Those who shared the vague notion of Nellie with me, might have used the word spunky in her regard. A woman in the late 19th century who was spunky it seems was in very rare company. She was perhaps the first to use detective or ‘stunt’ journalism leading to the once big idea in the media of investigative reporting. That whole thing is very attractive to me.

Only in her twenties and unable in her first thing published (after some kind proofing) a letter to the editor, to use punctuation she fearlessly helped open doors for woman journalists. Her stunts, I define as assignments she gave herself, investigated and wrote up before the editor fully signed on, were irresistible reading to our American and then international news consumers.

The big attention getting feats were her faking insanity in order to get committed to a mental asylum where once in doctors reported she was insane and not subject to release, requiring a lawyer hired by her paper to get her out where she spilled the beans on horrid conditions inside which was shocking.

She left by herself and circled the globe in less time than Jules Vern’s characters in the best selling book, or anyone else ever, spewing reports all the way for front pages back home and everywhere she went. Later surviving her successful container business husband, she designed, manufactured and marketed the first successful steel barrel produced in the United States. She operated factories as a model of decent conditions for her 1,500 employees. Nellie was the first woman to report on the Eastern Front in World War 1 and reportedly went to Paris to argue in behalf of a defeated nation. Her advice column was always widely read and she was dedicated to defending the unfortunate, especially unwed and poor mothers and children.

Elizabeth Jane Cochran was born to Mary Jane, the mother’s third baby and the first girl. Mom dressed her in pink so much she acquired the name Pink very early and kept it until she needed a name to write under for a big newspaper. Her new editor came up with the name Nellie Bly, in time for a deadline.

Due to the fact that Mary Jane was her Dad’s second wife after the first died. He brought 10 children into the marriage, the oldest almost as old as their new Mom. Mary Jane went on to have two more girls. Pink was the real support for her mother who after her first loved husband died had married badly very the second time to an abusive drunk. The girl Pink went to court and testified in behalf of Mary Jane, then needing a divorce.

I’ll stop this info flow soon but I wanted to share this little account she gave to reporters wanting to know how she got into writing.  She said in the late 1860’s when she was “still a babe” I got a letter from “a boy of 12, so I have been told. I had formed his acquaintance while he was visiting his grandmother’s in the country. We got up the flirtation by peeping at each other through crevices in the back fence. He soon called and many long Summer days we spent ‘keeping house’ under the east piazza (yard). Cupid’s cousin, Miss Sudden Fancy, made a dent in our baby hearts. So my little lover wrote me many misspelled love letters after cherry time when he had been taken home.”

I found a lot more inspirational stuff from the wiki article, a kind of confusing but full of good anecdotes book, (Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Feminest, Reporter by Brooke Kroeger) much of which can be read at amazon and a few other places. I want to strictly warn anyone not to use Friday Showing as a source for any term paper. Thank you.