I started collecting old magazines a long time ago, probably in my early teens. My mom was a huge garage sale fan, and I would go with her to comb over all the stuff. I'd mainly be looking for records, but it seemed without fail that most would also have stacks of old magazine for sale --LIFE, LOOK, National Geographic, Popular Science -- from about a nickle to fifty cents apiece. I loved them, being a pop culturist, and genuinely enjoyed reading the articles and looking at the cool old photos and ads. Then I would cut the hell out of them with our kitchen scissors to make weird/funny collage art to share with friends or to use to decorate my room, not thinking too much about their future value. It was a lot of fun, and cheap entertainment.
A rarer find would be a "confessions magazine," like True Story. Oh, these are GREAT; they were certainly the media forerunners for the earliest misery purveyors of TV talk show "personal story" like Jerry Springer, Phil Donahue, Oprah, ad nauseum. Good god -- did you know that True Story was first published in 1919 and is still around today? It's had cycles in its raunch/romance content over the years, tied very closely to the bigger political/social trends of each era. The readers of True Story were generally considered to be low-/working-class folks -- you would NEVER admit to buying True Story or have it on your coffee table at home -- but it would be a rare citizen who didn't at least browse through a copy at their local newsstand or grocery store every so often...if no one was looking, that is. People love this stuff.
So today I happened to come across a very beat up 1957 copy of True Story from one of my old garage sale forays. The cover is missing and I have scissored it all over the place, but it still retains quite a bit of content. I smiled, and took some photos for you to enjoy. I think the cuts and tears and yellowing make it all the more artistic and funny. What a world.
© Copyright 2008- Marianne Spellman