Unfortunately, publishing that index worked out so well that I got the crazy idea that maybe -- just maybe -- I could succeed in indexing the other Hearst magazine cover series. The problem with the others is that, unlike the American Weekly, these magazine covers are not identified with a running title or masthead. Which might not necessarily be an insurmountable problem, except that there are definitely multiple cover series in play. Seemingly we are offered two identifying characteristics:
- Unless a newspaper routs it out, each cover displays a copyright to a syndicate. Hearst is known to have run magazine cover series under three different syndicates: International Feature Service (IFS), Newspaper Feature Service (NFS) and King Features Syndicate.
- Newspapers thankfully tend to stick with one magazine cover series for a long period. Therefore, in theory, we can assume that the series being run by newspaper X is consistent from week to week for long periods.
So I went in expecting to have a pretty clean delineation; there'd be an IFS series, an NFS series and a King series, each of which followed its own and separate path. No such luck. My indexes are a mess, and series seem to change from one syndicate to another for no obvious reason. Because of that, what I'm going to present here is a bit of a jumble. I'll try to annotate when things get weird and when I feel that I have insights.
My first index is for a series I didn't realize even existed when I began work. I knew Dan Smith had produced quite a few Hearst magazine covers, but I discovered that he basically had his own series throughout the 1920s.
The Dan Smith cover series begins in May 1921, when he took over as the cover illustrator on a feature magazine that had previously concentrated mostly on photos and uncredited illustrations for its covers. When Smith arrived, the covers continued to often feature a photo or two, but they became secondary aspects of the design, which featured large Dan Smith drawings and usually a few paragraphs of text story. When the series began, the cover subjects were generally about bizarre news stories, fashion and culture. Later on the series subjects would evolve in several different directions.
| Date | Title | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| 5/15/21 | An Indian Lover's Curse Fulfilled at Last | International Feature Service |
| 5/22/21 | Science Sanctions Flirtation | International Feature Service |
| 5/29/21 | The Poppy Girl | International Feature Service |
| 6/5/21 | The Strangest Wedding That Ever Happened | International Feature Service |
| 6/12/21 | How Red Hair Made a New Reno in Europe | International Feature Service |
| 6/19/21 | Girl Bull Fighters - Mexico's Latest Fling | International Feature Service |
| 6/26/21 | The Woman Judge Who Gives Husbands a Square Deal | International Feature Service |
| 7/3/21 | We Want Our Own Star in the Flag | International Feature Service |
| 7/10/21 | The Tragedy of the Loveless Marriage | International Feature Service |
| 7/17/21 | Who'll Bid For This Beauty? | International Feature Service |
| 7/24/21 | The Battle Against Bare Legs | International Feature Service |
| 7/31/21 | The Beauty Whose Make-Up Has Lasted 8,000 Years | International Feature Service |
| 8/7/21 | The New Bareback Dianas of the Surf | International Feature Service |
| 8/14/21 | Why Do Men Marry Their Stenographers | International Feature Service |
| 8/21/21 | Is Woman Leaving Her Pedestal? | International Feature Service |
| 8/28/21 | Are Men More Merciful Than Women? | International Feature Service |
| 9/4/21 | The Law Defines a "Vamp" | International Feature Service |
| 9/11/21 | The New Beauty Doctor -- The Baby | International Feature Service |
| 9/18/21 | Fashion Now Fancies Fish Scales | International Feature Service |
| 9/25/21 | What Is Your Husband Worth To You? | International Feature Service |
| 10/2/21 | Italy's Astonishing Matrimonial Lottery | International Feature Service |
| 10/9/21 | Love's Newest Triumph -- The Germ-Proof Wedding | International Feature Service |
| 10/16/21 | Fashion's Astonishing Flop -- From Knees to Trains | International Feature Service |
| 10/23/21 | How Would You Solve this Mother-Love Problem? | International Feature Service |
| 10/30/21 | Has a Wife the Right to Choose Her Successor? | International Feature Service |
| 11/6/21 | Fashion Reflects the Red Man's Robes | International Feature Service |
| 11/13/21 | Good-bye to the Overalls | International Feature Service |
| 11/20/21 | Thanksgiving Time | International Feature Service |
| 11/27/21 | The New Romances Tell Everything | International Feature Service |
| 12/4/21 | No More European Women For Me | International Feature Service |
| 12/11/21 | Will Chicago's Social Leader Seize the New York Sceptre | International Feature Service |
| 12/18/21 | The King and Queen of Christmas | International Feature Service |
| 12/25/21 | Christmas | International Feature Service |
| 1/1/22 | Will 1922 Bring Romantic Clothes? | International Feature Service |
| 1/15/22 | The American Makes the Best Lover | International Feature Service |
| 1/22/22 | "I Want a Cave Man Husband" | International Feature Service |
