Tabloid Tales
This sordid collection of tabloid newspapers arrived in a large brown paper bag. There is no excuse for some of the lurid headlines that were simply too distasteful to be taken seriously. That being said, they do represent something worth looking at, if only for the shock value.
What the newspapers lacked in proper syntax when used in conjunction with correct usage of prepositions, they made up for with attention-getting headlines and dubious reporting.
Based in Chicago, the bargain-basement Candid Press dated back to the mid-1960s, a time when tabloids were labeled 'girlie magazines' and distributors found themselves fighting obscenity charges. Candid Press was later owned by another Chicago rag, The National Tattler, whose other literary works included the National Insider, the National News Exploiter, and Vince Sorren’s National Informer among its' tawdry titles.
Another veteran title was the National Star Chronicle, published by International Press Corporation in New York. And Denver's very own Rocky Mountain Oyster had little to do with salt-water mollusks. The late 1970s newspaper was sold in 2007.
The legendary National Enquirer was founded by Generoso Pope, Jr, whose father founded the Italian-language American newspaper Il Progresso.
The youngest son and well-connected New York City native purchased the New York Evening Enquirer from Hearst in 1952 with loans from Roy Cohn and Frank Costello. Thanks in part to his questionable connections, Pope turned the former horseracing guide into a scandal sheet chock full of prurient stories and gruesome photos.
In the late 1950s, Pope took the paper nationwide and changed the name. The pages were packed with grim, macabre stories, served a side dish of mutilation and saturated sadism.
In a shrewd effort aimed at achieving quasi-respectability, Pope scaled back the vino, sanitized the content (“a condensed version of the Reader’s Digest”) in 1968, moved his operations to Florida, and landed the Enquirer into over a dozen of the nation’s largest grocery store chains. The supermarket tabloid was born.
With the absence of decapitated heads and debatable stories (“Mom Boiled Her Baby and Ate Her”), circulation dipped and longtime readers departed. But they gained a legion of new ones — its rapid growth was spurned by the checkout stand sales, where it sat alongside Family Circle, Woman’s Day, and TV Guide.
“Mom Uses Sons’ Face for an Ashtray”
By the mid-1970s — when People and US Weekly entered the fray, the Enquirer was selling 5 million copies per week (bested by TV Guide). Branded “a disgrace to journalism” by William F. Buckley in 1981, the nation’s largest weekly newspaper opened its West Coast bureau in North Hollywood.
Sales increased dramatically in 1977 when the Enquirer published a photo of Elvis lying embalmed in his coffin — reportedly paying one of the King’s kissing cousins $18,000 for “the last picture”. To be fair, the paper also carried a story on how to be a better listener.
Late Night Television
That year, Metromedia-owned KTTV in Los Angeles debuted a new late-night show called Tabloid — patterned unquestionably on both the National Enquirer and Rupert Murdoch’s Star (which the Australian magnate founded in 1973 after failing to buy the Enquirer).
Developed by Mary Ann Hooper (daughter of Gunsmoke creator John Meston), the one-hour show bowed with preposterous segments such as “Dentist Dons Tutu for Tiny Patients”, “Impotent Man Gets Needed”, and “UFOers Snatch Woman”.
In the meantime, hoping to give the National Enquirer stiff competition, Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt purchased the tawdry Hollywood Star in 1977.
And two years later, Pope, a former MIT graduate, launched the Enquirer’s sister publication, the Weekly World News — primarily as a means to keep the black-and-white press operational. The content was anything but monotone, delivering now-classic headlines such as, “Elvis is Alive!” from 1988 (their biggest seller), and “Bat child found in cave!” from 1992.
Neither proved to be true
Dubious claims or not, supermarket tabloids were the catalyst for David Byrne’s True Stories in 1984, John Waters’ book Crackpot in 1986, and another TV show. Developed by Brandon Tartikoff for CBS in 1993, the half-hour episodes carried the disclaimer that the programs would not present material “that is potentially damaging or misleading to impressionable minds.”
Sadly, the paper that boldly claimed, “Mom Gives Birth to Alien Hamster” (1988), and “Space Alien Backs Bush for President” (2000) stopped printing in 2007.
Despite the addition of the now-famous and lucrative slogan “Enquiring Minds Want to Know” in 1979, the often-imitated Enquirer faced competition from The Globe, The Examiner, and The Sun — all owned by Canadian Mike Rosenbloom.
Once referred to as the “High Priest of Low Brow”, Generoso Pope, Jr passed away in 1988.
