True Story (magazine)
Encyclopedia
True Story was an American magazine published by Dorchester Publishing
. It was the first of the confessions magazines genre, having launched in 1919. It carried the subtitle Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.
's publishing empire of Physical Culture, True Detective
, True Romances, Dream World, True Ghost Stories, Photoplay and the tabloid New York Graphic. By 1929, the circulation of True Story was nearly two million.
True Story offered anecdotal experiences, and the articles it presented, rewritten by staffers, were purportedly true. However, by the mid-1920s, many stories were professional submissions from fiction writers or were staff-written by Macfadden's stable of writers, including Fulton Oursler
and Lyon Mearson. Articles were illustrated with photographs of posed models, yet many readers assumed these were the actual people described in the stories. The magazine's approach and its audience were detailed by Jackie Hatton:
The formula has been characterized as "sin-suffer-repent": the heroine violates standards of behavior, suffers as a consequence, learns her lesson and resolves to live in light of it, unembittered by her pain. During the Great Depression, the emphasis lay on feminine behavior, maternity, marriage, and stoic endurance. Women who dedicated themselves to work were unable to marry or maintain a happy marriage; women who remained independent could not conceive or suffered miscarriages and stillbirths. With the outbreak of World War II, the stories began to feature war work favorably. However, it continued the sexual themes, such as having war workers be seduced, have affairs with married men, or engage in many casual affairs; the Magazine Bureau objected to this, as hindering recruitment, and argued that war workers should not be shown as more prone to dalliance than other women, and the magazine removed such themes from stories dealing with war workers. The ambitious career woman still appeared; women, however, who worked from patriotic motives were able to maintain their marriages and bear children. During post-war reconversion, the emphasis changed to marriage and motherhood.
Macfadden's consumer division merged with Sterling's Magazines in 1991; Dorchester acquired Sterling/Macfadden in 2004.
and broadcast live on NBC beginning in 1935 and continuing through the 1930s.
Dorchester Publishing
Dorchester Publishing is a publisher of mass market paperback books. Although mostly known for romance, Dorchester also publishes horror, thriller and Western titles.-Publication lines:...
. It was the first of the confessions magazines genre, having launched in 1919. It carried the subtitle Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction.
Content
With a circulation of 300,000 by 1923, the trend-setting publication remained a huge success through the 1920s and was a key title in Bernarr MacfaddenBernarr Macfadden
Bernarr Macfadden was an influential American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories...
's publishing empire of Physical Culture, True Detective
True Detective
True Detective has been the name of several different magazines.The first was an American true crime magazine featuring articles about crime and criminals, created by publisher Bernarr Macfadden in 1924; it's considered the first true crime magazine. Although generally lurid, True Detective did...
, True Romances, Dream World, True Ghost Stories, Photoplay and the tabloid New York Graphic. By 1929, the circulation of True Story was nearly two million.
True Story offered anecdotal experiences, and the articles it presented, rewritten by staffers, were purportedly true. However, by the mid-1920s, many stories were professional submissions from fiction writers or were staff-written by Macfadden's stable of writers, including Fulton Oursler
Fulton Oursler
Charles Fulton Oursler was an American journalist, playwright, editor and writer. Writing as Anthony Abbot, he was an notable author of mysteries and detective fiction.-Life:...
and Lyon Mearson. Articles were illustrated with photographs of posed models, yet many readers assumed these were the actual people described in the stories. The magazine's approach and its audience were detailed by Jackie Hatton:
- Sensing a widespread interest in the changing social/sexual codes of modern America, Macfadden put out a new magazine filled with first-hand accounts of social problems such as pre-marital sex, illegitimacy, adultery, unemployment, social relations, and crime (alongside ever-so slightly risque movie-stills of each story's most dramatic moments---the kiss, the temptation, the horrible realization). The magazine personalized issues that were hotly debated in Jazz Age America (dancing, drinking, partying, petting) and offered a unique working-class perspective on issues that were not necessarily unique to the working class. Sensational, emotional, and controversial, True Story disseminated tales of sex, sin and redemption that seemingly revealed the ubiquity of modern sexual and social "irregularity." Most educated observers hated the magazine, figuring that it depicted the worst aspect of the "revolution in manners and morals" that occurred in the 1920s. But workaday America loved the new confessional magazine.
The formula has been characterized as "sin-suffer-repent": the heroine violates standards of behavior, suffers as a consequence, learns her lesson and resolves to live in light of it, unembittered by her pain. During the Great Depression, the emphasis lay on feminine behavior, maternity, marriage, and stoic endurance. Women who dedicated themselves to work were unable to marry or maintain a happy marriage; women who remained independent could not conceive or suffered miscarriages and stillbirths. With the outbreak of World War II, the stories began to feature war work favorably. However, it continued the sexual themes, such as having war workers be seduced, have affairs with married men, or engage in many casual affairs; the Magazine Bureau objected to this, as hindering recruitment, and argued that war workers should not be shown as more prone to dalliance than other women, and the magazine removed such themes from stories dealing with war workers. The ambitious career woman still appeared; women, however, who worked from patriotic motives were able to maintain their marriages and bear children. During post-war reconversion, the emphasis changed to marriage and motherhood.
Editorial history
From 1919 to 1926, John Brennan Willian edited True Story. Jordan Rapp was the editor from 1926 to 1942.Macfadden's consumer division merged with Sterling's Magazines in 1991; Dorchester acquired Sterling/Macfadden in 2004.
Radio
True Story was the basis for a radio series, The True Story Court of Human Relations, produced by an advertising agency to promote the magazine. The program was directed by radio historian Erik BarnouwErik Barnouw
Erik Barnouw was a U.S. historian of radio and television broadcasting.According to the Scribner Encyclopia of American Lives, Erik Barnouw was born in Den Haag in the Netherlands, the son of Adriaan , and Ann Eliza Barnouw...
and broadcast live on NBC beginning in 1935 and continuing through the 1930s.