April-May 2024
Alumni Get Together in Sydney
Fergus Mclagan, the irrepressible cheerleader for Time Inc. alumni in Australia, informs us that their next luncheon reunion will take place on December 5 in Sydney. He is billing this one as a centenary celebration.
Fergus deplores the demise of TLAS and writes “we are so disappointed that TLAS is fading.” He says The Downunder Group has a membership of about 35 alums, of whom 15 to 20 can be expected to show up for the annual lunch. It will take place at the Sydney home of Bernie Newell, former ad director for Time in the South Pacific. Fergus would welcome at the lunch any alum who happens to be in Australia on December 5, 2023—or is willing to cross the Pacific.
Fergus also reports that the newest and tallest building going up in Sydney bears the logo of SalesForce, whose founder Marc Benioff and wife Lynne own Time magazine. Picture below right. Below left: Stephen Gilfedder(left), Time’s former ad manager in Melbourne, and Bernie Newell, Time’s former ad manager for the South Pacific, standing in front of Bernie’s house in Sydney where the December 5 lunch will take place.
Fergus deplores the demise of TLAS and writes “we are so disappointed that TLAS is fading.” He says The Downunder Group has a membership of about 35 alums, of whom 15 to 20 can be expected to show up for the annual lunch. It will take place at the Sydney home of Bernie Newell, former ad director for Time in the South Pacific. Fergus would welcome at the lunch any alum who happens to be in Australia on December 5, 2023—or is willing to cross the Pacific.
Fergus also reports that the newest and tallest building going up in Sydney bears the logo of SalesForce, whose founder Marc Benioff and wife Lynne own Time magazine. Picture below right. Below left: Stephen Gilfedder(left), Time’s former ad manager in Melbourne, and Bernie Newell, Time’s former ad manager for the South Pacific, standing in front of Bernie’s house in Sydney where the December 5 lunch will take place.
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Jumping Into a Nazi Prison
Having worked at Time Inc. for many years, many years ago, I was used to outsized characters. It wasn’t until just now that I encountered Florimond du Sossoit. He worked for Time Inc. for most of the 1920s and 1930s. Florimond’s wife was supposed to have made him add the surname Duke to bring his fancy name down to earth. Along with one of his middle name, Joseph, he could have been simply Joe Duke, but you probably didn’t call him that unless you knew him very well. Florimond was a tall imposing fellow with stern eyes and a strong jaw. The Time Inc. history lists him as F. Du Sossoit Duke.
He was captain of football at Dartmouth and graduated in time to catch the tail end of World War I. He first served as an ambulance driver in France and then joined the US Army, trained to be a pilot and got back to France in August, 1918 three months before the armistice. Soldiering clearly appealed to him and he remained in the Army reserves when he returned to the United States.
Henry Luce hired him as an ad salesman when Time was just starting out. He became the magazine’s ad director and in 1929 he was appointed Fortune’s first ad manager. After the premature death of cofounder Briton Haddon, Luce set up a syndicate of directors and employees to buy Haddon’s shares for $325 each . Duke acquired 100 shares. Within two years their value had soared to $1000 and they were split 20-to-1.
Duke remained at Time Inc through most of the 1930s, with a break of two years to serve as a vice president at Newsweek. He returned to Time Inc. as associate ad director at the brand-new magazine, Life. The company history, which described him as “a rising power”, says he moved on to become Time’s ad manager.
However war beckoned him again as Hitler swept across Europe. Even before Pearl Harbor, Duke went back on active duty as a military attaché first in South Africa and then in Cairo. He got the attention of Col. William Donovan, founder of the OSS (predecessor of the CIA). He signed up for clandestine service behind enemy lines and at the age of 46 made his first parachute jump along with two junior officers on a mission to try to persuade the Hungarian government to break with Hitler. The team made the jump safely but it was too late because German troops were already pouring into Hungary. The Hungarian army picked them up and handed them over to the Gestapo.
After some rough handling by the Gestapo, the three Americans were taken to Colditz a vast, rambling Renaissance castle in Saxony that had become a prison for special POWs, British, French, Polish, Dutch and now a handful of Americans. They were special either because of who they were (a nephew of Winston Churchill, for example) or because they had attempted to escape from other prison camps. Colditz was hard to escape and from 1940 on, when many of these young men were captured, there was an average one attempted escape per day and in all those years only 32 succeeded.
As a lieutenant colonel, Duke found that he and a British officer of the same rank were the senior Allied officers and represented the POWs in front of their German guards. In 1944 advancing American tanks and infantry entered the village of Colditz, the GIs looked up at the looming castle and figured they were in for a hard fight. But inside, the situation had turned upside down. The German in command was a regular army officer who had no use Nazis and believed in the Geneva Convention. He didn’t want his own men or the prisoners to be massacred. The Americans fired a few shots at the castle then saw the Allied flags the prisoners had fashioned and hung outside and heard cheering as they approached. The guards had turned their weapons over to the prisoners who were now the guards. No more shots were fired.
Duke got back to the US after a year in the prison. He became a partner in a New York ad company and later went to live in New Hampshire, where he became a state legislator. Finally he moved to Arizona where he died in 1969.
When things settled down a bit in postwar Europe, an American diplomat walking along a street in Budapest was approached by a Hungarian who turned out to be the officer who had captured Duke. He had a bag of gold coins he had taken from Duke and wanted to return it to its owner, the US government. --Jeremy Main --Posted 6/5/23
I discovered Duke recently while reading Ben McIntyre’s Prisoners Castle, a wonderful history filled with McIntyre’s usual mastery of research and his ability to tell an exciting story. JM
Having worked at Time Inc. for many years, many years ago, I was used to outsized characters. It wasn’t until just now that I encountered Florimond du Sossoit. He worked for Time Inc. for most of the 1920s and 1930s. Florimond’s wife was supposed to have made him add the surname Duke to bring his fancy name down to earth. Along with one of his middle name, Joseph, he could have been simply Joe Duke, but you probably didn’t call him that unless you knew him very well. Florimond was a tall imposing fellow with stern eyes and a strong jaw. The Time Inc. history lists him as F. Du Sossoit Duke.
He was captain of football at Dartmouth and graduated in time to catch the tail end of World War I. He first served as an ambulance driver in France and then joined the US Army, trained to be a pilot and got back to France in August, 1918 three months before the armistice. Soldiering clearly appealed to him and he remained in the Army reserves when he returned to the United States.
Henry Luce hired him as an ad salesman when Time was just starting out. He became the magazine’s ad director and in 1929 he was appointed Fortune’s first ad manager. After the premature death of cofounder Briton Haddon, Luce set up a syndicate of directors and employees to buy Haddon’s shares for $325 each . Duke acquired 100 shares. Within two years their value had soared to $1000 and they were split 20-to-1.
Duke remained at Time Inc through most of the 1930s, with a break of two years to serve as a vice president at Newsweek. He returned to Time Inc. as associate ad director at the brand-new magazine, Life. The company history, which described him as “a rising power”, says he moved on to become Time’s ad manager.
However war beckoned him again as Hitler swept across Europe. Even before Pearl Harbor, Duke went back on active duty as a military attaché first in South Africa and then in Cairo. He got the attention of Col. William Donovan, founder of the OSS (predecessor of the CIA). He signed up for clandestine service behind enemy lines and at the age of 46 made his first parachute jump along with two junior officers on a mission to try to persuade the Hungarian government to break with Hitler. The team made the jump safely but it was too late because German troops were already pouring into Hungary. The Hungarian army picked them up and handed them over to the Gestapo.
After some rough handling by the Gestapo, the three Americans were taken to Colditz a vast, rambling Renaissance castle in Saxony that had become a prison for special POWs, British, French, Polish, Dutch and now a handful of Americans. They were special either because of who they were (a nephew of Winston Churchill, for example) or because they had attempted to escape from other prison camps. Colditz was hard to escape and from 1940 on, when many of these young men were captured, there was an average one attempted escape per day and in all those years only 32 succeeded.
As a lieutenant colonel, Duke found that he and a British officer of the same rank were the senior Allied officers and represented the POWs in front of their German guards. In 1944 advancing American tanks and infantry entered the village of Colditz, the GIs looked up at the looming castle and figured they were in for a hard fight. But inside, the situation had turned upside down. The German in command was a regular army officer who had no use Nazis and believed in the Geneva Convention. He didn’t want his own men or the prisoners to be massacred. The Americans fired a few shots at the castle then saw the Allied flags the prisoners had fashioned and hung outside and heard cheering as they approached. The guards had turned their weapons over to the prisoners who were now the guards. No more shots were fired.
Duke got back to the US after a year in the prison. He became a partner in a New York ad company and later went to live in New Hampshire, where he became a state legislator. Finally he moved to Arizona where he died in 1969.
