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The Pulp Newsstand & Other Pulp Pics
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19 posts in this topic

Since there is a pulp forum now, I thought some of you might be interested in a pulp photo thread similar to the newsstand thread in the gold forum. Although I have not collected pulps, I have accumulated a few pictures of pulp magazines that might not get appreciated in the other thread. Many of these pictures have been seen before but there may be a few that you might not have seen before. There will be some comics seen since they were sold alongside with pulps. I’ll add a few more over time and I hope you share some of your pictures too.

1. packed newsstand in NYC 11-19-35
2. sidewalk newsstand in NYC July 1942, there a few comics too- see if you can spot Batman 12
3. awesome pulp selection in Cook Minnesota Aug 1937
4. another NYC newsstand Nov 1932
5. newsstand in downtown Baltimore at corner of Calvert & Fayette streets Sept 1923
  In celebration of baseball's Opening Day 2020, I chose this pic because this Baltimore newsstand promoted the premier issue of Sports Story with a baseball cover

 

nyc ns 11-19-35.jpg

newsstand 7-42.jpg

cook mn 8-37.jpg

newyork 11-32.jpg

calvert&fayette baltimore 9-23.jpg

sport_story 9-8-23 v1n1.jpg

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9 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

cook mn 8-37.jpg

Excellent. Reminds me of my other favorite Newsstands photo from November 1938 (esp. since the one below can be found in super crisp large resolution) -

508078622_Nov1938NewsStandJPEGVersion.thumb.jpg.4e8874c7b20704f126bd37c60b6b2eb9.jpg

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10 hours ago, jpepx78 said:

 

newsstand 7-42.jpg

 

Did the street vendor pack up all that stuff at day's end? And set up everything again the next day? I presume the unsold daily newspapers were thrown away?

If he sold a copy of that month's Shadow, how much of the 10 cent cover price did he keep?

There isn't much storage space there. If he sold that copy of Adventure, where did he go to get more copies? 

 

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Here are two original photographs from 1933 that were taken of a newsstand vender just seconds apart, on 43rd St. in New York City.

The pictures are about 3” x 6”

Notice the sign on the bottom of the new stand that promotes the Shadow pulp magazine.  There are only three known examples of that original sign to exist.

I have one of them in my collection and two others are in private & public collections.

 Of course Jim Steranko for many years has sold reproduction prints of that sign.

997E328A-47F3-4396-8918-5CC42828C5D7.jpeg

3E08914D-FFA7-424D-B367-897B2DCBED59.jpeg

402DEA43-6178-4007-813B-3BB3386143FC.jpeg

30781316-75A5-429E-8E21-8A63F794712B.jpeg

5465F1F6-9387-4B41-AA42-7F57912791AB.jpeg

21E82A7C-DDD2-4783-8104-9EF3D856DC25.jpeg

E235B01B-3378-4153-934E-CDAF9A5A5675.jpeg

Edited by detective35
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9 hours ago, Sarg said:

If he sold a copy of that month's Shadow, how much of the 10 cent cover price did he keep?

From what I have read in comics testimonies in the '50s, the best I could infer is as follows:

Publishers charges the Distributors 5.5¢ who charges the wholesale 6.5¢ who charges the retailer 7.5¢. So he gets to keep 2.5¢.

The unknown number here is the publisher cost. Looking at the Bible Tales exposition of Froehlich, we can infer that the printing cost might be 3.5¢ per comic.

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Your question prompted me to go back to Hershey's book. In his Chapter III, Behind the scenes, he goes through the breakdown of the costs associated with the launch of a new magazine.

Once you look at the numbers, you can see what we know from comics: the sell-through rate is the one single number that makes or breaks a magazine. If that number does not get high enough, the magazine is going to be dead in the water. Matter of fact, if it never gets high enough, all issues end up being money losers. Given that these numbers might not come in but by issue 3, there is a lot of hope floating in the early days of a new magazine.

Here's the best I could do to parse Hershey's numbers (that are at times only sketched and not precise). Note that the only # I haven't changed but that probably should have been is the cost of content that probably should go up from $800 as times go on to be able to buy better yarns for the magazine.

NOTE: 11¢ to the distributor for a 20¢ magazine is the same as 5.5¢ to the distributor for a 10¢ comics that that brings validity to my previous post.

693508932_HersheyPulpProfitComputations.thumb.jpg.40ec93f647c08f38424eaa8ff884d1de.jpg

Edited by Scrooge
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15 hours ago, Scrooge said:

Your question prompted me to go back to Hershey's book. In his Chapter III, Behind the scenes, he goes through the breakdown of the costs associated with the launch of a new magazine.

Once you look at the numbers, you can see what we know from comics: the sell-through rate is the one single number that makes or breaks a magazine. If that number does not get high enough, the magazine is going to be dead in the water. Matter of fact, if it never gets high enough, all issues end up being money losers. Given that these numbers might not come in but by issue 3, there is a lot of hope floating in the early days of a new magazine.

Here's the best I could do to parse Hershey's numbers (that are at times only sketched and not precise). Note that the only # I haven't changed but that probably should have been is the cost of content that probably should go up from $800 as times go on to be able to buy better yarns for the magazine.

