"Fabulous" Flo Steinberg (1939-2017)

This one is tough.

I was out west this year once again at the San Diego con with a large family contingent. The trip went as one might imagine ... incredible crowd sizes, frenetic, hectic craziness ... but a lot of fun. My middle younger brother Nicholas flew out from Minneapolis, and it was the first time we attended a con together since the days of Phil Seuling in the 1970's, where Harvey Kurtzman once saw him (my brother) fall off a chair during a panel, inquiring from the dais, "are you ok back there?"

Contrary to complaints that the show isn't about comic books any longer, there were many, many dealers at the bottom of the arena and I was able to purchase a nice handful of Timely teen issues of the Cindy Comics and Lana Comics variety, as well as about 20 issues of Mad Magazine from the 1960's.

I caught up with friends from fandom... Batton Lash, Jackie Estrada, Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson, Craig Yoe, Ger Apeldoorn, Alex Grand, even my pal Bill Cole, missed seeing a ton of others (I could not find Danny Fingeroth), took a lot of photos and video, attended several Jack Kirby panels celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth, and there even was a meeting with Stan Lee himself ...... well, my wife Maggie had the meeting. An accidental one. On Saturday of the con, as we always do, my family splits up upon arrival. I go immediately to the comic dealers section and she heads for the craziness of the rest. My children go off on a third route, I have no idea where. At some point in the afternoon, we all get a group text message and a close-up photo of Stan Lee. Now I should have really been more in tune with convention guests, and I think I'd heard Stan was a scheduled guest somewhere, but the recent passing of his wife Joan made me feel Stan might not attend. 

Well I was wrong. My wife ended up, completely by accident, somewhere in the middle of all the con craziness, standing right next to Stan Lee. She extended her hand and introduced herself as Michael Vassallo's wife. Stan, to his credit, immediately replied, "Mike Vassallo! I know him! Nice to finally meet you!" And with a parting "excelsior", he was whisked away by his "Secret Service" detail to wherever it was he was going. 

Which proves one indelible point. No matter how much you hate the main non-comics convention venue, always stay beside your wife or you'll be sorry. I am.

The last day Sunday, July 23, started as always with me checking online as I got myself ready for breakfast at our hotel. Pulling up the page on my iPad, a short post in my Facebook feed at the very top stopped me cold... "R.I.P. Flo Steinberg".

Blood drained from my face and I immediately felt queasy with my heart pounding. I was stunned, yelling to my wife that an online report was saying Flo had died, which made her gasp in horror. I immediately texted my friends Nick Caputo and Barry Pearl and asked them if they could confirm this, and Nick at 12 noon New York time, wrote back immediately, the solitary word....  "yes."

Background:

It all started with Nick Caputo. Many years ago, 1996, 1997... I forget what year, Nick and I attended a con in New York and Flo was a guest, or an just an attendee, I also don't remember which. We were in the main dealers' room and Nick pointed out a smiling cute-as-a-button woman to me across the long aisle, exclaiming, "Hey! Flo Steinberg is here!" 

Standing all alone, with no one even recognizing her, Nick and I walked over and he introduced me, having previously known her from numerous talks and phone calls about the early days of Marvel. Flo was exactly how we all knew her, sweet as can be, smiling wide as the Cheshire Cat, friendly as a spring flower, and probably somewhat embarrassed by my gushing. 

We spoke for quite a while and then we parted, exchanging contact information so I could pursue additional questions in the future. The fact I was Nick's friend was a good enough "letter of introduction" for her. No one had any paper to write on and all I had in my wallet was one of my business cards, so I gave it to her and asked her to pay no attention to the front, while I wrote my home number on the back. She joked about needing a good dentist and we parted ways, Nick and I just thrilled by the meeting. I never did call Flo as time slipped away.

Jump forward 10 years.

2007 I was in between secretaries and my wife Maggie filled in for what ended up being two years. One day I was perusing my appointment book and saw the name "Florence Steinberg" penciled in later in the week as a new patient, the appointment made by my wife who took the call. At first glance, nothing registered. In fact, I have several same named families as patients, so my thought was that it likely a relative of one of them. On the day of the appointment, I continued to inexplicably ponder the name, actually saying it over and over in my mind ... Florence Steinberg ... Florence Steinberg ... something just bothered me, as if I was partially recognizing the name on a subconscious level. Then in a flash it struck me, "Wait a minute! FLO STEINBERG??? It couldn't be!" 

I asked Maggie what she remembered about the woman on the phone and she replied something to the effect that it was just a nice sounding lady, nothing more she could recall. Well, as the time approached, I kept looking out to my small waiting room, straining to see if anyone had walked in. Soon I was busy and could not pay further attention, taking care of business and losing track of the time. At some point Maggie poked her head in and said casually, "Florence Steinberg is here," and I froze, rose and walked out to my waiting room to finally see who it actually was. 

It was Flo.

She smiled and exclaimed, "Hi Doc!" We hugged and embraced like old friends. Recall that I had met her only one single time previously, 10 years earlier. I could not believe she was standing in my office. As Flo explained it, she had kept my old business card (10 years!) and when the time came, decided to call me up. I told her that I didn't care how insulted she was, I could never, ever, ever (ever!) accept remuneration for anything, something she was not initially happy about, but I was adamant and she relented.

That began a ten year period of friendship that was as deep as it was wide. Flo came up every three months and we would have 2 hour lunches, usually at her favorite place, Burger Heaven on Lexington Avenue and 62nd street, occasionally joined by my wife Maggie. Before you know it, Nick Caputo and Barry Pearl, Flo and I were frequently having dinner together, a "real" Yancy Street Gang we were, with a bonafide charter member in our midst! For real!  We were regulars at places as diverse as the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Terminal and The Pastrami King on Lexington Avenue. What great times we had, talking about everything under the sun, and rarely about comics. One evening, after a New York Comicon that Flo didn't even attend, she met us afterward for a nightcap of coffee and apple pie at her favorite diner on Lexington Avenue. 

