Sin, cigarettes and stiletto heels
By Eric Godtland. Excerpt from the book 'True Crime Detective Magazines'
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Magazines could confer instant fame on their featured criminals. They were "star makers" in a near Hollywood sense
Why the shift? One answer would be that the competition for good writers and stories was fierce, but it is more likely that someone, Macfadden or his editor John Shuttleworth, finally noticed that what was going on in the streets and speakeasies was even more entertaining than fiction.
Detective magazines exploded in popularity in the 1930s thanks to a synergistic triad of trends: the proliferation of home radio sets, the national crime wave generated by prohibition, and the escapist yearnings of a public mired in the Great Depression. Radio had flowered in the 1920s and continued to blossom through the '30s, with 638 stations in 1930, growing to 909 by 1942. By the end of the decade over 80% of American households owned a radio. This medium that brought live news coverage to all parts of the country simultaneously changed the idea of what "up on the news" meant. Radio transformed reporting, and especially crime reporting, into a form of entertainment. For the first time people could follow the exploits of bank robbers, gangsters and other shadowy characters at work, at home, in barbershops and bars, with the exciting urgency of hour by hour reports.
All this crime and chaos was a tremendous boon to the detective magazine publishers, mainly Macfadden, Real Detective Tales Inc, and Fawcett, who fell over themselves to provide the kind of photos, interviews, and illustrations that only crime magazines could provide. During this golden age the magazines could confer instant fame on their featured criminals. They were "star makers" in a near Hollywood sense for John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow,Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, Alvin Karpis, Machine Gun Kelly and Baby Face Nelson, who rank among the most recognizable names in criminal history thanks to the detective magazines. Dillinger holds top honors as America's all-time most popular criminal, with Capone close behind. In their day they had as many fans as the film stars of the era, and Hollywood kept close tabs on the detective magazines for plot ideas. Scarface (1932), patterned after the career of Al Capone, went into production less than a year after the gangster's 1931 income tax evasion bust. Actors played mobsters during the day and drank beside real gangsters in the clubs at night. Actress Virginia Hill took the symbiosis to the limit when she hooked up with Ben "Bugsy" Seigel. He was a gangster, she an actress. He tried to get into films, while she embezzled from him. Can anyone deny the detective magazines of the 1930s fueled this artimitates-life-imitates-art scenario?
In 1950 the vision of a smoking, wisecracking, gorgeous whore in a slit skirt spelled major trouble
The detective magazines entered the '40s flush with success and optimism, not knowing they were just two years from the end of their golden reign.With the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's entrance into World War II they confronted two insurmountable obstacles that would bring about great change.
First, domestic crime lost its sparkle. Prohibition was repealed at the end of 1933 and when organized crime's cash cow dried up the sensational turf battles, hits and general corruption began winding down. By 1940 the mob was rarely front-page news.
Page 1 2 3
Page 1 2 3
Magazines could confer instant fame on their featured criminals. They were "star makers" in a near Hollywood sense
Why the shift? One answer would be that the competition for good writers and stories was fierce, but it is more likely that someone, Macfadden or his editor John Shuttleworth, finally noticed that what was going on in the streets and speakeasies was even more entertaining than fiction.
Detective magazines exploded in popularity in the 1930s thanks to a synergistic triad of trends: the proliferation of home radio sets, the national crime wave generated by prohibition, and the escapist yearnings of a public mired in the Great Depression. Radio had flowered in the 1920s and continued to blossom through the '30s, with 638 stations in 1930, growing to 909 by 1942. By the end of the decade over 80% of American households owned a radio. This medium that brought live news coverage to all parts of the country simultaneously changed the idea of what "up on the news" meant. Radio transformed reporting, and especially crime reporting, into a form of entertainment. For the first time people could follow the exploits of bank robbers, gangsters and other shadowy characters at work, at home, in barbershops and bars, with the exciting urgency of hour by hour reports.
All this crime and chaos was a tremendous boon to the detective magazine publishers, mainly Macfadden, Real Detective Tales Inc, and Fawcett, who fell over themselves to provide the kind of photos, interviews, and illustrations that only crime magazines could provide. During this golden age the magazines could confer instant fame on their featured criminals. They were "star makers" in a near Hollywood sense for John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow,Ma Barker, Pretty Boy Floyd, Alvin Karpis, Machine Gun Kelly and Baby Face Nelson, who rank among the most recognizable names in criminal history thanks to the detective magazines. Dillinger holds top honors as America's all-time most popular criminal, with Capone close behind. In their day they had as many fans as the film stars of the era, and Hollywood kept close tabs on the detective magazines for plot ideas. Scarface (1932), patterned after the career of Al Capone, went into production less than a year after the gangster's 1931 income tax evasion bust. Actors played mobsters during the day and drank beside real gangsters in the clubs at night. Actress Virginia Hill took the symbiosis to the limit when she hooked up with Ben "Bugsy" Seigel. He was a gangster, she an actress. He tried to get into films, while she embezzled from him. Can anyone deny the detective magazines of the 1930s fueled this artimitates-life-imitates-art scenario?
In 1950 the vision of a smoking, wisecracking, gorgeous whore in a slit skirt spelled major trouble
The detective magazines entered the '40s flush with success and optimism, not knowing they were just two years from the end of their golden reign.With the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America's entrance into World War II they confronted two insurmountable obstacles that would bring about great change.
First, domestic crime lost its sparkle. Prohibition was repealed at the end of 1933 and when organized crime's cash cow dried up the sensational turf battles, hits and general corruption began winding down. By 1940 the mob was rarely front-page news.
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Sensation, February 1942
