As we bid goodbye to the News of the Screws, it seems an appropriate moment to dust off this cherished vignette of tabloid life (admittedly, from the Mirror rather than the NOTW) from Piers Morgan’s diaries:
Kent Gavin, the Mirror’s royal photographer, was sent to photograph Doris Day in her eighth-floor Manhattan apartment. Kent was left with her beloved pet dog while she answered the phone, and started throwing a ball for it to fetch. He slightly overthrew it, the dog raced to fetch it, and Kent realised to his horror that the window was open. End of Doris Day’s dog.
When she came back into the room, a shocked Kent said: “I’m terribly sorry but there’s been a dreadful accident – your dog has fallen out of the window.”
Minutes later, a sobbing Doris was cradling her dead, mangled pet in her arms . And what was the killer doing? “I thought I may as well take a few pictures while I was there,” he confessed. The next day’s Daily Mirror carried: DORIS DAY WEEPS FOR DEAD DOG – World Exclusive – Pictures by Kent Gavin