Of course, our conversations were certainly occasionally about Marvel as Flo spun wonderful stories about her old days there. Flo and I missed sharing a birthday by a single day. She was born on March 17 (in 1939) and I'm March 18.  She grew up in Boston, graduating from UMass Amherst in 1960 and volunteered in campaigns of all three Kennedy brothers at one time or another. Her first job was with the New England Telephone Company but by March of 1963 she was being interviewed by Stan Lee for a secretarial job at the nascent Marvel Comics, where her job as Stan's "Gal Friday" or "Corresponding Secretary" actually included nearly everything under the sun short of actually creating the comics. 

Dubbed "Fabulous Flo" by Stan Lee, she answered the phones, greeted guests, made sure the art went to the printer and answered fan mail that would bear Stan's signature. And she was a beloved figure in that tiny office with only a thin partition separating them from Goodman's Magazine Management department. 

Flo early on dealt closely with the small production staff...Sol Brodsky, Stan Goldberg, letterers Artie Simek and Sam Rosen, then later Roy Thomas, Marie Severin and Herb Trimpe, but all the freelance artists who came through the door adored her. She had nothing but nice things to say about all of them. Literally! Asked about some of them, her replies were spoken in that wonderful, warm and distinctive voice with a partially Bostonian, partially something else I-quite-can't-put-my-finger-on accent/inflection.....

"What was Jack Kirby like, Flo?" "Jack was nice!"

"What was Steve Ditko like, Flo?" Steve was nice!"

"What was Wally Wood like, Flo?" "Wally was nice!"

"What was Stan Lee like, Flo?" "Stan was nice!"
"What was Sol Brodsky like, Flo?" "Sol was nice!"

"What was Federico Fellini like, Flo?" "He was nice!"

Jack Kirby and Flo (date unknown)

And take a good look at Jonah Jameson's secretary Betty Brant, as drawn by Steve Ditko starting in 1964 ... It's Flo! 

Flo occasionally simultaneously modeled for Magazine Management's other magazines, specifically, for example, in SCREEN STARS ALBUM #4 (1964), an annual spin-off of sorts of the long-running SCREEN STARS magazine (the flagship film magazine in Goodman's stable, and a publication hailing back to April, 1944, when it was then edited by Bessie Little.)

In this sham article, young, pretty "Florence White" from a small Massachusetts high school, gets her wish to work with Hollywood stars fulfilled! Before Photoshop, there was cut and paste by the Magazine Management production department to insert Flo into photos with a bevy of Hollywood's top stars......

In 1965 Flo was showcased on the initial M.M.M.S. record "The Voices of Marvel", along with all the rest of the Marvel bullpen staff (short, Steve Ditko). Flo makes her appearance at the 40 second mark........

Here's Flo with Gil Kane and Otto Binder at John Benson's 1966 NY Convention. The photo was taken by then 14 year old David Armstrong! (Used with permission. Thanks David!)

Flo often expressed her dismay in leaving Marvel in 1968 when she couldn't get a raise from Martin Goodman, calling him a cheapskate. A stunningly beautiful young woman, Flo was pursued by men who visited the office, one in particular Flo mentioned to me was Forry Ackerman, frequently up to see Magazine Management and who was frustrated by his lack of success in getting a date. 

Here is a later gift from Forry to Flo, the June/69 issue of the science fiction digest SPACEWAY, hand inscribed and annotated in red pen by Forry, and opposite a Frank R. Paul illustration on a reprinted story from the 1930's.....

In 1970 Flo made an appearance in the documentary "Herb Trimpe, We Love You!". Thanks to Amelia Trimpe, this long heard about, but never seen look into the Marvel life of Herb Trimpe circa 1970 is available on YouTube.....

Flo's appearances run from 2:50 to 3:06,  4:19 to 5:17 and 5:43-6:01. 

(For some unknown reason, the film below starts several minutes in. Move the bar left to view the film from the start)

With the grateful permission of the filmmaker Jon Michael Riley and Amelia Trimpe, I've pulled out the Flo appearances and feature them below.......

Flo's post-Marvel years were a swirling dive into the early Underground comix scene, taking her to San Francisco and Oregon before returning to work for Jim Warren. In 1975 she published BIG APPLE COMIX, becoming one of the very first Independent comics of all time. A "who's who" of top talent, both indie/underground and mainstream, all lent their skills to Flo's baby...... Wally Wood, Neil Adams, Al Williamson, Denny O'Neil, Archie Goodwin, Ralph Reese, Marie Severin, Paul Kirchner, Stu Schwartzberg, Alan Weiss, Herb Trimpe, Mike Ploog and Larry Hama all contributed. Production was handled by Linda Fite (who also contributed a strip inside), John Verpoorten and Michele Brand. Flo herself edited the issue.

  

  
Musician Todd Tamanend Clark took this photo with Flo at  Phil Seuling's 1975 Comic Art Convention at the Hotel Commodore in New York City that ran July 3-7, presented here with Todd's permission...

In 1978 Jack Kirby cast Flo as "The Invisible Girl" in his early Marvel bullpen send-up of the Fantastic Four in WHAT IF? #11 (Oct/78).

Flo was also concurrently now back working for Marvel (since the 1990's) as a proofreader and loved the fact that many of the young folks there didn't even know who she was. She always had wonderful things to say about all the editors there and one of her favorites was Marvel Masterworks editor Cory Sedlmeier, who adored Flo. 

In 2002 TwoMorrows Publications and Editor Jon B. Cooke devoted an entire half issue of the magazine COMIC BOOK ARTIST #18 (Mar/02) to a "Fabulous Flo Steinberg Celebration."  A labor of love, four different articles were published over the course of 46 pages, including a great in-dept interview with Flo. Marie Severin rendered a beautiful homage to Jack Kirby's iconic Fantastic Four #51 cover, complete with Kirby Krackle. Flo provided tons of old photos of herself from the early days of Marvel.

Here is the original Marie Severin artwork to the cover above....

And Marie's pencil layout...

In 2002 Marie sent the original artwork to Flo in the mail, decorating the interior cardboard mailing box in this manner.....

