(2 of 2)
Haldeman-Julius changed the name twice and personally pumped 70,000 words a month into the paper. Although he kept it limping along for years, Haldeman-Julius had long since fallen into prosperity as a publisher. One day in 1919, on a whim, he printed several thousand pamphlet copies of The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, followed that up with Wilde's Gaol. They were Nos. 1 and 2 of the Little Blue Books.
Success confused Haldeman-Julius as much as it gratified him. He built a swimming pool on the Girard farm, drank champagne—and went around in his stocking feet. A confirmed agnostic, he commissioned anti-Catholic tracts, but they only got him into trouble; a would-be author, he wrote several dozen Little Blue Books himself, but they were failures. He made millions; but when he died in 1951 —by drowning in his pool—he was out on bond under a six-month jail sentence for income tax evasion.
After his death, Blue Book sales dwindled. Of late they have shown signs of reviving in the hands of Henry J. Haldeman, 40, Haldeman-Julius' son, who, after taking control in 1954, added new titles—Your Sex Life After 80, Rupture and Hernia, Eat and Get Skinny—with spicy illustrations on the covers. Such improvements boosted sales last year to some 2,000,000 copies at 10¢ each—a figure that, in Henry Haldeman's view, barely scratches the surface. His father would have thought so too.
* Top seller in a popular category that included What Married Men Should Know, What Every Young Man Should Know, What Every Young Woman Should Know, What Every Girl Should Know, What Every Boy Should Know, What Women Past Forty Should Know.