Variety (Oct 1938)

52 VARIETY UTEtiATI Wediaesday^ October 26, 1938 Inside Europe' Followups Newspaper foUow-up procedure in keeping ap&ce of the news is being employed for tlie first time in a boolc in the case of John Guhther's 'Inside Europe/ and proving so successful as to point the way to a new handling of topical books. Latter are particu- larly risky in this time of rapidly- changing events. Generally rush jobs at special cost, a slight turn in events makes them dated. Has been found that the book reader wants his book on contemporary events as up to date as his newspaper. When Harper first brought out .'In- side Europe' in February, 1936, vol- ume was strictly news. But things were happening fast then, as now, and future of the book, which had developed into a best seller, v/as threatened. Publisher immediately put Gunther to Work to bring the volume up to date, and he's been at it practically ever, since. Have been a number of editions of the book, each with events added since the close of the time of the pre- vious edition. Now, the book is on the press again, Gunther having added another 15,000 words of new material and bringing the time up to October, 1938. Around 75,000 words haye been added by Gunther to the original book since its first appearance. That's sufficient wordage for a new book in itself. New Mag Publlsliing Trend Trend in new mags is. to bimonthly and even quarterly publication, as 'affording publishers a line on the prospects of their new periodicals with a roinimtjm of outlay. Whereas a publisher formerly got out a second and even a lliird issu6 of a liiag be- fore he could learn that he shouldn't (Bven have issued the .first, biinonthly 'or quiarterly publicationp givfes .the publisher sufficient time to dfetermine .whether his new periodical is worth continuing. . It's a .simple matter to make publi- cation- more frequent ^ soon as the new. bii&bnthly or quarterly catches onl ' Classic example is Esquire, which, because of unusually heavy produc- tion - cost, began, as a' quarterly. Caught on in short order and as quickly went to monthly publication. Current example Is The Woman, di- gest taag for femmes. Intended as a bimonthly, but second, issue two months .later convinced its sponsors It' was in, and it's now a monthly. Some !pubiishers, preferring to play wholly safe, start: off new mags as one-sh6t$i undated. Gives the publi- cation an. unlimited period in which to sfell, ,yet can be followed up .with a dated siecbnd issue any time the de- nxand warrants. time that's ever been known to hap- pen in publishing business. Fact that poll hadn't been going accurately from start was evident when heavy Democratic wards re- ported big Republican majorities, Sun-Tele, in front-page editorial, said it had learned of cases where Democratic leaders told their con- stituents to mark their post-card bal- lot Bepublican. New 'News Confidence' Bill New York State Society of News- paper Editors will make another attempt to have the legislature adopt a 'news confidence' bill. Dwlght Marvin, editor of The Record News- papers, Troy, has been appointed chairman of a committee to work for the passage, at the 1939 session of the lawmakers, of a measure pre- pared by the society. This action was taken at a meeting in Syracuse last week. Previous efforts by the society, individual publishers and legislative correspondents to put such a statute on the books met with failure. The bills did not even get out of com- mittee. Editors, at last week's gathering, also received reports which indi- cated that newspapers still have a strong hold on the public. The num- ber of phone calls received during the European "crisis was cited as one example of this. Emphasized was the fact the public still depends upon newspapers for full accounts of stories and situations tabbed by broadcasters. Connolly's Scoop Reportorlal training of Joseph V, Connolly, general manager of Hearst newspapers, stood hftn in good stead last week and INS got a scoop when plane in which he .was a passenger, caught . fire 1,400 ifeet up. Blaze started in right engine of twq- mbtored ship just a few minutes after plane had left Montgomery, Ala., for night hop to Atlanta. . Pilot set blazing ship down in a field, how- ever, and passengers and crew got out split seconds before tvfo minor explosions made an inferno out of craft. Connolly headed for nearest tele- phone, not stopping to get a lacerated finger fixed up until he had .tele- phoned his story to New York, giv- ing Hearst morning sheets, and' INS clients a clean one-hour scobp .on the'story. George P. Patnam's Comeback George Palmer=, Putnam, on the Coast for' some time, has informed friends in the east he's returning to the book; publishing .biz. Setting up headquarters iii Hollywood, as George Palmer. Putnam, Inc., witli » selected list of books, both fiction and non fiction., Already has the ^ublicatibn rights 'tb'' twoi novels by 'scribblers non W;orking: on the Coast, 'Holly- Wood Doctor' and 'Stutit. GiipV. He's a grandson of the first George Palmer Putnam, who founded the New Yo^k arid London publishing house of-that name. Firm, now con- trolled