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WNYC's 'Reporter' at Bellevue Hospital
"Jack Lewis, once of the old Evening World, hadn't had a job for more than a year. To make matters worse, he suffered from a painful affliction that interfered with getting work. He appealed to the Department of Hospitals and was assigned to a ward in Bellevue Hospital, where he was operated on and cured.
"Lewis got a slant on Bellevue during that stay there that opened his eyes to the treatment accorded the poor in New York City. He saw human interest stories that just cried out for publication. And he himself was so grateful to the hospital authorities that he felt that he must try to repay them in some way for the treatment given him...
"He appealed to Christie Bohnsack, who directs the program of the city radio station WNYC, and outlined to him what he wanted to tell on the air. Bohnsack agreed that it might be good, with the result that Lewis told his first series of stories three weeks ago under the program caption, Unwritten Stories of Bellevue Hospital.
"Every week he visits the hospital and gathers the material for his broadcasts. Last week he drew intimate and sympathetic pictures of the little children in the orthopedic ward. This week he will tell about the education of crippled children in the hospitals in the city under the cooperation of the Department of Education and Department of Hospitals."
Excerpts from: Kitchen, Karl K., "The Talk of New York," The Oakland Tribune, June 16, 1932, pg. 25.
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