| 1/29/22 | Why Europe's Most Picturesque Queen hanged Her Mind | International Feature Service |
| 2/5/22 | The Greatest Wedding of the Year | International Feature Service |
| 2/12/22 | Marrying a Pilot on the Wing | International Feature Service |
| 2/19/22 | The Much-Watched Marriage of the "Wonder Girl" | International Feature Service |
| 2/26/22 | Has the Lipstick Come To Stay? | International Feature Service |
| 3/5/22 | Life-Size Dolls for Tea Company | International Feature Service |
| 3/12/22 | America's Pyramid City of the Future | International Feature Service |
| 3/19/22 | Science Finds the Secret of the Poison Pen | International Feature Service |
| 3/26/22 | Will the Tom-Tom Displace Jazz? | International Feature Service |
| 4/2/22 | He Followed Her Fandango Feet for 20,000 Miles | International Feature Service |
| 4/9/22 | Love -- Or a Million Dollars? | International Feature Service |
| 4/16/22 | The New Search for the Holy Grail | International Feature Service |
| 4/23/22 | They All Want Red Hair | International Feature Service |
| 4/30/22 | Society and Science Turn to Spiritualism | International Feature Service |
| 5/7/22 | Sport and Romance Behind the Dog Team | International Feature Service |
| 5/14/22 | The Excitement of Marrying an Indian | International Feature Service |
| 5/21/22 | The Girl and the Buried Treasure | International Feature Service |
| 5/28/22 | The Daisy's Memorial Day Message | International Feature Service |
| 6/4/22 | Has Prohibition Boomed the Beauty Parlor? | International Feature Service |
| 6/11/22 | The Flapper Jockey's in the Lead | International Feature Service |
| 6/18/22 | Painting Pictures Under The Sea | International Feature Service |
| 6/25/22 | New Complexions Mean a Color Bath | International Feature Service |
| 7/2/22 | A Radio "Fourth" the Season's Novelty | International Feature Service |
| 7/9/22 | Today's Priscilla Saves a Town | International Feature Service |
| 7/16/22 | The Ending of the Wild Life Era | International Feature Service |
| 7/23/22 | The Prince's Eleven Black Cats -- And the Bishop's Tirade | International Feature Service |
| 7/30/22 | America's Greatest Girl Rider | International Feature Service |
| 8/6/22 | The Girl Who is Hiking Alone 'Round the World | International Feature Service |
| 8/13/22 | Zoo Fans | International Feature Service |
| 8/20/22 | The Romance of the Olympic Champions | International Feature Service |
| 8/27/22 | Beach Ball for Girls Only | International Feature Service |
| 9/3/22 | Ears to be Worn Again | International Feature Service |
| 9/10/22 | Back to the Dashing Sport of Robin Hood | International Feature Service |
| 9/17/22 | Is She America's Bravest Girl? | International Feature Service |
| 9/24/22 | Rugs and Curtains for Costumes | International Feature Service |
| 10/1/22 | Sees New York -- "Give Me Oklahoma," Says Indian Heiress | International Feature Service |
| 10/8/22 | Make Way for the Biggest Hats Ever | International Feature Service |
| 10/15/22 | The Craze for Strange Pets | International Feature Service |
| 10/22/22 | The Strange Furore over Russian Color | International Feature Service |
| 10/29/22 | The Return of the Bull Dog | International Feature Service |
| 11/5/22 | The Girl Who Must Not Marry | International Feature Service |
| 11/12/22 | The Newest Sport Thrill - Gliding | International Feature Service |
| 11/19/22 | When Spain's Queen Comes To America | International Feature Service |
| 11/26/22 | Harvest Home | International Feature Service |
| 12/3/22 | The Sensation of Silk Wigs | International Feature Service |
| 12/10/22 | The Hockey Girl | International Feature Service |
| 12/17/22 | In Santa Claus's Workshop | International Feature Service |
| 12/24/22 | Christmas Friends | International Feature Service |
| 12/31/22 | Miss 1923-Athlete And Worker | International Feature Service |
| 1/7/23 | Now The Game Is Mah Jongg | International Feature Service |
| 1/14/23 | The Strangest of all Honeymoons | International Feature Service |
| 1/21/23 | The Ice Girl | International Feature Service |
| 1/28/23 | Tattooing Helps The Health, Says Science | International Feature Service |
| 2/4/23 | The Fascinating Fad of Earrings | International Feature Service |
| 2/11/23 | An Aurora Borealis Wedding | International Feature Service |
| 2/18/23 | Science Has a New Theory About Fighting Bulls | International Feature Service |
| 2/25/23 | Painting Beauty's Secret Soul | International Feature Service |
| 3/4/23 | The Camel's Domain Conquered By The Tank | International Feature Service |
| 3/11/23 | The Accordion Has Come Back | International Feature Service |
I tired of typing in all these titles after a few year's worth, because as you probably know, my primary interest is in cover series -- these one-shot covers are interesting, but sort of tangential. In this first section of the Dan Smith index I used as my sources Buffalo Times for the 1921 material, then switched over to the Minneapolis Tribune for 1922-23. If some reader would like this index to be complete and is willing to put in the work of writing the index, I'll gladly add your information for the March 1923 - March 1926 material I jumped.
