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/.