Bob Dyer, who won Ohio Columnist of the Year Award so many times
they should have just named it for him, posted it best:
“A true holiday classic. It's a Wonderful Life ... Miracle on 34th Street
... the Ann Hill Letter. “
Thus began a legend among BJ folks, including
annual readings of the Ohio State graduate’s letter to Managing Editor Bob
Giles, best done by the late Ted Schneider, once while wearing a nun outfit! The
Ann Hill letter once was read by Rhebbekah Yoder, 10, step-niece of the
newsroom's Paula Schleis, who did an expressive reading of the outraged Ann
Hill.
In the audience of two dozen or so, fittingingly,
was Ted Schneider, who has done the Ann Hill letter in nun habit and in rap
style and who is the most memorable Ann Hill letter performer. Ted
passed away in 2018 but his legendary readings of the Ann Hill Letter will
never die.
Ann came to the BJ to try out for a job. Giles turned
her over to State Desk Editor Pat Englehart, who turned her over to me. I
assigned her to cover a Canton sewers meeting. A meeting about shit covered by
someone who took not shit. What could possibly go wrong?
This from the Ann Hill letter pretty well sums up
her attitude:
“Experienced people who now teach at OSU thought me the most
talented student they ever taught.”
Also, this is a close second:
“I didn’t come here to do shit work.”
Roger Mezger, who resurrected the letter again and probably has it
wrapped so that only Ann Hill’s fingerprints are on it to increase its market
value, posted:
“I realize the
number of alums who even remember the infamous Ann Hill Letter, much less care
about it, is steadily shrinking. But for those who do remember or care (and
also just for the record), I think I have identified the date it was written.
“Ann Hill, whose
actual first name is Ougrita, received her M.A. from Ohio State at winter
quarter commencement on Friday, March 19, 1971. We know that when she came to
the Beacon Journal for a one-day tryout, she was sent to cover a Canton city
council meeting where a big sewer project was discussed. There was such a
meeting on Wednesday, March 24 that was reported the next day in the
(afternoon) Beacon Journal in a story with no byline, which might indicate that
the rewrite desk had to put that story together on the morning of the 25th.
“Ann was so upset at
being jerked around by the State Desk that she never turned in the story she
was sent to cover. Instead, she came back to the office, apparently on the
evening of March 24, 1971, and typed up her j'accuse letter for "Mr. Giles
and Company."
My reply throughout the years:
Englehart made me do it! Forced me to send her
to cover Canton sewer meeting. She refused to handle that shit and fled to
California.”
Roger corrected my memory after the infamous
and famous letter:
“John Olesky Looks like she worked in Columbus until
the late ‘70s, eventually starting an advertising company, before heading for
the coast.”
Roger added:
“Ann was quite full of herself back then,
which I guess is another way of saying she was just young.
“I actually had a class with her at OSU in the
summer of 1970, reporting public affairs. It was one of those grad-level
classes that was open to undergrads, so I took it.
“Ann is the only person I remember from that
class (other than the prof, the estimable Martha Brian) because of her very
aggressive questioning of a social services provider during a field trip we
took to the poorest part of Columbus. Ann was from small-town Tennessee and
seemed to believe that people didn’t really need help from agencies like the
one we visited, and she let our host know it. That was pretty awkward and it
stuck in my head.”
For those who never saw the letter before and
never witnessed the annual Reading of the Ann Hill Letter, I have provided the
literary classic that will live through the ages.
The late Ted Schneider, photographer and page
layout expert in his days at the BJ, once visited Ann in California and
reportedly had an exhilirating time with Ann. Make of that what you will.
He tried to entice Ann to return to the annual BJ Christmas
parties that featured a reading of the Ann Hill letter for three decades, and
read it herself on the 25th anniversary of the writing of the scathing memo, but
she declined.
Ann's
biography says that she was a feature writer and investigative reporter with
the Dayton Daily News and other daily newspapers and founded her first
marketing and public relations agency, Hill & Zoog, in Columbus in 1978,
primarily as a political consultant for Ohio politicians.
Ann went to California and started the Ann Hill
Communications company in 1985 in San Rafael.
Maybe
what made Ann – and Ted in his skits while reading her letter – strike such a
chord is that we all wished we had done that.
She
will be remembered forever in BJ lore as the woman who made a mountain out of
an anthill.
Later, I found this item
about Ann Hill:
·
CEO
Ann Hill Communication
- 15 years
East Tennessee State University
BSEnglish
-
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