Press: For Children

The penthouse that the late Cyrus H. K. Curtis practically never used, atop his New York Post building in Manhattan, was loud with the talk of literary folk one day last week. The wife of the newspaper’s new owner, Julius David Stern, was giving a cocktail party for oldtime subscribers and contributors to St. Nicholas Magazine.

Struthers Burt was there, and Fannie Hurst, William Rose Benét, Margaret Widdemer, Burton Rascoe, Henry Seidel Canby. Many a guest had won a gold or silver badge or at least honorable mention for a snapshot, drawing or bit of verse published by “St. Nicholas League.” Equally distinguished were the invited guests who sent regrets. Among them: Carolyn Wells (“who probably wrote more for St. Nicholas than anyone you know”); Laurence Stallings (who “was never a contributor to St. Nicholas and spent most of my time reading trashy literature”); Phil Stong (who in boyhood was a “veteran Youth’s Companioner”).

Reason for the party was revival of defunct St. Nicholas which, from a peak circulation of 88,000 in 1922, had tumbled through a succession of ownerships to obscurity. Its circulation fell below 40,000. Title to St. Nicholas was lately acquired by Roy Walker, an Ohioan who sold advertising for ten years for Curtis Publishing Co., went into the publishing business for himself. He bought John Martin’s Book, later scrapped it. Also he issued a cookbook for distribution in Woolworth stores which has sold phenomenally. Mrs. David Stern offered her financial support to the revived St. Nicholas, but Publisher Walker accepted only her advisory assistance, in an effort to “bring the magazine up to its former standard, so that the new generation of American children may grow up with really first rate prose, verse and illustration.”

There were other stirrings last week in the children’s press, a field which has disintegrated in the past 20 years. There are youngsters’ magazines, like Child Life, American Boy and American Girl and the Tower Magazines’ Tiny Tower. But there is nothing like the old loyalty and passionate enthusiasm for St. Nicholas and Youth’s Companion.

Last week appeared a new kind of publication for youngsters, The Boys’ & Girls’ Newspaper, a weekly 16-page tabloid to sell for 7¢. Boys’ & Girls’ Newspaper is the latest venture of George J. Hecht, publisher of thumpingly successful Parents’ Magazine. From his 300,000 readers of Parents’, smart Publisher Hecht got 10,000 charter subscribers for his newspaper in advance, guarantees advertisers a circulation of 100,000. Each “charter subscriber” ($3 a year) gets also a badge and a fancy certificate testifying that he is “forward-looking.”

First issue of Boys’ & Girls’ Newspaper carried a report of the Hauptmann verdict, with heavy emphasis on the science of detection. Excerpt: “The testimony which did most to convict Hauptmann was given by Arthur Koehler . . . a xylotomist. The title is a combination of two Greek words and means a wood expert.” There were reports, painstakingly simple, of the Italo-Abyssinian dispute, wreck of the Macon, and even an attempt at explaining the Supreme Court’s gold decisions. There were pages on sport, entertainment, books, puzzles, handicraft, housekeeping, an adventure column by Lowell Thomas, many a comic strip with instructive implications.

Also last week in Manhattan plans were announced for still another children’s paper: Young America, The National News Weekly for Youth, to go on news stands March 6. Publisher & Editor is Stuart Scheftel, who belongs to the rich Straus family that owns R. H. Macy & Co. department store. Except that Young America will be in color, its editorial prospectus closely resembled The Boys’ & Girls’ Newspaper although each was planned independently.