Afan magazineis a commercially written and publishedmagazineintended for the amusement offansof thepopular culturesubject matter that it covers. It is distinguished from a scholarly, literary or trade magazine on the one hand, by the target audience of its contents, and from afanzineon the other, by the commercial and for-profit nature of its production and distribution.[1][2]Scholarly works on popular culture andfandomsdo not always make this terminological distinction clear. In some relevant works, fanzines are called "fan magazines", possibly because the term "fanzine" is seen asslang.
Americanexamples includePhotoplay,Motion Picture Magazine,Modern Screen,Sports IllustratedandCinefantastique.[citation needed]
Film fan magazines
editContent
editThe film fan magazines focused on promoting films and movie stars in a certain way, and in exchange for this control, the studios would purchase plentiful advertisements.[3]
Well known gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper, Walter Winchell, and Louella Parsons, among others, were published in various fan magazines. Readers of the fan magazines enjoyed reading about their favorite celebrities in "candid" articles supposedly penned by the stars themselves, even though they were most likely written by press agents and usually served to defend recent behavior or deflect rumors.[4]The reporting on stars in this period byPhotoplayand others was often positive due to the studios' influence over the publications.[citation needed]
Photoplay
editPhotoplaywas one of the first American film fan magazines. Founded in Chicago in 1911 by Macfadden Publications,Photoplaywas founded the same year asStuart Blackton's Motion Picture Story,a similar publication.Photoplay,as one of the first and most popular fan magazines, is credited as the originator of celebrity media.Photoplaywas published from 1911 until 1980, at several points merging with other publications.
Other fan magazines includeModern ScreenandCinefantastique.[citation needed]
Confidential
editConfidentialwas founded in 1952 by Robert Harrison and published until 1978.
More of a tabloid than a fan magazines because of its salacious content and irreverent celebrity gossip. Unlike other fan magazines,Confidentialdid not cooperate with the studios allowing for more scandalous content. Contrary to its reputation for double-checking its facts, the magazine knowingly published unverified allegations which opened themselves up to libel suits.[5][6]
References
edit- ^Slide, Anthony.Inside the Hollywood fan magazine: a history of star makers, fabricators, and gossip mongersUniversity Press of Mississippi, 2010; p. 11 andpassim
- ^Hunt, Nathan. "The importance of trivia: ownership, exclusion and authority in science fiction fandom" inDefining cult movies: the cultural politics of oppositional tasteMark Jancovichet al,eds. Manchester University Press, 2003; p. 188
- ^"Those Glorious Fan Magazines."Welcome to VQR Online.31 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
- ^"Those Glorious Fan Magazines."Welcome to VQR Online.31 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.
- ^Douglas O. Linder (2010, accessed December 9, 2014)
- ^Scott, Henry E. "When Gossip Was Gritty: Confidential Magazine."Gawker.22 Jan. 2010. Web. 1 Oct. 2014.