| Former type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Publishing |
| Fate | Assets acquired by Random House and Classic Media[2]:215–216 |
| Founded | 1910 |
| Founder(s) | Edward Henry Wadewitz Albert H. Wadewitz |
| Defunct | August 16, 2001[1] |
| Headquarters | Racine, Wisconsin, United States |
| Number of locations | New York City Los Angeles, Poughkeepsie, New York |
| Divisions | Golden Books Family Entertainment (Little Golden Books) |
| Subsidiaries | Whitman Publishing Company Gold Key Comics K.K. Publications |
Western Publishing, also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company was a Racine, Wisconsin firm responsible for publishing the Little Golden Books. Western Publishing also produced children's books and family-related entertainment products as Golden Books Family Entertainment.[3] The company was based in Racine with editorial offices in New York City and Los Angeles, California.
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The company was formed by brothers Edward Henry and Albert H. Wadewitz when they bought Racine's West Side Printing Company in September 1907 for $2,504 and changed its name in 1910. In 1915, the company acquired Chicago publisher Hammerung-Whitman Publishing Co., which became its subsidiary, Whitman Publishing Company. Another subsidiary was K.K. Publications, named after Kay Kamen, manager of character merchandising at Walt Disney Studios from 1933 to 1949.[4] K.K. Publications became defunct during the mid/late 1960s.
By the late 1970s, Western was one of the largest commercial printers in the USA. It had four manufacturing plants and two distribution centers from Kansas to Maryland. It boasted of installing some of the first heatset web offset printing presses in the US as well has having the largest offset sheetfed presses, some exceeding 78" printing in five colors, and one of the largest bindery operations in the USA. Among other things, it printed mass paperback books under contract, was the primary manufacturer and distributor of the board games Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary, plus other table-top games. It developed and printed specialty cookbooks, premiums and collateral for many Fortune 500 clients. At one time, Western printed almost everything from "business cards to billboards", and employed over 2500 full time people. Most of their printing plants were closed and print operations consolidated to Racine by the mid 1990s.
With licenses for characters from Walt Disney Productions, Warner Brothers, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Walter Lantz Studio, Western produced comics based on these characters, as well as original works. The editorial staff at the West Coast office over the years included Eleanor Packer, Alice Cobb, Chase Craig, Zetta Devoe, Del Connell and Bill Spicer. Bernie Zuber was an editorial artist, a position similar to that of a production artist, from 1957 until 1982.[5] Oskar Lebeck, Matt Murphy and Wally Green are among those who oversaw the East Coast office.
From 1938 to 1962, Western's comics were published with the Dell Comics imprint; Dell also handled the distribution and financing of the comics. During 1962, Western ended its partnership with Dell and published comics itself, establishing Gold Key Comics. This imprint continued until the late 1970s, after which newsstand distribution was discontinued in favor of distribution to toy stores under the "Whitman Comics" banner. The company stopped publishing comics in 1984, and all its licenses have since gone to other publishers. Many of these new licensees have included among their offerings reprints of stories originally published by Western.
Prior to 1962, besides comics distributed through Dell, Western had some comics published under its own name, particularly giveaways such as March of Comics and the annual kite safety title (which featured an array of licensed characters) published over a span of 32 years for power utility companies.[6] Both series had print runs in the hundreds of thousands.[7]
In the 1990s Valiant Comics licensed Magnus, Turok and Dr. Solar and published modified versions of the characters, initially to great success. By mid-decade Valiant's sales slumped as the speculative boom collapsed. It ceased publishing in 1999.
In 2004, Dark Horse Comics began reprinting some of Western's original comic book properties, which are now owned by Random House, along with Tarzan from the Jesse Marsh era. The company plans to re-launch new versions of various Gold Key characters with Jim Shooter, who spearheaded the Valiant revival, as head writer.[8]
Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, Western published a wide range of children books (puzzle books, coloring books, Tell-a-Tale books, Big Little Books), mostly under the Golden Books and Whitman Publishing brand names. The Little Golden Books was a very popular series. Lucille Ogle helped develop the format for the low-priced books, which told simple stories and were among the first children's books with full-color illustrations. The first was published in 1942.[9] Beginning as the "Whitman Famous Classics," and later renamed the "Golden Press" imprint, Western published a series of (public domain) classics, such as Little Women, Little Men, Black Beauty and Heidi.