When things settled down a bit in postwar Europe, an American diplomat walking along a street in Budapest was approached by a Hungarian who turned out to be the officer who had captured Duke. He had a bag of gold coins he had taken from Duke and wanted to return it to its owner, the US government. --Jeremy Main --Posted 6/5/23
I discovered Duke recently while reading Ben McIntyre’s Prisoners Castle, a wonderful history filled with McIntyre’s usual mastery of research and his ability to tell an exciting story. JM
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Changes to Health Plan Coming?
The AT&T Human Relations operation has announced changes in the administration of the retiree benefits intended to improve the health benefits for retirees. You may—or may not— remember that when Time and Warner split up, Warner assumed the obligations to retirees. Then when AT&T absorbed Warner it assumed the obligations to our retirees. Now, having absorbed several other large corporations, AT&T will put all retiree health benefits under a single roof.
The announcement says: “Beginning in 2024, we’ll offer you one company-subsidized plan: the AT&T Group Medicare Advantage (PPO) Plan insured by UnitedHealthcare(UHC). This plan will be available for at least 5 years, at which point we’ll re-evaluate the options available based on the healthcare and regulatory environment, much like we’re doing now, ensuring we continue to provide market-level retiree benefits.
“This coming change does not impact your current healthcare coverage or the options you choose for your 2023 coverage. No action is required of you until 2024 open enrollment, which will occur October to December 2023.”
Should you have questions, the AT&T statement asks you to call Unitedhealthcare at
1-866-819-3448 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. local time, 7 days a week, or visit
go.att.com/MedicareRetiree. Experience suggests that it may take a lot of patience several calls before you get to anyone who can help you knowledgeably. It may well turn out that there will be no change to your benefits and that Visa will continue to handle the health savings plans.
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Enthusiasm Down Under
Dear Keepers of the Flame, Defenders of the Faith—with the centenary of our favorite magazine approaching, do the members of TLAS have a program to mark this rare milestone, pls?
At Time Life Alumni Down Under we will be enjoying our 37th annual lunch on December 6 in Sydney, and we’re expecting up to 20 enthusiasts to attend. It may even be graced by John Dunn, Time Inc’s long-time South Pacific bureau chief, who today is a prolific writer for RM Williams’ Outback magazine. We’ll send you a report and pic afterwards.
Here’s to a suitable salute to TIME’s centenary and to all Alumni. —Fergus Maclagan, Sydney. Australia
—posted 9/17/2022
The AT&T Human Relations operation has announced changes in the administration of the retiree benefits intended to improve the health benefits for retirees. You may—or may not— remember that when Time and Warner split up, Warner assumed the obligations to retirees. Then when AT&T absorbed Warner it assumed the obligations to our retirees. Now, having absorbed several other large corporations, AT&T will put all retiree health benefits under a single roof.
The announcement says: “Beginning in 2024, we’ll offer you one company-subsidized plan: the AT&T Group Medicare Advantage (PPO) Plan insured by UnitedHealthcare(UHC). This plan will be available for at least 5 years, at which point we’ll re-evaluate the options available based on the healthcare and regulatory environment, much like we’re doing now, ensuring we continue to provide market-level retiree benefits.
“This coming change does not impact your current healthcare coverage or the options you choose for your 2023 coverage. No action is required of you until 2024 open enrollment, which will occur October to December 2023.”
Should you have questions, the AT&T statement asks you to call Unitedhealthcare at
1-866-819-3448 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. local time, 7 days a week, or visit
go.att.com/MedicareRetiree. Experience suggests that it may take a lot of patience several calls before you get to anyone who can help you knowledgeably. It may well turn out that there will be no change to your benefits and that Visa will continue to handle the health savings plans.
• • •
Enthusiasm Down Under
Dear Keepers of the Flame, Defenders of the Faith—with the centenary of our favorite magazine approaching, do the members of TLAS have a program to mark this rare milestone, pls?
At Time Life Alumni Down Under we will be enjoying our 37th annual lunch on December 6 in Sydney, and we’re expecting up to 20 enthusiasts to attend. It may even be graced by John Dunn, Time Inc’s long-time South Pacific bureau chief, who today is a prolific writer for RM Williams’ Outback magazine. We’ll send you a report and pic afterwards.
Here’s to a suitable salute to TIME’s centenary and to all Alumni. —Fergus Maclagan, Sydney. Australia
—posted 9/17/2022
Waber’s Crocodile On Film
Lyle, the lovable crocodile created by the late Bernard Waber, a graphic artist at Life and People for many years, returns in a movie in October featuring Shawn Mendez, the popular Canadian singer, who performs as the crocodile and sings original songs. The Lyle, Lyle Crocodile series of books written and and illustrated by Waber was the best-known of his creations and was enjoyed by adults as much as children.
His 40+ books include lovable and nonthreatening creatures such as a lion, a mouse, a pair of hippo friends, an anteater and others. Lyle lived in the bathtub in a New York house (The House on East 88th St) and made everybody he met happy. After 9/11 Waber wrote a book about courage to help children understand what it meant. It included the line “courage means sometimes having to say goodbye.” Although he wrote up to his last breath, in his later years his talented daughter, Paulis, created the illustrations. More than 2 million copies of his books have been sold and many are still available.
Waber, who died at the age of 91 in 2013, was born in Philadelphia, started studying finance at the University of Pennsylvania but broke off to enlist in the Army when the US entered World War II. When he returned to civilian life he switched to the Philadelphia College of Art and graduated in 1951. He launched a career as a commercial artist but soon switched to Condé Nast’s art department. He began working on his books at night and on weekends.
Bob Essman, People’s former art director, worked for many years with Waber at Life and at People, promoting him to assistant art director where his creativity was a plus. Bob remembers: "Waber was always quiet, he rarely talked about how he filled the downtimes at work—never announcing a publication date or pushing us to buy his books—but he gladly autographed the Lyle books I sent to my nieces and nephews."
—posted 8/17/2022
Lyle, the lovable crocodile created by the late Bernard Waber, a graphic artist at Life and People for many years, returns in a movie in October featuring Shawn Mendez, the popular Canadian singer, who performs as the crocodile and sings original songs. The Lyle, Lyle Crocodile series of books written and and illustrated by Waber was the best-known of his creations and was enjoyed by adults as much as children.
His 40+ books include lovable and nonthreatening creatures such as a lion, a mouse, a pair of hippo friends, an anteater and others. Lyle lived in the bathtub in a New York house (The House on East 88th St) and made everybody he met happy. After 9/11 Waber wrote a book about courage to help children understand what it meant. It included the line “courage means sometimes having to say goodbye.” Although he wrote up to his last breath, in his later years his talented daughter, Paulis, created the illustrations. More than 2 million copies of his books have been sold and many are still available.
Waber, who died at the age of 91 in 2013, was born in Philadelphia, started studying finance at the University of Pennsylvania but broke off to enlist in the Army when the US entered World War II. When he returned to civilian life he switched to the Philadelphia College of Art and graduated in 1951. He launched a career as a commercial artist but soon switched to Condé Nast’s art department. He began working on his books at night and on weekends.
Bob Essman, People’s former art director, worked for many years with Waber at Life and at People, promoting him to assistant art director where his creativity was a plus. Bob remembers: "Waber was always quiet, he rarely talked about how he filled the downtimes at work—never announcing a publication date or pushing us to buy his books—but he gladly autographed the Lyle books I sent to my nieces and nephews."
—posted 8/17/2022
The magazine business:
from the coolest place to the coldest
The headline in The New York Times on May 10 read depressingly, “The Magazine Business, From The Coolest Place To The Coldest One.” Down in the text of the article by Alexandra Jacobs, a book critic, she writes, “Time marches on, or limps, Life is gone. There is no more Money. The print editions of their former sister publications Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, which once frothed with profit stopped publishing in May.”
The Times article by Jacobs was inspired by two new books, Dilettante by Dana Brown, a former Vanity Fair editor, and Anna: The Biography about Anna Wintour by Amy Odell. She writes that the books are “graveyards of dead or zombie titles that were once glowing hives of human whim.”
Jacobs quotes Brown who wrote, “there were so many magazines in 1994, so many new magazines and so many great magazines. All the young talent of the moment was eschewing other industries and flocking to the business. It was the coolest place to be.” Then suddenly the coldest. Brown, who had just then boarded Vanity Fair and so many others then could only see the tip of an enormous iceberg they were about to hit: the Internet. Smartphones, little self-edited monster magazines that will not rest until their owners die were on the horizon. These may have looked like rafts, but they were torpedo boats.”
