HARD HITTING NY POST REPORTER STEVE DUNLEAVY DEAD AT 81

Steve Dunleavy With Geraldo Rivera

It is a very sad day for us old time media reporters. NY Post legend Steve Dunleavy has died in his Long Beach Long Island home at 81. 

Dunleavy was the last of the old time hard drinking newsman. I spent a lot of time with Steve in our hangout Langans and partying around New York City going from party to party.  We had many adventures.

I remember a few of them. Geraldo Rivera I remember had a boat cruise around Manhattan. We got ripped. Dunleavy was working at A Current Affair then. At the end of the cruise I asked Dunleavy to pose with the handicapped kids in wheelchairs that were on the cruise. He sat on their laps and they loved it. We left the docks together. He wanted to go to Current Affair studios at FOX 5 and I was so drunk I could not remember where they were. We got into a cab and Dunleavy passed out. I kept trying to wake him up to tell the cab driver where the studio was, to no avail.  The cab I had cruising around the Eastside to find the studio, Dunleavy wanted to go to sleep in the studio, but I could not get him up. I told the cab to take me to the nightclub Tatou where I knew I could have my friends there help me wake Dunleavy up and I could get him to the studio. As soon as we pulled up to the club, Dunleavy woke up, saw we were at a bar, jumped out of the cab saying we need a nightcap. The party began once again. Once we left the club, he was out like a light once again. I took him home, he slept on the floor. Next morning we woke up, I was dying from a hangover, Dunleavy had no hangover, he jumped up, went to the fridge and made eggs and bacon. Was like the night before never happened with him.

 

Langan's Owner Des O'Brian With Model Anna Kulinova & Steve Dunleavy

In the old days is was in style to drink on the job. No one was better at it than Dunleavy. We would work on stories at Langans the NY Post hangout and he would phone his story in with a drink in hand and no matter what shape Dunleavy was in, his stories was always hard hitting and right on the money. For years after everyone was using computers at the NY Post, they kept a stenographer on their payroll just so Dunleavy could phone in a story. When Dunleavy retired, so did the stenographer. 

Dunleavy spent many a night sleeping at the NY Post, sometimes I would join him. We slept next to the Page Six desks. Dunleavy would get up and go to the health club to shower and I would somehow make my way home. He was rarely hungover. 

Langans was our home in those days and Steve Dunleavy was a legend there. He rarely paid for booze but so many people went to Langans just to see Dunleavy so Langans made a lot of money just having Dunleavy there. He was a icon in the media world. Everyone wanted to chat with Steve Dunleavy.

Dunleavy used to tell me things his father told him. His father used to tell him if you can't tell a story, write a story. If you can't write a story, tell a story. Lucky Dunleavy could do both. He told story after story, like the time he drove into a bodega downtown after a few drinks. He said this is why he stopped driving. I laughed when he told me there were flowers all over his car. It was such a funny story. He laughed too. 

 

Steve Dunleavy

Dunleavy was pissed when they made the new no smoking laws in bars and restaurants. The two of us would be outside in the cold winter smoking and telling stories. We would trip over these garbage bags from the hotel and he helped me do a story on it. He then sent it to the city asking for something to be done. Dunleavy calling? It got taken care of. 

Most of all, Steve Dunleavy had a heart. He loved everyone. He could have a chat with the richest person in the world and then chat with a homeless person on the street and have a cigarette with him. This was Steve Dunleavy. This hard hitting newsman loved everyone and everyone loved Steve Dunleavy. I will miss him.

Photos By James Edstrom