So having tired of the one-shot indexing, I jumped forward to looking for some change to the pattern. I finally found the Dan Smith covers changing in 1926. Let's pick back up in April 1926 with the last few one-shot covers. The first change is on May 9 1926, when the cover design switches from including text and photos along with the art, to a full page art piece. Then on May 23 Smith's syndicate slug transitions from IFS to King Features. At the same time, the 'newsy' covers end and the subject becomes attractive women in history and fiction. Obviously the syndicate change and the cover design change have something to do with each other.
Unfortunately, my source for Dan Smith covers (El Paso Times) dries up in June 1927, and so we're going to have a long gap just when things are getting interesting.
| Date | Title | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| 4/4/26 | The Varied Splendors of Easter Time | International Feature Service |
| 4/11/26 | Lacrosse Comes Back | International Feature Service |
| 4/18/26 | The Smock Captures the Office Girl | International Feature Service |
| 4/25/26 | Archery on Horseback | International Feature Service |
| 5/2/26 | Front Lawn Golf | International Feature Service |
| 5/9/26 | If Spring Were Like the Artist Dreams It | International Feature Service (now full page illustration, no photos,text) |
| 5/16/26 | A Dream of the Horse | International Feature Service |
| 5/23/26 | The June Bride in Fairyland | International Feature Service / King Features Syndicate |
| 5/30/26 | A Mermaid Afternoon Tea | King Features Syndicate |
| 6/6/26 | A Pirate Story Without Words | King Features Syndicate |
| 6/13/26 | The First "Charleston" in Fairyland | King Features Syndicate |
| 6/20/26 | The First Air Flight in Fairyland | King Features Syndicate |
| 6/27/26 | American Heroines - Pocahontas | King Features Syndicate |
| 7/4/26 | American Heroines - Betsy Ross | King Features Syndicate |
| 7/11/26 | American Heroines - Priscilla | King Features Syndicate |
| 7/18/26 | American Heroines - Minnehaha | King Features Syndicate |
| 7/25/26 | American Heroines - Evangeline | King Features Syndicate |
| 8/1/26 | American Heroines - The Girl of the Golden West | King Features Syndicate |
| 8/8/26 | American Heroines - Molly Pitcher | King Features Syndicate |
| 8/15/26 | American Heroines - Dolly Madison | King Features Syndicate |
| 8/22/26 | American Heroines - Martha Washington | King Features Syndicate |
| 8/29/26 | American Heroines - The Pioneer Bicycle Girl | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/5/26 | American Heroines - The Settler's Wife | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/12/26 | American Heroines - Nancy Hanks and Young Lincoln | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/19/26 | American Heroines - The War Nurse | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/26/26 | American Heroines - The Pioneer Suffragist | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/3/26 | American Heroines - The Girl Rancher | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/10/26 | American Heroines - The Doctor | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/17/26 | American Heroines - The Girl Skipper | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/24/26 | American Heroines - The Lighthouse Girl | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/31/26 | American Heroines - The Farmerette | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/7/26 | American Heroines - The Big Game Hunter | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/14/26 | Famous Women - Joan of Arc | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/21/26 | Famous Women - Cleopatra and Anthony | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/28/26 | Famous Women - Lady Godiva | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/5/26 | Famous Women - Judith | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/12/26 | Famous Women - Salome | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/19/26 | An Old Time Christmas Eve | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/26/26 | Famous Women - Madame Dubarry | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/2/27 | Pythia, the Prophetess of Delphi | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/9/27 | Famous Women - Charlotte Corday | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/16/27 | Famous Women - Mary Queen of Scots in the Tower | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/23/27 | Famous Women - Queen Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/30/27 | Famous Women - Lucrezia Borgia | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/6/27 | Famous Women - Phyrne Before the Tribunal | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/13/27 | Famous Women - Circe | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/20/27 | Famous Women - Hagar and Ishmael | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/27/27 | Famous Women - Delilah | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/6/27 | Famous Women - The Daughter of Pharaoh | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/13/27 | Famous Women - Helen of Troy | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/20/27 | Famous Women - Madame Pompadour | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/27/27 | The Christian Martyr | King Features Syndicate |
| 4/3/27 | Salammbo | King Features Syndicate |
| 4/10/27 | Hero, Priestess of Venus | King Features Syndicate |
| 4/17/27 | The Spirit of Easter | King Features Syndicate |
| 4/24/27 | Famous Women - The Queen of Sheba | King Features Syndicate |
| 5/1/27 | Famous Women - Anne of Brittany | King Features Syndicate |
| 5/8/27 | Famous Women - Isabella of Spain | King Features Syndicate |
| 5/15/27 | The One-Two Ear Ring Love Code | International Feature Service (looks like a re-used old cover) |
| 5/22/27 | Famous Women - Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi | King Features Syndicate |
| 5/29/27 | Penelope | King Features Syndicate |
| 6/5/27 | Famous Women - Queen Margaret of Denmark | King Features Syndicate |
If anyone can find a paper online that ran the Dan Smith material in this gap, I'd very much like to know about it.
