Yes, Actual People Do Write Those Letters to Parade Magazine
That person on the left is Ed Klein, who leads the team at Parade that answers questions to Walter Scott’s Personality Parade — which bills itself as “the most widely read column in the English language.”
That’s right. There is no Walter Scott; he’s a fictional character.
But the questions Walter receives are real, apparently. Don’t believe us? Novelist-sleuth Tod Goldberg tracked down an actual letter-writer.
Check out “Letters to Parade: The Etymology Of A Letter To Walter Scott.”
Technorati tags: Tod Goldberg, PR, Parade Magazine, Ed Klein
Actually, it appears only a fraction of the letters are real — a very small fraction, I suspect — as if you poke around my blog a big you’ll find another post from a friend of mine in PR who has had press releases turned into “questions”. It’s evil and insidious and I’m addicted…
What’s next, Tod? No Santa?
Your blog is a lot of fun and highly recommended.