Sporting Ad-cracker

About three months ago George T. Delacorte Jr., a publisher without a humorous magazine, sought out Norman Hume Anthony, a humorous editor without a publisher. Publisher Delacorte wanted to add a funny paper to his successful string of 17 Dell magazines.-- But Norman Anthony, onetime editor of Judge and Lije, did not want to edit it. What he said that he said was as follows:

"There's no use in trying. You can't be really funny in a magazine because the advertisers won't let you. Look what happened to us on Judge when we tried those 'burlesque numbers': the circulation went up by 50 to 60 thousand, but the advertisers made it so hot for us, we had to quit. They couldn't stand being kidded. No--the only magazine that can be funny is one without advertisers.

Last week Publisher Delacorte and Editor Anthony announced Ballyhoo, a magazine which will not solicit advertising. It will appear on newsstands July 1 on a tentative fortnightly schedule. Editor Anthony, with free rein to be funny as he can, promised to plow the allegedly virgin field of advertising as a source of humor. (His announcement: "Read a FRESH magazine! All our editors are CELLOPHANE WRAPPED.")

Once a famed comic artist, Funnyman Anthony joined the staff of Judge in 1920, became editor two years later. In 1929 Life hired him away, to succeed its outgoing Editor Robert Emmet Sherwood. Again--so his story runs--he ran afoul of the sensibilities of advertisers and, exactly one year ago, was dismissed. Now he is suing Life's President Clair Maxwell, alleging violation of a verbal five-year contract.

In undertaking Ballyhoo, Publisher Delacorte declared he was "doing something against his own best judgment for the first time"; but it appealed to him as a sporting proposition. A newsstand sale of 100,000 copies per issue would make money, he believed.

*Including Film Fun, Screen Romances, I Confess, etc.; also Modern Romances. Modern Screen Magazine (sold exclusively through Kresge and Kress stores).

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