Brown’s book documents the noisy excesses of the glory days of magazines, the cutbacks that followed and the great quiet that followed. “Phones stopped ringing, conversation stopped. The office was being overrun by rows and rows of silent headphoned Invisalined and Warby Parkered twentysomethings on bouncy balls, slurping slop in tiny cubicles, tapping away at their keyboards. The modern workplace was turning into a dystopian, Dickensian, Gilliam-esque adult nursery school.” Jacobs writes that the clicks have replaced the slicks. —JM —posted 5/17/2022
from the coolest place to the coldest
The headline in The New York Times on May 10 read depressingly, “The Magazine Business, From The Coolest Place To The Coldest One.” Down in the text of the article by Alexandra Jacobs, a book critic, she writes, “Time marches on, or limps, Life is gone. There is no more Money. The print editions of their former sister publications Entertainment Weekly and InStyle, which once frothed with profit stopped publishing in May.”
The Times article by Jacobs was inspired by two new books, Dilettante by Dana Brown, a former Vanity Fair editor, and Anna: The Biography about Anna Wintour by Amy Odell. She writes that the books are “graveyards of dead or zombie titles that were once glowing hives of human whim.”
Jacobs quotes Brown who wrote, “there were so many magazines in 1994, so many new magazines and so many great magazines. All the young talent of the moment was eschewing other industries and flocking to the business. It was the coolest place to be.” Then suddenly the coldest. Brown, who had just then boarded Vanity Fair and so many others then could only see the tip of an enormous iceberg they were about to hit: the Internet. Smartphones, little self-edited monster magazines that will not rest until their owners die were on the horizon. These may have looked like rafts, but they were torpedo boats.”
Brown’s book documents the noisy excesses of the glory days of magazines, the cutbacks that followed and the great quiet that followed. “Phones stopped ringing, conversation stopped. The office was being overrun by rows and rows of silent headphoned Invisalined and Warby Parkered twentysomethings on bouncy balls, slurping slop in tiny cubicles, tapping away at their keyboards. The modern workplace was turning into a dystopian, Dickensian, Gilliam-esque adult nursery school.” Jacobs writes that the clicks have replaced the slicks. —JM —posted 5/17/2022
Before it was possible?
57 years ago (before mirror-less cameras were invented) I covered a footballl game between the Detroit Lions & The Baltimore Colts. Even back then, it was possible to create worthwhile actions shots on black & white Tri-X film!
—Bob Gomel —posted 5/17/2022
57 years ago (before mirror-less cameras were invented) I covered a footballl game between the Detroit Lions & The Baltimore Colts. Even back then, it was possible to create worthwhile actions shots on black & white Tri-X film!
—Bob Gomel —posted 5/17/2022
The Stolley Memorial
With as much laughter as tears, some 125 guests, mostly Time Life alumni, gathered in the elegant Century Association in Manhattan on March 4 to celebrate the life of Dick Stolley, the founding editor of the phenomenally successful People magazine, who died last June at 92. (See Farewells for more)
The memorial, organized by Dick’s four daughters, Beth, Hope, Melinda and Martha, included a dozen speakers including MC Marden, Jim Gaines and concluding with Hal Wingo, a 50-year Time Inc. veteran who continued his close friendship with Dick when they both retired to Santa Fe.
Claudia Dowling, who worked with Dick at Life and People, made an unusual contribution with an ode to Dick in rap form, which she read. As an editor, Dick didn’t leave you in any doubt about your work. She read, “When Dick said, ‘Huh?’ We were screwed and it was back to edit ref, copy desk, and the blues’.” In another line she recited, “Richard Stolley taught us plenty, mostly how to think, count characters in headlines, and always write to length.”
A placard at the entrance to the Century, listed Dick’s famous “law of covers”: • Young is better than old;
• Pretty is better than ugly; • Rich is better than poor; • Movies are better than music; • Music is better than television; • Television is better than sports; • Anything is better than politics; • Nothing is better than the celebrity dead. (see picture below)
The memorial ended with conversation, laughter, drinks and music by the Verdure Quartet. --Ralph Spielman
—posted 3/11/202
With as much laughter as tears, some 125 guests, mostly Time Life alumni, gathered in the elegant Century Association in Manhattan on March 4 to celebrate the life of Dick Stolley, the founding editor of the phenomenally successful People magazine, who died last June at 92. (See Farewells for more)
The memorial, organized by Dick’s four daughters, Beth, Hope, Melinda and Martha, included a dozen speakers including MC Marden, Jim Gaines and concluding with Hal Wingo, a 50-year Time Inc. veteran who continued his close friendship with Dick when they both retired to Santa Fe.
Claudia Dowling, who worked with Dick at Life and People, made an unusual contribution with an ode to Dick in rap form, which she read. As an editor, Dick didn’t leave you in any doubt about your work. She read, “When Dick said, ‘Huh?’ We were screwed and it was back to edit ref, copy desk, and the blues’.” In another line she recited, “Richard Stolley taught us plenty, mostly how to think, count characters in headlines, and always write to length.”
A placard at the entrance to the Century, listed Dick’s famous “law of covers”: • Young is better than old;
• Pretty is better than ugly; • Rich is better than poor; • Movies are better than music; • Music is better than television; • Television is better than sports; • Anything is better than politics; • Nothing is better than the celebrity dead. (see picture below)
The memorial ended with conversation, laughter, drinks and music by the Verdure Quartet. --Ralph Spielman
—posted 3/11/202
Fortune and the Theranos Scandal
Fortune’s Roger Parloff was not the first to be dazzled by Elizabeth Holmes. She was a young attractive dropout from Stanford and had a compelling story to tell about a device she was developing that could revolutionize blood testing. Fortune put her on the cover in June 2014 and made her famous. Glowing stories followed in The New Yorker, Forbes, USA Today, NPR, FOXBusiness, CNN, CBS News. Glamour magazine named Holmes woman of the year. How could they be wrong if Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, Larry Ellison and other eminent people joined her board, or invested in the company or both. But none of them was up on their blood chemistry. Holmes was the next Steve Jobs.
Holmes began to act like a billionaire, which she was on paper. Four security guards accompanied her on her rounds and she traveled by chartered jet. But that was about as far as she would go. People inside the company began to doubt that her miniature pinprick device which was supposed to make hundreds of tests with one drop of blood would ever work. Claims made by the company turned out to be lies. For example, the claim that the Theranos device was being used by troops in the field in Afghanistan was false.
John Carreyrou, a 16–year veteran at The Wall Street Journal, was casting about in March 2015 for a new investigative project. He received a call from a source who sent him off on an epic assignment. It appeared that there was a lot going wrong at Theranos, which had so far escaped regulatory examination. The “nanotainer,” the tiny device that was supposed to make hundreds of tests miraculously from one drop of blood, was just not working.
Carreyrou began to find sources who knew the inside of the company. The lab director who had recently left provided key thoughts. A high rate of turnover at Theranos created new sources although they were mostly so worried about retribution that they either refused to talk or talked only under strict promises that they would not be identified. One of them,Tyler Schultz, grandson of the board member and a recent employee, did talk for the record and fought back when the company found out and went to his grandfather. The grandfather sided with Holmes and became estranged from his grandson.
As the attacks mounted Holmes fought back savagely. Executives who expressed doubts about what the company was doing—and there were more than a few—were fired on the spot. When FDA inspectors came calling they never got to see the equipment that was failing because it was kept behind a locked door. To silence internal and external critics she hired David Boies, a celebrity defense lawyer.
With Boies and others trying desperately up to the last minute to stop Carreyrou from.publishing his article, The Wall Street Journal put it on its front page on October 15, 2015. As The Journal kept hammering away at Theranos, the company’s defenses began to crumble. The government agencies had been surprisingly quiet about Holmes company. But now the Food and Drug Administration stepped in and banned the use of the “nanotainer.”, Without it Theranos had nothing to sell. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid services was also investigating.
Parloff—who is regarded by his colleagues at Fortune as an honorable and competent reporter—already had doubts. Now, on December 17, two months after Carreyrou’s article came out, he published a heartfelt mea culpa under the headline “How Theranos Misled Me.” He said that in his original story there was “a whopping false statement.” He had written that with just one drop of blood Theranos’ proprietary equipment could make 200 tests. In truth, it could at best make one test. The rest were sometimes made secretly on traditional equipment. (The New Yorker which had published an article almost as laudatory as Parloff’s never backed off.)
Other media of course picked up the story. The Washington Post’s media writer Paul Farhi wrote a long commentary headlined “the magazine story that made Elizabeth Holmes famous could now help send her to jail.” Farhi wrote that Fortune’s piece was “emblematic of the gushy, overly credulous business and tech journalism ascendant at the time.” But he also said that Parloff”s article was a key to the government’s case against Theranos.
The whole Theranos mirage dissolved in 2016. Board members resigned, investors sued and pharmaceutical companies that had invested millions preparing to use the Theranos system withdrew their support. Holmes’ net worth once estimated at $4.5 billion on paper was now $0. The company shut down.
