Maurice Smyth, former Belfast Telegraph reporter, later UTV presenter, then New Zealand TV executive, took an interesting trot down memory lane in the Co Down Spectator recently (Maurice came originally from Groomsport)
Maurice actually did start as a copyBOY. These were hot metal days. Maurice remembers the composing room: "The supervisor, Bertie McIlvenny, monited his fiefdom from a high chair. Immaculate, shoes burnished, trousers pressed, he could well have stepped out of a Tatler centrefold."
Malcom Brodie made an impact: "You never wanted to be in his path. Walking was never an option. He foxtrotted everywhere, always reading something, knowing my instinct where he was going"
And he remembers: "There was a new edition every hour from 3 to 7pm. The first was called The Third." [Changed times!]
Although junior, copyboys were included in Christmas dinners when the amount of the annual bonus was announced: "It was always a full house. Senior colleagues showed theIr fortified gratitude for this by buying drinks. The fact that you were 16 was neither here or there. It was good cheer time. I caught the last bus home and if the lights were on I walked round the block until they were out. I wasn't incapable, but there was drink on the breath..."
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