We pick up the Dan Smith thread at the Montana Standard in September 1928. The covers are now story illustrations. Unfortunately I lost this paper at the end of the year and was forced to switch again. :
| Date | Title | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| 9/16/28 | Out of the Sky (uncredited story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/23/28 | Out of the Sky (uncredited story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 9/30/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/7/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/14/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/21/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 10/28/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/4/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/11/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/18/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 11/25/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/2/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/9/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/16/28 | The Circus Baby by James Aswell (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/23/28 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
I switched to Indianapolis Star, but that turned into a dead end -- got barely more than a month out of it (see below). However, it did fill in an interesting interlude when Dan Smith lost his spot temporarily to Louis Biedermann. Maybe Dan was given a well-deserved vacation. Note that the Star begins The Eternal Flapper two weeks earlier than the Standard did. Also, notice that in the Star on 12/2/28, Smith was still working on his historical women covers. This could well be a case where we have a couple strands of magazine cover DNA curling around each other, if you know what I mean. Maybe starting with the Standard we are actually seeing an entirely separate cover series, and Dan Smith was actually working on two parallel series? I told you that this index would be messy!
| Date | Title | Cover Artist | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12/2/28 | Famous Romances - Princess Mary of the House of Tudor | Dan Smith | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/9/28 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/16/28 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/23/28 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
| 12/30/28 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/6/29 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
| 1/13/29 | The Eternal Flapper by Don Warren (story illo) | Louis Biedermann | King Features Syndicate |
Now our paper has switched to the Detroit Free Press. It appears to me that the Free Press is one week late compared to the Indianapolis Star. in other words, if the Star had continued, they would have run the first installment of Nora's Ark on the 20th.
Noteworthy here is that we have another syndicate change, this one from King to NFS on 3/10/29. There is no obvious reason for this change, and the format and focus don't change. In fact, it happens right in the middle of a series.
What is more exciting is that we finally get to a couple series that are of special interest to me, in that they are continuing comic strip series by my definition. Honeymoon Island and Pancho Rancho finally get Dan Smith a couple spots in my book. A note on those two series: although the writer is uncredited, it wouldn't surprise me a bit if it is Don Warren, who wrote a number of stories in the same vein that Smith illustrated.
| Date | Title | Syndicate |
|---|---|---|
| 1/27/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) [start] | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/3/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/10/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/17/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 2/24/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/3/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | King Features Syndicate |
| 3/10/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 3/17/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 3/24/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 3/31/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 4/7/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 4/14/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 4/21/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 4/28/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 5/5/29 | Nora's Ark by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 5/12/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 5/19/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 5/26/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 6/2/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 6/9/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 6/16/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 6/23/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 6/30/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 7/7/29 | Rocky Ranch by Don Warren (story illo) | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 7/14/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service (writer uncredited) |
| 7/21/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 7/28/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 8/4/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 8/11/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 8/18/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 8/25/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 9/1/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 9/8/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 9/15/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 9/22/29 | Honeymoon Island | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 9/29/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service (writer uncredited) |
| 10/6/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 10/13/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 10/20/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 10/27/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 11/3/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 11/10/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 11/17/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 11/24/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 12/1/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 12/8/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
| 12/15/29 | Pancho Rancho | Newspaper Feature Service |
I'm calling this the end of Dan Smith's reign as a one-man magazine cover-producing machine. I know of one additional series he did in 1930, but after Pancho Rancho ends, he's definitely not even a regular contributor anymore.So that's it for this post, and yet we're really just getting started on the Hearst magazine covers.
Tomorrow we hit an exciting stretch, so see you then!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.