Des Turner

Working for Harry Lasky had not been in the cards. Des Turner’s friends still could not fathom why he had left a stable career at the Cleveland Press. Part of the reason was the paper was losing some of its old muckraking edge, but there were other issues nagging at him. Des had been a damn good reporter in his day, and he was a top notch re-write man. The problem was there were a couple of other quality pros ahead of him on the way to the city editor’s chair and Des did not feel like waiting in line. So he quit the Press and headed east to visit old chums in New York City while figuring out what to do next. One night out with a group having a bang up time at the Hickory House some impertinent twerp barged right in and interrupted the party. Turns out the twerp was Lasky and he point blank offered Des the job of managing his worldwide news operation… and for respectable cash. Des found out later that the owner of the Consolidated News Service was no stranger to the city’s popular clubs, and made a point of knowing who in the business was out on the town. His pals warned Des that Lasky was a cheap, crazy bastard who was desperate to fill the job because no one in their right mind would touch it. In a strange way that sounded like job security to Des, who appreciated a dose of anarchy. Besides, on first impressions, Lasky was nothing he couldn’t handle.