Time Inc. People Editorial Records
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The People Editorial Records contain records from offices and staff from the editorial side of the magazine, not the publishing or business side. Editorial staff represented include Cranston Jones, Lee Wohlfert, Marianne Macy, Martha Babcock, Sarah Rozen, Richard Stolley, and Dick Lemon.
Biographical / Historical
People magazine was launched as a newsstand-only publication on March 4, 1974, with Richard B. Stolley as the founding managing editor and Richard Durrell as the founding publisher. People was created under the Magazine Development Group, divesting and becoming its own department by 1978. Because the magazine was so dependent on newssstand sales, Stolley created this guideline for choosing cover subjects: "Young is better than old, pretty is better than ugly, television is better than music, music is better than movies, movies are better than sports, and anything is better than politics." People magazine exceeded sales of one million copies per issue by July 1974.
For the majority of Time Inc.'s existence, the company maintained a strict separation of editorial from the publishing and business side of each magazine, colloquially called the separation of "church" (editorial) and "state" (publishing). Editorial includes the editors, researchers, and art department. The editorial side reported up to the editor-in-chief and the publishing/business side reported up to the corporate business executive which was the president prior to 1960 and the chief executive officer after. Henry Luce structured Time Inc. this way so that the business side could not (in theory) influence the editorial content of the publications. For example, the advertising sales people could not interfere with a magazine's decision to run an article on the dangers of cigarette smoking, even though it might mean losing millions of dollars in tobacco ads.
Citation:
Bernstein, Lester. "Time Inc. Means Business." The New York Times Magazine, 26 February 1989.
Hooper, Bill. Email to Holly Deakyne, 10 June 2016.
Arrangement
The materials within the Time Inc. Subject Files record group are organized into three series based on hierarchy of job titles with general office files at the end:
Series I. Senior Editor Cranston Jones Files on Best of People
Series II. Writer Lee Wohlfert Files
Series III. People Magazine 50th Television Anniversary Issue Files
Scope and Contents
The People Editorial Records contain records from offices and staff from the editorial side of the magazine, not the publishing or business side. Editorial staff represented include Cranston Jones, Lee Wohlfert, Marianne Macy, Martha Babcock, Sarah Rozen, Richard Stolley, and Dick Lemon.
Records include memoranda, correspondence, book drafts for Best of People, article research, copies of books used in Wohlfert's research, news clippings, photographs, publishing budgets, Home Box Office's (HBO) Best of People television special script, and article drafts.
Subjects
Organizations
Access Restrictions
Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Materials created within the past 35 years also may be subject to restriction on a case-by-case basis. Materials are stored offsite and advance notice is required for use.
Use Restrictions
This collection is owned by the New-York Historical Society. The copyright law of the United States governs the making of photocopies and protects unpublished materials as well as published materials. Unpublished materials created before January 1, 1978 cannot be quoted in publication without permission of the copyright holder. Photocopying undertaken by staff only. Limited to 20 exposures of stable, unbound material per day.
Preferred Citation
This record group should be cited as Time Inc. People Editorial Records, MS 3009-RG 10, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Time, Inc. in 2015.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The People Editorial Records were processed and described in 2018 by Melanie Rinehart. The original folders were retained although some documents were transferred to archival containers in instances of overcrowding. Melanie Rinehart created the inventory and other descriptive notes to produce this finding aid.
Sponsor Note
Repository
Series I. Senior Editor Cranston Jones Files on Best of People, 1977-1984, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
The Cranston Jones Files on Best of People include materials such as memoranda, correspondence, book drafts, Table of Contents, publishing budgets, Home Box Office's (HBO) Best of People television special script, founding People managing editor Richard Stolley's book introduction, weekly progress reports, and legal correspondence regarding obtaining photographic and distribution rights out of the United States. Notable correspondents are: Stolley; editor Pat Ryan; and publisher Richard Durrell.
People Polls refers to results of an annual nationwide reader survey on celebrities, politics, fashion, and culture. People Staff Polls refers to an internal survey on what should be included in the book.
Correspondence includes some with Amanda Urban, the project's literary agent at International Creative Management, Inc. (ICM). Amanda is also sometimes referred to as "Binky".
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Biographical / Historical
Cranston Jones was a staff member of Time from 1945 to 1969, serving variously as a correspondent in San Francisco, London and Paris and as bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro. He was editor in chief of Travel and Leisure magazine for several years and then a senior editor with People from its founding in 1974 until he retired in 1988.
Best of People: The First Decade was a retrospective of notable People covers, subjects, and articles from 1974 to 1983. It was published in softcover by Ballantine Books, an imprint of Random House; a hardcover edition was published by Time-Life Books.
Citation:
Flint, Peter B. "Cranston Jones, 73, Architecture Author And Writer at Time." New York Times. June 03, 1991. Accessed November 16, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/03/obituaries/cranston-jones-73-architecture-author-and-writer-at-time.html.
