''Open City'' was a weekly

underground newspaper The terms underground press or clandestine press refer to periodicals and publications that are produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. In specific rec ...

published in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

by avant-garde journalist John Bryan from May 6, 1967 to April 1969. It was noted for its coverage of

radical politics Radical politics denotes the intent to transform or replace the principles of a society or political system, often through social change, structural change, revolution or radical reform. The process of adopting radical views is termed radica ...

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, psychedelic culture and the " Notes of a Dirty Old Man" column by

Charles Bukowski Henry Charles Bukowski ( ; born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, ; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist, and short story writer. His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his adopted ...

History

Bryan was a journalist who quit the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' in 1964 to found the brief-lived San Francisco bohemian tabloid weekly ''Open City Press'', publishing 15 issues from Nov. 18, 1964 to March 17–23, 1965. ''Open City Press'' was a local forerunner of the ''

Berkeley Barb The ''Berkeley Barb'' was a weekly underground newspaper published in Berkeley, California, during the years 1965 to 1980. It was one of the first and most influential of the counterculture newspapers, covering such subjects as the anti-war move ...

'', providing coverage of the

Free Speech Movement The Free Speech Movement (FSM) was a massive, long-lasting student protest which took place during the 1964–65 academic year on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. The Movement was informally under the central leadership of Be ...

. After closure of ''Open City Press'' Bryan relocated to Southern California. After a stint working for

Art Kunkin Arthur Glick Kunkin (March 28, 1928 – April 30, 2019) was an American journalist, community organizer, machinist, and New Age esotericist best known as the founding publisher and editor of the ''Los Angeles Free Press''. Early life and educa ...

as managing editor of the ''

Los Angeles Free Press The ''Los Angeles Free Press'', also called the "''Freep''", is often cited as the first, and certainly was the largest, of the underground newspapers of the 1960s. The ''Freep'' was founded in 1964 by Art Kunkin, who served as its publisher un ...

'', he launched ''Open City'' in Los Angeles, starting the volume numbering with vol. 2, no. 1 (May 5–11, 1967). At its peak ''Open City'' circulated 35,000 copies. Unlike almost all other underground papers which were published in tabloid newspaper format, ''Open City'' was printed in the larger broadsheet-sized format. It published some of Charles Bukowski's earliest professionally published prose in his regular column "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," which appeared in all but a few issues. In March 1968 Bryan was prosecuted on an obscenity charge for printing an image of a nude woman in a record company advertisement for Leon Russell. Six months later, in September 1968, there was a second obscenity bust over the short story "Skinny Dynamite" by

Jack Micheline Jack Micheline (November 6, 1929 – February 27, 1998), born Harold Martin Silver, was an American painter and poet from the San Francisco Bay Area. One of San Francisco's original Beat poets, he was an innovative artist who was active in the ...

, about the sexual antics of an underage girl, in a literary supplement to ''Open City'' edited by

. The cost of Bryan's legal defense and a $1,000 fine on the first charge eventually put the shoestring operation out of business. (Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man" was subsequently taken on by the ''

''.) Bukowski published a satirical and somewhat cruel fictional account of ''Open City'' in '' Evergreen Review'' under the title "The Birth, Life and Death of an Underground Newspaper." John Bryan's follow-up to ''Open City'' was the ambitious but brief-lived ''Sunday Paper'', which published six or seven issues in San Francisco in February and March 1972. Published in the large broadsheet format, each issue was fronted by a two-page section of underground comics edited by

Willy Murphy William "Willy" MurphyMurphy entry
''Who's Who of American Comic Books, 1928–1999''. Acc ...

and printed in full color.

In popular culture

The actual Los Angeles building exterior and interior office of the ''Open City'' newspaper at 4369 Melrose Avenue appear in a notable scene of Jacques Demy's sole American film '' Model Shop'' (1969), shot in 1968, where the protagonist, George, visits to talk about his issues with the draft and then learns of his draft notice on the phone with his parents.

References

{{reflist Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States Newspapers published in the San Francisco Bay Area History of San Francisco Newspapers established in 1967 Publications disestablished in 1969 Hippie movement Defunct newspapers published in California 1967 establishments in California 1969 disestablishments in California Weekly newspapers published in California

History

In popular culture

See also

References