Los Angeles Times Home
Presented here — for possibly the first time, are over 250 gorgeous covers from the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine. Once referred to as simply the colorful rotogravure section, Home magazine was distributed with the Sunday edition of the Los Angeles Times.
For over four decades, the award-winning Home was edited by James Toland (1912-2007).
Southland magazine. From the Independent-Press-Telegram (Long Beach), May 1969.
The “Outstanding Feature of the Sunday Times” began printing in Rotogravure in 1945 and was handled by the California Rotogravure Company in Boyle Heights. In business since 1925, they were known locally as Cal-Roto and dealt with the San Francisco Chronicle Bonanza, TV Guide California edition, and Los Angeles Times Midwinter.
The popular magazine even had its own home — a modern take on the California hacienda. Designed by architect Richard Dorman, the Gold Medallion home was located in Yorba Linda and put up for sale in 1963.
The newspaper began printing Sunday supplements in 1919 — focusing on life and living in Los Angeles, starting with Farm & Tractor, Farm & Orchard, which became Farm & Garden, and Southland Homes & Gardens before March 1945 when Home appeared with the Sunday Times.
A small appreciation to its origins appeared in the June 1975 anniversary issue (shortened for length),
Home was the answer. It was printed on a better grade of paper by the rotogravure process, so that 4-color reproducion was possible and black and white reproduction was far better. At first there but two color pages, the cover and another inside, and no more than 32 pages could be printed because of press capacity and paper shortages.
But advertisers wanted in, despite a premium rate… now in the 70s the magazine occasionaly contains as many as 132 pages.
We hope you’ll stay with us for another 30 years.
Excerpt from The Los Angeles Times Home. June 15, 1975 (p. 7).
As it was, Home only survived for another decade.
If that wasn’t enough (though honestly, it should be), you can peruse the inside pages as well. I’ve omitted the stodgy bits like plant arranging and cooking, but you still end up with a lot of finely curated history. The sections are broken down into categories and to maintain order, I’ve kept them to around fifty ads each.
Thanks to D. McKinney for donating a number of covers.
It doesn’t have to be Sunday morning to enjoy this collection, but if that day works for you, no problem.
