James Bacon, the entertainment reporter whose career spanned an incredible sixty years, has died in Northridge, Los Angeles of congestive heart failure, while sleeping. He was 96.

Born in Buffalo, New York in 1914, Bacon studied at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, from 1933-36, dropping out in his final year after his parents lost their home in a flood. He completed his journalism degree in 1943 at Syracuse University, and served in the Navy.

Bacon’s career in Hollywood, writing a syndicated column for Associated Press, coincided with the rise of Marilyn Monroe and the final phase of Hollywood’s ‘Golden Era.’ Continue reading →