Fawcett Publications

Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company launched in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford H. "Captain Billy" Fawcett (1883-1940). A World War I Army captain, Fawcett had been a police reporter for the Minneapolis Journal before the war.

Expansion into other lines of business

With the success of Captain Billy's Whiz Bang, Fawcett cashed in by issuing annuals, and in 1926, he launched a similar publication, Smokehouse Monthly. The popularity of Whiz Bang peaked during the 1920s. It continued into the 1930s but circulation slowed as readers graduated to the more sophisticated humor of Esquire, founded in 1933.

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Captain Billy's success as a publisher prompted him to create the Breezy Point Resort in Breezy Point, Minnesota. Since celebrity visitors came to the resort, Captain Billy had the road from Breezy Point into Pequot Lakes blacktopped at his own expense. Celebrities who stayed at the Fawcett House (still located on the resort grounds) included Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

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Harry Truman was another Breezy Point guest. Edward McKim, a friend of Truman's since World War I, told of visits to the Resort in 1932 and Truman's success at the Breezy Point slot machine: "Captain Billy was quite a shot with a shotgun. He was on the American Olympic team at one time. He had some traps out there, so we did a little shooting with him. He had a couple of guests, one of whom was Dr. Joe Mayo, the son of Dr. Charlie Mayo. Dr. Joe was killed a few years later in an automobile accident. He was the brother of Dr. Chuck Mayo who just retired from the Mayo Foundation. We did a little trap shooting at that time, but we went up there almost every night for dinner. It was a 35 or 40-mile drive. We stopped at a barber shop at Brainerd going up, and he hit the jackpot in a machine in the lower lobby of the hotel. Then he hit the jackpot up at Breezy Point the same night."

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In some issues of Whiz Bang, Captain Billy wrote about his vacations in Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Paris, along with items about his celebrity friends, including Jack Dempsey, Sinclair Lewis and Ring Lardner.

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During the 1930s, Fawcett and his sons established a line of magazines which eventually reached a combined circulation of ten million a month in newsstand sales. True Confessions alone had a circulation of two million a month. However, during the World War II paper shortages Fawcett folded 49 magazines and kept only 14. Magazines published by Fawcett over the decades included Battle Stories, Cavalier, Daring Detective, Dynamic Detective, Family Circle, Motion Picture, Movie Story, Rudder (later merged with Sea), Screen Secrets, Secrets, Triple-X Western and True. Woman's Day was added to the line-up in 1948.

Related Topics:
True Confessions - Cavalier - Woman's Day

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The flagship of Fawcett magazines was Mechanix Illustrated, which was retitled Home Mechanix in 1984 and became Time Inc.'s Today's Homeowner in 1993. Larry Eisinger, the workshop and science editor of Mechanix Illustrated, spearheaded the national "do-it-yourself" movement as the editor-in-chief of Fawcett's How-To book series and special interest magazines. He created Fawcett's Mechanix Illustrated Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia and The Practical Handyman's Encyclopedia, which had combined sales of almost 20 million copies.

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After Captain Billy died on February 7, 1940, the company relocated in Greenwich, Connecticut, and that same year they launched Fawcett Comics, introducing a colorful cast of superheroes -- Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., The Mask, Captain Midnight, Bulletman and Bulletgirl, and Spy Smasher (who became Crime Smasher after WWII). The Captain Marvel Adventures series was so successful that it outsold Superman during the mid-1940s. Captain Marvel Jr. had such an impact on Elvis Presley that he borrowed the character's poses, hairstyle and lightning flash chest insignia, as described in Elaine Dundy's biography, Elvis and Gladys.

Related Topics:
February 7 - 1940 - Fawcett Comics - Superheroes - Captain Marvel - Mary Marvel - Captain Marvel Jr. - Captain Midnight - Bulletman and Bulletgirl - Spy Smasher - Superman - Elvis Presley

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