When she was invited back to attend the "50th anniversary of the original New York Comicon" panel at the 2014 New York Comicon (a con she originally attended back in 1964), she was initially reluctant to go. We spoke about the event and I wasn't the only one to gently nudge her to accept. She ended up having a wonderful time and was glad she attended. She did say it was going to be the last time, though.

In the photo above, Flo is holding the original response card sent to Kendall Whitehouse. Kendall sent me an image of the original card he showed Flo at the con that Flo originally send him back in the mid 1960's.

A private person, Flo never felt comfortable with all the attention fandom focused on her. Over the years, in this century's golden-age of comics history research and book publication, every time someone wrote a book on some aspect of Marvel's sliver-age history, one of the first people to be contacted was Flo. She would field phone calls from fans and authors alike, patiently answer as best she could, but confided to me she grew tired of it as time went on, repeating the same stories over and over. "It was just a job, I tell them what they want to hear," she'd say to me. 

Flo also was not keen on taking photos with fans. I knew this and never in 10 years ever asked her to take a photo with me. Now I wish I had. She wouldn't have refused. My pal, author Dewey Cassell, a close friend of Flo, took a great photo with her in 2012 outside one of Flo's favorite eating haunts downtown on a visit to New York. I cropped out several background individuals that Dewey said Flo thought looked straight out of central casting! Flo didn't want Dewey to publish the photo until she passed away, a morbid request to be sure, but showed the depths of her privacy wishes.  I'm jealous, Dewey.

Additionally, Flo did not suffer fools well and was annoyed by incompetence. This is why she was still in-demand as a proof-reader for Marvel. Flo would constantly complain about today's generation's inattention to proper grammar. It drove her crazy. She would say, "people think I'm always so nice, but I'm not." I would then call her a liar to her face and she'd break into a wide grin and laugh, saying, "Oh Doc, you just know me too well!"

Truth be told, Flo rarely discussed Marvel and comics and was always more interested in our families and our pets, especially my Sheltie, Cindy. She would always ask about Cindy, knowing her as a young dog and grieving with our family when she passed away. She would even ask me how Barry's cats were doing, although she owned no pets of her own.

Within the last two years, as friends and acquaintances one by one passed on, Flo would often wax melancholy and mention how she was starting to feel time slipping away. She had very close friends she would always talk to and occasionally socialize with. Linda Fite and Larry Hama being two of the closest. Additionally Marie Severin (before her own health downturn) and Trina Robbins, as well as others I'm forgetting (for which I apologize). She began to think about what was she going to do with all the "stuff" she had. Knowing I was a big science fiction and vintage paperback fan, Flo began to bring me stacks of her old paperbacks every time she saw me. These books were battered, lovingly well-read and a wonderful cross-section of historical, science fiction and fantasy published primarily in the 1950's through early 1970's, publishers like Ace, Lancer, Cardinal, Daw, Pocket Books and Avon. 

Here is a sampling of those books....

I last saw Flo in January. We ate lunch at Burger Heaven on 62nd Street and took a walk around the block, past The Society of Illustrators. The weather was mild and we made our way back to my office corner. For a few moments we talked about possibly getting her to come up to my house for a visit on a weekend. I had asked Flo up several times previously and Barry Pearl offered to drive her up on a Saturday with Nick Caputo to spend the day with us and Maggie. Flo thought the idea wonderful but never committed. Flo occasionally would visit her closest friend Linda Fite upstate (I believe she was godmother to Linda and Herb's children), so she was familiar with the areas north of the city. On this January day, she said that when the weather got warmer, she'd love to come up and see my wife Maggie at our house in northern Westchester County. The long lunch running late, on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 60th street, we hugged each other and said our goodbyes, with me always telling her to be careful getting back home. 

In May, Flo called me up to apologize for being away for so long, telling me she had been hospitalized recently after passing out on the street while doing her laundry. As she related, "one minute I was outside the laundromat waiting and the next thing I knew I was on the floor looking up at an EMS worker." The diagnosis was dangerously severe and Flo ended up having surgery for a cerebral aneurysm. She was now back home and doing somewhat ok, all things considered, and would let me know when she on her feet again. I was startled, worried sick, wanting to know  whether there was anything I could do and insisting she please take care of herself, something she promised she would do. She was having trouble with her home phone so she gave me her cell phone number to check in with her. About two weeks later I called and didn't get through. The July 4th holiday then was a maze of family events as I spent a week upstate visiting my parents and with my two younger brothers' families. My return began the rush towards the San Diego con. 

I took Flo's number with me to San Diego, planning to call her from out here and tell her how the con was. I go to San Diego every year and every year Flo wanted a day by day account of what I did and who I saw. In fact, on my cell phone voice mail is a long message from Flo last year asking about all I did and saw at last years con. This message is now priceless to me as she asks about Barry, Nick and my wife Maggie. I don't believe Flo had ever attended the San Diego con. She was occasionally invited as a guest there over the years but always turned the honor down, not wanting to travel, nor deal with all the crush of fandom that would certainly occur. 

Which brings us back to Sunday morning and the sad news of Flo's passing. Social media and news sites were exploding with comments, tributes and reminiscences from folks who knew and worked with Flo back in the glory days of Marvel and her indie/underground days. Fans who received letters from her, feel (understandably so) that a warm piece of their younger life has blinked out. I absolutely know Flo would not want all this fuss over her. 

Even print media covered Flo's passing. AMNewYork, a morning paper published by Newsday, carried this below by former Marvel editor Tom Brennan......

The lung cancer was news to me and I'm betting Flo didn't even know about it at the time of our last phone call. From all reports, the end came quickly, which is a good thing. It was Flo's friend Larry Hama who made the announcement. Larry was there for Flo when the final crisis hit. 

Flo was no shrinking violet, all appearances to the contrary. Neither of us being terribly religious, we'd spoken about and discussed the concept of death and mortality many times over the course of the years. Knowing Flo and knowing how she felt about facing life head-on, I'm sure she faced a Ditko-rendered vision of eternity the same way. Head-on.

