Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. As a result of Collier's pioneering investigative journalism, Collier's Weekly established a reputation as a proponent of social reform. When attempts by various companies to sue Peter Collier ended in failure, other magazines became involved in what Theodore Roosevelt described unflatteringly as "muckraking journalism."

History

Irish immigrant Peter Collier (1849–1918) left Ireland at age 17 and founded a company producing books for the Catholic market. In April, 1888, he launched Collier's Once a Week as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news". By 1892, with a circulation climbing past the 250,000 mark, Collier's Once a Week was one of the largest selling magazines in the United States. The name was changed to Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal in 1895. With an emphasis on news, the magazine became a leading exponent of the halftone news picture. To fully exploit the new technology, Peter Collier recruited James H. Hare, one of the pioneers of photojournalism. Circulation continued to grow, and by 1917, the magazine had a million readers each week.

Serials

Serializing novels during the late 1920s, Collier's Weekly sometimes simultaneously ran two ten-part novels, and non-fiction was also serialized. Between 1913 and 1949, Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu serials, illustrated by Joseph Clement Coll and others, were hugely popular. The Mask of Fu Manchu, which was adapted into a 1932 film and a 1951 Wally Wood comic book, was first published as a 12-part Collier's serial, running from May 7, 1932 through July 23, 1932. The cover of the May 7 issue presented a memorable cover illustration by famed maskmaker Wladyslaw Theodore Benda, and his mask design for that cover was repeated by many other illustrators in subsequent adaptations and reprints.

Editors and writers

Norman Hapgood became editor of Collier's Weekly in 1903 and attracted many leading writers. In May, 1906, he commissioned Jack London to cover the San Francisco earthquake, a report accompanied by 16 pages of pictures. Under Hapgood's guidance, Collier's Weekly began publishing the work of investigative journalists such as Samuel Hopkins Adams, Ray Stannard Baker, C.P. Connolly and Ida Tarbell. Hapgood's approach had great impact, resulting in such changes as the reform of the child labor laws, slum clearance and women's suffrage. In April, 1905, an article by Upton Sinclair, "Is Chicago Meat Clean?", persuaded the Senate to pass the 1906 Meat Inspection Act.

In October, 1905, Adams began an 11-part series, "The Great American Fraud". Analyzing the contents of popular patent medicines, Adams pointed out that the companies producing these medicines were making false claims about their products and some were actually damaging the health of those people using them. The series had an impact on public opinion and led to the first Pure Food and Drug Act (1906). When Hapgood left for Harper's Weekly in 1912, he was replaced by Robert Collier, the son of the founder, as the editor of Collier's.

Writers such as Martha Gellhorn and Ernest Hemingway, who reported on the Spanish Civil War, helped boost the circulation. Winston Churchill, who wrote an account of the First World War, was a regular contributor during the 1930s, but his series of articles ended in 1938 when he became a minister in the British government. Other writers included Willa Cather, Zane Grey, Ring Lardner, Sinclair Lewis, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Ruth Burr Sanborn, Albert Payson Terhune and H.C. Witwer.

Radio

Collier's circulation battle with The Saturday Evening Post led to the creation of The Collier Hour, broadcast on the NBC Blue Network from 1927 to 1932. It was radio's first major dramatic anthology, adapting stories and serials from Collier's. Airing on the Wednesday before weekly publication, it switched to Sundays to avoid spoilers with stories being aired simultaneously with the magazine. In 1929, in addition to the dramatizations, it offered music, news, sports and comedy.

Illustrators and cartoonists

Leading illustrators and cartoonists contributed to Collier's, including Charles Addams, Carl Anderson, Stan and Jan Berenstain, Sam Berman, Sam Cobean, A.B. Frost, Jay Irving, Crockett Johnson, E.W. Kemble, Hank Ketcham, David Low, Bill Mauldin, John Cullen Murphy, Virgil Partch, Mischa Richter, John Sloan, William Steig, Charles Henry "Bill" Sykes, Richard Taylor, Gluyas Williams, Gahan Wilson and Rowland B. Wilson. After WWII, Harry Devlin became the top editorial cartoonist at Collier's.

Later years

During World War II, when readership reached 2.5 million, Collier's published Jan Karski's "Polish Death Camp," one of the first articles about concentration camps. Collier's circulation dropped after the war. In the early 1950s, Collier's ran a groundbreaking series of articles about space flight, Man Will Conquer Space Soon! which prompted the general public to seriously consider the possibility of a trip to the moon. In August, 1953, Collier's changed from a weekly to a biweekly, but it continued to lose money. After the magazine ceased publication on December 16, 1956, the company continued to publish Collier's Encyclopedia and Collier’s Junior Classics.

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