Series II.A. President, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and Vice-chairman of the Board: Roy E. Larsen Files, 1935-1974, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents Note
The Roy E. Larsen Files document his time as Time Inc. president, chairman of the executive committee and vice-chairman of the board. Some records date from his earlier roles.
His files contain memoranda and correspondence to and from cofounder and Editor-in-Chief Henry R. Luce and early Time Inc. executives including David Brumbaugh, Charles Gleason, C. D. Jackson, Harry Phillips, Dick Thomas, and Edward K. Thompson. Items of interest include a recollection by another company's employee of an encounter with William Faulkner (Sports Illustrated folder on Tom O'Reilly); photographs of Larsen and former United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower at a Freedoms Foundation event; letters from education professionals about their boycott of Time and Life; condolence letters upon Luce's death; photographs of Marilyn Monroe at the 1957 event commemorating the construction of the new Time & Life Building at Rockefeller Center; and memoranda on staff changes, the Finance Committee, corporate image, and the creation and status of the film and medical departments along with photographs of the board in the Time Inc. miscellaneous file.
The files include some cross-reference sheets from the Time Inc. Archives referring to "Lillian" and "dds," and the transfer of the files. Lillian is Time Inc. archivist Lillian Owens, and dds is D. D. Smith, Larsen's executive assistant at the time of his retirement.
Due to the small number of Larsen files remaining, it is probable that the majority of his records ended up in one of the Time Inc. assembled collections, likely throughout the Time Inc. Subject Files (MS 3009-RG 1), or in his donation to Harvard University. Extensive memoranda sent to him as part of the War List during World War II was removed around 1954 for inclusion in Charles Stillman's files in this record group.
Arrangement Note
Organized alphabetically with order imposed by the archivist.
Biographical/Historical Note
Roy E. Larsen was one of the first employees of Time Inc., the first employee of Time magazine, and is credited as being the third most important person, after the cofounders Henry R. Luce and Briton Hadden, in building Time Inc. as a company. Hadden hired Larsen as Time circulation manager in 1922. After Hadden's death in 1929, Larsen also became the general manager of Time Inc. and attained the title of vice president, making him Luce's deputy on the business side. During the 1937 decentralization of the magazines, Larsen was named publisher of Life. When Luce resigned as president and chief executive officer in 1939, he nominated Larsen as his replacement making Larsen the head of the business side of Time Inc. Larsen spent 21 years as president. In 1960 Luce and Larsen designed another reorganization of the company which replaced Larsen as president and Luce as editor-in-chief. This reorganization also created an executive commitee of which Larsen headed as chairman. When Luce died in 1967, Larsen was one of the only non-family members to sit on the board of the Henry Luce Foundation. Larsen moved from chairman of the executive committee to vice-chairman of Time Inc.'s board of directors in 1969. He held this role until his retirement in 1979 at the age of 80.
While employed at Time Inc., Larsen gifted his copies of Time correspondents dispatches to Harvard University's archives.
Citations:
Barron, James. "After 56 Years, Roy Larsen, 80, Retires as Executive of Time Inc." New York Times. April 20, 1979. http://www.nytimes.com/1979/04/20/archives/after-56-years-roy-larsen-80-retires-as-executive-of-time-inc-work.html?_r=0
Elson, Robert T. 1968. Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1923-1941. New York: Atheneum.
Elson, Robert T., and Duncan Norton-Taylor. 1973. The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Publishing Enterprise, 1941-1960. New York: Atheneum.
Members. Advertising Hall of Fame. http://advertisinghall.org/members/member_bio.php?memid=688
"ROY E. LARSEN (1899-1979)." Sports Illustrated. Vault. https://www.si.com/vault/1979/09/24/106774365/roy-e-larsen-18991979
Prendergast, Curtis, and Geoffrey Colvin. 1986. The World of Time Inc.: The Intimate History of a Changing Enterprise, 1960-1980. New York: Atheneum.
Ad Age, 1973
Agee, Jim, 1957
Dr. W. S. Canby [ Saturday Review of Literature], 1957
Cowles Publications, 1949-1971
Curtis Publishing Company, 1950-1968
R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company, 1950-1969
Ernst, Morris, 1957-1961
Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, 1949-1963
General Mills: Bullis, Harry, 1945-1959
General Motors, 1948-1958
House & Home, 1958-1960, undated
"The Ideas of Henry Luce" Mailing, 1969
Johnson, Robert L., 1952-1961
Kobler, John, 1964
Life: Miscellaneous, 1955-1963
Life: Education Series: NASSP [National Association of Secondary School Principals] Write-in, 1958
Life: Special Program, 1959
Life: Spectacular, 1961
Life: Termination, 1972-1974
Luce Chapel [Henry Winters Luce Memorial Chapel at Tunghai University], 1963
Luce: Tributes, 1967
March of Time: History, 1967-1968
McGraw-Hill, 1951-1957
Post Office presentation slides, 1972?, inclusive
Prentice, P. I., 1953, 1962-1963
Saturday Review of Literature: Sugarman Research: History, 1969
Sports Illustrated: Miscellaneous, 1955-1958
Sports Illustrated: Advertising: Luce Letter, 1955
Sports Illustrated: Equitable Life Physical Fitness Program, 1959
Sports Illustrated: Tom O'Reilly Piece, 1955
Stockholders, 1949-1960
Television Stations: Miscellaneous, 1959-1963
Television Stations: KDYL (Salt Lake City), 1953-1960
Television Stations: KLZ (Denver), 1954-1961
Television Stations: KOB (Coy), 1952-1956
Television Stations: WFBM/WFBM-TV, WTCN/WTCN-TV, WMIN, and WOOD-TV, 1956-1964
Time Inc.: Miscellaneous, 1962-1969
Time Inc.: Book Division, 1960-1962
Time Inc.: Budget, 1935
Time Inc.: Building, 1957-1959
Scope and Contents Note
This folder notes it is for the cornerstone laying in June 1959 although it also contains materials about a groundbreaking event in 1957.