Confidential v01n01 December 1952

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Get the full hi-res scan of this issue here.

So, I'm still at work on a post on editing tips for scans, but in the meantime I'm going to put up another outstanding new scan from my pal McCoy, another key issue in the history of the 20th century magazine, the first issue of perhaps the most scandalous magazine ever, Confidential. Some might know Confidential from its reference by James Ellroy's novel, L.A. Confidential (actually regarding Hush-Hush, one of Confidential's many, many imitators), and the very successful Kevin Spacey and Russel Crowe staring film based on the book. But until you read some issues of the prime era of Confidential, you probably won't realize exactly how outlandish this magazine was, an outright bull in the china shop of any imagined propriety in Hollywood. I was completely floored the first time I read an issue, and I guess most people who haven't will feel the same way.

Sure, the Hollywood of the 1920s was a veritable symbol of sin and wickedness, but William Hayes and his Motion Picture Production Code had done much to reform the image of Hollywood in the interim, and the studios did their best to control the behavior of their stars and portrayal of their moneymakers in the major media outlets and the motion picture magazines. Any bad press in the movie magazines on movie stars would mean being cut off from the studios, as the front offices wanted no interruption in the fluff pieces that the publicists were feeding the public. Veteran girlie magazine publisher, Robert Harrison (see an issue of Whisper and a little info on his girlie mags here), no paragon of virtue himself, thought of the secret, undercover world of Hollywood during the enormous interest in the Kefauver hearings on crime (or so the story goes), as Hollywood, too, was full of colorful personalities with glamorous lifestyles and dirty little secrets to be exposed. A fun history of the magazine came out just last year, Henry Scott's Shocking True Story, which I would definitely recommend to those with an interest in learning more. Scott's book is a concisely written account of the rise and fall of the magazine that is written so that each chapter covers a famous scandal exposed by the magazine intertwined with some great information on Harrison and how he ran his publishing outfit (run mostly by his many sisters) and how he managed to dig up his information. Harrison's many Hollywood snoops were able to acquire so much dirt on any given star that those featured were often scared to attack Harrison because he always had deeper facts on a celebrity they were scared he might reveal. An interesting side story tracks the career of one the magazine's editors, rabid red-hunter Howard Rushmore, who sought to use the magazine to curry political favor and further the anti-communist cause. The way the book manages to tie together the paranoia of McCarthyism and the nuclear age with the fear of Harrison in the Hollywood underbelly is an interesting feat. My one complaint is that the book seemed too short, even at 240 pages - but that's often the way it is with a good read. Shocking True Story is probably the best recent book on magazines behind Mark Adams' absolutely brilliant bio on Bernar MacFadden, Mr. America, which I plan on reviewing when I get to some posts on the MacFadden mags. An interesting corollary here is that Harrison began his career as a writer for MacFadden's New York Graphic, certainly belonging alongside Harrison's magazine as tabloid pioneers. I sure wish I could find some examples of the New York Graphic to scan - I hate that such a notorious and worthy publication for scanning is so ghosty...sigh.

But back to today's issue! The cover is plenty catchy, although it hasn't gone to the blue, red, and yellow color scheme that was so successful (and which not coincidentally were the main colors used on men's pulps during the first half of the century). Even in this first issue, you can tell Harrison has a success on his hands. This issue had a print run of 150,000, and I've never seen it for sale, so HUGE thanks again to McCoy for landing it and for the beauty scan. By August 1953 and issue number four with its Marilyn cover and Joe DiMaggio expose, the magazine had a print of 800,000. The numbers for peak circulation I've seen range from a staggering five to nine million copies. Coupled with the claim that every issue was passed around to an average of ten persons, it is quite apparent that the magazine was an absolute sensation and that Harrison was making a boatload of money on exposing the private lives of others. Humphrey Bogart said of the magazine's popularity, "Everybody reads it, but they say the cook brought it into the house."

Contents and mission statement. The lid is off! The truth without any trimmings. Every story 100% true! The first issue just shows glimmers of what is to come as far as celebrity dirt goes, but it's already full of fun, ridiculous, disturbing, and not-so-PC content.


