Ididn’t know who Vincent Musetto was until Tuesday. But I certainly knew his work.
Musetto was a former editor for the New York Post. He wrote one of the newspaper industry’s most famous headlines for the Post’s April 15, 1983, front page:
“HEADLESS BODY IN TOPLESS BAR””
The first time I read that headline, I thought, “I wish I had written that.”
The New York Times’ obituary of Musetto called it “the most anatomically evocative headline in the history of American journalism.”
Headline writers usually toil in anonymity. Musetto might be the only headline writer whose name has become known to the general public. He even has a Wikipedia entry now.
Musetto, who died of pancreatic cancer on Tuesday at age 74, worked at the Post for 40 years. He started as a copy editor and later worked as news editor, entertainment editor and movie reviewer.
The headline was on a story about the killing of a New York bar owner who was shot and beheaded.
“The crime behind the headline was lurid even by tabloid standards,” The New York Times said.
Musetto told People magazine in 1987 that the killing and decapitation were known early in the reporting process, but staffers had to confirm that topless dancing occurred at the bar.
“Someone said it might be a topless bar, but we weren’t sure, and then the idea of the headline came around, so we were really questioning to make sure it was a topless bar,” Musetto said. “... I just wrote it, and everyone said, ‘Ha ha,’ but I didn’t think it would live in infamy.”
The Times wrote, “But what endured in public memory far longer than the crime was the headline, with its verbless audacity, arresting parallel adjectives and forceful trochaic slams. (The corresponding headline in The New York Times that day proclaimed, genteelly, ‘Owner of a Bar Shot to Death; Suspect Is Held.’ Headlessness was not mentioned until the third paragraph; toplessness not at all.)”
The headline became symbolic of the Post’s tabloid journalism, especially during its go-go days under owner Rupert Murdoch. He also owns what might be the ultimate tabloid, the Sun in London. Next to the Sun, the New York Post looks as serious and conservative as The New York Times.
Musetto’s headline appeared on T-shirts; as the title of a 1995 movie based on the crime; and as the name of a 2007 book, “Headless Body in Topless Bar: The Best Headlines From America’s Favorite Newspaper.”
I have a copy of that wonderful book at home.
If you count my high school newspaper days, I’ve been writing headlines for 40 years. I think I’m good at it and have won a few awards. But I’m always trying to write better headlines.
A headline’s purpose is to get the person looking at the page (in print or online) to read the story.
To achieve this, the headline writer must summarize the story with punchy, dramatic words. Failing that, a headline has to at least be accurate and grammatically correct.
It’s tougher than it sounds.
And then there are puns. Headline writers love puns. Some papers take pun headlines to ridiculous extremes (see most big-city tabloids). But when a pun headline works, there’s almost nothing better.
During the 20 years I spent at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, upper-level editors often complained about pun headlines. Stop writing them, they would say, they’re stupid.
But guess what kind of head almost always won The Clarion-Ledger’s monthly headline-writing contest? A pun headline.
What does it take to be a good headline writer? Knowing the news, of course. It’s handy to know at least a little about popular culture. And having a sense of humor helps, too.
I spent most of my time at The Clarion-Ledger as a copy editor and page designer for sports and/or news. Back then, the person designing pages usually didn’t read copy and write headlines..
On an average night, I probably edited and wrote headlines for 10 or 15 stories. On a busy night, when we had a big paper or were short-handed on the copy desk, that number could be 20 or more.
My headlines have sometimes been rewritten before they got into print. (I know, I was shocked, too.) That’s even happened at the Commonwealth a few times. This was almost always a good thing. Besides, in journalism, you can’t take editing personally.
According to the Times, the “Headless” headline was not Musetto’s favorite among the thousands he wrote for the Post. That honor went to one he wrote in 1984:
“GRANNY EXECUTED IN HER PINK PAJAMAS.”
I wish I had written that, too.
• Contact Charles Corder at 581-7241 or ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
