When editors were gods

A nation of imbeciles, 1932

"In a few years, perhaps a few generations, we shall have arrived at the stage where thinking and reflection is no longer possible. We shall have become morons or a nation of imbeciles. The golden age in which I lived ended when the radio and talking picture nuisance moved into the sphere of public entertainment." — columnist Bob Davis in a 1932 newspaper interview.

Until his retirement from the magazine business the previous decade, Davis, then going by Robert H. Davis, had been one of the best-known and most successful editors of his day, primarily through his long association with Munsey's Magazine. Shortening his name to Bob Davis, he went on to an equally successful career as a newspaper columnist and author.

And in what might be his most lasting achievement, Davis also wrote the lyrics of "The Woodchuck Song," posing the question "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?"

The day two teen mags crashed the L.A. phone lines

It was on this day (November 15) in 1967 that more than 10,000 readers of the teen magazines Dig and Fifteen clogged the phone lines in Los Angeles so badly that incoming long-distance service was cut off to some 7 million residents for nearly two hours.

The magazines had invited readers to call their offices collect for a chance to speak with Mark Lindsay, the teen heartthrob lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders. According to an Associated Press account, “calls came from Australia, Tokyo, London and all parts in the United States,” and “Lindsay spoke with 300 of the callers.”

He likened himself to a king, and few would have disagreed

Today is the birthday of George Horace Lorimer, probably the most powerful editor of the early, if not entire, 20th century, born October 6, 1867. As editor of the Saturday Evening Post for nearly four decades, Lorimer held unprecedented sway over what readers read and writers wrote. The young F. Scott Fitzgerald summed up his and many other writers' view of Lorimer's power in a 1922 letter to his agent: "By God + Lorimer, I'm going to make a fortune yet." Lorimer himself might not have drawn any comparisons to the Almighty, but he came pretty close. “Editors and crowned heads are the only people in the world…with the right to say we," he once observed. "Editors should be the only despots.”

Another notable October 6 birthday: Shana Alexander, born in 1925 in New York City. Probably best remembered today for her debates with James J. Kilpatrick on "60 Minutes" and the parodies of same on "Saturday Night Live," Alexander had an earlier career as a magazine editor, including stints as entertainment editor at Flair and editor of McCall's. She died in 2005. (Incidentally, Alexander's father, Milton Ager, wrote the music for "Happy Days Are Here Again.")

On this day...

... in 1988, Loudon Wainwright, a longtime editor and columnist at Life magazine as well as author of "The Great American Magazine: An Inside Story of Life," died in New York City at age 63. His children and grandchildren include the singer/songwriters Loudon Wainwright III, Sloan Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, and Martha Wainwright.

On this day...

...in 1925, Shana Alexander was born in New York City. Probably best remembered today for her debates with James J. Kilpatrick on "60 Minutes" and the parodies of same on "Saturday Night Live," Alexander had an earlier career as a magazine editor, including stints as entertainment editor at Flair and editor of McCall's. She died in 2005. (Incidentally, Alexander's father, Milton Ager, wrote the music for "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Ain't She Sweet.")