Today on Thursday, July 27, there was a graveside service for Flo. This morning I cancelled all my afternoon appointments and decided I would try to get all the way up to Ulster County to attend with Maggie. I caught a 12:45 train out of Grand Central and Maggie was waiting at the Croton Harmon station to pick me up, the address of the service in the GPS. It was going to be tough to make it on time, a 90 minute drive with the estimate that we'd arrive at the exact start of the service. Well let me tell you, estimates are wrong. Most of the driving (about 70 miles) was on back roads, rather than highways.The countryside is beautiful! Breathtaking, in fact. A combination of farms surrounded by sheer mountains and state parks. 

The GPS told us we'd arrived at our destination and it was the middle of nowhere. Tracking backwards, now we were lost. A half hour later, after talking to shop attendants and passer-byes on a main road, to no help at all, I found an online direction to the cemeteries in Ulster County and the proper direction we needed. We had been only a mile away all along and wasted 30 minutes going in the other direction.  

Just as we pulled up, a last car, the hearse, was pulling away in the opposite direction leaving a solitary worker holding a shovel who told me the service had been about a half hour and I'd just missed it. 

Damn.

Maggie and I went over and paid our respects.  The worker allowed us to shovel some dirt onto the mound and we did so, four shovels full... Maggie, myself and one each for Nick and Barry. About 20 people had attended and I assume everyone went back to Linda Fite's house, which I was told by the worker, was nearby.

We decided to not try to find Linda's house and began to make our way home. The trip was a success anyway, our goal met. We said good-by to Flo, which was all we really wanted to do. 




Addendum 7/15/18:

Marvel Comics published this tribute to Flo in all their published issues dated October, 2017...

Addendum 6/10/20:

I came across this by accident, plucked from a bag of recent comics purchases 7 months after I brought them home. A wonderful and poignant memorialization of Marvel's two silver-age female furies, Marie Severin and Flo Steinberg, by Trina Robbins and Marguerite Sauvage. This was a one-page back-up story in the final issue of the Marvel series, FEARLESS, from 2019, #4 (Dec/19), and followed 3 pages by the same creative team depicting a fictional "Golden Age Women of Marvel" convention panel (consisting of Ruth Atkinson, Fran Hopper, Pauline Loth, Tarpe Mills and Violet Barclay!)

SOURCES:

1. Betty Brant / Flo Steinberg comparison image is from http://sauropennacchioli.blogspot.it/2015/11/linattuale-steve-ditko-e-luomo-ragno.html?spref=fb&zx=9711068aa1d73a7e
2. Photo of Flo and Dewey Cassell is from Dewey himself and used with permission.
3. Photo of Stan Lee is from Maggie Vassallo and used with permission.
4. Scans of comic books, artwork, paperbacks and Flo's letter to me are scanned from the author's original copies
5. Voices of Marvel recording linked from Youtube.
6. Photos of Flo from younger days were originally from Flo herself, used copiously through the years in various publications.
7. The two photos of Flo at the 2014 NY Comicon as well as the image of the response card are courtesy Kendall Whitehouse. That card Flo is holding in the second photo is Kendal's actual original response card from Marvel that Flo wrote! 
8. Photo of Flo in 1975 courtesy of musician Todd Tamanend Clark. 
9. Video of Flo and Herb Trimpe documentary used with permission of film maker Jon Michael Riley and Amelia Trimpe.
10. Marie Severin and Flo Steinberg page from Fearless #4 used with permission of Trina Robbins.

Martin Goodman : The Marilyn Monroe Covers, Articles and Photo Features

Without a doubt, Marilyn Monroe was the #1 movie starlet of all time. Fifty-two years after her tragic death in 1962, her celluloid image is still the gold standard for Hollywood glamour and beauty. Her tumultuous private life was a gossip columnist and paparazzi's dream, certainly helped further by her marriages to two of the most famous sports and literary figures in America at that time, Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller.

Born Norma Jeane Mortenson (later Baker) in 1926, Marilyn's decade was primarily the 1950's and her image graced the covers of untold thousands of newsstand magazines and newspapers. The 1950's was also Martin Goodman's "primary" decade as a magazine publisher, after the tentative beginnings of the 1940's and before the crashing of American News Corporation in early 1957 that nearly took him out of the game completely.

Martin Goodman was primarily a chaser of newsstand sales tendencies. He was a consummate trend follower. If something was selling, he would produce 3 times as many knock-offs. Quoted once in 1937, "If you get a title that catches on, then add a few more, you're in for a nice profit" (1), it was a business plan that he adhered to for nearly 40 years. 

The fullest accounting of Goodman's earliest business and newsstand publications is covered in the recently published book The Secret History of Marvel Comics by myself and Blake Bell, available here: The Secret History of Marvel Comics, published by Fantagraphics Books in October, 2013, or by clicking the link at the top right of this page. Consider this blog post an extension of the coverage of Goodman's magazines found in our book, and Marilyn Monroe's appearances in them.

Needless to say, like every other magazine published of the time, Martin Goodman used Marilyn any chance he could get, putting her beautiful image not only on the covers of his magazines, but also the back covers, inside front covers, and running features inside on everything ranging from what films she was currently working on, to whatever was happening in her personal life.

What follows below are all the Marilyn Monroe appearances I could find in Goodman publications that I have here in my possession. Some of these were shown in our book, most were not. It will not be a complete survey by virtue of it being impossible to have looked at everything Goodman ever published (still my ultimate goal, though!), but I think it covers most of the major items, at least cover-wise. I will keep this blog entry open for updates and will update it accordingly as time goes on, hoping to make it a permanent archive of Marilyn's appearances on/in Goodman's magazines. Please feel free to send me omissions and I will upload them to this site.

Let me condense Martin Goodman's earlier publishing history into just a few lines.....

