Ralph B. Jordan rose from relative obscurity working while in high school and college on Salt Lake City newspapers, to the top of his dual professions as a newsman with William Randolph Hearst’s International News Service (INS), and as a publicist with Louis B. Mayer’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). During World War II he was INSs Chief Correspondent for the Pacific Theater, and then became Assistant Director of Publicity for MGM. Along the way he returned to Salt Lake City briefly as Managing Editor of the Deseret News, although his earlier newspaper experience was with the Salt Lake Tribune. He also was the first Athletic Director at the University of Utah.
This small volume of his autobiographical essays were written over a period after the end of World War II, and are drawn from his early life in Salt Lake City. They are entertaining as well as informative of the life and times in Utah around World War I, when he was leaving his youthful teen years and entering adulthood.
As his youngest son (and only surviving child), I feel honored to have this opportunity to edit Ralph Jordan’s musings.
