bored and was lured back by an offer from the New York Post. The "Post" job didn't appeal to her either, so she and her husband left for Hollywood after receiving an offer to write screenplays at Fox. She is credited with one screenplay, "Fighting Youth" (1935), produced by Universal.

She was lured back to the "Daily News" as their Los Angeles correspondent when her former editor was having trouble covering a story in Hollywood. While still writing for the "Daily News", she also contributed stories to the "Saturday Evening Post", the Los Angeles "Mirror", and began writing a column for "Daily Variety". She also hosted programs on radio and television (KFI).

Muir was injured during a shooting attempt on the life on mobster Mickey Cohen at Sherry's restaurant on the Sunset Strip the night of July 19, 1949. Cohen was struck in the shoulder. Three others besides Muir were also wounded, including Cohen henchman Edward "Neddie" Herbert, who later died from his wounds, Harry Cooper, a bodyguard assigned by California State Attorney General Frederick N. Howser to protect Cohen, and Dee David, a young Hollywood movie starlet who was Cohen's dinner guest earlier that evening [Long Beach Independent, July 21, 1949, pp. 1, 32.] . Muir was struck in the backside when a slug ricocheted and left a large bruise. Her first instinct was to call the "Mirror" and get a photographer to the scene while her husband screamed for her to get down.

She was also a confidant of Cohen and enlisted her husband to improve Cohen's reading and vocabulary skills.

Muir was married to Denis A. (Denny) Morrison (Nov. 1, 1890 - Sep. 24, 1966) until his death. Morrison wrote for the "Saturday Evening Post". They are buried together at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

References

*Muir, Florabel. "Headline Happy". New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1950.
*"Los Angeles Times". April 28, 1970. Pg. A4.

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0611349/ Florabel Muir] at the IMDB
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12274950 Florabel Muir] at FindaGrave.com