Goodman began publishing pulps in 1933. By 1937 he branched off into other types of publications and by 1939 jumped into the nascent comic book industry with Marvel Comics #1. As the 1940's went on, in addition to the pulps and comic books, he introduced humor, pin-up, confession, sports, film, men's and photo magazines. It is with the latter group mixture, a weird blend of film-men's-photo type publications, that we find our first Goodman Marilyn Monroe appearance in 1949. By this time, the umbrella name for the entirety of Goodman's publications was called Magazine Management.


Foto Parade Vol 1, #1 (Dec/49)

Foto Parade Vol 1, #1 (Dec/49) was a large-sized bedsheet magazine (Life Magazine size) published by Goodman's Foto Parade, Inc., a sub-publisher created for this exact magazine and used additionally for the first 62 issues of the long-running war comic book Battle (1951-1959) and the late-run 1953-1960 issues of the true crime magazine Amazing Detective Cases.

Foto Parade followed on the heels of a similar Goodman photo magazine Eye: People and Pictures, which debuted cover date May/49, and would kick off a slew of similar magazines including Focus, Photo, Brief, Sensation and Picture life. Foto Parade would immediately change title to Foto Parade of People with its second issue and I've tracked it to issue #6 (Jan/51) before I lose track of it and it possibly was cancelled to make way for something new.

Dell published an early version Foto in the late 1930's. Then Goodman himself published Flash Foto Features in 1941 for at least 2 issues. Following the seeming demise of the above Foto Parade of People, cover date Jan/53 saw Ace Publishing release the long-running pin-up and news magazine Foto-rama, so this may explain that Ace's A.A. Wynn grabbed up the unused title "Foto".

On page 6 of the above magazine is the article "Meet Marilyn Monroe and a New Picture Magazine", with a sub-heading "Beautiful Starlet of the Marx Brothers' New Movie, "Love Happy" Introduces "Foto Parade, a Magazine of Exciting Photographs and Articles." This is a very early Marilyn Monroe, trying to make a name for herself in film and modeling, but not yet the world wide known starlet she will shortly become.

FOTO PARADE Vol 1, #1 (Dec/49) p.6

FOTO PARADE Vol 1, #1 (Dec/49) p.8

Another very strange thing about this debut issue is the fact that there is a smaller preview version that exists. By preview version, I mean a thin, comic book sized 8 page "pamphlet" version was printed up only including the Marilyn Monroe photos. The 8 pages includes the cover, inside front cover, inside back cover and back cover. Other than a preview copy for distributors showcasing a new girly magazine (with a soon to be mega star on the cover!), another consideration is this may be an ashcan edition printed solely to secure the title copyright. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'm all ears. Here is the entire "pamphlet" version.......

And here is a size comparison between the two versions......

Focus Vol 1, #5 (Dec/51)

The next time we see Marilyn is on the cover of the long-running magazine Focus, with the sub-heading "Features and Fotos about People and Places".  Goodman's Focus had 3 different incarnations. It first appeared as a standard-sized magazine published by the sub-publisher Non-Pareil Publishing Corp. at the same time of Foto Parade above, Vol 1, #1 (Dec/49). Bruce Jacobs was the editor and Ray Robinson (of Goodman's sports magazines) was associate editor. The magazine was extremely thin (only 32 pages) and sported a surprisingly low cover price of only 10 cents! Cover articles included "Sex in College" and "The Nazis Still Run Germany".

(All of these Goodman picture magazines will be a subject of a future blog post. I'm saving all the images for that time, preferring to let Marilyn have her day on this entry!)

It then vanished and reappeared as a 25 cent bedsheet ,Vol 1, #2 (May/50), this time edited by Stan Lee's uncle, Robbie Solomon, and a cover sub-heading "A Pictorial Closeup of People". After a three month additional hiatus, it returned in the same bedsheet format but this time Stan Lee was now the editor. It then appears to have ended with Vol 1, #5 (Dec/50), which had a great pictorial article about Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees.

Focus then reappears again as Vol 1, #1, cover dated Aug/51, as a tiny pocket-sized magazine, a very popular newsstand format of the time where nearly all publishers released photo and picture magazines in this format. Pocket magazines were meant to fit in the reader's pocket! They were a minuscule 5 3/4  by 4 inches in size, with a cover price of 10 cents. Martin Goodman published at least 6 different titles in that format, some only an issue before changing to a different size.

To give you an idea of the size variations of the various magazines, here is an illustration depicting 4 different sizes of Goodman publications, all Marilyn Monroe covers that will be shown here, from bedsheet  to regular magazine to digest and down to pocket-sized:

This third incarnation of Focus would stay pocket-sized until the end in 1957 and be edited up to April 1953 by Arnold Hano (Bonnie Hano's husband) and then by James A. Bryans for the rest of its life. (It was killed by the Atlas implosion in the Spring of 1957). The entire 1951 to 1957 run was published by Goodman's Leading Magazine Corp. and all issues have the Atlas globe on the cover, as do all of Goodman's magazines from Nov/51 through Sept/57 cover dates.

Marilyn Monroe's appearances in Focus seems to her most popular and common destination in Goodman's magazines. I've found her on 7 different covers, a back cover, and numerous additional interior articles/photo spreads. Here they are in succession...

In Vol 1, #5 (Dec/51),  Marilyn gets the cover and a 6 page article titled "Sex Appeal". How's this for an opening... "When she sucks in her gut and stands on dainty tiptoe, nobody would dare guess they once tried to cast her as a boy."

Focus Vol 2, #5 (May/52)

Marilyn appears in the article: "The 10 Best Undressed Women of '52". The top 10 were Keolaha Keaki, Jabe Russell, Lili St. Cyr, Trudy Williams, Ava Gardner, Ester Williams, Leslie Caron, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe and Mara Corday (in the centerfold!).

Focus Vol 2, #8 (Aug/52)

For the cover article "10 Sexiest Men in the World (and their Women)", Marilyn appears in the centerfold with her future-husband, Joe Dimaggio.

Focus Vol 2, #9 (Sept/52)

Marilyn is on the cover and inside is a 5 page article ending in a Marilyn centerfold.

Focus Vol 2, #12 (Dec/52)

An early photo of Marilyn on the cover only.