by Minton • & Balch, cele- brliteg its 100th year this nibhth. Putnam, husband of Amelia Ear- hart; has been out of the book pub- •lishing biz^ipr some years. Was for a tiine on the editorial board of Paramount , Coast She^ts^ Charity Game Los Angeles newspaper publishers are huddling over ilie idea of a big sporting event (>)ace a year, pro- ceeds td take cdte of their charities, tinder consi<|eratibh is a post^season football game- betweep tl^e profes- sional chanii>s of ihe east and inid- west In the Coliseum under the man- agement Of Tom Gallery. Pro football is not permitted in the Coliseum but it is believed game could be arranged if the combined newspapers put on the pressure. One . big game would simplify the charity problem,and keep the sports pages free from paper-sponsored Ibenefits .throughout the year. Pitt Political Battle Latest outgrowth of hottest po- litical fight in Pennsylvania's history,, which has already resulted in coun- ter libel suits of Moe Annenberg and Senator Joe Guffey, was aban- donment last week by Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph of its , Allegheny County straw vote. Paper charged wide sabotage by Democrats- and dropped the whole idea after it had been running several weeks, fltst F. D. B. Gets Postage Protest Aiming its campaign directly' at President Roosevelt,. National Com- mittee to Abolish Postal Discrimina tion Against Books has sent the Chief Executive two parcels as a striking exhibit of postal discrimination. One was made up of religious lit erature, consisting of three Bibles weighing five pounds, and which re- quires 65c for mailing to the Coast Other parcel, also weighing five pounds, consisted of 12'pulp mags, requiring eight cents postage to the Scknie destination. . Along with the exhibit went let- ters, of protest agaiilst the postal dis- crunination from numerous individ- uals, organizations and institutions. All Of them favor the lowering, of the postal rates on books to same scale as mags. Guild Indicts Seven Members Seven members of the Camden Courier-Post imit of the Newspaper Guild have been indicted by the ex- ecutive council Of the Philly and Camden Guild for withdrawing their designation of the ANG as their col- lective bargaining agent and attempt- ing to set up an independent union. Guild' charges that articles of the proposed indie union were printed in the Courier-Post plant and include provisions for 'constructive firings,' Articles were distributed in the city room preceding the posting of a notice on the bulletin board of a meeting to form a 'New Jersey Edi- torial Association.' Notice said that Walter Batezel, chairman of the Guild unit, is prez of the association, and that Steve O'Keefe, another Guildsman, is secretary. They were among those indicted. sued by Av6n House, although it also puts out an occasional limited edi- tion, ; , . Encyclopedia of poets published by Avon Houce is a standard reference book in libraries throughout the country. Torkville Gets New Weekly Yorkville section of New York will not be long without a newspaper following the suspension of the Yorkville Advance, reputedly as the result of a tiff with the American Newspaper G/aild. New weekly newspaper, Yorkville Eagle, begins this week to fiU the gap. Publisher of the new weekly is the Renew Publishing Co., of which William M. Wener is prez. Renew is Wener spelled backward. A. R. Zicha is business mancger, and Lois Bull, forrherly on a number of metropoli- tan dailies, including the old Graphic, is editor, r. Yorkville Eagle is a tab. Luncheons on Regular Sked Book and Author 'Luncheons, ex- perimented with last year by the American flooksellers' Assn. to' es- tablish closer relationship between authors and the book-buying public^ have been sb successful they will be made regular affairs. Six monthly luncheons are set for this season, all of them at the Astor hotel. New York, First of the series will be held Nov. 9, with Dorothy- Thompson and Thomas Maiih to talk. As with the three experimental Book and Author Luncheons, book- buying public will be invited to break bread with the authors. Double Action's Pulp Record With the addition of four new mags to the Double Action Group string, that concern noiV gets out more pulps than any other publish- ing house in.America—30 in all. Claim is put forth by Louis H. Sil- berkleit, the Double. Action Group head, after adding Complete Cow- boy, Undercover Detective, Air Ac- tion and Co;ivboy Short Stories'to his chain. Silberkleit, .besides his publishing duties, is editorial, director for his 30 mags. Has Abner J. Sundell and Cliff Campbell as associate eds to help select the mass of storied' that go into his periodicals. Paging Pushkin Data All ai-vailable material in America 'relating to the Russian poet, Pushkin, is being assembled by the League of American Writers for exhibition in !the Pushkin museum in Moscow, land group-has sent out an appeal to jwriters, editors, publishers, transla- tprs and 'any others who may have Pushldn pieces. Wants the items'for . donation to tjie permanent Pushkin collection in Moscow, and will forwatd the con- tWbutionp. to the Union Of