Amanda Urban at International Creative Management (ICM), 1983, inclusive
Artists
Ballantine Books
Budgets
C. Jones File: Correspondence
Contents: Expanded Version for Publisher's Presentation
Correspondence: Best of People
Copyright/Title Page
Covers
Covers: The Great Covers: Mega 25
Home Box Office (HBO)
Introduction by Richard B. Stolley
Legal
Letters
Mega Celebs: The Decade's 25
People Polls, 1980-1983, inclusive
People Staff Polls, 1983, inclusive
Super Star Tracks, 1983, inclusive
Table of Contents Draft, 1983, inclusive
Time-Life Books, 1983-1984, inclusive
Weekly Progress Report, 1983, inclusive
Winners and Losers, 1977-1983, inclusive
Series II. Writer Lee Wohlfert Files, 1979-1983, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
Materials are from Lee Wohlfert's time as a People writer, including article drafts and research, news clippings, memorandum, photographs of Arthur Hailey for a 1973 profile, and materials for Miss America Pageant officials. Also includes copies of books by Stephen Gaskin, Tom Wolfe, and Jacqueline and Lee Bouvier; these were used for article research. The articles-related materials are focused on culture and fashion, including published interviews with Sean Young, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Lee Radziwell. Miss America Pageant materials cover the national level and Mississippi. Some notebooks are included in the general articles research with interview questions and thoughts inside; one untitled, undated notebook was found unassociated with any materials and is foldered by itself.
Includes a copy of Wohlfert's 1978 interview with Anne Beats about Saturday Night Live (SNL) published in Your Place magazine, a McCall's publication aimed at young people of both sexes that was published for only five issues. It is unconnected to Time Inc., and the interview was done as a freelance assignment. Wohlfert continued to collect information on the SNL cast through 1979, including internal memos with People editor Jim Seymore about getting an interview with some of the notoriously press-shy cast.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Biographical / Historical
Lee Wohlfert started as a People magazine writer in 1974 and was made Assistant Editor in February 1983. She continued to write articles following her promotion and the materials in this series are concerned only with her writing. She is credited as Lee Wohlfert-Wihlborg in the People masthead. Wolhfert also freelanced for publications such as Town & Country, Harper's Bazaaar, and LA Style.
She left People in 1986, but continued to freelance for the magazine until 1990. While she published under the last names "Wohlfert" and "Wohlfert-Wihlborg" after 1983, she currently goes by Wohlfert.
Citation:
Wohlfert, Lee. User profile, LinkedIn. Accessed November 16, 2018. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-wohlfert-07982619/.
Articles, 1971-1983, inclusive
Articles: Casablancas, 1983, inclusive
Articles: Lyngstad, Anna-Frid, 1982-1983, inclusive
Articles: Miss America Pageant: General, 1983, inclusive
Articles: Miss America Pageant: Mississippi, 1983, inclusive
Articles: Miss America Pageant: Official's Materials, 1983, inclusive
Articles: Radziwill, Lee, 1974-1976, inclusive
Articles: Saturday Night Live, 1978-1979, inclusive
Articles: Von Furstenberg, Diane, 1981-1982, inclusive
Bovier, Jacqueline and Lee: One Special Summer, 1974, inclusive
Gaskin, Stephen: Hey, Beatnik! and Monday Night Class, 1974, inclusive
Notebook
Photographs of Arthur Hailey, 1973, inclusive
Wolfe, Tom: In Our Time, 1980, inclusive
Your Place Magazine, 1978 October, inclusive
Series III. People Magazine Television Anniversary Issue Files, 1966-1989, inclusive
Extent
Scope and Contents
The People Television Anniversary Issue Files include memoranda from staff such as Marianne Macy, Martha Babcock, and Sarah Rozen to Dick Lemon and the People Reporting Staff. Topics include personalities to include in the special and photograph usage. Background research, table of contents drafts, and interview transcripts are included. Interviews were conducted with choice people from the history of television for a section called "Voices". Notable interviewees include Mike Wallace, Bob Pittman, and Ruth Warrick.
Publishing drafts of articles are included. Most are concerned with a specific person, notably Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, and Johnny Carson. There were articles written on decades from the 1960s to the 1980s, and on genres such as advertising, westerns, game shows and soap operas.
The files seem to have been gathered from the special issue staff during the course of publishing by Senior Editors Dick Lemon or Richard Sanders, or Executive Editor Jim Seymour.
Arrangement
Materials are in original alphabetical order.
Biographical / Historical
The People Magazine Television Anniversary Issue was published in May 1989 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first television broadcast in 1939. Materials were gathered by staff research-reporters starting in 1989, with the first draft of the magazine presented in January 1989. Starting with 7000 photographs and innumerable topics to include, the team edited the material to 750 photos on 129 pages and the cover, along with accompanying articles. Senior editor Richard Sanders and Dick Lemon led the team, with Sarah Rozen doing much of the photographic research. Eight writers composed the text, with three reporter-researchers conducting fact checks.
Citation:
Valk, Elizabeth P. "Publisher's Letter." PEOPLE.com. May 4, 1989. Accessed November 19, 2018. https://people.com/archive/publishers-letter/.