Focus Vol 3, #3 (Mar/53)

The cover and six page article "The End of Marilyn Monroe", including centerfold, pages 28-33.

Focus Vol 3, #5 (May/53)
 

And the inside front cover:

Focus Vol 3, #8 (July 8, 1953)

In an article titled FOCUS on Headlines and Headliners, Marilyn is mentioned on page 15, with a photo.

Focus Vol 3, #11 (August 5, 1953)

Focus must have been so successful that for an 8 month period between June of 1953 and February of 1954 it was actually published twice a month! Marilyn will appear in two places this issue, on the inside front cover and in the centerfold of the article "Sex is Getting Too Complicated".

Focus Vol 3, #11 (August 5, 1953) (inside front cover)

Focus Vol 3, #11 (August 5, 1953) (centerfold)

Focus Vol 3, #13 (September 2, 1953)

Marilyn appears in a three page photo spread titled "You've Never Seen Monroe Like This".

Focus Vol 3, #17 (October 28, 1953)

Another three page article on Monroe titled "Pinch-hitting for DiMaggio". In this case, it's columnist Walter Winchell. Pages 40-42.

Focus Vol 4, #7 (Jun/54)

Cover and four page article "Marilyn Monroe flops", about how Niagara flopped in Brazil. 

Focus Vol 4, #10 (Sept/54)

A four page Monroe article titled "How Monroe Pitched her First Curve".

Focus Vol 5, #1 (Jan/55)

Cover and three page article "The Picture Marilyn Didn't Want Shot".

Focus Vol 5, #3 (Mar/55)

Inside front cover only.

Focus Vol 5, #4 (Apr/55)

Single head shot this issue on the "Focus on Headlines and Headliners" page.

Focus Vol 5, #7 (July/55)

Back cover and four page article "Who's Making a Monkey Out of Marilyn?"

Focus Vol 5, #9 (Sept/55)

Marilyn Monroe and Milton Berle back cover. (And a Joe Maneely illustration on p.22!!!!!)

Joe Maneely illustration!!!

Focus Vol 5, #11 (Nov/55)

Gorgeous cover and 4-page lead article.

Focus Vol 6, #5 (May/56)

A Jayne Mansfield cover and a photo/mention in an article on whether blondes get bigger bonuses.

Focus Vol 6, #5 (May/56)

A Brigitte Bardot cover fronts  "Headlines and Headliners" page:

Focus Vol 6, #10 (Oct/56)

A mention and small headshot photo on the "Headlines and Headliners" page:

Filmland Vol 3, #1 (Jan/53)

The next title to feature Marilyn was Goodman's Filmland, one of several film magazines that came out under the editorship of Bessie Little for Magazine Management. Filmland was published monthly by Red Circle Magazine Inc., a sub-publisher that first appeared in 1943 to publish the 5th and 6th releases of Goodman's crime digest paperbacks under the banner Crime Novel Selection #5 and #6. Other publications that sported this publisher include the comic book My Own Romance, Hedy Devine and Comic Capers. The Atlas Mad Magazine clone Snafu also was published under this sub-publisher as well as releases #2 through #5 of Goodman's Red Circle Books, the immediate short-term predecessor to Lion Books.

This issue of Filmland features and iconic breathy pose by Monroe on the cover and a short feature purportedly written by Marilyn herself titled "Failure Was My Spur". Interestingly, Rock Hudson purports to also write the article "My Look at Love", his take on women and his love life.

Eye - People and Pictures Vol 3, #2 (Feb/53)

I find Marilyn next in the digest version of Eye - People and Pictures. Eye was Goodman's debut picture magazine re-launch at the Magazine Management 1949 expansion (he had others earlier during the war) and began as a large bedsheet before shrinking to digest size (see size comparisons in the photo posted above). Marilyn appears on the cover only and the photo looks like it was a colorized black and white photo with an added background.

Eye - People and Pictures Vol 3, #9 (Sept/53)

Marilyn has the lead article, an 8 page pictorial , "Marilyn Learns - How to Marry a Millionaire" while the cover blares "Special - New Marilyn Monroe Photos" showing another cover model, Joyce Johnson.

Eye - People and Pictures Vol 5, #4 (Aug/55)

Marilyn will show up again in Eye as one of many starlets in the article "A Pictorial Guide to the World's Greatest Blondes". In addition to Monroe, will be features on earlier blondes Marlene Dietrich, Carol Lombard, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Betty Hutton, Betty Grable, as well as on "the new blondes", Eva Marie Saint, Mamie Van Doren, Pat Gale and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Also mentioned are Roxanne, Gloria Pall, Lilly Christine, Lili St. Cyr and "the show blondes" including Sheree North. "Miscellaneous blondes" include Maria Stinger, Jan Sterling, Marion Brash, Sara Shane, Eve Meyer and Carol Blake. "Today's blonde" is Betty Brosmer and "tomorrow's blonde" Anita Ekberg. Whew!

Here's Marilyn's segment...

Brief Vol 1, #3 (Mar/53)

Title-wise, Marilyn next appears in the digest Brief. Up to this point, all these photo, people and news magazines were little more than Goodman's attempt to show pictures of young, pretty, semi-naked women. Every single magazine sported models and starlets on the cover, back cover, in feature articles and photo spreads, intermixed with sensational news items. Brief was an attempt to get out of the gutter, at least at first. The digest was laid out differently, was squarebound, rather than a stapled pamphlet, and featured the occasional "name" writer. (As seen in our book, Mort Walker drew illustrations in a few issues). Pretty girls still can be found but they were less that 10% of the interior. Even the cover models, at first, were more demure. And Goodman paid more for the articles!

When Brief debuted in late 1952, Writer's Digest covered it extensively in their September, 1952 issue:

"The newest title in the Martin Goodman group, Magazine Management Company, is Brief Magazine, which will appear the latter part of October. It is to be a monthly for general circulation, and will place its chief emphasis on subjects of all ages. Material falls into a wide variety of groups: business enterprises, celebrities, children, communities, crime, culture and education, family, entertainment fields, fashion and food, the home, medicine and health, movies, personalities, science, sex, self-help - anything to interest the family group."