Soviet Writers, -which is gathering the ma- terial for the museum. Scrlbner's Self-Plug To climax a series of special ar- ticles dealinjg with magazines, Scrlb- ner's this month has prepared an ar- ticle about itself. This will not go into the regular issue, however, but will be bound into 5,000'special cop- ies as a sales promotional stunt for advertising agencies, etc. Since taken over by Harlan Logan Associates, Scribner's has launched an ambitious campaign. Skolsky's Fiiiale Sidney Skolsky terminated his as- sociation with King Features by tagging his column, in the Hollywood Citizen-News, 'This is my last col- umn, goodbye.' He is weighing of- fers from the Chicago Times, N. Y. Evening Post and other sheets. Jimmy Fidler is now supplying the Hollywood news to many Hearst papers previously carrying Skolsky. American Searchlight Resumes After a hiatus of some months, the American Searchlight, militant anti- Nazi publication, resumes shortly. Again published by . Eugene* F. Grigat, with Philip Fahlteich'as as- sociate, and with format changed froni tabloid newspaper to magt^zihe. Revived American Searchlight will appear -monthly and- print order for the first issue under its new lease of life is 50,000. Publication offices, formjeirly in BrooWyn, N. Y., now in Manhattan.' Gibbons' World Press New book-publishing .company has been formed by Cromwell Gibbons to be known as the World Press. Plans call for flction only, with a novel entitled 'The Bat Woman' as the starter. Preliminary reports re the World Press had Phil Painter; mag pub- lisher, as interested. Grew out of the fact that Gibbons contemplated printing at the Painter plant. Paint- er disavows any connection with World Press. Farrell W-T's Drama Ed Frank Farrell, formerly feature writer and theatrical-interviewer'for the sheet, .has been appointed dra- matic editor,-of the ifew York World- Telegram. He succeeds. Ra,lph Palmer, Who was forced to give ^ up the job because of illness. Ui^iderstood Palmer i will probably be put. on 'W.T's rewrite staff when he returns to. work. Besides handling legit, Farrell will also edit the film, music, radio and nitery news for the World-Telly. Cultural Herald Resumes With four publishers in place of the former one, the Cultural Herald resumes publication this month. Mag, which has for its purpose tol- erance and enlightenment, halted around a year ago. Formerly gotten out by Max Fish- ier, it. now has J. Gay Seabourne, Gustave F. Beck and David Horo- witz in addition. Besides a division of editorial duties, they also comprise an editorial board in lieu of a single editorial head. David Blum's Subsid David Blum, who heads. Avon House, book-publishing concern, has formed a subsidiary, Valiant House. Purpose of the subsidiary is to get out various books for private circu- lation only., General boolts are is- Burnslde-Prlce Tinanclal Follies' R. H, Burnside and Georgie Price, latter now in brokerage biz, will stage the 'Financial Follie?,' initial revue to be presented by the N. Y, Financial Writers Assn., Dec. 16 at the Astor hotel. v Association is made up of financial scribes on New York daily news- papers. Sports Mag Quits After missing an occasional issue, All American Sports Magazine, monthly, has quit publication. Ne- gotiations are on by Nat Fleischer, the mag's publisher, for sale of the periodical's title and assets, and it may reappear under other auspices. Fleischer continues publishing his other mag, The Ring, as well as books on -various aspects of sports. NEW PERIODICALS World Ports," new; travel mag is- sued by Athe World Ports Publishing Co., headed; by John C. Brbderick. Bro.derick also gets out ,the Nautical Gazette. Broderick editor as well as published of World Ports., ' Softball is a new mag for dev- otees of the rapidly-growing sport and serves as official publication of Amateur Softball A«sn. of America. Publication headquarters in Lansing, Mich., with Seth H. Whitmore, of Lansing l^tate Journal, editing. As- sociate ed is Leo Fischer, of the Chi- cago American sports staff. Guild News, organ of the Artists Guild, organization of artists' and commercial illustrators, has resumed publication as a monthly news mag. Carries liews and feature stories of artists and the art world. Cost to non-members of the Guild is'50c a year. Edward A. Wilson editing, with Charles Downes as associate ed. Booksellers' Quarterly to appear shortly as the official organ of the Booksellers Guild of America, as well as a general trade mag for booksell- ers, writers, educators and librarians. Terence Holliday, prez, of the Book- sellers Guild, will be editor,, with Martin Kamin and Jerome E, Brooks as associate eds. The Tliomlst is philosophical quar- terly mag being reaSied by Sheed & Ward, book publishers, to debut next spring. Although Sheed & Ward publishes books , both hiere and in England; The Thoimist, according to present plans, will be for American consumption only. Mag, which will be a pretentious affair^ will sell for $1 a copy. Editorial staff not fully set as yet. Office Life Magazine, fiction and fact monthly for .femme office work- ers, now in the making for an in- itial -appearance- early next year.. Sponsor is a group operating a se- lect secretarial employment agency, but the proposed periodical, it's claimed, will in no wise be a house organ. Rather, a general publica- tion for wide appeal. No material desired until editorial staff and policy are fully set. Amusement Guide Is a new pub- lication rfor metropolitan New York which Alfred Zweig and Roswell Hagerty have in preparation. Pub- lication, which will probaly appear semii-annually, will, embody an al- legedly new. idea in the form of ad- missions to various amusements in- cluded in the purchase .price. A sort of combination amusement mag and cut-rate counter. Patriot Digest latest addition to the huge number" of pocket-size digest mags, Has for its purpose 'defense of the American tradition,' and strict- ly anti-radical. Group sponsoring the new - publication is headed by R. Caldwell Patton. Editorial offices in Oyster Bay, L, I, Ski, new mag for the ski enthu- siast, will make its first appearance early in December. Company formed to publish the periodical is headed by Henry Blackmann Sell, advertis- ing agency exec. Colin F. Soule ed- iting, with Albert F. Snyder as man- aging editor. Pbc M'News; No Eevlewt Following its recent change of ownership, the Kansas Ciiy Journal has revamped its drama and film de- partments, Lowell Lawrence, who formerly handled films, drama and radio, contmues with the latter two departments. Picture coverage ia now assigned to John Cameron Swayze, along with his chores of columning and feature writing. In line with its new policy, Jour- nal is handling films strictly as news events and Eliminating routine re- views. Mag's Money-Back Guarantee Money-back guarantee of satis- faction is being empldyed by a mag for the first time in the case of True, one of the Fawcett publications! Fawcett offers to return the purchase price of the periodical to those who, after reaiding the copy, feel that have not received their money's worth., Money-back thing goes for Tru only of the Fawcett mags. N. T. Sun's Daily Nitery Column New York Sun, which heretofore carried a nitery column only on Saturdays, installed it as a daily fea- ture Monday (24). Pieces are writ- ten by Malcolm Johnson, nitery edi- tor, but not including reviews. N. Y.' VCorld-Telegram recently switched from a Saturday column to daily also. LITERATI OBITS THIS WEEK Roy Williams^ 64, creator of the comic strip, 'Babe Bunting,' died of a heart attack' at his home in Phila- delphia, Oct. 16, Strip was handled by the Ledger Syndicate and for many .years. Williams was a cartoon- ist on the Ledger. George Kearney, manager of 'the Ledger Syndicate, said a'nothei: artist will continue the ?trii}, which appears in 72 papers. James E. Glass, 40, assistant news editor of the Rochester Times-Union, committed suicide Oct. 18 by hang- ing in his home. He had been de- spondent over ill health. He worked for many years on the Buffalo Eve- ning Times, coming to Rochester Journal-American eight years ago, and joining the Times-Union after the Hearst paper folded. Surviving are hia' widow, mother and two brothers. Harry Stillwell Edwards, 83, dean of Georgia authors, editor, lecturer, novelist and short story -writer, died Oct. 22 of bronchial pneumonia in Macon, Ga,, hospital. He started as a reporter oh Macon Telegraph, be- came associate editor with Albert R. Lamar and then purchased control of paper. Later he became part own- er ahd associate editor of Macon Evening News. CHATTER Arnold Limn here for a lecture tour. The Nelson Doubledays have gone abroad. May Roan has taken a house on Staten Island. Erika Mann back and will apply •for U. S. .citizenship. ; Sydney!A. Clark off to Paris to do new books both on France and Scan- dinavia. . Riehard Halliburton's project to saU the Pacific in a Chinese junk has fizzled out. Cornelia Otis Skinner's book of sketches, 'Dithers and Jitters,' to be published Nov. 9. Simon Michael Bessie's book, 'Jazz Journalism: The Story of the Tabloid Newspaper,' is out. After, turning out huge amount of prose< Walter Hartman finally trying his hand at a play. David Yaffa, rep for King Features in Australia, in New York for visit and business confabs. Dr. Frank H. 'Vizetelly, the word expert, has joined Better English mag as an associate ed. Howard Spring, author of the cur- rent best seller, 'My Son, My Son,' has begun a new novel. Arthur E. .Griffiths, editor of Reader's Digest, married Edith Wil- liams aboard his yacht. Collection of 'Profiles From the New Yorker' will be out Nov, 7 with a preface by Clifton Fadiman, After 16 years of work, James Joyce, in Paris, putting the finishing touches to his 'Work in Progress.' Florence Fisher Parry» columnist for Pittsburgh Press, in New York for a couple of weeks covering the new openings. John St. Peter elevated to man- -aging-editorship of Bulletin-Index, Pittsburgh class weekly. He for- merly covered stage and screen. Standard Publishing Co. has been formed by Roy S, Ashton and Hyman H. Hammer to publish books on medical and allied subjects for lay readers. Hammer is business man- ager of Standard Publishing Co., with Ashton as editorial director.