Look (American magazine)
ISSN 0024-6336 | |
Look was a
Origin
Gardner "Mike" Cowles Jr. (1903–1985), the magazine's co-founder (with his brother John) and first editor, was executive editor of The Des Moines Register and The Des Moines Tribune. When the first issue went on sale in early 1937, it sold 705,000 copies.[1][2]
Although planned to begin with the January 1937 issue, the actual first issue of Look to be distributed was the February 1937 issue, numbered as Volume 1, Number 2. It was published monthly for five issues (February–May 1937), then switched to biweekly starting with the May 11, 1937 issue. Page numbering on early issues counted the front cover as page one. Early issues, subtitled Monthly Picture Magazine, carried no advertising.[3]
The unusual format of the early issues featured layouts of photos with long captions or very short articles. The magazine's backers described it as "an experiment based on the tremendous unfilled demand for extraordinary news and feature pictures". It was aimed at a broader readership than Life, promising trade papers that Look would have "reader interest for yourself, for your wife, for your private secretary, for your office boy".[4]
Highlights
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From 1946 to 1970, Look published the Football Writers Association of America College All America Football Team and brought players and selected writers to New York City for a celebration. During that 25-year period, the FWAA team was introduced on national television shows by Bob Hope, Steve Allen, Perry Como, and others.
Its January 24, 1956, article "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi", included murder confessions from J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, who had been acquitted in 1955 of killing 14-year-old boy Emmett Till.[5][6]
Circulation peak
Within weeks of its debut, more than a million copies were bought of each issue,
Look was published under various company names: Look, Inc. (1937–45), Cowles Magazines (1946–65), and
KGB defector Yuri Bezmenov, regarding the October 1967 Russia Today issue, said: "From the first page to the last page, it was a package of lies: propaganda cliché[s] which were presented to American readers as opinions and deductions of American journalists. Nothing could be [further] from [the] truth."[11] He goes on to explain exactly how the Look reporters were compromised.[12]
Look ceased publication with its issue of October 19, 1971, the victim of a $5 million loss in revenues in 1970 (with television cutting deeply into its advertising revenues), a slack economy, and rising postal rates. Circulation was at 6.5 million when it closed.[10]
After 1971
French publisher
The Look Magazine Photograph Collection was donated to the Library of Congress and contains about five million items.[13]
After the closure, six Look employees created a fulfillment house using the computer system newly developed by the magazine's circulation department.[14] The company, CDS Global, is now an international provider of customer relationship services.
Notable staff photographers and illustrators
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was a staff photographer for Look before starting his career in feature films. Of the more than 300 assignments Kubrick did for Look from 1946 to 1951, more than 100 are in the Library of Congress collection. All Look jobs with which he was associated have been cataloged with descriptions focusing on the images that were printed. Other related Kubrick material is located at the Museum of the City of New York.[15]
Frank Bauman
Frank Bauman was a staff photographer for Look following his career as war correspondent in World War II. Bauman worked alongside Margaret Bourke-White to document life in Cuba and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Bauman was known for his experimental styles, and collaborated Doc Edgerton to develop the Ssroboscopic effect, which proved the curveball curves and settled a longstanding dispute.
William Bradford Huie
Alabama journalist
James Karales
Norman Rockwell
Beginning in 1963, Norman Rockwell, after closing his career with the Saturday Evening Post, began making illustrations for Look.
See also
- List of defunct American periodicals
- Marjorie S. Deane
- Selected bibliography at Library of Congress
References
- ^ "Pictorial Magazine Prints First Issue", The Washington Post, January 6, 1937, p. 3.
- ^ "Ads to Look", Time, November 8, 1937.
- ^ ""Look is Born"". Archived from the original on 2011-04-27. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
- ^ "Look Out", Time, January 11, 1937.
- ^ Huie, William Bradford (January 1956). "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi". Look. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
- ^ "Emmett Till murderers make magazine confession". History. Retrieved 2020-05-09.
- ^ Look (advertisement), The Washington Post, March 31, 1937, p. 15.
- ^ Look (advertisement), New York Times, June 8, 1948, p. 16.
- ^ "Shake-up at Look", Time, January 11, 1954.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
- ^ Dissident, Useless (2008-11-25). "Useless Dissident: Interview with Yuri Bezmenov: Part Two". Useless Dissident. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
- ^ GBPPR2 (2011-01-20), Yuri Bezmenov: Deception Was My Job (Complete), retrieved 2016-03-05
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Library Congress, Look Collection: Background and Scope.
- ^ "Good Idea Grows Out of Tragedy", Des Moines Register, October 26, 1997, pp. 1G–2G.
- ^ Library of Congress, Look Collection: Background and Scope
- ^ "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi" by William Bradford Huie, Look Magazine, 1956.
- ^ Whitfield, Stephen J. A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till JHU Press, 1991, p. 52
- ^ James Karales, Photographer of Social Upheaval, Dies at 71
Further reading
- Cowles, Gardner. Mike Looks Back: The Memoirs of Gardner Cowles, Founder of Look Magazine. New York: G. Cowles, 1985.
- Geminder, Emily (March 1, 2010). "A Certain Look". ISSN 1052-2948. Archived from the originalon April 4, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2010.