"As for the treatment, Brief will aim at a balanced proportion of fact-articles, first-person pieces, and humor - satirical or otherwise. It will use picture stories and a good deal of illustrative material. Short fillers of about 100 words are also wanted. But no fiction, no poetry, no gag cartoons."

"Article lengths run 1,000 to 2,500 words. The average payment is $200 but depends on length, basic value to the magazine, etc. Lead articles will rate up to $500. A photo-essay that runs four to six magazine pages will bring about $200. Payment is promised within a week of acceptance. Address queries and material for Brief to Robert J. Levin, editor, at 270 Park Avenue, N.Y. 17."(2)

After a period of perceived upscaleness, Brief would eventually revert to form, first continued as a digest similar to Photo and then a stapled pocket-sized magazine exactly similar to Focus and Sensation. Cheesecake ultimately sold better.

In this third issue of Brief, Marilyn gets the inside front cover and a monstrous 10 page photo feature! I'm putting the non-Marilyn cover up below because it's a good one! The cover model is Rosemarie Bowe.

Brief Vol 1, #6 (Aug/53)

In this issue of Brief, Marilyn is not really the subject of the article "After Marilyn ... What?". After appearing on page 25, the rest of the feature is about "other" top contenders to follow her into fame. The contenders following are Mara Corday, Terry Moore, Ursula Thiess and Elaine Stewart.

Brief Vol 2, #3 (June/54)

The cover blares "New Unpublished Photos of Marilyn Monroe" and inside are 8  pages of candid photos of Marilyn filming "River of No Return " in the Canadian Rockies. "Marilyn Makes a Movie". This is what the ambitious Brief has shortly degenerated into. Just another pin-up magazine.

Stag Vol 4, #8 (Aug/53)

Marilyn's next Goodman title appearance was in the industry's first and foremost men's sweat magazine, the flagship title Stag. This third incarnation of Stag debuted cover date Dec/49 jump-started the genre, one of the only times Martin Goodman lead rather than followed, and exists to this as a hard-core porn magazine. But back in the 1950's it was edited by Noah Sarlat, art directed by Mel Blum, and read by red-blooded males everywhere looking for adventure stories purportedly "true". The first 6 issues were bedsheet-sized before reverting to a standard-sized magazine.

In this article, Marilyn Monroe answers "33 Intimate Questions" spread over 4 pages.

TV People and Pictures Vol 1, #1 (Aug/53)


As the new medium of television exploded across the landscape in the early 1950's, Martin Goodman dove in with several TV magazines.... TV World (June/53), TV People and Pictures (Aug/53), and TV Illustrated (June/55). Marilyn makes an appearance in the debut issue of TV People and Pictures......

Movie World Vol 4, #5 (Sept/53)

The next strictly movie magazine we find Marilyn is Movie World. Marilyn gives us a killer cover and there's a 3-page cover feature "Is Marilyn Monroe More Than Sexy?"

Comedy Vol 3, #15 (Sept/53)

I have not gone through the scores and scores of Goodman Humorama pin-up digests looking for Marilyn Monroe but I did have a note in my records that Marilyn was on page 58 of this one. Pulling it out reveals she is! And completely unidentified as Marilyn Monroe. Either her image was so iconic that she didn't need identifying (it was!) or Abe Goodman (Martin's brother, who ran this line of publishing) just sneaked it in. It goes without saying Marilyn could be lurking in many other issues.

Photo Vol 3, #6 (June/54)

I could only find two appearances in Photo (I looked in about 20 issues). Here, Marilyn has the inside front cover and 5 pages inside under an article titled "Hollywood's Perfect Pin-Up". Photo and the new, previously seen Brief, were now exactly the same type of magazine, girly pin-up.

Photo Vol 5, #3 (May/53)

A single photo of Marilyn within the context of the article, "A Frenchman's Gallery of Pretty Girls".

Picture Life Vol 1, #3 (Apr/54)

Without a doubt, the dumbest Marilyn Monroe appearance of all time......

                      
   
                        
 

Picture Life Vol 1, #4 (June/54)

Picture Life was a small pocket-sized magazine that was a newsstand companion to Goodman's Focus and Sensation, dealing more with photos (as the name would suggest) than gossip/news. Brief would also default to this small size in 1955. 

This early issue (featuring Ava Gardner on the cover) had an interesting article that projected an artist's interpretation of what top personalities of the time would look like projected 20 years into the future, in 1974. Included are President Dwight Eisenhower, retired boxer Rocky Marciano, actress Audrey Hepburn, television star Arthur Godfrey, Britain's Queen Elizabeth, and of course, actress Marilyn Monroe, predicting her "matronly and glamorless". Sadly, we never found out. The artist is signed W.S.

Picture Life Vol 2, #1 (Feb/55)

I don't have here a copy of this one so the contents are pending.

Picture Life Vol 2, #4 (Aug/55)

 This issue has a 6 page pictorial showing Marilyn flying incognito cross-country to New York from Los Angeles under the assumed name Zelda Nunc.

Screen Stars Vol 10, #5 (Oct/52)

Screen Stars Vol 11, # (Feb/53)
(contents unknown)

Screen Stars Vol 12, #5 (Nov/54)

Screen Stars is the third major Goodman movie magazine to feature Marilyn Monroe on the cover and the grandfather of all Goodman movie magazines, debuting with Vol 1, #1 (Apr/44). With Bessie Little as editor, this issue sports a fabulous Monroe image and inside a 6 page, text-heavy article "Things They Never Told About Marilyn". Additionally, she can also be found on page 39.

And for those who like to read the articles rather than look at the pretty pictures, here's the entire article including the last two text pages. It's kind of poignant reading at the end about how a nice secure future was in store for both Marilyn and Joe. They'd be separated shortly after this and Marilyn would be gone in eight years hence.

