Marlon Hanson hadn’t been in this world very long before he understood his mission in life was to keep others informed. As the Focus Daily News prepares to deliver its final issue, its publisher looks back on a career that has taken him from New York to Midlothian and many other points.
“I started my first newspaper in grade school. I petitioned my teacher for a hectograph (a tray with a gelatin-like substance that you could lay a written sheet of paper on and then put blank sheets on afterward to make copies). I think it cost $2.98 or so back then,” he recalled. “I wrote about things that were happening in our country school house. There were three people in my class, 15 or so in the entire school.”
Even then, Marlon understood that no matter the audience, there was a job to do. If there was information to be delivered, he wanted to bring it to them.
FARM LIFE/INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS
Born in Breckenridge, Minnesota, in January 1948, he became an orphan when his mother passed away when he was only 8 months old. Then, his father left him with Marlon’s aunt, two uncles, and his grandfather.
“We were sharecroppers on a farm and moved frequently. The first place we lived was Earhardt, Mn, then Pelican Rapids, Dent, and finally Perham,” Marlon reminisced. “I got up very early daily, rounded up the cows and brought them into the barn, fed them, and helped my uncle with the milk. Then, turned them loose, fed the pigs, and then headed to the house where my aunt would have breakfast ready for us.”
Even a young farm boy, however, learned that one of the cornerstones of the media industry is politics. There is always a story in the political world.
“I also remember when my grandfather’s cousin, Roy Dunn, would stop by the farm during election season with some politician friends of his – including Hubert Humphrey. I remember him because I thought he looked so different from the others.
“They would urge my aunt, uncle, and grandfather to vote for them. I remember when they left, my family would talk about what ‘crooks’ they all were. My grandfather and his cousin grew up together, but during the great depression, they had a falling out because my grandfather stayed on the farm when Roy became a politician and was elected to the Minnesota House, where he served from the 1920s to the 1960s, even being speaker many of the years.”
Marlon noted that Roy was instrumental in getting Dwight D. Eisenhower elected President in 1952.
“The race for the Republican nomination was between Ike and Robert Taft, and my grandfather’s cousin swung the Minnesota delegation to Eisenhower,” Marlon said. “My grandfather lost the farm because he still paid his help, etc. while Roy founded a resort named Dunvilla and retired in the 1960s as a wealthy man.”
YOUTHFUL DAYS
In grade school, Marlon would walk two miles to a one-room schoolhouse. When he was in the third or fourth grade, his aunt and uncle got him a used bicycle for $5.
“It was a bit too big for me, so I would get on it by standing on our back porch and jumping on and then ride to school,” he said. “It was a great improvement over walking – except in the winter when the temperatures would be brutally cold – down to the 40s and 30s in September, October and November, and the 20s in December. Then, in January and February, often from minus 20 degrees to plus 20 degrees.”
His grandfather had an old-time car that required a crank, and his uncle had a tractor. In his earliest memories the family had horses that pulled a wagon.
“When my grandfather ran off the road one day, my uncle took his car away from him, sold it, and then got a 1940-something car to be able to ‘go to town in,'” Marlon said.
After school, Marlon would go home and round up the cows, put them in the barn, feed them, and help his uncles with the milking. Then came feeding the pigs.
“My aunt took care of feeding the chickens, geese, etc.,” he said. “I knew we didn’t have much money but did not really know how little we had. We went ‘to town’ once a month for flour and other things my aunt could use to cook. She literally made everything at home from scratch and was really good at it.
“I was never a skinny kid! I don’t know exactly how much they spent on food, but I think it was around $30 a month when we went to the ‘nearest metropolis’ Dent, Mn. – population 183. I remember the sign just before we got into town.”
TURNING POINT
When Marlon reached the seventh grade, that was a turning point. He began taking a bus to a school about 20 miles away.
However, adjusting to the change was a challenge for Marlon. It also created an opportunity that would impact the rest of his life.
“The first few months or so, I was not a good student, but when I came back from Christmas break, an English teacher, Mrs. Sieling, kept me in for our lunch hour and told me I had a great potential,” he recalled.
She told Marlon to apply himself and that he could grow up to do things much greater than the path he was on.
“I took her to heart and turned my studies around and don’t remember ever getting less than a B after that,” he said.
He immediately started writing for the school newspaper, the “Jackets Journal,” and found that if he were to become popular in school he needed to be involved in sports. However, that meant he couldn’t ride the bus at night to get home.
“Someone who was a junior in school and had a car brought me home after football, wrestling and track practice,” he said. “I would then do my nightly duties with the cows etc.
“I had never seen a football game on TV, so I didn’t really know how to play, but ‘faked my way’ through it, becoming a letterman from my sophomore through senior years.”
LOVE OF NEWSPAPERS
From the time he was a small child, something about newspapers appealed to Marlon. Growing up in a time when most folks still got their news with each day’s newest publication, he waited anxiously for the paper to hit the doorstep.
