an important media outlet; columnists exercised a great deal of power in providing publicity for the celebrities of the day. But, whereas gossip columnists as a group were not held in high regard, Wilson had the reputation of being different: he was a trained journalist who double-checked facts, he was much influenced by his Mid-western upbringing and avoided innuendo and sensationalism, and he sought to cover his stories as real news items. With a reputation for being fair and honest, Wilson was trusted so much that celebrities willingly gave him their stories. His chronicling of the Broadway theatre scene during the "Golden Age" of show business formed the basis for a book published in 1971, The Show Business Nobody Knows. He signed his columns with the tag line, "That's Earl, brother." His nickname was "Midnight Earl". In later years, the name of his column was changed to Last Night With Earl Wilson. In his final years with the Post, he alternated with the paper's entertainment writer and restaurant critic, Martin Burden, in turning out the column. (Burden, who died in 1993, took over the Last Night column full-time upon Wilson's retirement.) Wilson is also the author of two books, Show Business Laid Bare, and an unauthorized biography of Frank Sinatra, Sinatra: An Unauthorized Biography. The former book is notable for revealing the extramarital affairs of President John F. Kennedy. Appearances on television and in films In the early 1950s, Wilson was an occasional panelist on the NBC game show Who Said That?, in which celebrities tried to determine the speaker of quotations taken from recent news reports. On January 19, 1952, Wilson guest-starred on the CBS live variety show Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town, in which hostess Faye Emerson visited Columbus to accent the kinds of music popular in the Ohio capital city. Wilson appeared in a few films as himself, notably Copacabana (1947) with Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda, A Face in the Crowd (1957) with Andy Griffith, College Confidential (1960), Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) with Buster Keaton, Paul Lynde and Don Rickles, and Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968) with Doris Day. Wilson also hosted the DuMont TV show Stage Entrance from May 1951 to March 1952. Death Wilson, at age 79, died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Yonkers, New York on January 16, 1987. Having battled Parkinson's disease for several years, he suffered a stroke