In the Nineties I had been asked to provide a lay-out for the Sunday
magazine section of Mr. Hearst’s New York paper. I could not do this
properly except at my Wayside Press. This the typographic union would
not permit, but in the years that followed, I enjoyed an intermittent
part-time association with Mr. Hearst--working on magazines, papers and
motion pictures.
One of these assignments was _Good Housekeeping_. This magazine had
been published by the Phelps Company, and had achieved a circulation of
250,000 copies. Additional sales would tax the plant and necessitate
more equipment and the magazine was sold to William Randolph Hearst. I
was asked to design a new lay-out and to take over the art editorship
during its formative period. For the new venture Mr. Hearst ordered
a Winston Churchill serial--_Inside the Cup_ if my memory is not at
fault. Mr. Tower, the editor brought from Springfield, said this would
mean taking out departments and a loss of half the circulation--but
the departments came out, the serial went in, Mr. Tower resigned, Mr.
Bigelow became editor, and circulation mounted into the millions!
In 1915 Mr. Hearst asked me if I could arrange to give him all of
my time and art-supervise production of the motion picture serial,
_Patria_, starring Irene Castle. I agreed.
In 1920, after writing, staging and directing _Moongold_, a Pierrot
fantasy photographed against black velvet, using properties but no
pictorial backgrounds--an independent production launched with a
special showing at the Criterion Theater in Times Square, I returned to
Mr. Hearst in an art and typographic assignment including magazines,
newspapers, motion pictures and a trip to Europe where commissions
were placed with Edmund Dulac, Arthur Rackham and Frank Brangwyn.
Somewhere along the trail _Spoils_, a drama in verse, and _Launcelot
and the Ladies_, a novel, were written--the former printed in _Hearst’s
International_ and the latter destined to carry a Harper & Brothers
imprint--but not to become a best seller.
Another Hearst project in the early Twenties was a new format and
the creation of a typographic lay-out for _Hearst’s International_.
For the lay-out, the headings of which would have to be different
from those provided earlier for _Cosmopolitan_, I designed a set of
initial letters, later catalogued by the foundry and called “Vanity.”
Knowing that Mr. Hearst would want to use portrait heads for covers
and that they would all have to be made by a single artist whose style
did not permit of confusion with the Harrison Fisher heads used on
_Cosmopolitan_, I approached Benda with the suggestion that if he would
use one color scheme for both head and background he could probably get
the contract. On seeing the first Benda cover Mr. Hearst asked how it
happened that this was the only Benda head he ever liked! He was told,
and authorized a contract.
These _Hearst International_ changes led to my being asked to give
thought to strengthening _Cosmopolitan_ headings in 1923. The request
came on a Monday morning. The issue then in hand closed at Cuneo’s in
Chicago on the following Friday. Mr. Hearst never urged hurry, but
early results were appreciated. Obtaining a current dummy with page
proofs, I headed for the ATF composing room at Communipaw, N. J. About
half-past four I had personally set, without justification, every
heading in the issue--using Caslon in roman and italic in the manner it
had been assembled by uninhibited compositors of the Colonial period.
That night, at home, I trimmed and mounted proofs in a new dummy.
The mixing of roman and italic in radically different sizes and with
consideration for desired emphasis, with possibly a 96- or 120-point
roman cap starting a 48- or 60-point italic word, resulted just as I
had visualized while the type was being set in fragmentary form. No
changes were necessary, and every minute of the afternoon had been
good fun. Tuesday I left for Chicago; Wednesday was spent at Cuneo’s
where, using this reprint copy, all headings were set, made-up with
text pages, and proved; Thursday the new lay-outs were enthusiastically
approved in New York; Friday, at Cuneo’s, _Cosmopolitan’s_ managing
editor closed the forms according to schedule. It had been a grand
lark--and within a few weeks that free style of typography began to
appear in national advertising.
One morning a request came from Mr. Hearst to use color at every
editorial opening in _Hearst’s International_--a startling innovation
at a time when illustrators were accustomed to drawing or painting
only for reproduction in black and white or for an occasional insert
in process colors. Closing day on the current dummy was only two weeks
away. With the aid of editorial substitutions it was thought we could
make the date. Taking a dummy showing possible signature distribution
of colors, I made the round of studios to find artists agreeable to the
use of one extra color.
After ten days’ work I arrived at the Blackstone Hotel in Chicago,
where Mr. Hearst was holding conferences. I had an appointment for noon
of the next day. Spending the intervening time at Cuneo’s, I finished
the dummy and appeared for my appointment, asking at the hotel that
Mr. Hearst’s secretary be informed. The clerk shook his head; orders
had been given that no phone calls were to be put through to that
floor. The manager was called, I pointed to my brief-case lying on the
counter, and said that Mr. Hearst was waiting for its contents. The
manager took a chance, made the call, and I was told to go right up.
The conference was in a large room with window seats overlooking the
lake. We sat on one of these seats while the dummy was viewed--page
by page--twice. Mr. Hearst was pleased and asked if he might keep the
dummy so he could enjoy it at his leisure. I told him the closing date
would not permit this. He understood, and saying so in an appreciative
manner suggesting a pat on the back, he sent me off to catch the
afternoon limited so I could reach New York in the morning. There I
was shown a wire evidently written and sent as soon as I had left. It
was to Ray Long, editor-in-chief, saying: “Shall be pleased if future
numbers are as attractive as the dummy I have just seen.” That is the
“Chief”--always stimulating and appreciative!
[Illustration]