Dolly's Goodbye

Blue-eyed Dorothy Schiff inherited $15 million from her banker father, Mortimer Schiff. But she was not content to be just a rich girl; she wanted to be a newspaper publisher. With second husband George Backer, a millionaire himself and then a member of the New York City Council, she bought the New York Post in 1939. When Publisher Backer became ill in 1942, "Dolly," who had been vice president and treasurer, took over as publisher herself.

A year later the Backers were divorced, and Dolly married her managing editor, Theodore Olin Thackrey. She bought the Bronx Home News, merged it with the Post, and promoted Ted Thackrey to co-publisher and co-editor. They turned out to be no smooth-working team. During the presidential campaign, they debated the candidates and issues in the editorial columns of the Post. Ted was all out for Wallace. Dolly, when she finally made her mind up, was for Dewey. (Staffers, in a letter to the editors, disagreed with both.)

The arguments, apparently, did not end with the election. Last week Co-Publisher and Co-Editor Dorothy Thackrey abruptly resigned both jobs. Ted Thackrey became boss of the paper and president of the publishing corporation. Dolly Thackrey's 154-word statement explained only that her original purpose--starting "a militant liberal" newspaper in New York City--"has been fulfilled." The Post Home News's circulation (350,000) was bigger than when she took over, and the newspaper (then losing $100,000 a year) was now reportedly breaking even. Friends suspected that there were other reasons: that Dorothy Thackrey somehow felt that the Post Home News had failed to gain real national influence; that she was tired and bored with the workaday job of editing. Whatever the reason, Post readers would probably be spared any more husband & wife arguments in print.

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