Screen Stars Vol 13, #? (July/55)
(contents unknown)

Screen Stars Vol 14, #4 (July/56)

Now separated from Joe DiMaggio, Marilyn makes the list of Hollywood's "lonely hearts".

Sensation Vol 2, #1 (June/55)

Sensation was another small pocket-sized magazine similar to Picture Life and the previously extensively seen Focus, although it dealt less with world and political news and more with celebrity gossip (and all three titles with heavy doses of pin-up girls!). Brief would also shrink to this size this year from the larger digest format.

This issue below addresses the earth-shattering break-up of screen starlet Marilyn Monroe and retired baseball idol Joe DiMaggio, the biggest couple of the day and one of the largest celebrity gossip news items of all time.

 

Bunk! Vol 1, #1 (Feb/56)

In 1955 Martin Goodman told the editor-in-chief of his comic book division to create a knock-off of the recently successful Bill Gaines humor publication Mad Magazine. Goodman's Atlas had already done knock-offs of Mad's earlier comic book version with Wild, Crazy and Riot, and when the converted magazine version of Mad took off sales-wise it was a natural that Goodman would follow suit. The magazine was Snafu, and it lasted only three issues, the last issue cover-dated Mar/56. Snafu was written by Stan Lee and produced in full or part by his closest Atlas artistic collaborators, namely Joe Maneely, John Severin, Bill Everett, Russ Heath, Howie Post and Marie Severin (in production). It consisted of parody, satire, and overall wackiness of the illustrated and photo variety, but was primarily illustrated.

Running with this idea, Goodman then released Bunk! #1 cover dated Feb/56, in the off-month between Snafu #2 (Jan) and #3 (Mar). Unlike all of Goodman's newsstand magazines, Bunk! had no credits at all inside, leading me to feel it was produced by the same editorial staff as Snafu, namely Stan Lee, except that Bunk! was 90% photo humor (what Stan Lee excelled at) and only 10% illustration (Joe Maneely and John Severin). This was the direct opposite of Snafu, which was 90% illustration and 10% photo humor. The answer to me is that Bunk! was nothing more than Snafu inventory, packaged slightly more upscale in a squarebound magazine.

Bunk! was published bi-monthly by Goodman's Foto Parade Inc. sub-publisher, and apparently was supposed to be alternating with Snafu on the newsstands. Unfortunately it appears to have lasted a single issue and was cancelled along with Snafu at the same time. A likely scenario of Bunk's existence could be that Snafu's impending cancellation prompted Goodman to produce Bunk! as a way to burn off Snafu's inventory while trying an entirely new title. Alternately, perhaps Stan Lee used up so much of the illustrated Snafu material he was left with an abundance of photo humor material that had no place to go. As it stands, some of the illustrated material, including a Joe Maneely full-page inside front cover gag liquor ad, appears to be unused Snafu material. There is related precedence on this as I believe Read! (Jan/43) was a way to burn off Stag/Male Home Companion inventory following the Joseph Alvin Kugelmass prison fiasco. (See The Secret History of Marvel Comics for details, or click here.....  "Kugelmass" )

Marilyn Monroe appears on the left side of the cover in a censored pose from her infamous calender shoot and on the contents page. Inside is a 2-page humorous take on that calender spread. She also appears on the back cover in a coming attraction ad for a second issue that never seemingly materialized.

Here's the double-page spread in one scan...

Bachelor Vol 2, #1 (Jan/57)

Bachelor was Goodman's companion magazine to his Swank, both edited by Bruce Jay Friedman. Swank was picked up by Goodman in 1955 following two earlier short runs in the 1940's, the first 7 issues published by Victor Fox under his Elite Publications, Inc. and then Swank Publications, Inc. companies. This early run was a large-sized Esquire clone. The second later 1940's run was a small digest featuring reprints of articles by name writers that had already been published elsewhere, like a Reader's Digest clone with a male-oriented slant.

Goodman picked up the discarded Swank and immediately tested the first release as a small pocket-sized magazine, numbering it inexplicably Vol 2, #3, (and not following any logic of earlier version numbering) before turning it into a poor-man's Playboy (1950's version), minus most of the naked photos!

Bachelor followed suit in Jan/57, also tested at first as a small pocket-sized magazine (and also inexplicably numbered Vol 1, #2, and without an earlier predecessor, as far as I know) and then as an even  poorer man's Playboy!  The first magazine-sized issue below features Marilyn as part of the cover. Note the image at the bottom right is the same photo used on the cover of the Jan/55 Focus posted above, with a phony zebra striped dress painted over the original black lingerie of the photo. Wait a minute... "all" those photos were covers of earlier issues of Focus!!! Here are two more I see that Goodman re-used...

      

                   

Both Swank and Bachelor would go on to long runs, after Goodman sold them, as increasing rivals to Playboy as the decades went on. At some point Martin's son Chip reacquired them and ran them as hardcore skin magazines, Bachelor into the 1980's, and Swank, which continues to run to this very day.


Sensational New Movie Starlets #1 (1956)

A Goodman one-shot. Marilyn appears on page 58 for young actor Don Murray. Marilyn is not on the cover.

 
                    


Hollywood Life Vol 2, #1 (Sept/57)

Finally, out last entry (for now). This later Goodman film magazine featured Marilyn as part of the cover. her entry is on page 50. The magazine is nothing more than scores of one-page celebrity gossip updates. Note at the bottom left of the cover is the Atlas globe, this being the latest month the globe will ever appear (Sept/57) as Goodman lost his distributor when ANC (American news Corp.) crashed in April. There is an October cover month with the globe, the comic book Dippy Duck #1, but this is a clerical anomaly as cover proofs show an original Sept/57 date and the issue was on the stands with August and September cover-dated comics.

And that's it for now. There is no way I've found every Marilyn Monroe story among the litany of Goodman magazines but I bet I've found most/all of the cover appearances. Feel free to send me data on any new discoveries in care of this blog.

FOOTNOTES

1. Martin Goodman quoted in "Big Business in Pulp Thrillers," The Literary Digest, January 23, 1937 p.30-31.
2. Writer's Digest, September, 1952.