Chicago Paper Searches for Replacement : Thousands Want to Be the Next Ann Landers

CHICAGO — They sent singing telegrams and bouquets of colored balloons. One wedged her application inside an antique typewriter. Another presented her high-heeled pump in a Nike box with a message that only she could fill Ann Landers’ shoes.

Beaten mayoral contender Jane Byrne did not apply but an Illinois state representative did. So did more than 11,000 other aspiring advice columnists who answered the Chicago Sun-Times’ open call to replace Eppie Lederer when she announced that she was taking her 31-year-old “Ann Landers” column across the street to the rival Chicago Tribune.

As large boxes brimming with responses were carted from her office, Deputy Features Editor Susan Axelrod let out a gasp of relief.

‘I Can Breathe’

“Finally, I can breathe. I have felt claustrophobic in here,” said Axelrod, who is the initial screener of the thousands of letters. “I really wasn’t prepared for all this. First it was 50 applications a day. Then 75 a day. Then, 150 to 300 a day.”

What gives in 1987 that enough people to fill 23 Boeing 747s want to be the next “Ann Landers”?

“It says there are definitely people out there who truly want to help others,” Lederer said in a telephone interview. “Another statement it makes is, these people who are applying have no conception of what this job involves. They don’t realize it requires 10- and 12-hour days, enormous vitality.

“I do all my own reading of hundreds and hundreds of letters every day. I do all my own selecting and all my own writing. You can never be sick. I’m serious. Do you realize that every day for 31 years consecutively there has been an ‘Ann Landers’ in my newspaper?”

Sun-Times editors managed to turn the devastating loss of Lederer, the world’s most widely syndicated columnist with 85 million readers, into a positive push for Chicago’s No. 2 paper.

Seek Modern Approach

Ads in their paper and USA Today seeking applicants with a “contemporary approach” who could give readers “guidance, guts and good advice” drew a deluge of letters from nearly all 50 states, Canada, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica.

“It has been good for the paper,” said a haggard-looking Matthew Storin, the Sun-Times editor.

“It has been good for people who worked for the paper who initially were stunned that Eppie chose to leave. Everybody was stunned. She was here 31 years. We still don’t understand why she left. Taking this positive approach shows the kind of spirit we have here.”

Lederer said it was a matter of timing that propelled her to a new slot at the Chicago Tribune, where her twin sister Abigail van Buren writes the “Dear Abby” column. They turn 69 on July 4.

With the debut of “Ann Landers” on Page 3 of the “Tempo” section, “Dear Abby” was moved to the rear of the feature pages. While talk of rifts between the twins has surfaced over the years, Lederer insists that it’s “no problem.”

Perhaps to ward off any suspicions of competition, her first column at the Chicago Tribune on March 15 led off with a letter from a mother on the perils of raising twins. The gist of “Ann Landers” reply was to encourage individuality.

‘Time to Make a Change’

“The Sun-Times was very good to me; they treated me beautifully,” Lederer said. “But I felt it was time to make a change. I don’t feel nostalgia. It feels wonderful. Actually, at this point in my life, I know more people at the Tribune than the Sun-Times.

“When Rupert Murdoch bought the paper, (since sold to an independent consortium led by publisher Robert Page), 77 people left. Most of my good friends from the Sun-Times are gone. They’re at the Tribune.”

The search for an heir to “Ann Landers” mirrors the one conducted by the Sun-Times in 1955 upon the death of Ruth Crowley, the newspaper’s second advice columnist.

In that era, only 22 contestants approached the newspaper and were screened on the basis of their answers to a set of questions. A 37-year-old housewife and mother named Eppie Lederer got the job. Her twin, “Popo,” helped with the mail.

Last week, Sun-Times editors narrowed the list of would-be replacements to 22, from 108 semifinalists who answered sample questions. Altogether, 11,000 people had applied. Answers from six finalists will be published under pen names in the paper.

A winner, to be announced in early May, will be chosen by the editors, aided by an advisory panel and readers’ opinions.

Most Aged 30 to 45

Storin said the bulk of the mail was from contenders ages 30 to 45. Early readings showed that males represented only one in eight of the responses.

“I would say more than half of the photos include a child. That shows you who we’re getting--mothers and homemakers.”

Letters also came from a wide range of professionals--lawyers, police officers, bartenders, lots of psychologists. Yet, most applicants are these youngish to middle-age nurturers.

“There are thousands and thousands of women out there who feel they have more to offer the world than what they have been able to achieve in their own careers or their own homes. That’s what I see in the letters--’I can be somebody,”’ Storin added.

And who will ultimately inherit the hot seat?

“A certain kind of informality, spark, self-confidence and sense of humor makes up the most impressive candidate,” said Storin, adding that an appropriate background in counseling or writing helps. He refused to discuss salary, saying it will be “negotiable.”

The photographs requested are also an important ingredient.

“We’re not talking Hollywood glamour. But, candidly, the ability to go on TV and do public speaking engagements is also part of this job,” Storin admitted.

Along with an “I can be somebody” attitude pervading the mail, an “I can beat Ann Landers” theme is omnipresent as well.

Ann, Abby Passe?

“From the letters I read, I get that there is this perception that although Ann and Abby certainly have changed with the times, they have a point of view that’s not quite up to the 80s,” Storin said.

Wanda Wigfall-Williams, who recently wrote a guide on hysterectomies, is one contestant who passed off “Ann Landers” as history.

“I could do a better job than she did clearly,” said Wigfall, 34, incensed over a recent “Ann Landers” column she believes offered wrong advice on hysterectomies. Wigfall knew of the operation through personal experience.

“I would not generalize as much as she does,” Wigfall said. “She never said, ‘Get a second opinion, pursue the alternatives.’ She just assumed hers was the right advice and the only advice, and she tends to do this with other issues.”

Gaye Macchini, 22, of Riverside, Ill., exuded a more subtle, but no less strong, aura of confidence about her ability to follow the “Ann Landers” act:

“I’m very well-known for my problem-solving techniques,” Macchini said. “Some people who are 60 know less than people who are 20. All the people who applied, it’s a little intimidating. But wondering about a passed-up opportunity is worse than any dream tried and failed.”

Finds Interest Humorous

Lederer chuckles over the thousands of would-be New Age advisers elbowing their ways to her empty office at the Chicago Sun-Times.

“Whoever gets it is going to be stunned,” Lederer said in that famous raspy voice. “I invented this industry, and in 31 years, I’ve developed very good relationships with top people in every field. I can pick up the phone and call the top authorities in medicine, business, law, education.

“People who are applying for the job don’t realize I have totally uninterrupted time to do this work. I don’t cook. I don’t do any grocery shopping. I don’t have any little children. People out there think they can be Ann Landers. There can’t be a new Ann Landers. This one is still ticking, and has no plans to retire.”