The government charged Holmes with 11 counts of massive criminal fraud. After long delays caused by Covid and her successful pregnancy, she went on trial in 2021. Parloff, who left Fortune in 2016, figured in the Theranos story. Parloff was the final witness called by the prosecution. After 50 hours of deliberation, the jury turned in a verdict of guilty on four of the charges. She faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Holmes’ "Rasputin" and partner, the arrogant Ramesh (“Sunny”) Balwani, who as COO joined the ruthless defense of the company, will face the same charges in a forthcoming trial.
Parloff resigned from Fortune in 2016 and is now a senior editor at the Blog Lawfare. Carreyrou wrote a fascinating and gripping book, Bad Blood, a bestseller in 2018—Jennifer Lawrence is scheduled to play Holmes in an Apple movie.
—posted 2/14/2022
Fortune’s Roger Parloff was not the first to be dazzled by Elizabeth Holmes. She was a young attractive dropout from Stanford and had a compelling story to tell about a device she was developing that could revolutionize blood testing. Fortune put her on the cover in June 2014 and made her famous. Glowing stories followed in The New Yorker, Forbes, USA Today, NPR, FOXBusiness, CNN, CBS News. Glamour magazine named Holmes woman of the year. How could they be wrong if Henry Kissinger, George Schultz, Larry Ellison and other eminent people joined her board, or invested in the company or both. But none of them was up on their blood chemistry. Holmes was the next Steve Jobs.
Holmes began to act like a billionaire, which she was on paper. Four security guards accompanied her on her rounds and she traveled by chartered jet. But that was about as far as she would go. People inside the company began to doubt that her miniature pinprick device which was supposed to make hundreds of tests with one drop of blood would ever work. Claims made by the company turned out to be lies. For example, the claim that the Theranos device was being used by troops in the field in Afghanistan was false.
John Carreyrou, a 16–year veteran at The Wall Street Journal, was casting about in March 2015 for a new investigative project. He received a call from a source who sent him off on an epic assignment. It appeared that there was a lot going wrong at Theranos, which had so far escaped regulatory examination. The “nanotainer,” the tiny device that was supposed to make hundreds of tests miraculously from one drop of blood, was just not working.
Carreyrou began to find sources who knew the inside of the company. The lab director who had recently left provided key thoughts. A high rate of turnover at Theranos created new sources although they were mostly so worried about retribution that they either refused to talk or talked only under strict promises that they would not be identified. One of them,Tyler Schultz, grandson of the board member and a recent employee, did talk for the record and fought back when the company found out and went to his grandfather. The grandfather sided with Holmes and became estranged from his grandson.
As the attacks mounted Holmes fought back savagely. Executives who expressed doubts about what the company was doing—and there were more than a few—were fired on the spot. When FDA inspectors came calling they never got to see the equipment that was failing because it was kept behind a locked door. To silence internal and external critics she hired David Boies, a celebrity defense lawyer.
With Boies and others trying desperately up to the last minute to stop Carreyrou from.publishing his article, The Wall Street Journal put it on its front page on October 15, 2015. As The Journal kept hammering away at Theranos, the company’s defenses began to crumble. The government agencies had been surprisingly quiet about Holmes company. But now the Food and Drug Administration stepped in and banned the use of the “nanotainer.”, Without it Theranos had nothing to sell. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid services was also investigating.
Parloff—who is regarded by his colleagues at Fortune as an honorable and competent reporter—already had doubts. Now, on December 17, two months after Carreyrou’s article came out, he published a heartfelt mea culpa under the headline “How Theranos Misled Me.” He said that in his original story there was “a whopping false statement.” He had written that with just one drop of blood Theranos’ proprietary equipment could make 200 tests. In truth, it could at best make one test. The rest were sometimes made secretly on traditional equipment. (The New Yorker which had published an article almost as laudatory as Parloff’s never backed off.)
Other media of course picked up the story. The Washington Post’s media writer Paul Farhi wrote a long commentary headlined “the magazine story that made Elizabeth Holmes famous could now help send her to jail.” Farhi wrote that Fortune’s piece was “emblematic of the gushy, overly credulous business and tech journalism ascendant at the time.” But he also said that Parloff”s article was a key to the government’s case against Theranos.
The whole Theranos mirage dissolved in 2016. Board members resigned, investors sued and pharmaceutical companies that had invested millions preparing to use the Theranos system withdrew their support. Holmes’ net worth once estimated at $4.5 billion on paper was now $0. The company shut down.
The government charged Holmes with 11 counts of massive criminal fraud. After long delays caused by Covid and her successful pregnancy, she went on trial in 2021. Parloff, who left Fortune in 2016, figured in the Theranos story. Parloff was the final witness called by the prosecution. After 50 hours of deliberation, the jury turned in a verdict of guilty on four of the charges. She faces a sentence of up to 30 years in prison.
Holmes’ "Rasputin" and partner, the arrogant Ramesh (“Sunny”) Balwani, who as COO joined the ruthless defense of the company, will face the same charges in a forthcoming trial.
Parloff resigned from Fortune in 2016 and is now a senior editor at the Blog Lawfare. Carreyrou wrote a fascinating and gripping book, Bad Blood, a bestseller in 2018—Jennifer Lawrence is scheduled to play Holmes in an Apple movie.
—posted 2/14/2022
From high-tech to bagels
Mitch Klaif, a former senior vice president at Time Inc., and his wife, Diane, will open a bagel shop in New Milford, Connecticut in December. An article in the Register—Citizen of Norwalk reports they will make their bagels on premises and produce about a dozen types of bagels—the usual kinds like sesame seed bagels, but also some specialty ones including pizza bagels and hot dog bagels.
Their store, which will be called the Red Barn and is located in an old barn on Danbury Road, will also brew various types of coffee such as latte and espresso made from proprietary beans developed for them and will sell bagged coffee beans.
Mitch, who is 64, and his wife moved from New Jersey during the pandemic. They have not been business owners before now but Mitch’s parents owned clothing stores in New York and New Jersey. He has always wanted to own a small business, according to his wife.
A 1979 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Mitch came to Time Inc. from The Wall Street Journal in 2007 and stayed for seven years becoming SVP for information technology. He went on to occupy the same position at Warner Media. He designed the information technology system for Warner Media’s new headquarters at Hudson Yards. He is also a senior external advisor to McKinsey & Company.
Mitch Klaif, a former senior vice president at Time Inc., and his wife, Diane, will open a bagel shop in New Milford, Connecticut in December. An article in the Register—Citizen of Norwalk reports they will make their bagels on premises and produce about a dozen types of bagels—the usual kinds like sesame seed bagels, but also some specialty ones including pizza bagels and hot dog bagels.
Their store, which will be called the Red Barn and is located in an old barn on Danbury Road, will also brew various types of coffee such as latte and espresso made from proprietary beans developed for them and will sell bagged coffee beans.
Mitch, who is 64, and his wife moved from New Jersey during the pandemic. They have not been business owners before now but Mitch’s parents owned clothing stores in New York and New Jersey. He has always wanted to own a small business, according to his wife.
A 1979 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Mitch came to Time Inc. from The Wall Street Journal in 2007 and stayed for seven years becoming SVP for information technology. He went on to occupy the same position at Warner Media. He designed the information technology system for Warner Media’s new headquarters at Hudson Yards. He is also a senior external advisor to McKinsey & Company.
After the Memorial Service for Janet McDougall at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church attendees gathered in the Parish Hall including Carolyn McCandless, George Vollmuth, Bob Plante, Jim Hayes. —Posted 6/18/2021
After the Memorial Service for Janet McDougall at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church attendees gathered in the Parish Hall including Carolyn McCandless, George Vollmuth, Bob Plante, Jim Hayes. —Posted 6/18/2021
Where The Time & Life Building Was Born
For New Yorkers, the pandemic had made traveling outside the Northeast virtually impossible. Different comfort levels have made some uneasy about going anywhere. New York State’s recent reduction of travel restrictions for those who have been vaccinated has made domestic travel far easier during this phase of the pandemic.
Both my wife, who was about to celebrate a big birthday, and I, decided on a driving trip to ascertain how this would work. We wanted to travel to a new destination — the land of music and BBQ, the State of Tennessee. Would masking, social distancing and local COVID rules be lax and not obeyed? We found out on an eight-day car trip.
Our mid-March departure from Manhattan took us to an overnight in Huntington, West Virginia, halfway to our first destination, Memphis. We encountered unusually light traffic on that day’s 600-mile journey, arriving at our motel after 11 hours on the road.
After a night’s rest, another 600 miles of car travel through Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas brought us to Memphis. While the lightly-trafficked Kentucky parkways seemed like a dream, truck-filled Interstate 55 in Missouri and Arkansas returned us to harsh reality; a half-mile backup greeted us at the Mississippi River bridge to Memphis. Once there, we checked into our hotel and dined at nearby Central BBQ, highly recommended. We enjoyed our ribs, greens and mac and cheese on the outside patio; a masked restaurant staff enforced social distancing allaying our fears. One note — knives were not available due to pandemic shortages.
