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Winchell in 1960. Born Walter Winchel (1897-04-07)April 7, 1897
New York City, U.S. Died February 20, 1972(1972-02-20) (aged 74)
Los Angeles, California, U.S. Spouse(s) Rita Greene (1919-1928;
divorced)  Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972)
was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.[1]
Professional career[edit]  Born Walter Winchel[2] in New York
City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing
in Gus Edwards's vaudeville troupe known as "Newsboys Sextet".
He made his radio debut over WABC in New York, a CBS affiliate,
on May 12, 1930. (John Dunning, Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio,
p. 708)  By the 1930s, Winchell was "an intimate friend of Owney
Madden, New York's No. 1 gang leader of the prohibition era",[5]
but "in 1932 Winchell's intimacy with criminals caused him to
fear he would be 'rubbed out' for 'knowing too much.'" He fled
to Califor