The Press: Show Sold

In its three years, Show, a $1-a-copy monthly addressed to the performing arts, has absorbed USA1 (an illustrated monthly newsmagazine) and Show Business Illustrated (a rival put out by Playboy Publisher Hugh Hefner), expanded its formula to encompass culture in general, from travel to politics, and in the process grandly lost $8,000,000. Since Show’s publisher is A. & P. Heir Huntington Hartford, the red ink was not too significant. But with circulation at 200,000 and still shy of the break-even point, Hartford last week decided to hand over Show to Playbill, Inc. for a price that involved no “appreciable” amount of money.

Playbill, which turns a steady profit giving away program magazines to theatergoers around the U.S., is pledged to keep Show going for at least two years. Beginning in February, it will enrich the package by including tear-out coated-paper record-“something like Sir Laurence Olivier doing a scene from Othello.” Hartford will stay on as a nonpaid editorial adviser. If the magazine makes out, Hartford may recoup as much as $1,000,000.