Nellie Bly, The Journalist
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Introduction
To read of Nellie Bly, one would come to think the woman a pioneer in journalism; a hero for womens rights; and an American icon. These beliefs would be true if not for the fact that Bly was so much more. She was much more a woman, much more a writer, much more a hero and much more than most could ever be. Bly not only took on a world of injustice and stereotypes, but conquered it and changed the way the field of journalism works today.
Elizabeth Cochran, a.k.a. Nellie Bly was the first known female reporter. Blys life spanned Reconstruction, the Victorian and Progressive Eras, the Great War, and its aftermath (Kroeger, 1996). And, even though there remains no fully organized collection of her lifes personal or professional works, her legend still lives on.
Here, though regrettably abbreviated, is her story . . .Growing up in the 19th Century
Born on May 5, 1864, in Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Jane Cochran was the third of five children. As a child, Elizabeth was given the nickname, “Pink,” for her avid affection of that color on clothing. Though born into a wealth, Cochrans family suffered from financial setbacks when her father, a wealthy former associate justice, passed away when she was just six years old. Cochrans mother remarried three years later, but her new husband was rumoured a drunk and the couple divorced when Elizabeth was fourteen.
In her teen years, Elizabeth changed her last name to Cochrane, in an attempt to add sophistication to her surname by adding an “e.” In 1879, at the age of fifteen, Elizabeth spent one term at the Indiana State Normal School. It was a lack of money that forced her to withdraw from school and find a job to help with household expenses (Wildemuth, 1999). The family soon moved to Pittsburgh where a close-minded column printed in The Pittsburgh Dispatch changed the face of journalism forever.
In his column, “Quiet Observations,” Erasmus Wilson portrayed the notion that women of the day were “useless outside the sphere of marriage” (Wildemuth, 1999). This infuriated Cochran, and she quickly sent a heated letter to the editor of The Dispatch, signed “Lonely Orphan Girl” (Toth, 1994). The newspapers editor was so taken with her letter that he asked her to reveal herself, and within a week, offered her a writing position with the publication (Toth 1999). It was then, at the young age of 20, that Cochran adopted the pen name “Nellie Bly.”
A Star is Born: A World is Changed
Bly was not content to just write columns for the Dispatch and confronted her editors about engaging in a new kind of journalism. This new type of undercover journalism, nicknamed “stunt” at the time, was risky enough for a reporter, let alone a female one. Blys first “stunt” assignment was to disguise herself as a destitute woman and get a job at a local copper cable factory (Wildemuth 1999). Blys illustrative descriptions of the factorys hazardous conditions not only forced the public to take interest in the workers issues but also increased the papers circulation.
In 1887, Bly moved to New York to continue her journalistic ambitions. At first, no one wanted to hire the outspoken reporter, but Joseph Pulitzer, editor of The New York World, saw greatness within the young writer and quickly hired her. It was with his help that Bly embarked on one of her most famous journalistic endeavors – getting committed into an insane asylum.
To perfect the part of a mentally unstable person, Bly donned tattered clothes and wandered the streets of the city attempting to act crazily. It was on September 26 of the same year that Bly was committed to the Womens Lunatic Asylum on Blackwells Island (Bernikow, 2004). For more than a week, Bly studied the asylums horrific conditions.
“The human rat trap, as she called it was overcrowded and filthy, with vermin-infested food and little enough of that. Locks on ward doors caused fire hazards. Nurses choked, beat, harassed and mocked the inmates, many of whom were not insane but suffering physical illnesses or were foreigners who could not make themselves understood or women whose husbands wanted them out of the way” (Bernikow 2004).
What arose from her stay at the asylum was a shocking story that revealed the horrors of the institution. Bly continued pushing the journalistic envelope, posing as a patent medicine merchant to bribe a powerful lobbyist; a charity hospital patient; a chorus girl; and even a female job applicant at newspapers (Stepp, 1995). For the next couple of years, Bly focused on the womens mistreatment issues, miserable factory conditions and corrupt politicians (Miller, 2001). Because of her, public concern was raised over the mistreatment of the patients, and Blackwells Island was soon closed for good (Neckuty, 2001).Around the World in 72 Days!
Soon after the Blackwells Island scandal, Bly had not only achieved a reputation as a talented investigative reporter, but was standing on the precipice of her most famous story yet.
In 1889, Joseph Pulitzer, in a move that was more sensation than investigation, assigned Bly the biggest “story” of her career. In an effort to beat Jules Vernes fictional hero Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days, Pulitzer sent Bly on a circumnavigational trek (Weisberger, 1989). Her famous ride was the best example of her maxim that “Energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything” (Toth, 1994).
“Told that no woman could possibly duplicate Phileas Foggs fictional feat. . . Bly set out to do just that – without a chaperone and unencumbered by steamer trunks. She packed only two dresses in a gripsack she could carry by herself when she left New York in November 1889 (Toth, 1994).
Bly wrote daily dispatches about her travels during her trip. Not only were her travel stories hugely popular, but so to were the maps that were published daily so people could follow her journey. A trip to Europe was even offered by her publication to the contestant that could come closest to Blys finishing time. Not only did nearly 1,000,000 people enter, but the newspapers circulation boomed.
Bly traveled the globe by plane, mule, and rickshaw (Miller, 2001). In an amazing seventy-two days, six hours, eleven minutes, and fourteen seconds, Bly finally returned home to New York and its thousands of cheering fans. Unlike so many times before, this time Bly hadnt just written a story – this time, she was the story (Weisberger 1989).
Having reached the pinnacle of her professional career, Bly was soon typecast