“I remember being fascinated with newspapers when I was a kid. As a kid, I subscribed to the ‘Minneapolis Tribune,’ ‘Minneapolis Star,’ and ‘Fargo Forum.’ My uncle and grandfather already had the ‘Fergus Fallas Daily Journal’ delivered to them,” he said. “Our mailman at some point asked my uncle or grandfather who read so many papers every day.”
BUSTLING CAREER/COMING TO TEXAS
From that early love grew a bustling career that took Marlon on many adventures to many places. The publications he has worked for ranges from the “New York Daily News” to the “Dallas Times Herald” in their heydays.
“Things went along well with the DTH until ‘Times Mirror,’ who owned it, sold the employee parking lot for 10 million dollars and then donated 10 million dollars to the Los Angeles Olympics,” Marlon remembered. “The DTH employees were all very upset, having lost their parking lot, and salespeople stopped selling as much as possible, and the paper went into a slide.
“In general, everyone at the paper taught Times Mirror a lesson and caused it to go from being profitable by millions of dollars to losing money. In order to stem the advertising losses, a new VP of advertising was brought in and he made matters far worse by instituting Draconian like rules on the employees.
“They were told they had to clean everything off their desks by 5:30 pm and leave the building immediately. Salespeople were accustomed to working far beyond 5:30 – being out selling until then. When they came back into the office, they would lay out their ads, take them down to composing and then go home. This guy’s rules put a stop to much of their selling time and work.”
MANY FACES AND PLACES
Marlon’s career path crossed the paths of many famous people. The list includes the likes of then-President Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole and many others who came to Dallas for the 1984 Republican Convention.
He met Christopher Reeve, who played Superman, along with Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane, when they were filming in New York at the “Daily News’ building.
And, of course, there was the legendary Tom Landry, who guided the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls and two world championships.
“The guy who played Kojak (Telly Savalas) had most breakfasts at the diner across from the ‘Daily News’ building,” Marlon said.
As an automotive journalist, he crossed paths with racecar drivers and attended several private concerts by popular artists.
MILITARY DAYS
“I hated the cold, so as soon as I was old enough I wanted to leave Minnesota,” Marlon said. “So I joined the Air Force because basic training was in San Antonio. “Because of my mother having passed away and me growing up with aunts and uncles, and leaving home the day after I graduated high school, I assumed the Air Force/government thought I had no significant ties to anyone. So, after basic training, they kept me on the base for months on what they called ‘casual’ status.”
When he finally received orders, Marlon was sent away to special cryptographic training, which lasted a few months. He was then sent to southern Italy, where his assignment was to “eavesdrop” on communications between Soviet block countries, which he did for about two years.
“Then, I married an Italian, Carmela D’Elia, and was kicked out. I was then reassigned to New Mexico, where I remained until my discharge,” he said. “I had originally brought Carmela with me to Minnesota, but she hated it there and all my relatives, where they lived, and only stayed a couple days making everyone’s life miserable.
“My aunt and uncle signed for me to get a car – a 1960 Buick LeSabre and we took off for New Mexico in a couple days. Just like Minnesota, Carmela hated New Mexico and wanted to go back to Italy. I sent her back, but there her mother said she had brought disgrace to her family and sent her back again.”
After the Air Force, Carmela wanted her and Marlon to go back to Italy, which they did for a few months. Then, Marlon left for New York, saying he needed a job.
He got one almost immediately at the “New York Daily News” as a research analyst. He progressed at what was then the largest circulation newspaper in the world, until he received an offer from John Wolf – who became his biggest mentor – to move to Dallas with the “Dallas Times Herald.”
COMING INTO FOCUS
“I stayed with the Times Herald until a few months after it was bought by Dean Singleton. He was great at making deals to buy things, but had no judgement in terms of who to trust to work for him afterwards,” Marlon said. “I gave up and forced the issue and left. Little did I know getting a new job at an upper level in a major American newspaper would be hard. I found I could not get hired anyplace because I had been making too much for a lower level position and there were no upper level positions available except at the ‘Dallas Morning News.’ I had a non-compete agreement with them, so they could not touch me.”
There was only one option – start his own newspaper. So “Focus News” was born.
“We published once the first month, then went to weekly, then finally went to five days a week and renamed it to ‘Focus Daily News,'” Marlon said.
Revenues grew to about a million dollars a year. Then, COVID stopped everything. “All our regular advertisers moved to television and revenues dropped to almost nothing,” Marlon said.
GOING FORWARD
At 76, Marlon is facing health challenges that have forced him to slow down and focus more on himself. Marlon admits he’s unlikely to own another business, and his days of working in the industry on a daily basis are behind him.
Still, as he reflects on his career, he sums it up in a few words, “I wouldn’t trade it for anything!”
He hopes that in this changing world, there are still plenty of youngsters anxious to enter the world of information he has enjoyed for so long. After all, whether printed or through the social media world, news will always be news, and delivering it accurately and speedily will always be necessary to keep society informed.
His advice for those?
The age-old saying, “Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”
