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Spark Plugs (“ride high, wide, and handsome”); and Bromo-Seltzer
(“it’s Gene Krupa’s way of ‘swinging away’ a headache”).
Heading things up was Macfadden’s opening editorial. The “Table
of Contents” was relegated to Liberty’s last page, in hopes that readers
would peruse the magazine from cover to cover. Macfadden’s June 22
topic, “The Hell That War Brings,” took jabs at Roosevelt’s war
preparations: “Fifty thousand airplanes, which the President
recommends, will be helpful, but one hundred thousand would be
better. We must prepare for war up to the hilt! Our present air force
could not even defend Coney Island!”
Macfadden’s wasn’t the only voice blaring forth from the pages of
Liberty. Each issue's “Vox Pop” (voice of the people) featured letters
from often volatile readers. A tongue-in-cheek political commentary
by actor Frederic March elicited this response: “the irreverent—yes,
blasphemous—way March dares to write angers any decent, right-
thinking reader!”
By the early 1940s, Macfadden was on his way out. Accusations of
fund mismanagement and padded circulation numbers, coupled with a
growing dislike for his prickly persona, led to a new, less politicized
Finally! Women rejoiced that the end of Folksy images took precedence following
WW II also meant an end to the nylon the war years. General Alarm on Main Liberty. During World War II and after, Liberty focused on the patriotic
shortage! The Tables Are Turned by Street (a cat up a tree!) was a John (“Purple Heart Junction: Honolulu’s Navy Hospital;” “This Man’s
Del Holcomb, December 22, 1945. Howitt illustration, January 12, 1946. Army” by “Old Sarge”), the lighthearted (“The Care and Feeding of
Husbands” by Gracie Allen), and that old stalwart, Hollywood:
trumpeted his talents. When FDR did make it to the White House, up-close, personal, and usually ghost-written (“Houses I Have
Macfadden quickly found the President’s policies unpalatable, and Haunted” by Boris Karloff.)
Liberty took an anti-Roosevelt tack. By 1936, the publisher was touting
himself as a Republican presidential contender.
Only in Liberty
Talk of the Town Among the most fondly remembered Liberty
idiosyncrasies was the reading time that appeared at
Regardless of Macfadden’s eccentricities, under the beginning of each story. A Liberty staffer would
his leadership, Liberty flourished. No longer courting time himself reading the article. Taking into
young moderns, Liberty now celebrated, as it account less skilled readers, that time was doubled,
proudly proclaimed, “the American way of life” (at the estimate appearing below the article’s byline.
least as defined by Macfadden). Here’s a sampling You could whisk your way through a review of
of what readers had to look forward to in just one Citizen Kane in just 4 minutes and 40 seconds, or
issue, dating from June 22, 1940: take a more leisurely mental stroll for “The
• “Giving A Spanking” by Eleanor Roosevelt Experiences of a Broadway Star in Jail” by Mae
• “Upstairs and Down in Hitler’s House” West (14 minutes). Not counting untimed features
• “Do Men Make Women’s Hats in Self-Defense?” —crossword puzzles and ads—totting up the time
• “Women Spies in Norway” estimates meant that, if you put your mind to it,
• “Winston Churchill’s American Mother” you could get through an entire issue of Liberty
in just about 3 uninterrupted hours. (Incidentally,
Also included: Princess Alexandra Kropotkin’s the reading time for the article you’re reading right
column, “To The Ladies” (among her topics: now is an estimated 12 minutes and 28 seconds.
Smart Styles for Tall Girls); and movie reviews by I checked.)
“Beverly Hills.” Equally well-remembered were the “Liberty
Liberty’s ads are almost as much fun to read as The Great Emancipator. Lincoln's Boys” who hawked the magazines door-to-door and
the articles: Old Drum Blended Whiskey (“Suits birthday is celebrated on the February 16, at newsstands (there were also plenty of uncredited
1946, Liberty cover by Emmett Watson.
your taste and suits your pocketbook”); Champion “Liberty Girls”). Saleskids earned Brownie Coupons
to redeem for “high-grade baseball goods, football
goods, bicycles, radio
sets, jewelry, and
musical instruments.”
The publication
Liberty Boy Salesman
recognized the efforts
of these young entre-
preneurs, especially
members of the
“Thousand Club” –
those selling more
than a thousand copies
of Liberty each week!

In the late 1940s, Liberty
became a “much bigger”
monthly, rather than weekly,
publication. The March
Reality sets in for a postwar A determined cat and a wary bird: 1949 cover photo: Two
newlywed: Disillusioned by Won’t You Come Into My Parlor? by Of A Kind by
Del Holcomb, January 26, 1946. John W. James, March 2, 1946. Constance Bannister.

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