Our lodging, the Central Station Hotel, is attached to the Amtrak station. It is located in the Arts District, a repurposed warehouse area with creativity displayed in stores, galleries and restaurants. The hotel had a UV mask sterilizer in the lobby for those who wished to use it, but no bell service or valet parking due to the pandemic, and no daily room cleaning unless requested. We met tourists at the hotel from the Sunbelt, but did not meet anyone on the trip from the Northeast.
Dr. King’s Last Hours
Monday morning we spent four hours at the National Civil Rights Museum, located in what was the former Lorraine Hotel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Masks were required of all visitors and staff, and everyone complied. The displays, wrenchingly powerful, ended where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent his last hours on April 4, 1968. This experience alone was worth the 18 hours of driving. Informative, sobering and painful, it is important for all Americans to see.
After a snack and a walk to view the Mississippi River, we had a rendezvous with some pampered ducks, denizens of the Peabody Hotel. Daily, from 11 a.m., they frolic and entertain hotel guests in the lobby fountain, escorted at 5 p.m. on a red carpet by the Duckmaster back to their roof penthouse. This tradition of over 80 years drew quite a crowd at our afternoon viewing. Parents and children were all masked.
From the Peabody, it was a short walk to Beale Street, the musical heart of Memphis. With two blocks of stores and music venues geared for tourists, crowds weren’t huge, but there seemed to be many people enjoying the beautiful weather and waiting outside, socially distanced, to enter the restaurants and few clubs that were open. Some businesses there were closed permanently due to the pandemic.
On Tuesday, we drove over an hour to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Filled with memorabilia from many musicians, and other related objects, it broadened our knowledge of the musical heritage of the region. We lunched at Abe’s Bar-B-Q, near the historic intersection of U.S. 49 and U.S. 61, an important location. Legend has it that the Delta blues king, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) sold his soul to the devil and there the blues was born.
On to Graceland
We headed back to Memphis, on Highway 61, known as The Blues Highway, the link between the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, the confluence of Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Country and Western, Hillbilly and Bluegrass. Our lodging that night, the full-service Guest House at Graceland was pleasant. Alas, it did not offer the nightly Elvis movie, due to pandemic group constraints.
Wednesday morning we went to Graceland to learn more about Elvis Aaron Presley, who as influenced by many of those regional music styles in his work. The tour included the 17,500 square foot Presley Mansion and the Memphis entertainment complex. Overwhelming in scope, this one-of-a-kind museum was well worth visiting. However, there were few occupied spaces in the parking lot, due to city group regulations.
After Graceland, a three hour ride brought us to Nashville. Hattie B’s restaurant near our hotel, introduced us to Nashville hot chicken, offering six levels from bland to “shut the cluck up,” aka, VERY spicy. Despite the torrential rain that night, we enjoyed being in the covered outdoor area, which had adequate natural ventilation.
Thursday, we saw Nashville on an open-air bus tour, walked around a tourist-filled Downtown, saw music venues in swing mid-day, brand-new malls, and masking requirement signage for both inside and outside. Visits to the well-documented Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline Museums were both informative, adding to our awe of Tennessee’s incredible rich musical heritage. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum with an almost two hour capacity-restricted wait eluded our tight schedule. The National Museum of African-American Music that opened this past Labor Day, is an inspiring addition to all that Music City has to offer.
Back on the road, we overnighted in Kent, Ohio. The last morning, we visited the 81-year old Kravitz Deli in Youngstown, Ohio, sole deli survivor in that area. Adapting to the times and the dwindling Jewish population, the menu reflects many non-traditional choices. Owner Jack Kravitz told us that from March 15 to 17, with lines out the door, they sold 4,000 pounds of corned beef for their biggest customer holiday, St.Patrick’s Day.
As the New Jersey traffic on I-80 built up 30 miles away from the Washington Bridge, we knew we were nearing NYC.
We had braved traveling during the pandemic and found that it wasn’t something to be feared. Any qualms we had about people not observing health mandates were moot, and we cannot wait to get back on the road again for our next long trip.
—Posted 5/5/2021 Photos courtesy West Side Spirit/Straus News
Both my wife, who was about to celebrate a big birthday, and I, decided on a driving trip to ascertain how this would work. We wanted to travel to a new destination — the land of music and BBQ, the State of Tennessee. Would masking, social distancing and local COVID rules be lax and not obeyed? We found out on an eight-day car trip.
Our mid-March departure from Manhattan took us to an overnight in Huntington, West Virginia, halfway to our first destination, Memphis. We encountered unusually light traffic on that day’s 600-mile journey, arriving at our motel after 11 hours on the road.
After a night’s rest, another 600 miles of car travel through Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas brought us to Memphis. While the lightly-trafficked Kentucky parkways seemed like a dream, truck-filled Interstate 55 in Missouri and Arkansas returned us to harsh reality; a half-mile backup greeted us at the Mississippi River bridge to Memphis. Once there, we checked into our hotel and dined at nearby Central BBQ, highly recommended. We enjoyed our ribs, greens and mac and cheese on the outside patio; a masked restaurant staff enforced social distancing allaying our fears. One note — knives were not available due to pandemic shortages.
Our lodging, the Central Station Hotel, is attached to the Amtrak station. It is located in the Arts District, a repurposed warehouse area with creativity displayed in stores, galleries and restaurants. The hotel had a UV mask sterilizer in the lobby for those who wished to use it, but no bell service or valet parking due to the pandemic, and no daily room cleaning unless requested. We met tourists at the hotel from the Sunbelt, but did not meet anyone on the trip from the Northeast.
Dr. King’s Last Hours
Monday morning we spent four hours at the National Civil Rights Museum, located in what was the former Lorraine Hotel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination. Masks were required of all visitors and staff, and everyone complied. The displays, wrenchingly powerful, ended where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent his last hours on April 4, 1968. This experience alone was worth the 18 hours of driving. Informative, sobering and painful, it is important for all Americans to see.
After a snack and a walk to view the Mississippi River, we had a rendezvous with some pampered ducks, denizens of the Peabody Hotel. Daily, from 11 a.m., they frolic and entertain hotel guests in the lobby fountain, escorted at 5 p.m. on a red carpet by the Duckmaster back to their roof penthouse. This tradition of over 80 years drew quite a crowd at our afternoon viewing. Parents and children were all masked.
From the Peabody, it was a short walk to Beale Street, the musical heart of Memphis. With two blocks of stores and music venues geared for tourists, crowds weren’t huge, but there seemed to be many people enjoying the beautiful weather and waiting outside, socially distanced, to enter the restaurants and few clubs that were open. Some businesses there were closed permanently due to the pandemic.
On Tuesday, we drove over an hour to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Filled with memorabilia from many musicians, and other related objects, it broadened our knowledge of the musical heritage of the region. We lunched at Abe’s Bar-B-Q, near the historic intersection of U.S. 49 and U.S. 61, an important location. Legend has it that the Delta blues king, Robert Johnson (1911-1938) sold his soul to the devil and there the blues was born.
On to Graceland
We headed back to Memphis, on Highway 61, known as The Blues Highway, the link between the Mississippi Delta and Memphis, the confluence of Blues, Rhythm and Blues, Gospel, Country and Western, Hillbilly and Bluegrass. Our lodging that night, the full-service Guest House at Graceland was pleasant. Alas, it did not offer the nightly Elvis movie, due to pandemic group constraints.
Wednesday morning we went to Graceland to learn more about Elvis Aaron Presley, who as influenced by many of those regional music styles in his work. The tour included the 17,500 square foot Presley Mansion and the Memphis entertainment complex. Overwhelming in scope, this one-of-a-kind museum was well worth visiting. However, there were few occupied spaces in the parking lot, due to city group regulations.
After Graceland, a three hour ride brought us to Nashville. Hattie B’s restaurant near our hotel, introduced us to Nashville hot chicken, offering six levels from bland to “shut the cluck up,” aka, VERY spicy. Despite the torrential rain that night, we enjoyed being in the covered outdoor area, which had adequate natural ventilation.
Thursday, we saw Nashville on an open-air bus tour, walked around a tourist-filled Downtown, saw music venues in swing mid-day, brand-new malls, and masking requirement signage for both inside and outside. Visits to the well-documented Johnny Cash and Patsy Cline Museums were both informative, adding to our awe of Tennessee’s incredible rich musical heritage. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum with an almost two hour capacity-restricted wait eluded our tight schedule. The National Museum of African-American Music that opened this past Labor Day, is an inspiring addition to all that Music City has to offer.
