Sid Yudain

Sidney Lawrence Yudain (May 6, 1923 – October 20, 2013) was an American journalist who founded Roll Call in 1955 as a community newspaper focused on the United States Congress and Capitol Hill. Yudain published the first issue of Roll Call June 16, 1955, with an initial printing of 10,000 copies.^[1][2][3] Roll Call currently publishes four issues per week, with a circulation of more than 22,000, as of October 2013.^[2]

Biography

Early life

Yudain, the seventh of eight children of Morris Yudain and Berta Jaffe, was born on May 6, 1923, in New Canaan, Connecticut.^[2] His parents had immigrated to the United States from the Russian Empire in 1907.^[2] Owner of a clothing store, the father later also established a real estate brokerage firm.^[2] As children, Yudain and his siblings would settle disputes by publishing little mini-newspapers using the family's Remington portable typewriter.^[2]

Sid Yudain enlisted in the United States Army shortly after graduating from New Canaan High School.^[2] He was stationed in Malibu, California, during World War II, where be began publishing a small newspaper for his base.^[2]He remained in the Los Angeles area after World War II, where he worked as a Hollywood entertainment correspondent for a Connecticut newspaper. He also worked as a freelance writer, penning articles for fan magazines covering actors and films.^[2] He interviewed high profile actors and Hollywood figures, including Montgomery Clift, Lana Turner and Olivia de Havilland.^[3]

Roll Call

In 1951, Yudain moved to Washington D.C. to take a position as a press secretary for freshman U.S. Rep. Albert P. Morano of Connecticut.^[2][3] After noticing that there wasn't any newspaper that focused on the Congress as a community, Yudain conceived and founded Roll Call, a small newspaper aimed at members of Congress and their staff, in 1955.^[1] It cost Yudain $90 to establish the newspaper.^[2] He published the inaugural issue of Roll Call, which he called a community newspaper, on June 16, 1955, with an initial printing of 10,000 copies.^[1][2] The paper was founded and published out of Yudain's workplace in Rep. Morano's Washington congressional office.^[2][3] Yudain initially wrote much of the copy and articles himself.^[2]

According to the New York Times, Yudain described the early Roll Call as "part local newspaper, part trade paper, part movie fan magazine, part New Yorker."^[2] Roll Call also covered serious issues, ranging from congressional committee assignments to filibusters, but largely shied away from legislative issues until the 1990s.^[2][3] One of Roll Call's earliest hard news story concerned a heart attack suffered by then Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson just one week after the newspaper's debut.^[2] Senator Johnson wrote several Roll Call guest pieces on his recovery.^[3]

Yudain penned a Roll Call gossip column titled "Sid-Bits," which is a predecessor of Roll Call's and rollcall.com's present blog, "Heard on the Hill."^[2] Early guest columnists included U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon, who published an obituary for one of his favorite doormen in the paper.^[2] Roll Call also published a weekly pin-up picture within its early issues, which drew criticism, but proved popular with the overwhelmingly male-dominated congressional delegations.^[2] The paper focused on personal issues, such as weddings, birth announcements and personnel changes within the House and Senate.^[2]

In 1986, Yudain sold Roll Call to Arthur Levitt, who was the chairman of the American Stock Exchange at the time of the sale.^[1][2] Yudain continued to work as a columnist at Roll Call until 1988.^[1][3]

Roll Call was acquired by the Economist Group in 1992.^[2] The Economist Group purchased Congressional Quarterly (CQ) in 2009 as a "companion publication" to Roll Call.^[2] Roll Call and CQ currently form The Economist's CQ Roll Call Group.^[1]

Sid Yudain died from liver cancer on the morning of October 20, 2013, at his home in Arlington, Virginia, at the age 90.^[1] He was survived by his wife of 40 years, Lael, whom he married in 1973; two children, Rachel Kuchinad and Raymond Yudain; and three grandchildren, Owen, Lucas and Charlotte. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery and a memorial service was held at the National Press Club.^[1]

References