Gossip

It’s probably been a while since you’ve given a thought to Coronet.  This small-format magazine–it was meant as a cheaper, smaller spinoff of its parent, Esquire, which seems incongruous today–was published from 1936 to 1971.  It was a digest, like Reader’s but supposedly hipper.

This issue sports one of 1968’s most popular cover girls, Debbie Reynolds.  Ever since the Cleopatra/Liz-and-Dick/Eddie-and-Debbie brouhaha, this perky actress (was she ever NOT described as “perky”?) was always in the public eye.  In the aforementioned scandal, she came out looking pretty good– the put-upon, jilted good girl vs. the predatory, house-wrecking temptress.  And it didn’t hurt that she was blonde, attractive in a wholesome mid-American way, and actually quite talented.

Debbie’s face–if it wasn’t going to exactly launch a thousand ships–was going to sell a lot of magazines.  So here, in Coronet, is a little puff piece about her latest movie, a mild sex farce with James Garner called How Sweet it Is.  In just a few pages of this tiny magazine, there are 12 photos of Debbie in various states of undress– the theme being that this movie marked a daring departure from her more innocent days.

The rest of the issue has an almost predictable lineup of stories:  the how-are-we-going-to-get-out-of-Vietnam article (this one by Irving Kristol); an article about the “new Negro” on TV in the fall (Diahann Carroll as Julia); an article about “our kids” (protesting college students) and how they are being pushed too hard (by pushy parents); an article about the new fad of jogging; and a story about the wit and humor of presidential candidates (”hilarious stories about American politics”).   Another sign of the times:  a full-page ad for L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, the Bible for Scientologists.  (”Here you will find an easy route to follow which will lead you to TOTAL FREEDOM!”)   1968 was the year that Scientology took off — its “Freedom” magazine was published for the first time– and it will be worth revisiting them in a future post.

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Movie mags: the more things change, the more they stay the same

Movie magazines–filled with gossip, pictures, and ads–have been around just about as long as the movies themselves. (Photoplay and Motion Picture each began publication–amazingly–in 1911, and both continued for nearly 70 more years.)  The formula remained virtually unchanged for decades: “behind-the-scenes” backlot stories; gossip columns; candid shots of movie stars at parties and at home; relentless reportage on marriages, divorces, and love affairs.  My guess is that they were most popular when the movies themselves most intensely commanded the public’s leisure hours, that is, Hollywood’s “Golden Age,” between about 1920 and 1945 or so.  When TV came along in the late 1940s, the magazines were forced to accommodate whole new boatloads of “stars.”  This particular rag may be called Movie Mirror, but look who’s on the cover in 1968:  America’s sweethearts, the squeaky-clean Lennon Sisters singing group from television’s wildly popular Lawrence Welk Show.   (This was a big year for the Lennons, who were now mostly grown-up Mommies, as evidenced in this cover photo.  1968 was the year they left the show to start work on a variety series of their own.)

Liz and Dick and Eddie and Debbie and Jackie and Mia and Frank and…..

In the 1960s, there were several public “stars” who were mainstays for the gossip rags:  Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds; Elvis; Jackie Kennedy.  Liz Taylor was a nearly monthly fixture on movie-mag covers beginning about 1950; First Lady Jackie Kennedy–”America’s Newest Star”–began appearing on the cover of Photoplay in 1962.  They remained in the public eye for what seems, in retrospect, to be close to forever.  With the exception of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, it’s hard to think of stars today who have quite that endurance.  The half-life of the gossip-worthy tabloid figure has shortened considerably.  One cannot imagine, for example, that five years from now that the tabloids–or their more “upscale” equivalents, such as People–will be paying much attention to Jon and Kate Gosselin.   And movie magazines themselves, for that matter, have all but disappeared, replaced by the ever-popular tabloids and by People and US Weekly and other rags following not just movie stars, but socialites, millionaires, reality-TV and talk-show stars, and endless personalities who are famous for being famous– you know who I mean.

“Do you want a dream figure?”

So here, in January 1968’s Movie Mirror are the usual suspects:  paparazzi photos of Liz and Dick on vacation with boatloads (literally) of their kids; Eddie Fisher (cuckolded former husband of Liz, looking a little worse for wear) and his current celebrity girlfriend, songstress Connie Stevens; Jackie Kennedy, romantically linked with the titled, hyphenated British diplomat David Ormsby-Gore; Elvis tiffing with wife Priscilla; Mia Farrow, unhappily married to Frank Sinatra, and heading off to India to see the Mararishi Mahesh Yogi (”What personal demons pursue her halfway around the world to a Shangri-La?”).  And the usual ads, overwhelmingly aimed at women, mostly for products promising personal transformation: girdles (”Compreso-Belt”); push-up bras, wigs, diet aids, teeth and skin whiteners, acne creams, varicose vein removers, and alcoholism cures.

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