Back on the road, we overnighted in Kent, Ohio. The last morning, we visited the 81-year old Kravitz Deli in Youngstown, Ohio, sole deli survivor in that area. Adapting to the times and the dwindling Jewish population, the menu reflects many non-traditional choices. Owner Jack Kravitz told us that from March 15 to 17, with lines out the door, they sold 4,000 pounds of corned beef for their biggest customer holiday, St.Patrick’s Day.
As the New Jersey traffic on I-80 built up 30 miles away from the Washington Bridge, we knew we were nearing NYC.
We had braved traveling during the pandemic and found that it wasn’t something to be feared. Any qualms we had about people not observing health mandates were moot, and we cannot wait to get back on the road again for our next long trip.
—Posted 5/5/2021 Photos courtesy West Side Spirit/Straus News
Award for Life Exhibition Catalog
The editors of the catalogue that accompanied the exhibit of Life Magazine photography last spring at the Princeton Museum of Art have won the prestigious Alfred H. Barr Jr. award for producing an “especially distinguished catalog” on the history of art.
The winners were Katherine A. Bussard and Kristen Gresh, the curators of the exhibit, which opened last spring at the Princeton Museum of Art but had to be closed almost immediately because of the Covid outbreak. The award said “Life magazine drew on the tremendous unrealized power of pictures to shape perceptions of the world for millions of Americans.”
“Following an effective format of short spotlight essays and longer critical essays, the catalog unpacks those iconic photographs and considers the political, social, and cultural contexts that resulted,” the citation said.
“The catalog reveals how Life advanced Cold War ideologies and sidestepped the underlying conditions leading to inequality, racial injustice and violence in American society. The catalog brings the new complexity to Life’s legendary picture making enterprise and suggests why Life’s signal role in fostering consensus and collective memory is ripe for further unpacking,” according to the citation.
Alfred Barr was the founding director of the College Art Association. (Thanks to Bill Hooper for this item.) —posted 2/22/21
See a Zoom link to the Exhibit on the "Happening Now" page
The editors of the catalogue that accompanied the exhibit of Life Magazine photography last spring at the Princeton Museum of Art have won the prestigious Alfred H. Barr Jr. award for producing an “especially distinguished catalog” on the history of art.
The winners were Katherine A. Bussard and Kristen Gresh, the curators of the exhibit, which opened last spring at the Princeton Museum of Art but had to be closed almost immediately because of the Covid outbreak. The award said “Life magazine drew on the tremendous unrealized power of pictures to shape perceptions of the world for millions of Americans.”
“Following an effective format of short spotlight essays and longer critical essays, the catalog unpacks those iconic photographs and considers the political, social, and cultural contexts that resulted,” the citation said.
“The catalog reveals how Life advanced Cold War ideologies and sidestepped the underlying conditions leading to inequality, racial injustice and violence in American society. The catalog brings the new complexity to Life’s legendary picture making enterprise and suggests why Life’s signal role in fostering consensus and collective memory is ripe for further unpacking,” according to the citation.
Alfred Barr was the founding director of the College Art Association. (Thanks to Bill Hooper for this item.) —posted 2/22/21
See a Zoom link to the Exhibit on the "Happening Now" page
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TIME—The vanishing logo
If you still subscribe to Time, you may have been surprised by the look of the cover lately. The traditional red border, a fixture since 1927, is still there. But the logo might be hard to find. It’s dimly visible under the cover picture. What stands out on the April 5 cover is not the logo for the headline in stark black print: “We Are Not Silent” The cover picture is a painting of an Asian American girl surrounded by colorful flowers. Time’s PR department has some advice on how to spot fake covers, of which it says there have been more than they have been real covers. There should be a thin white line separating the red border from the body of the cover picture at the fakes often omit that. The fakes never seem to get the logo quite right. Donald Trump loves to be on the time cover even—or especially—if it is fake. One of them, which hangs in five of his golf clubs, pronounces “The Apprentice“ “a smash hit”—which of course it wasn’t. —posted 3/25/21 |
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A Typographical Jolt
“For the first time in our nearly 100-year history (we have) replaced our logo on the cover of our U.S. edition with the imperative for all of us to exercise the right to vote,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal writes in the current edition of the magazine. On the cover where the TIME logo would normally appear you see the word VOTE in the same type used for the logo. The face on the cover is that of a young woman with red hair wearing a face mask with a ballot box printed on it.
The double issue is dated November 2 and November 9 but reached readers around October 24, in time push them to vote in this vital election.
In his letter to readers, Felsenthal writes that in this “year of so much pain, hardship, chaos and loss” we need to take the opportunity for what one contributor calls “The Great Reset.” Several prominent contributors offer their ideas about “How we can seize this moment of disruption to push for a world that is healthier, more resilient, sustainable and just.”
The artwork on the cover is by Shepard Fairey, who had previously painted a cover of Barack Obama.
Felsenthal writes near the conclusion of his piece, “We stand at a rare moment, one that will separate history into before and after generations.” —Posted 11/01/20
“For the first time in our nearly 100-year history (we have) replaced our logo on the cover of our U.S. edition with the imperative for all of us to exercise the right to vote,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal writes in the current edition of the magazine. On the cover where the TIME logo would normally appear you see the word VOTE in the same type used for the logo. The face on the cover is that of a young woman with red hair wearing a face mask with a ballot box printed on it.
The double issue is dated November 2 and November 9 but reached readers around October 24, in time push them to vote in this vital election.
In his letter to readers, Felsenthal writes that in this “year of so much pain, hardship, chaos and loss” we need to take the opportunity for what one contributor calls “The Great Reset.” Several prominent contributors offer their ideas about “How we can seize this moment of disruption to push for a world that is healthier, more resilient, sustainable and just.”
The artwork on the cover is by Shepard Fairey, who had previously painted a cover of Barack Obama.
Felsenthal writes near the conclusion of his piece, “We stand at a rare moment, one that will separate history into before and after generations.” —Posted 11/01/20
A New Home For “That Sculpture”
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If you have strolled by the plaza in front of what used to be the Time & Life Building and wondered whatever happened to the large blue sculpture seen by millions of pedestrians in midtown Manhattan over the years, it is heartening to know that it has a new home on the campus of Ursinus College just north of Philadelphia. The Rockefeller Group donated the piece to the Berman Museum there last fall and it occupies a central spot on the campus beside the museum—where it might cause as much puzzlement as it did in New York.
This huge piece of sculpted stainless steel, known as the “Cubed Curve” but also sometime called the “Giant Twisted Paperclip” or “The Bent Magnet”, was created in 1972 by an American sculptor, William Crovello, born in 1929. The blue, 3,500-lb. work measures 144 inches high and 48 inches long.
Charlie Stainback, director of the Berman museum, said, “We are delighted to receive this major gift, which signals the growth of our collection and programming at the museum. Just as it was a recognizable feature in New York City, so it will be a place marker and meeting place on our campus, as well as a symbol of our commitment to showcasing the best examples of contemporary art.” (Thanks to Alex Stack for this item)
This huge piece of sculpted stainless steel, known as the “Cubed Curve” but also sometime called the “Giant Twisted Paperclip” or “The Bent Magnet”, was created in 1972 by an American sculptor, William Crovello, born in 1929. The blue, 3,500-lb. work measures 144 inches high and 48 inches long.
Charlie Stainback, director of the Berman museum, said, “We are delighted to receive this major gift, which signals the growth of our collection and programming at the museum. Just as it was a recognizable feature in New York City, so it will be a place marker and meeting place on our campus, as well as a symbol of our commitment to showcasing the best examples of contemporary art.” (Thanks to Alex Stack for this item)
The Magazines and The Virus
The old Time Inc. titles—call them “brands,” if you will, or even “magazines”—are going through interesting times, as we all are. But not all the news is bad. At Time, the new owners, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne have agreed there will be no layoffs for 90 days and hourly workers will continue to received their pay. Fortune, which actually added 13 staffers last year, has upscale new quarters at 40 Fulton Street, which will be nice to have when people can stop working at home. Fortune is making money and reinvesting the profit into its business.
However, Sports Illustrated has no good news. With almost all sports events canceled, advertising has dried up and the editors have little to report. Maven, a ”digital platform” that owns SI, announced a 6% cut in staff at the end of March. That’s on top of a one-third cut in the staff when Maven purchased SI. Union organizers are negotiating with Maven, but were not consulted on the last cut. SI staffers are concerned about Maven’s financial health – checks to contract writers were sent out late last month—but Maven CEO James Heckman told The Washington Post that 2020 would be a profitable year, although revenue will drop by $30 million.
Important changes taking place at Fortune were detailed recently in a long article in The New York Post. Fortune has just introduced a three-tier level of subscriptions. For $49 a year a subscriber gets just the digital edition. At the second tier, known as Access Plus, the subscriber pays $99 a year for both print and digital versions. The top level, Premium, costs $199 a year, and includes both versions plus access to the videos of business leaders’ talks at the various forums staged by the magazine.
