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¶ A superb burlesque of the usual rotogravure portrait section with pictures which might have been taken from a penny arcade; a fashion section suggestive of the 1915 Sears Roebuck catalog.
¶ Sample joke: "Don't you agree that the movies should be kept clean?" "Absolutely! Something should be done about these people who throw candy boxes and peanut shells on the floor!"
Hullabaloo is planned as a monthly. But those who are familiar with Publisher Delacorte's methods know that if the first issue of 300,000 copies at 15^ proves not popular, a second will never appear. His investment in the magazine is small; even the covers are of the lot which was printed for the current Modern Screen, and therefore carry the same advertisements, but without charge. Otherwise Hullabaloo, like Ballyhoo, was adless.
Publisher Delacorte, 38, has amassed a fortune from cheap publications. He was the second of ten children of Lawyer George T. Delacorte. His mother was also a lawyer, as were both of her parents. Publisher Delacorte attended Harvard, married in his sophomore year, failed to make a place on the Lampoon staff, made $2,000 by gathering signatures at 10 cents each on petitions for the Presidential nomination of Woodrow Wilson. He was graduated from Columbia in 1913, worked as a free lance advertising solicitor, made money in the War by soliciting advertising for all of the military camp papers in the East. Afterward he organized an agency to handle circulation for Current Opinion, Le Bon Ton, Popular Radio. Ten years ago, with the late crippled Author William Andrew Johnston (Limpy), longtime editor of the New York Sunday World, he started Dell Publishing Co. Their first publications were 10 cents pamphlets on "character analysis," meaning of birthdays, horoscopes, etc.. etc. First Dell magazine was Sweetheart Stories, which the house still publishes. Next was War Stones which Publisher Delacorte claims opened that particular field in which 22 competitors appeared in two years. In the next ten years Publisher Delacorte started and discarded about 20 magazines besides the 14 which now comprise his list.* Modern Screen and Modem Romances he publishes for sale in Kresge & Kress chainstores and on newsstands in towns without those stores.
Not all other publishers like Publisher Delacorte. He travels strictly alone in the business. He is inclined to be boastful, but all credit him with shrewdness. His success is largely due to three practices: severest economy (his magazines are published in an old office building where about $50 a month rent is chargeable to each), payment in cash, willingness to take a quick loss rather than nurse a lame publication.
Publisher Delacorte has three daughters and two sons, one a sophomore at Princeton. His only game is Kelly pool; his favorite diversion, playing the flute, was taught him by famed Georges Barrere. Because the first office building that housed his company had doors which swung open in a peculiar manner, he has chosen buildings with similar doors for succeeding sites.
Odds, Ends