LOOK: Stephen King’s 1st Big Payday

Stephen King celebrates his birthday this week. With the blockbuster 'It' in the theaters everybody's talking. At 70, he's hotter than ever! We love that his alma mater, UMO honored his major milestone this week with an old news clipping announcing 'his debut on the big money literary scene'. The Maine Campus is the University of Maine at Orono's newspaper. Stephen King wrote a column for it when he was a student there some 50 years ago.

Here's the clipping from the early 70s. Notice the figure reportedly paid for the rights to publish the paperback edition of his horror classic "Carrie". "Four thousand, thousand" Weird number, huh. Commas matter, bub. Even weirder, check out King's photo. That image is sure to interrupt us as we wind down tonight at bedtime. Can. Not. Unsee! Ahhhhhhh! Happy Birthday Mr. King. And thanks again for including WBLM in your collection of short stories, "The Skeleton Crew".