Life Before TV

It was on this date in 1936 that the very first issue of Life magazine was published. Before there was television, there was Life magazine—doing for America what the technology could not yet do----bring riveting images of people, places and world events to the nation in a way that had never been done before.

Actually, Life magazine started earlier-as a weekly humor publication—much like The New Yorker is today—pop culture, cartoons and humorous pieces. This original Life folded during the Great Depression.

Time magazine publisher Henry Luce bought the name—and re-launched the magazine as a picture based periodical. As Time magazine’s mission was to tell the news, Life magazine’s was the SHOW it.

The first cover photo was of the Fort Peck Dam, which was an example of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal public works programs. This was just the first of thousands of incredible photos to grace the cover-and inside pages of Life.

The magazine became a huge success in its very first year-changing the way people looked at the world.

This short video, narrated by Walter Cronkite, sums it up well:




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAJ3h6dOrk4

At its peak, Life Magazine had a circulation of over 8 million, among them many people who could not read, but who could be nonetheless reached by the images brought front and center. Most historians credit Life magazine with being enormously influential in American society during its heyday. Images of war, of starlets and sports, faraway places and stunning nature photos made the issues collector’s items. It’s a good bet that many American attics still have bundled issues of Life. Who could toss them out?

As television grew in popularity, Life magazine began to suffer, eventually ceasing to be a weekly publication in 1972. It began publishing retrospective issues on major events-and in 2004 “returned” as a weekly publication as a supplement to U.S. newspapers.

I miss the original Life magazine-and remember being aghast when the announcement was made in 1972 that Life would end-as we knew it! Although gone from the ranks of influential publications, its heritage has insured a lofty place in American history and culture.

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