From the 1940s to the 1980s, Western published several series of books for older children and young teenagers, initially under its Whitman line. Girls' mystery series included Trixie Belden, Ginny Gordon, Donna Parker, Meg Duncan and Trudy Phillips. Boys' series included the Walton Boys, Power Boys, and Troy Nesbit mysteries. The series from the 1950s to the 1970s also included a number of titles licensed from popular movies and television shows: Lassie, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, many television Westerns, and Walt Disney's Spin and Marty and Annette, (from the serial featuring Annette Funicello that aired on The Mickey Mouse Club). The company also was the original American publisher of Tintin, issuing six titles in English translation in 1959-1960, before discontinuing further releases because of what were considered disappointing sales.[10]
In 1937 Western, as the request of Kay Kamen (who oversaw licensing and marketing at Disney), assumed production of the newsstand version of Mickey Mouse Magazine,[11] which in October 1940 was succeeded by the comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories. Then in late 1955 Western initiated Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Magazine with content produced by Disney Studio staff members. It was intended to promote The Mickey Mouse Club television series. Eventually the name was changed to Walt Disney's Magazine and the focus shifted to contemporary Disney movie and television productions. During the 1960s Western published The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls with Cracky the Parrot as its mascot.
Golden Press for many years was publisher of Betty Crocker cookbooks, reputed to have sold in the millions. Often these were issued in a 3-ring binder format so recipe pages could be removed for easy consultation while cooking.
Western had a very lucrative division that used Western's expertise in specialized, technically unique publishing formats.
Western printed automobile service manuals for Volvo until at least 1989.
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments.
The popular series of nature guides, Golden Guide, were published with the Golden Press name. This series has since been revived by St. Martin's Press. The company published a series of guidebooks for coin collectors with the Whitman name, which has been sold to H.E. Harris.
With partners Dell and Simon & Schuster, the company sponsored the Story Book Shop on Main Street, U.S.A. in Disneyland which opened on July 17, 1955 and closed April 1, 1995.[12] In addition it was one of the initial investors in the park by virtue of being a part-owner of Disneyland, Inc.. This was done in appreciation of its long and lucrative business relationship with Walt Disney.
During the 1990s, at least three Golden Books Showcase Store locations were opened, which featured only Western Publishing products. The first was opened in the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg, Illinois in November 1992; the second in CityWalk Center outside Universal Studios Hollywood during June 1993; and the third store was opened in Rockefeller Center in New York City during April 1994. They have all since closed. In the early 1990s they opened a few Books-R-Us stores inside Toys-R-Us. They were located in New Jersey, New York and Boston.
Mattel bought Western in June 1979,[2]:202 only to sell it in 1984 to private investors.[2]:204 By mid-1996, under the supervision of Simon & Schuster expatriate Richard E. Snyder, it was renamed Golden Books Family Entertainment[2]:213–214 and tried to emphasize on children's books. It sold the adult books (Golden Guide) to St. Martin's Press in 1999, and later the H.E. Harris coin company bought Whitman Coin Products from St. Martin’s Press in 2003 and renamed it Whitman Publishing. By 1997, Western Publishing was absorbed into the Golden Books Publishing Company.
Golden Books Family Entertainment was acquired by Classic Media Inc. and Random House in a bankruptcy auction for $84.4 million on August 16, 2001, with Classic gaining rights to Golden's film and TV library (including Lamb Chop, Lassie, the pre-1974 Rankin/Bass library, among other titles) as well as the production, licensing and merchandising rights for Golden's characters, while Random House grabbed Golden's publishing rights.[1] Historian Michael Barrier has lamented the apparent loss of Western's business records for the use of future researchers.[13]