Into the Hot Seat

When terrible-tempered Louis Ruppel resigned under fire as editor of Collier's last month, few top editors longed for his job. In the last eight years, Collier's has had so many shake-ups that its editor's chair is the hottest seat in magazine publishing. This week, into the hot seat went one of the company's own men, Roger Dakin, 47, articles editor of Crowell-Collier's Woman's Home Companion.

As different from Ruppel as a summer breeze is from a roaring tornado, Dakin had a good record at the Companion, where he sparked the magazine's public-service articles, one of the most popular features the Companion has ever run. Born in Gloucester, Mass., Dakin went to the Companion after years on the New York Telegram, the New York Daily News (where he scored a famed beat in 1936 with Cinemactress Mary Astor's diary during a court fight over custody of her child), and PM, where he ran the "News for Living." At Collier's, Dakin's friendly ways were best evidence of a change in editorial climate. Word went out to old-time Cottier's writers, scared away by Ruppel, that they are welcome back again. Said Dakin: "I like writers."

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