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The first story speaks to supposed origins and the immense interest in the Kefauver crime hearings. But - Hot Springs, Arkansas, hub of organized crime?!?! "You can get anything you want in Hot Springs from a reefer or an entertaining blonde to a $10,000 bet, just by asking in the right place!" The Sheriff says, "We'll enforce the law here --- just as much as the people of Hot Springs want it enforced. They want an open town." Hmm...this doesn't quite sound like the Hot Springs where I've vacationed a time or two, nyuk nyuk.


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The second article would demonstrate a tactic that turned very succesful for Harrison, the buttering up in the upper-right corner of gossip columnist and McCarthy-ite Walter Winchell who would give the magazine some crucial hype during its formative era on his still very successful radio show and in his print columns. An article on the changing nature of prostitution, and emergence of the call-girl.


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Scott's book notes that the following article is entirely fiction. With sensational photos for certain.


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Love the disclaimer on the author. Good luck tracking that guy down, heh heh. Many Confidential writers took many aliases during their tenure at the magazine.



Ah, here's a bit of the fact-dropping and innuendo that would make the magazine so famous, an article on showman Billy Rose, best remembered for "Me and My Shadow" and one of my Tin Pan Alley faves, "It's Only a Paper Moon". All sorts of wild bits in this article. For a magazine that delivered the straight dope, there is a very careful and skillful use of words for innuendo and insinuation. Many Confidential writers were very skilled at making outrageous claims without making outrageous claims if you know what I mean.


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I've heard of boats going out to international waters for gambling but never of gambling in airplaines. Still, this plane is probably more comfortable than all the neon and noise in the modern casino, which is one of the reasons I always prefer the poker room...


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My goodness. The U.N. hating crowd at Fox News would just eat this article up! International affairs, indeed.


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To me, the most interesting article in the issue, on passing. Gents like Billy Rose might Americanize their name from Rosenberg (Harrison himself comes from a Jewish background), but blacks had to go much further in order to "Americanize", and here's an article on passing as white. McCoy and I had different takes on the article. It struck him as pointedly atrocious, while I found it very possibly subversive. Harrison never shied away from race, and, indeed, he used the scandal of miscegenation to sell many a magazine by associating stars like Mae West, Lana Turner, or Sammy Davis, Jr. with lovers of another race. I'll post the entire article so you can judge for yourself, I'm still not sure if the article is just playing on paranoia or making the very true statement that we Americans are more mixed stock than some would care to admit.


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Lastly, OMG, a gay wedding. Shocking, I know. Henry Scott says Harrison staged this Paris wedding in his New York office, LOL. It's sixty years later, and Americans still get worked up over the subject, pshaw, and plenty of media hucksters still sell copy by riling up the rubes regarding all those evil sodomites. Harrison seems to have a special hang-up with homosexuality and relished outing gay stars. From what I gather, Harrison had his own peculiarities in the bedroom along with a promiscuous nature, but that never stopped him from exposing the boudoir activities of others.


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And while I'm at it. I'll go ahead and share some more issues from McCoy of Confidential so you can see the magazine in its prime before it was tamed down by lawsuit (one of these is from after Harrison struck his deal to tone down the mag). Five more issues, all credit goes to McCoy for the excellent scans. Much has been written about this magazine, but there is no substitute for sitting down and reading the original issues. As Henry Scott quotes Camile Paglia in Shocking True Story, "the tabloids, with their twin themes of sex and violence, tell the lurid pagan truth about life."

Confidential v02n03 (1954-07)

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Get the full scan here.

Confidential v03n05 (1955-11)

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Get the full scan here.

Confidential v04n02 (1956-05)

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Get the full scan here.

Confidential v04n06 (1957-01)

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Get the full scan here.

Confidential v08n10 (1960-12.By-Line)

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Get the full scan here.

And McCoy, busy beaver that he is, has also scanned a number of Confidential copycats. And per usual, the words copycat or imitator aren't always fair, as magazines inspired by the success of another magazine will often nonetheless have their own flavor, and many of the magazines that followed on the heels of Confidential are great reads, too. In here, you can find examples of Hush-Hush, Suppressed, Uncensored, Exposed, and The Lowdown. As other scans of these and other magazines of the sort follow, I'll update this folder. Outstanding work, McCoy, thank you.