Cast of Characters – Tom Piskura
Thomas Piskura was the executive news producer at WEWS-TV in 1965, described by Bill Jorgensen as the young wunderkind brought in to establish an authoritative evening newscast. Jorgensen credits Tom with first suggesting the idea of an interview at sea, and hatching the plot to find Tinkerbelle, when he asked the question, “What are the chances we could track them down?” Jorgensen’s reply was, “Maybe 1 in 50”, but their boss, Don Perris, signed off on the caper and soon the chase was on, ending in the sensational “Scoop of the Year”.
Jorgensen and veteran cameraman Walter Glendenning were dispatched to England. Piskura worked tirelessly, through his contacts at ABC News (WEWS was an ABC Network affiliate) to devise an elaborate scheme aimed at secretly snatching the story from Manry’s own newspaper.
The following is an excerpt of an internal ABC News memo describing how Tom Piskura’s initiative played out. (Note: The following text is quoted from ABC News documents donated to the Robert Manry Project by the estate of Tom Piskura. Minor formatting adjustments have been made.)
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August 11, 1965
ABC-TV Cleveland Affiliate Scores World News Beat With At-Sea Interview
Of Trans-Atlantic Tinkerbelle Sailing Boat Skipper Robert Manry.
Exclusive Film On “Peter Jennings With The News” Tonight
ABC News and the ABC Television Network’s affiliate in Cleveland – WEWS-TV – have scored a world beat with a filmed interview at sea with Robert Manry, the Cleveland newspaperman who is nearing the end of his remarkable voyage across the Atlantic.
The exclusive interview, filmed on the high seas more than 200 miles off the shore of England, will be shown on the ABC Television Network’s daily dinner-hour newscast, “Peter Jennings With The News”, tonight (Wednesday, August 11), as well as locally over WEWS-TV in Cleveland.
WEWS correspondent Bill Jorgensen and cameraman Walter Glendenning filmed the interview late Monday after the ABC charter fishing trawler Roseland rendezvoused with Manry’s 13½-foot sailing boat, Tinkerbelle.
The WEWS correspondents have reported that Manry told them he had been washed overboard six times during his journey and has a running battle with sharks.
Photographs of the mid-ocean rendezvous between the Tinkerbelle and the Roseland were taken from an RAF Shackleton observation plane and made front-page news in London yesterday (Tuesday, August 10).
The newsmen delivered fruit, beer, and other foodstuff to Manry. The bulk of his food had run out, they reported, and the Cleveland newsman was down to his final rations of food and water.
As soon as the interview was completed, the Roseland steamed all out for the Scilly Isles off the southwest tip of England where ABC News had a light plane waiting to pick up the film.
Rushed to London Airport, the film is en route to Cleveland where it will be fed to the ABC-TV network and shown locally tonight (Wednesday).
The Roseland departed Newlyn, England, late Saturday night to find the Tinkerbelle. A radio code between ABC News in London and the trawler kept the correspondents’ craft constantly appraised of the latest sightings of Manry’s boat.
In London, ABC News Correspondent Ray Moloney utilized an open radio circuit to reach the Roseland. Using a pre-arranged code, Moloney would tell Jorgensen to call two different London phone numbers. One, with a Langham exchange, gave the latitude of the Manry vessel; a second, with a Longacre exchange, fixed the longitude.
ABC News chartered the Roseland at 100 pounds ($280) a day. Once word got out that the rendezvous had been achieved, other small boat owners began charging other news media 300 pounds daily for use of a boat. However, it is believed that none of the other news media in London were planning to set sail for the Tinkerbelle until tomorrow (August 12).
Last Sunday, the Tinkerbelle was reported some 280 miles west of Falmouth Bracket, Manry’s destination. Coast Guard officials said then that locating the tiny ship would be like trying to find a matchstick in the Atlantic.
However, the ABC News team was fortunate in locating a trawler whose skipper felt confident that he could find the Tinkerbelle based on the fixes provided by the RAF, one of whose planes spotted Manry, and relayed by ABC News in London.
The intricate code was organized and implemented in London by Moloney and the ABC News European Producer Walt Peters.
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