Arthur B. McBride
Cleveland newspaper circulation man who, by 1950 testimony and committee exhibits, organized Continental Press Service in 1939 after Moses Annenberg gave up the race-wire business, and later passed it to the Ragens and to his son Edward.
- Aliases
- Arthur McBride
- Role
- Owner of Continental Press Service in 1940, by the testimony of Thomas F. Kelly (Kefauver Part 5, 18 October 1950).
- Source
- Kefauver Committee, Part 5: testimony of Thomas F. Kelly (18 October 1950), via Internet Archive
- Rights
- Biography on this page is limited to what the cited records state. Testimony and staff exhibits are labelled as such; they are not findings.
On the record
- 1939 — A Senate committee report, as quoted to the Kefauver Committee, says "Annenberg's employees were Arthur McBride of Cleveland and James Ragen of Chicago, and they took over the news-distributing wire service in 1939" (S. Rept. 81-1752, quoted in Part 2).
- 20 November 1939 — The committee staff's Annex A to Exhibit 40: "Arthur B. McBride organizes a new and original Continental Press Service as sole owner. Invests $20,000" (staff exhibit).
- 1940 — Thomas F. Kelly, his brother-in-law, testified that McBride, who he said owned Continental Press, announced James Ragen, Jr. as general manager (Kefauver Part 5, 18 October 1950).
- 1942 — Kelly testified that McBride sold his interest to Ragen, Jr.; counsel stated the year as 1942 (Kefauver Part 5).
The role line is Thomas F. Kelly’s testimony. The quoted Senate report says McBride later presented the business to his son Edward, a law student, and describes McBride, Kelly and Annenberg as former newspaper circulation men; those are the report’s words as Wayne Coy read them.
McBride testified himself in Cleveland on 17 January 1951 (Kefauver Part 6); that testimony is filed with the Cleveland records.
Records
itemS. Rept. 81-1752 on Continental Press, as quoted in Kefauver Part 2, pp. 9-10 (1950)FCC chairman Wayne Coy read pages 15 and 16 of the Senate Commerce Committee's report on S. 3358 into the Kefauver record: it calls Continental the successor to the Annenberg wire service and finds that it has "a near monopoly in the transmission of racing news."itemKefauver Part 5: testimony of Thomas F. Kelly, general manager of Continental Press (18 October 1950), pp. 691-699Continental's general manager told the committee how he worked for James Ragen and Moses Annenberg's news bureaus, how in 1939 Annenberg "was going to give up the news business," and how Arthur McBride took the business over with most of Annenberg's staff.itemKefauver Part 5, Exhibit 40: staff summary of evidence on Continental Press, with Annex A ownership dates (December 1950)A committee staff memorandum, printed at pp. 1386-1390 of the Part 5 appendix, on how Continental was formed after Annenberg left the wire business in 1939, its distributors, the 1946-47 contest with Trans-America, and a dated list of its changes of ownership.itemKefauver Committee, Cleveland: testimony of Arthur B. McBride (January 1951)Arthur B. McBride appeared voluntarily with Washington counsel, at the committee's request, on the books and records of the Continental Press wire service; his counsel stated that he had never been engaged in any illegal business.