Fortune will cut back from 12 to 10 issues a year and will go back to some of its origins. As it was in the 1930s when Luce founded the magazines, it will be printed on heavy paper and will feature illustrated covers rather than pictures of CEOs.
Fortune’s offices, staying mostly empty until the virus passes, are designed “to look high end enough to host an interview with a Fortune 500 exec but still embody the casual and hip vibe of a typical media company,” in the words of one commentator. A most unusual feature of the new office is that not only is the work space an open area but it is open to a large kitchen space. The two areas can be separated by large, black translucent curtains of felt hanging from a sliding track on the ceiling. They reach three-quarters of the way to the ground. The light fixtures in a conference room are lined with felt to help absorb sound.
All the magazines face the loss of conference business, which accounts for about 40% of Fortune’s $100-million-a year revenue. As long as the country remains on lockdown, the conferences won’t take place. —JM —Posted 5/1/2020
The old Time Inc. titles—call them “brands,” if you will, or even “magazines”—are going through interesting times, as we all are. But not all the news is bad. At Time, the new owners, Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne have agreed there will be no layoffs for 90 days and hourly workers will continue to received their pay. Fortune, which actually added 13 staffers last year, has upscale new quarters at 40 Fulton Street, which will be nice to have when people can stop working at home. Fortune is making money and reinvesting the profit into its business.
However, Sports Illustrated has no good news. With almost all sports events canceled, advertising has dried up and the editors have little to report. Maven, a ”digital platform” that owns SI, announced a 6% cut in staff at the end of March. That’s on top of a one-third cut in the staff when Maven purchased SI. Union organizers are negotiating with Maven, but were not consulted on the last cut. SI staffers are concerned about Maven’s financial health – checks to contract writers were sent out late last month—but Maven CEO James Heckman told The Washington Post that 2020 would be a profitable year, although revenue will drop by $30 million.
Important changes taking place at Fortune were detailed recently in a long article in The New York Post. Fortune has just introduced a three-tier level of subscriptions. For $49 a year a subscriber gets just the digital edition. At the second tier, known as Access Plus, the subscriber pays $99 a year for both print and digital versions. The top level, Premium, costs $199 a year, and includes both versions plus access to the videos of business leaders’ talks at the various forums staged by the magazine.
Fortune will cut back from 12 to 10 issues a year and will go back to some of its origins. As it was in the 1930s when Luce founded the magazines, it will be printed on heavy paper and will feature illustrated covers rather than pictures of CEOs.
Fortune’s offices, staying mostly empty until the virus passes, are designed “to look high end enough to host an interview with a Fortune 500 exec but still embody the casual and hip vibe of a typical media company,” in the words of one commentator. A most unusual feature of the new office is that not only is the work space an open area but it is open to a large kitchen space. The two areas can be separated by large, black translucent curtains of felt hanging from a sliding track on the ceiling. They reach three-quarters of the way to the ground. The light fixtures in a conference room are lined with felt to help absorb sound.
All the magazines face the loss of conference business, which accounts for about 40% of Fortune’s $100-million-a year revenue. As long as the country remains on lockdown, the conferences won’t take place. —JM —Posted 5/1/2020
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A reminder of the power of Life
Amanda Darrach, whose uncle, Brad Darrach, was Time’s irrepressible film critic for decades, writes an article in the Columbia Journalism Review recalling for readers who have probably never seen a copy of Life how the magazine‘s power, according to photographer Harry Benson, lay in its ability to say, “I am going to show you something you have never seen before. The camera cannot lie.” (Of course, today photos can lie.) In one of a series of articles on “great magazines,” Amanda points out that when Henry Luce first produced Life in 1936, newspaper readers were accustomed to seeing pictures printed with already “outdated oil-based inks, poor paper and coarse engraving screens.” Life came out on glossy paper and with high–quality printing—and with memorable photos. The first issue in November, 1936 sold out 180,000 copies and within four months the circulation had reached 1 million. The number of Life photographers grew during World War II from the original four to 38 and some of them were minor celebrities. They had a way of getting inside big stories and into the lives of important people that other journalists rarely enjoyed. Life was proud of the heroics they performed to get the right picture—harnessed under a military helicopter or standing on a gargoyle on the Chrysler building. In 1969, Life’s circulation peaked at 8.5 million. But the modern news cycle came along and TV provided color pictures much faster than Life could. By 1972 circulation was down to 5.5 million. The last weekly issue of the magazine came out at the end of that year. Amanda’s uncle, Brad, wrote for Time and other magazines from the 1940s to the 1990s and was Time’s chief movie critic. He was famous for revealing portraits, such as the story about Marilyn Monroe in which she talked for the first time about her traumatic childhood. He was controversial and wrote outrageous puns. —Posted 1/27/2020 These pictures were in the original article: |
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Al Freni and Ike (remembering 1955)
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The current issue of The White House History Quarterly recounts a memorable day in 1955 in the life of our own TLAS photographer. Al Freni, was a 21-year-old Airman 2d Class when he took some historic pictures of President Eisenhower that day. Al was the base photographer at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado and the President and his family came to stay for their summer vacation. Al was assigned to cover Ike and he relates what happened in an article he wrote for the Quarterly, illustrated with his own photos.
Together with a pool of six other photographers from major outlets, including the late Carl Iwasaki, then a stringer for Life and later staffer, Al set out one day for a photo shoot. Ike and his grandson David were to have a grand time fishing and hitting golf balls. In one shot, David takes a swing at a golf ball and evidently misses because Al’s picture shows Ike twisting his whole body, with one foot in the air, while presumably saying “OOOOH!” At the same 1/200th of a second one of the other six photographers, grouped in squad formation takes the obverse of Al’s picture from the other side of the action. In the background of Al’s picture you see the six standing shooting pictures. Their picture shows Al in the background crouching with his bulky Speed Graphic. In a better-known picture by Al, David and his grandfather are standing on a makeshift jetty while David drops a line into a lake (well-stocked with trout for the occasion.) When the base newspaper published the fishing picture on its cover, Ike asked for 40 copies. A White House staffer suggested to Al that he ask Ike for a signed copy. In a fresh uniform and with a fresh haircut, Al presented himself and was invited in to meet the President. Ike said it was a wonderful photo and signed it for Al. Twenty-five years ago, in 1994, Al learned that David was visiting Hofstra college nearby and he took a copy of the fishing photo and other memorabilia to show David, who told him he had always wondered who took the picture. He signed it, “To Al Freni, who took my favorite picture.” —JM —Posted 1/20/2020 |
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John Loengard : Moment by Moment
The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis exhibited 53 black-and-white photos taken by Life’s legendary John Loengard. The exhibit ran this summer was entitled Moment by Moment and had a wide range of subjects beginning with a charming image of fellow photographer Henri Cartier Bresson happily flying a kite.
In a commentary on the exhibit, John wrote “Photographers and their subjects must interact. The subject must do something of interest, smack-dab in front of the camera—or there is no picture.”
One such unusual picture shows the Beatles playing in a swimming pool in winter in Miami It was not an easy picture to get. John had to find a private pool (so that other photographers could not steal the scene) but the pool was unheated and the temperature that day was 50 degrees. The Beatles frolicked for the camera and then hopped out of the water shivering.
In his 30-year-career at Life John photographed movie stars, writers, politicians, artists and many mundane subjects. He became the monthly Life’s director of photography. John was inaugurated into the Photography Hall of Fame last year.
“My lens,” says John, “marries reality to form and my camera records their marriage. The proper moment means the world to me.”
The exhibit included photos of Georgia O’Keeffe (her hand), Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and one of Ronald Regan roaring with laughter. And there‘s shot of photographer Annie Leibowitz and her assistant balancing on top of one of the gargoyles way up the Chrysler Building. See some of the pictures below. —Posted 10/1/19
The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis exhibited 53 black-and-white photos taken by Life’s legendary John Loengard. The exhibit ran this summer was entitled Moment by Moment and had a wide range of subjects beginning with a charming image of fellow photographer Henri Cartier Bresson happily flying a kite.
In a commentary on the exhibit, John wrote “Photographers and their subjects must interact. The subject must do something of interest, smack-dab in front of the camera—or there is no picture.”
One such unusual picture shows the Beatles playing in a swimming pool in winter in Miami It was not an easy picture to get. John had to find a private pool (so that other photographers could not steal the scene) but the pool was unheated and the temperature that day was 50 degrees. The Beatles frolicked for the camera and then hopped out of the water shivering.
In his 30-year-career at Life John photographed movie stars, writers, politicians, artists and many mundane subjects. He became the monthly Life’s director of photography. John was inaugurated into the Photography Hall of Fame last year.
“My lens,” says John, “marries reality to form and my camera records their marriage. The proper moment means the world to me.”