NOTE: 11¢ to the distributor for a 20¢ magazine is the same as 5.5¢ to the distributor for a 10¢ comics that that brings validity to my previous post.

693508932_HersheyPulpProfitComputations.thumb.jpg.40ec93f647c08f38424eaa8ff884d1de.jpg

 

Great info, thanks. Forgive my ignorance, but what is Hershey's book?

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More newsstand pics…

1. I found out this Betsy Drake photo is actually a Warner Brothers publicity shot from 1949. There are real and fictitious magazines from various dates.
2. closeup of the Shadow promo sign from Betsy Drake photo
3. upside down display of pulps and comics in Manchester New Hampshire 9-37
4. San Antonio newsstand 10-38
5. blurry cigar store photo of western pulps in Taylor Texas
6. Stacks of pulps on top shelf in Norfolk Virginia 3-41 (Spicy Adventure, Spicy Western, Spicy Mystery, Ace G-men, Amazing Stories, Sport Action, All Sports, Super Detective) This newsstand must have sold lots of pulps and people must have liked Spicy stuff. :bigsmile:
7. A colorized photo of a packed newsstand with pulps and comics in Southington Connecticut 5-42 that gives you a sense of living in the past.

 

betsy drake1.jpg

shadow promo.jpg

manchester NH 9-37.jpg

san antonio stand 10-38.jpg

taylor tx gifts.jpg

norfolk va 3-41  j vachon.jpg

southington conn 5-42 clr.jpg

Edited by jpepx78
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55 minutes ago, jpepx78 said:


More newsstand pics…

1. I found out this Betsy Drake photo is actually a Warner Brothers publicity shot from 1949. There are real and fictitious magazines from various dates.
2. closeup of the Shadow promo sign from Betsy Drake photo
3. upside down display of pulps and comics in Manchester New Hampshire 9-37
4. San Antonio newsstand 10-38
5. blurry cigar store photo of western pulps in Taylor Texas
6. Stacks of pulps on top shelf in Norfolk Virginia 3-41 (Spicy Adventure, Spicy Western, Spicy Mystery, Ace G-men, Amazing Stories, Sport Action, All Sports, Super Detective) This newsstand must have sold lots of pulps and people must have liked Spicy stuff. :bigsmile:
7. A colorized photo of a packed newsstand with pulps and comics in Southington Connecticut 5-42 that gives you a sense of living in the past.

 

betsy drake1.jpg

shadow promo.jpg

manchester NH 9-37.jpg

san antonio stand 10-38.jpg

taylor tx gifts.jpg

norfolk va 3-41  j vachon.jpg

southington conn 5-42 clr.jpg

Oh man, I’d need a LOT of Mercury Dimes...

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I love that Shadow Street & Smith Promotional Sign that is on the top part of the newsstand.   I would love to add this to my collection as I have 18 original Shadow Signs from the 1930s and 40s, but I do not have that one!

At the bottom of the original photo (which I have)  it states that it is indeed warner brothers staged newsstand publicity photo.

  I did as much research as I could, contacting certain people that had the inside track of where Warner Brothers props are stored,  but to no avail., they could not come up with anything.

Note:   Even if it didn’t state that it was a Warner Bros publicity shot, you can tell it was staged, because the magazines in the pic range from the 1930s to the 1950s. 

 

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On 7/25/2020 at 11:25 AM, jpepx78 said:

As

3. upside down display of pulps and comics in Manchester New Hampshire 9-37

manchester NH 9-37.jpg

 

My reaction whenever I see a picture like this is to figure out which issues, if any, I have that can be clearly identified.  This one, I've got two.  (Admittedly, the date speeds up the process of looking.)  The Operator #5 can be easily identified by the parachute, while the Funnies is a little trickier but you can just make out the top of the kid's head under the logo:

 

 

093.jpg

Funnies_12.jpg

Edited by OtherEric
correcting pictures
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More newsstand pics…

1. New York rail station 1937
2. New York City Oct 1938
3. Taylor Texas Oct 1939, first issue of Thrilling Football Stories in front
4. Haymarket Virginia Aug 1941, pulps sold in drugstore

5. Merrill’s newsstand was operated from 1940 to 1965 by Frank Merrill and his wife Faye in downtown Wyandotte Michigan. Frank was blind and educated in Ohio. In 1940 the Kiwanis Club raised money for the construction of the wooden newsstand located in triangular area where 1st St, Maple St and Biddle Ave meet.
The Merrill’s were able to make a decent living until the death of Frank in 1965 and the newsstand closed a few months later.

In the picture dated 9-25-48, newspapers, magazines can be seen and a stack of pulps are located in the rack at right. You’ll notice pulps were stacked flat with their spines showing due to limited shelf space in other photos too. The newsstand also stocked a large variety of comic books but they are not seen in the picture. Frank can be seen in the shadow of the opening at left and Faye is seen in the larger window of the newsstand on the right.

ny rail station 37.jpg

nyc 10-38.jpg

taylor-texas 10-39.jpg

haymarket va 8-41.jpg

wyandotte mi 9-25-48.jpg

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