New York Graphic
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The New York Graphic (not to be confused with The Daily Graphic) was a tabloid published from 1924 to 1932 by physical culture promoter and publishing mogul Bernarr Macfadden.[1]
From the beginning it featured a column by gossip columnist Walter Winchell; in 1931, sportwriter-turned-Broadway-columnist Ed Sullivan debuted his column, Ed Sullivan Sees Broadway, in the Graphic.[2]
Famously trashy and enormously popular, journalist Ben Yagoda in 1981 called it "one of the low points in the history of American journalism." According to Yagoda, typical headlines were “Aged Romeo Wooed Stage Love with a Used Ring," “Weed Parties in Soldiers’ Love Nest,” and “Two Women in Fight, One Stripped, Other Eats Bad Check.” Yagoda quotes "one reader" as saying “The only value ever claimed for it was that it educated readers up to a point where they were able to understand the other tabloids.”[1]
In 1929, Time Magazine in a profile of Winchell, wrote:
- Not all readers of that gum-chewers' sheetlet, the New York Graphic, are gum-chewers. Some of them snuggle the pink-faced tabloid into Park Avenue homes, there to read it in polite seclusion. They have reason: the Graphic's gossip-purveying, scandal-scooping, staccato-styled Monday column, "Your Broadway and Mine."[3]
Further evidence that the Graphic was secretly enjoyed by the intelligentsia is provided by a 1929 Cole Porter lyric, in which the heroine asks "Should I read Euripides or continue with the Graphic?"[4]
In 1930, Time, after saying that "Publisher Bernarr Macfadden's feelings are hurt by any suggestion that he or any of his publications are pornographic," went on to add that recent Graphic headlines included "Girls Need Sex Life for Beauty" and "Rudy Vallee Not So Hot In Love's Arms."[5]
Barry Popik notes that "the New York Public Library believed the Graphic to be trashy and didn't collect the issues, which are now lost."[6]
One of the few times the New York Times ever mentioned the New York Graphic concerns the Graphic's loss of a libel suit brought by Doris Keane, wife of Basil Sydney. The Graphic had named Keane as Fatty Arbuckle's "latest lady love."[7]
Despite its enormous popularity, the Graphic had trouble securing advertisers, and folded in 1932 having lost $11,000,000.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Yagoda, Ben (1981), "The True Story of Bernarr Macfadden," American Heritage 33(1), December, 1981; reference used for this article was the online version,Ben Yagoda (December, 1981). The True Story of Bernarr Macfadden: Lives and Loves of the Father of the Confession Magazine. American Heritage. Retrieved on December 13, 2006. (Published 1924-32; "low point in American journalism;" examples of headlines; "educated readers ... to the point where they were able to understand the other tabloids; lost $11,000.000)
- ^ Excerpt from Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan (2005-2006). Retrieved on December 13, 2006.. According to this source, Sullivan claimed his column would not promote the prurient; some thought the column’s claim of propriety merely funny, like a Burlesque dancer lecturing on grammar.
- ^ Turn to the Mirror. Time Magazine (1929-06-17). Retrieved on December 13, 2006. (The title is a reference to Winchell's move to Hearst's New York Mirror.
- ^ Porter, Cole (1929), "Which?" (Song lyric from Wake Up and Dream)
- ^ Hero Business. Time Magazine (September 22, 1930). Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
- ^ Barry Popik (2005-04-16). Orange Julius & Orange Juice Gulch. Retrieved on December 13, 2005.. Popik, who traces origins of New York phrases and expressions, credits Walter Winchell with originating the phrase "Orange Juice Gulch" to refer to Times Square. He says that it "appears that Walter Winchell coined this term in the New York Graphic in 1928" but that "Unfortunately, the New York Public Library believed the Graphic to be trashy and didn't collect the issues, which are now lost."
- ^ "Doris Keane Wins Appeal. New York Graphic Must Answer Libel Action, Highest Court Rules." The New York Times," March 3, 1926, p. 6
