The Victor Davis Journalism Archive
In 1981 Victor interviewed Sean Connery in St Moritz
Victor Davis the distinguished entertainment journalist of the Daily Express and the Mail on Sunday donated a fascinating and valuable collection of his professional work to the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies in April 2009.
The archive records, on a substantial number of cassette tapes, Victor’s interviews with major film and television celebrities from Britain and America between 1967 and 1994. His spiral bound notebook catalogues an alphabetical listing of interviews with dates and places.
The letter ‘B’, for example, records interviews with David Bowie, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, Mel Brooks, Candice Bergen, Roy Boulting, Kathy Bates, Peter Bogdanovitch, Charles Bronson, Jim Belushi, Anne Bancroft, Drew Barrymore and William Baldwin, among many others.
Victor’s working life in journalism has been wide ranging. He began as a copy boy at the Express in 1945 moving to a reporter’s job at the weekly Streatham News (a London Weekly) in 1950 and then to the Daily Sketch in 1956; he was later night news editor of the Daily Sketch and (simultaneously) The People, Sunday newspaper.
From 1960 to 1962 he was a foreign correspondent for the Express, reporting events in the Congo. He became night news editor from 1962-5 and worked in the paper’s New York Bureau from 1965-7. In 1967 Victor was appointed Express’ Show Business editor and finally moved to the Mail on Sunday in 1984. From 1968, Victor wrote under pen names for various magazines around the globe and also found time to publish three novels for Victor Gollancz, titled The Ghostmaker, Queens’ Ransom and Getting Away With It.
He has also published a number of articles in British Journalism Review reflecting on his distinguished career in journalism as well as changes to the professional practice of journalism.
Career history of Victor Davis
- 1945 – 1947 Copy boy, Daily Express
- 1947 – 1949 National Service. Army. Served in Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea.
- 1950 – 1956 Reporter, Streatham News, a south-west London weekly. Also acted as stringer for a number of national newspapers.
- 1956 – 1960 Staff reporter, Daily Sketch. Later night news editor of D. Sketch and (simultaneously) The People, Sunday newspaper.
- 1960 – 1962 Daily Express, reporter and foreign correspondent (Congo, etc).
- 1962 – 1965 Night news editor.
- 1965 – 1967 New York bureau, covering USA, Canada, Central and South America, Caribbean.
- 1967 - 1984 Show Business Editor (celebrity interviewer).
- 1984 – 1994 Show Business Editor, The Mail on Sunday.
- 1994 Officially retired but retained by TMoS to write features including a financial column FAME and FORTUNE.
Misc: From 1968 wrote under pen names for magazines (global). Subjects: film star interviews and love stories. Also had three novels published by Victor Gollancz. (The Ghostmaker; Queens’ Ransom; Getting Away With It).
British Journalism Review articles:
- The Father of Scandal. Vol 13. No 4.
- The Stars Look Down. Vol 14. No 2.
- Murder, We Wrote. Vol 15. No 1.
- Nightmare on Oxford Street. Vol 18. No 3.
- Blame It On Blow Up. Vol 19. No 2.
Have written several articles for Saga Magazine on modern military history (a personal interest).