The ABC Era: When Hollywood was Hollywood

As questions hang over the future of Disney's network, photos tell the storied history of a risk-taking underdog

GOSSIP GUY Walter Winchell, circa 1955, was a “hard-boiled guy with that hat and the telegraph and everything,” says media historian Michael Socolow. Winchell started on ABC radio before getting his own TV show. “Women loved his show because it was celebrity gossip. It was a cross between TMZ and the Drudge Report.” (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

ABC’s ro…