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The Collection includes materials documenting the journalist's earliest teenage endeavors, military service and missionary work.
1934: At 12, began editing the Boy Scout page of Salt Lake City’s The Deseret News.
1937: “Stringer” for The Murray Eagle, riding his bicycle to cover fires and traffic accidents.
1940: Lands a reporting job at the Salt Lake City Tribune.
1942-44: Tours the Southern states as a Mormon missionary.
1945: Rejoins Deseret News as foreign correspondent in China, reporting behind Japanese lines in the company of Nationalist guerillas.
1945-47: Inducted into the U.S. Army, Anderson reports for the Shanghai edition of the military paper Stars and Stripes and contributing to Armed Forces Radio.
1947: Briefly takes classes in Georgetown and George Washington Universities; offers his services to Drew Pearson, co-creator of the Washington Merry-Go-Round column.
Washington Merry-Go-Round
Seminal investigative reporter Drew Pearson began the Washington Merry-Go-Round column in 1932 to act as watchdog to Washington elite, hiring Anderson on as a “legman” in 1947 to track down facts and leads.
Anderson assumed control of the column upon Pearson’s death in 1969, and ran it until 2001. At its peak in the mid 1970’s, the column appeared in more than 1,000 newspapers with 40 million readers.
Parade Magazine In 1954 Anderson learned that his editor Drew Pearson had promised control of Washington Merry-Go-Round to another journalist upon Pearson’s retirement. In anger, Anderson gave his notice and immediately scored the position of Washington bureau chief for Parade magazine.
Fearful of losing his top talent, Pearson relented and promised the column to Anderson. Anderson kept both jobs, writing for the magazine for the next 30 years.
