Page 28 - joa 2-2020

Give Me Liberty

The Magazine of World War II

Story & Photos by Donald-Brian Johnson

A knockout of a cover by James Stuart. Spring planting is underway! Pinup Saluting the fallen: June 5, 1943, A young patriot hits the books: Captain
Liberty, February 11, 1939. cover for May 27, 1939, Liberty cover by Emmett Watson. Kid by Frances Tipton Hunter,
by Corinne Malvern. September 15, 1945.
or thousands and thousands of mid-twentieth really pen a Liberty article on “My Sex Life,”
century Americans, the week just wasn’t complete one thing was certain: it sure made for irre-
Fwithout the latest issue of Liberty, the magazine that sistible reading.
could be yours for just five cents. Even when the price
later increased to a dime, Liberty was still a bargain. New and Newsworthy
Here’s the sizzling lineup from just one issue: “Why I
Will Not Marry” by Greta Garbo; “Did Stalin Poison Liberty first hit the newsstands in 1924, a
Lenin?” by Leon Trotsky; “How Al Capone Would Run collaborative effort between two prominent
This Country”; “Jean Harlow: The Inside Story About publishers: cousins Captain Joseph Medill
My Husband’s Suicide”; “How To Dance The Big Patterson of the New York Daily News, and
Apple” by Eleanor Powell; “My New Year’s Resolutions” Colonel Robert Rutherford McCormick of
by Shirley Temple. the Chicago Tribune. American readers had
Long before The National Enquirer or Keeping Up long been held in thrall by another weekly,
with the Kardashians, the spiciest showbiz stories came the Saturday Evening Post, but according to a
to brighten the day and lighten pre-publication announcement, Liberty was
the load courtesy of Liberty. geared toward a “more jazz-loving level of
Every issue was stuffed to the public.” In other words, younger readers,
the gills with a grab bag of presumably those who found the Post’s
fascinating features: crossword brand of grown-up folksiness too staid.
puzzles … cartoons … “20 The magazine’s title was the result of a
Questions” … “Tongue The Blossoming of a “name this periodical” contest, which drew
Twisters” … movie reviews, Bobby-Soxer, cover art over one million entries. George Elwell of
short stories, wacky letters-to- by Del Holcomb, Ohio, who submitted the eventual winner,
the-editor, and over-the-top December 15, 1945. was awarded $20,000. He certainly deserved
editorials. Plus, of course, the it: Liberty was just one of the 3,000-plus
main draw: those “as-told-to,” potential titles this struggling artist mailed in.
(or better yet, “first-person”) Patterson and McCormick had high hopes for their new venture,
scoops on celebs of the day. but that jazz-loving readership proved unreliable. Over seven years,
Purported to come straight Liberty lost twelve million dollars. Finally, in 1931, Liberty was sold to
from the horses’ mouths, these a publisher as colorful as its cover illustrations: the controversial
articles offered a through-the- Bernarr Macfadden.
keyhole glimpse at the latest Outspoken, eccentric, or just plain nuts? What folks thought of
travails and triumphs of movie MacFadden was dependent on what they thought of his stridently
stars, politicians, and other expressed political and social opinions, which could change in a
notables. And, if some doubted A baby meets Disney’s “Pluto” in Eskimo heartbeat. In 1932, for instance, Macfadden and Liberty stumped for
that Mahatma Gandhi would Kiss, a photo by Pagano, October 27, 1945. the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt – nearly twenty articles

26 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles