Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” by Kim Todd
What's It About?
A vivid social history that brings to light the “girl stunt reporters” of the Gilded Age who went undercover to expose corruption and abuse in America, and redefined what it meant to be a woman and a journalist — pioneers whose influence continues to be felt today.Kim Todd is a multiple award-winning author and college instructor who has written a meticulously researched work of nonfiction, Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” (Harper Perennial). This compelling history of little-known late 19th-century journalists achieves the perfect balance between entertainment and education.
Writing under pseudonyms, these courageous, intrepid, young and unmarried women risked their lives and reputations for the stories that would open doors and pave the way for future generations of female print and broadcast news correspondents. A few of these women became salaried employees of major newspapers, but most were independent contractors who struggled to make a living in anonymity. Their clandestine work helped to establish modern investigative journalism and legitimize the profession itself for reporters of both sexes.
These trailblazing whistleblowers wrote about corruption and abuses in the health care system, mental health practices and the workplace. Some of their exposés stimulated legislation resulting in developments in improved worker safety and labor conditions long before Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle. In short, they donned disguises and fearlessly strode into dangerous, unsavory areas to get the story.
Well-Researched and Revealing History
Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters”, originally published in hardback in 2021, is now available in a paperback edition. It is factual yet captivating and exciting as a historical novel and could well serve as a textbook in journalism studies. If asked to name a prominent woman reporter of this era, one might come up with the name of Nellie Bly or possibly Ida Wells. The latter is remembered now primarily for her works about the shockingly widespread practice of lynchings which weren’t confined to the southern states. What do we really know about the unsung heroines of stunt journalism?
It was the heyday for newspapers with morning and evening editions; daily, semi-weekly and weekly copies printed in English and the languages of several immigrant communities. Many women who were employed as staff reporters for major city newspapers yearned to write significant copy with stories that could enhance people’s lives and influence legislation to clean up the slums, improve education and healthcare. These issues continue to resonate equally as strongly today.
Frustrated by their relegation to the social pages chronicling engagements, weddings, birth announcements, garden parties, balls and charitable events, they chafed at the prevailing societal constraints. These reporters were tired of writing “fluff” and longed for the substantive assignments reserved solely for newspapermen. Journalism schools did not exist in this era.
The University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, opened in 1908, was the first such school in the United States and only the second worldwide. Columbia University’s renowned School of Journalism opened in 1912 with 79 students as the recipient of an endowment from the will of Joseph Pulitzer which also established the Pulitzer Prizes, presented annually since 1917.
Beginning in the late 1880s, New York City readers were captivated by a circulation war between the two largest newspapers. The Hungarian-born Joseph Pulitzer already owned the successful St. Louis Post-Dispatch but set his sights on an even larger prize by purchasing The New York World. The paper focused on crime, exposing corruption and sensationalism in general as allurements to the common man, also designed to include the less-than-literate and rapidly expanding immigrant population. He introduced illustrations, comics, sports and women’s fashion, and is widely regarded as one of the founders of modern journalism.
Competition arrived in the form of William Randolph Hearst. He had used family money to purchase a San Francisco paper before moving to NYC, acquiring The New York Journal and upping the ante for stunt reporting. The seeds of yellow journalism and muckraking had been planted.
Female Journalists Risk Danger to Write Hard-Hitting Stories
These newspapers provided employment opportunities for women like Elizabeth Cochrane writing under the name of Nellie Bly for Pulitzer. Her early work for the Pittsburgh Dispatch focused on topics such as divorce reform and investigative reports on factory conditions. As a self-styled Foreign Correspondent, she spent six months living in Mexico reporting on the daily lives of ordinary people until offending Dictator Porfirio Diaz and beating a hasty retreat.
Upon her return, she moved to NYC and agreed to take an undercover assignment for The New York World posing as a patient at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island to investigate allegations of neglect and abuse. Her 1887 two-part series Ten Days in a Mad House proved so sensational that it was expanded into a book which served to heighten the demand for girl stunt reporters.
Nellie is mostly remembered for her 1889 whirlwind circumnavigation of the world attempting to emulate the fictional Around the World in 80 Days. Traveling solo, she made the journey in 72 days, even squeezing in a meeting with Jules Verne in Amiens, France. However, there was little time for visits or sightseeing in order to meet transport timetables and to send regular dispatches to the World.
At the same time, William Randolph Hearst created a news-grabbing contest by sponsoring Annie Laurie (real name, Winifred Sweet) who launched her around-the-world journey from the opposite coast. Annie was a worthy competitor but ultimately lost the race by repeatedly missing transport connections. Nellie Bly quit the newspaper business shortly after her return to NYC to pursue other adventures; marrying, becoming a businesswoman and writing 11 now-forgotten novels. Nellie Bly supplied the epigraph for Sensational: “I write the truth because I love it and because there is no living creature whose anger I fear or whose praise I court.”
Fascinating and Bold History of Girl Stunt Reporters
Kate Swan McGuirk, born in Massachusetts, and later known as a political reporter in Washington, DC, is still remembered as being the only reporter invited to interview the notorious Lizzie Borden herself while awaiting trial for the brutal murders of her father and stepmother. Kate had been acquainted with the alleged ax murderess, having briefly worked with her at The Fall River Fruit and Flower Mission.
One wonders if Kate had her doubts about the eventual “not guilty” verdict, but the jury could not believe a woman was mentally or physically capable of committing such a heinous crime. They overlooked the fact Lizzie Borden was not frail and had worked as an unpaid handyman for her miserly family. She had motive, opportunity and suspiciously destroyed key evidence including the clothing she wore the day of the murders. Additionally, and similar to a notorious late 20th-century celebrity case, no other suspect was ever charged or even identified.
Sensational: The Hidden History of America’s “Girl Stunt Reporters” was a labor of love for author Kim Todd requiring extraordinary efforts. She has written a well-annotated, important work about a bold, ambitious and talented cast of characters who contributed to the establishment of modern journalistic practices and contributed significantly to establishing it as a respectable profession for women. The final chapter has a tidy summary of the primary investigative reporters featured in the book followed by an extensive bibliography and notes. It is a truly fascinating and inspiring tribute to these early pioneers of journalism.
About Kim Todd:
Kim Todd loves disappearing into large book projects, but she also writes essays and articles on topics ranging from the nature of curiosity, to the developing science of reintroduction biology, to the evolving songs of urban sparrows, to lessons from the longest running predator-prey study in the world. The on-the-ground implications of the stories we tell about animals are a long-term interest. Her work has appeared in Orion, Sierra Magazine, Smithsonian, High Country News, and Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies, among other places. She has given talks at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the New England Aquarium, the Getty Museum, and many other venues.
Raised in California, educated in Montana, after moving from coast to coast and landing many places in between, she now lives with her family in Minneapolis. Here in the Twin Cities she is a nonfiction faculty member at the MFA program at the University of Minnesota where she gets to help some of the most exciting new writers in the country hone their craft; she is also a Fellow with the Institute on the Environment. When not writing or teaching, she spends time hiking or kayaking whatever trails and rivers she can find.