The exhibit included photos of Georgia O’Keeffe (her hand), Louis Armstrong, Judy Garland and one of Ronald Regan roaring with laughter. And there‘s shot of photographer Annie Leibowitz and her assistant balancing on top of one of the gargoyles way up the Chrysler Building. See some of the pictures below. —Posted 10/1/19
Remembering the 242
New York, June 1, 2019: Jef Connor, a writer and film-maker, has produced a documentary on the 50th anniversary of the memorable issue of Life that printed portraits of almost every one of the 242 American soldiers killed during a single week in Vietnam. You can view the film by clicking on LIFE242.com.
The film marked a turning-point in Time Inc.’s long support of the war and made a huge impression on the American public. In those days Life was trusted and enormously influential. One American in four read the magazine.
Life columnist Loudon Wainwright had the idea of publishing the pictures of all the Americans killed in a single week. During the war the Defense Department published a weekly list of the names of the dead—as many as 300 each week. At first, the managing editor turned him down. But in June, 1969, Life’s new managing editor Ralph Graves approved. Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan, who had written editorials backing the war, was called in for his final approval. Like many other Americans, Donovan was beginning to lose faith. He approved.
With that, Life’s chief of research, Muriel Hall, enlisted Life’s stringers and correspondents all over the country in a massive, rush effort to get to the families of all the dead listed for the week of May 28 to June 3 to get the pictures of all 242. They were able to obtain almost all. The issue dated June 27 bore the cover lines “The Faces of the American Dead” and “One Week’s Toll.” Inside, Life ran just the pictures, without names, page after page of plain black and white headshots. The effect around the country was enormous.
Connor spent four years creating the documentary, with the help of Time Inc.’s archivist, Bill Hooper, who told us about it. Connor also made a five-minute film with the pictures of all 242 men and their names. You can see that along with the main documentary, which is accompanied by slow, haunting guitar music, played and performed by Andrew York. Connor found and bought two dozen copies of that issue of Life and you can buy one on Ebay.
New York, June 1, 2019: Jef Connor, a writer and film-maker, has produced a documentary on the 50th anniversary of the memorable issue of Life that printed portraits of almost every one of the 242 American soldiers killed during a single week in Vietnam. You can view the film by clicking on LIFE242.com.
The film marked a turning-point in Time Inc.’s long support of the war and made a huge impression on the American public. In those days Life was trusted and enormously influential. One American in four read the magazine.
Life columnist Loudon Wainwright had the idea of publishing the pictures of all the Americans killed in a single week. During the war the Defense Department published a weekly list of the names of the dead—as many as 300 each week. At first, the managing editor turned him down. But in June, 1969, Life’s new managing editor Ralph Graves approved. Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan, who had written editorials backing the war, was called in for his final approval. Like many other Americans, Donovan was beginning to lose faith. He approved.
With that, Life’s chief of research, Muriel Hall, enlisted Life’s stringers and correspondents all over the country in a massive, rush effort to get to the families of all the dead listed for the week of May 28 to June 3 to get the pictures of all 242. They were able to obtain almost all. The issue dated June 27 bore the cover lines “The Faces of the American Dead” and “One Week’s Toll.” Inside, Life ran just the pictures, without names, page after page of plain black and white headshots. The effect around the country was enormous.
Connor spent four years creating the documentary, with the help of Time Inc.’s archivist, Bill Hooper, who told us about it. Connor also made a five-minute film with the pictures of all 242 men and their names. You can see that along with the main documentary, which is accompanied by slow, haunting guitar music, played and performed by Andrew York. Connor found and bought two dozen copies of that issue of Life and you can buy one on Ebay.
• Chris Cory (Time edit, Time-Life News Service) looked into an old trunk (literally) recently and discovered typescripts of speeches and articles by his great grandfather, the architect Josiah Cleveland Cady (see picture). He was the neo-Romanesque designer of some the “gilded age” works of the late Nineteenth Century, such as the turreted south range of the American Museum of Natural History and the old Metropolitan Opera House, as well as buildings at Yale, Wesleyan and other institutions. Chris gave the papers to Cady’s alma mater, Trinity College. Chris plans to follow up with presentations and possibly a booklet about Cady and would welcome any recollections, plans, sketches or correspondence (Chris@christophercory.com).
Thanks – and Condolences We have received more than a few messages mourning the passing of Time and thanking TLAS for its work. Here are some of them:
• Paula Glatzer – “Thanks for keeping us connected.” • Gertraude Schaefer – “It seems there should be something we could do about it. I guess not.” • Jean Stratton – “Hello Mr. Essman, I was a Life reporter for 10 years. I am still in a state of shock. I didn’t even know that was on the horizon – it seems like Twilight Zone. . . Thanks for keeping me posted” • Christine Friederich – “Thank you so much. . . Hope we can keep he organization going.” • Kathleen Beakley – “Thank you!!!" • Peter Hanson – “Hi Alan – Thanks for the update. And thank you for your efforts for TLAS. I like your positive approach – TLAS is very much alive. And we thank Linda Censor, Janet McDougall and Ralph Spielman. You all are dear.” • Jeff Crennan – “Will you send email announcements for the TLAS online edition?” (The answer is yes.) • Barbara Orlando – “Sad news, but predictable. And thanks for the bit of prep, with so little notice.” • Lillian Gilden – “Heartbroken, needless to say about the fate of our beloved Time. I will miss receiving the mail edition of TLAS but grateful to know that the publication lives online thanks to your and the dedicated efforts of Linda Censor, Janet McDougall and Ralph Spielman. Happy to support the process going forward in any way I can.” • Bill Rukeyser – “Keep up the appreciated work.” • And all of us thank Jeremy Main for the intrepid editing of the printed newsletters since 2006 and now this website. • Posted August 4
• Paula Glatzer – “Thanks for keeping us connected.” • Gertraude Schaefer – “It seems there should be something we could do about it. I guess not.” • Jean Stratton – “Hello Mr. Essman, I was a Life reporter for 10 years. I am still in a state of shock. I didn’t even know that was on the horizon – it seems like Twilight Zone. . . Thanks for keeping me posted” • Christine Friederich – “Thank you so much. . . Hope we can keep he organization going.” • Kathleen Beakley – “Thank you!!!" • Peter Hanson – “Hi Alan – Thanks for the update. And thank you for your efforts for TLAS. I like your positive approach – TLAS is very much alive. And we thank Linda Censor, Janet McDougall and Ralph Spielman. You all are dear.” • Jeff Crennan – “Will you send email announcements for the TLAS online edition?” (The answer is yes.) • Barbara Orlando – “Sad news, but predictable. And thanks for the bit of prep, with so little notice.” • Lillian Gilden – “Heartbroken, needless to say about the fate of our beloved Time. I will miss receiving the mail edition of TLAS but grateful to know that the publication lives online thanks to your and the dedicated efforts of Linda Censor, Janet McDougall and Ralph Spielman. Happy to support the process going forward in any way I can.” • Bill Rukeyser – “Keep up the appreciated work.” • And all of us thank Jeremy Main for the intrepid editing of the printed newsletters since 2006 and now this website. • Posted August 4
Somebody Likes Us
Martha Nelson, the first woman to be editor in chief of Time Inc., emails “I actually think the newsletter is better in digital form. Room to breathe!”
Lillian Owens (archives) writes: “Time magazine celebrates its 95th birthday this month – and so do I! It has always reinforced my sense of unity with the company. When the TLAS newsletter hits my mailbox I drop everything until I have read it straight through. Thank you—all of you who have worked so hard to keep the TLAS alive and kicking. Your efforts are very much appreciated.”
Jeanne North (Time International edit) writes: “I’m so glad I have email and can get communications from you because you are a link to an important part of my life. I entered through the back door, so to speak, becoming a typist when the European edition of Time was being written and edited in Paris, and moving to New York when the operation relocated to the Time & Life Building. Fortunately, when I retired I became a life member of TLS. I shall follow you with interest from here in Maryland, where I now live.”
Martha Nelson, the first woman to be editor in chief of Time Inc., emails “I actually think the newsletter is better in digital form. Room to breathe!”
Lillian Owens (archives) writes: “Time magazine celebrates its 95th birthday this month – and so do I! It has always reinforced my sense of unity with the company. When the TLAS newsletter hits my mailbox I drop everything until I have read it straight through. Thank you—all of you who have worked so hard to keep the TLAS alive and kicking. Your efforts are very much appreciated.”
Jeanne North (Time International edit) writes: “I’m so glad I have email and can get communications from you because you are a link to an important part of my life. I entered through the back door, so to speak, becoming a typist when the European edition of Time was being written and edited in Paris, and moving to New York when the operation relocated to the Time & Life Building. Fortunately, when I retired I became a life member of TLS. I shall follow you with interest from here in Maryland, where I now live.”