''Pageant'' was a 20th-century monthly

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

published in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

from November 1944 until February 1977. Printed in a

digest size Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printing ...

format, it became ''

Coronet A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. A coronet differs from other kinds of crowns in that a coronet never has arches, and from a tiara in that a coronet completely encircles the head, while a tiara doe ...

'' magazine's leading competition, although it aimed for comparison to ''

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wif ...

''.

History

''Pageant'' was founded and first published by Hillman Periodicals. The first issue appeared in November 1944. Publisher Alex L. Hillman saw ''Pageant'' as a prestigious addition to his magazine line that included true confessions (''Real Romances'', ''Real Story'', ''Real Confessions''), crime titles (''Crime Detective'', ''Real Detective'', ''Crime Confessions'') and comic books, and he went to press for a 500,000 print run on his first issue. With an emphasis on visuals, ''Pageant'' often mixed glamour photo features with informative text on a wide range of subjects. ''Pageant'' was purchased by

Macfadden Publications Macfadden Communications Group is a publisher of business magazines. It has a historical link with a company started in 1898 by Bernarr Macfadden that was one of the largest magazine publishers of the twentieth century. History Macfadden Publ ...

in 1961 and published its last issue in February 1977.

Editors

After six years editing ''

The American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured wri ...

'', Eugene Lyons, the first U.S. correspondent to interview

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

, signed on as ''Pageants first editor, offering a solid line-up of articles. So did Vernon Pope who took over as editor in May 1945. Even so, with a circulation of 270,000, the adless ''Pageant'' lost $400,000 for its publisher in 1946-47, mainly due to rising printing and paper costs in the postwar era. Typical of that year's contents was the September 1947 issue with articles on "Babies Before Birth," Greece, New England, pianist

Alec Templeton Alec Andrew Templeton (4 July 1909/1028 March 1963) was a Welsh composer, pianist, and satirist. Templeton was born in Cardiff, Wales. There is some confusion concerning Alec Templeton's year of birth. Most published and Internet biographies ...

, the photography of

Louise Dahl-Wolfe Louise Dahl-Wolfe (November 19, 1895 – December 11, 1989) was an American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for ''Harper's Bazaar'', in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland. Background Louise Emma Augusta Dahl was bor ...

and an interview with

Bernard Baruch Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman. After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in W ...

. Vernon Pope departed in 1947 and was replaced by a former ''Coronet'' managing editor, 30-year-old Harris Shevelson, who soon had the magazine turning a profit, with circulation climbing to 350,000 by March 1949, followed by a 400,000 print run for a wacky April Fool issue (April 1949)."April Fool," ''Time'' (April 11, 1949)
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Link with ''Mad''

''Pageant'' indirectly figures into the history of

Harvey Kurtzman Harvey Kurtzman (; October 3, 1924 – February 21, 1993) was an American cartoonist and editor. His best-known work includes writing and editing the parodic comic book '' Mad'' from 1952 until 1956, and writing the ''Little Ann ...

's '' Mad'', triggering the switch of ''Mad'' from a comic book to a magazine. In the early 1950s, ''Pageant'' did an article about the comic book ''Mad'', illustrating it with an original double-page cartoon showing a parade of ''Mad'' characters. The drawing was created especially for ''Pageant'' by Kurtzman and

Will Elder William Elder (born Wolf William Eisenberg; September 22, 1921 – May 15, 2008) was an American illustrator and comic book artist who worked in numerous areas of commercial art but is best known for a frantically funny cartoon style that helped ...

. Not long after that, Kurtzman received an offer to edit ''Pageant''. ''Mad'' publisher

Bill Gaines William Maxwell Gaines (; March 1, 1922 – June 3, 1992), was an American publisher and co-editor of EC Comics. Following a shift in EC's direction in 1950, Gaines presided over what became an artistically influential and historically import ...

, in an interview with Steve Ringgenberg, explained what happened next: :I changed it because Harvey Kurtzman, my then editor, got a very lucrative offer from, I believe, ''Pageant'' magazine, and he had, prior to that time, evinced an interest in changing ''Mad'' into a magazine. At the time, I didn’t think I wanted to because I didn’t know anything about publishing magazines. I was a comics publisher. But, remembering this interest, when he got this offer I countered his offer by saying I would allow him to change ''Mad'' into a magazine, which proved to be a very lucky step for me. But that’s why it was changed. It was not changed to avoid the

Code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

. Now, as a result of this, it ''did'' avoid the

, but that’s not why I did it. If Harvey had not gotten that offer from ''Pageant'', ''Mad'' probably never would have changed format.

Shirley Bonne Shirley Mae Tanner (born May 22, 1934) is an American former film and television actress. She is known for playing the role of "Eileen Sherwood" in the American sitcom television series ''My Sister Eileen''. Born in Los Angeles, California, the ...

, an actress who appeared in the CBS comedy series ''

My Sister Eileen ''My Sister Eileen'' is a series of autobiographical short stories by Ruth McKenney, originally published in ''The New Yorker'', which eventually inspired many other works: her 1938 book ''My Sister Eileen'', a play, a musical, a radio play (an ...

'' (1960–61), appeared twice on the ''Pageant'' cover in the mid-1950s.

References

Read ''Pageant''

''Pageant'' (September 1953): "The 5 Marx Brothers and How They Shrank" by Sidney Carroll (full text)

* ttp://www.ex-premie.org/pages/pageant73.htm ''Pageant'' (February 1974): "Jet Set God" by Kathleen Jeremy (full text)
''Pageant'' (September 1976): "Loretta Swit" by Sylvia Resnick (full text)

External links

* ttp://www.petergowland.com/glamour8d.html Peter Gowland recalls a ''Pageant'' photo assignment in Vegas with Tallulah Bankhead{{Authority control Defunct magazines published in the United States Digests Monthly magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1944 Magazines disestablished in 1977 Magazines published in New York City