Sunday, October 4, 2009

The First Fox Magazine. Fox News. Twentieth Century Fox.



I received this item yesterday, after winning it on eBay for $44.77.

The somewhat bizarre cover image reminded my significant other, Katherine, of those created by the prototypical outsider artist, Henry Darger. The magazine is the first issue of the Fox Folks, the in-house publication of Fox Film Corporation, that merged with the newly formed Twentieth Century Pictures in 1934 to form Twentieth Century Fox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Century_Fox

It is listed in my bibiography (available for download on this blog as part of the complete movie book) as beginning in 1915 (the year Fox Films began), based on all available references. I had not seen a copy until now and internal evidence clearly shows that this was the premier effort, inaugurated in May 1922.

Twentieth Century Fox became one of America's six major movie studios and eventually branched out into, among other things, television. So when you tune in to Fox news on your TV or radio, think of the modest little magazine above, the one that goes back to the origin of the whole network.

Are you beginning to believe in the importance of American magazines yet?

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