Next to Bernarr Macfadden (who "retired" from Macfadden Publications last year) the best-known Macfadden name is Charles Fulton Oursler, high-priced editor of Liberty. Last week Editor Oursler too was out. Liberty's new editor is 58-year-old Sheppard Butler, who quit the same job when Macfadden bought Liberty from Cousins Joe Patterson and Bertie McCormick in 1931. Editor Oursler, busy with a novel and a play, kept mum about the reasons for his departure and his 10,000 shares of Macfadden stock (market price: $1.25 per share).
Onetime law clerk, piano salesman, magician and Baltimore reporter, Editor Oursler went to work for Macfadden in 1921,...