André Laguerre
Encyclopedia
Marc André Laguerre was a journalist
and magazine editor
, best known as the managing editor of Sports Illustrated
from 1960 to 1974, during which time he oversaw the growth in the magazine from a niche publication to become the industry leader in weekly sports magazines. It was under his leadership that the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
was first published. When he retired in 1974, he had been managing editor of the magazine for 704 issues, then a record among magazines published by Time, Inc., SI's parent company.
. The family lived in the upper-class neighborhood of Sea Cliff
, and Andre attended a number of private schools, including the Santa Monica School and St. Ignatius College Preparatory
. While in San Francisco, he became a fan of American sports, especially baseball, and also had his first job in journalism, as a copyboy for the San Francisco Chronicle
. In 1929, he was sent back to England for school. He graduated in 1931, having earned an Oxford Certificate
, but he declined to matriculate at Oxford University, instead preferring to pursue a career as a journalist. He enrolled in a correspondence course
, and took a job at a book store to support himself.
for the French daily Paris-Soir
. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the French Army as a corporal. His first assignment was on patrol on the Maginot Line
. He later served as a liaison to the British forces at Arras
, and remained with them until the Battle of Arras
forced their retreat. He stayed with the British forces until the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, where he was one of the last to be evacuated. His evacuation ship was sunk by a mine, and he was rescued by a British destroyer, bleeding heavily from a neck wound. Laguerre credited his rescue to his ease with the English language (his rescuers took him for British). He criticised his rescuers in later years for refusing to help Frenchmen who were around him; many of them drowned.
After his rescue and recovery from his injuries, days after Charles de Gaulle
's famous June 18th Speech
, he was given the option of being discharged from his duties, or to join the Free French forces. He chose the latter. He was assigned as a sentry guarding Charles de Gaulle's headquarters. While at that post, he wrote a letter to de Gaulle suggesting techniques to improve the morale of Free French troops. De Gaulle took immediate notice, making him assistant to the chief press attachè
. Within a few months, de Gaulle moved Laguerre into the chief position himself, making him his primary press liaison. He followed de Gaulle on his travels to North Africa in 1943 to inspect Free French forces there, and to Washington, D.C.
to visit with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. He stayed on de Gaulle's staff for a while after the war, but after interviewing with Henry Luce
, the head of Time, Inc., he left de Gaulle's service to accept a job writing for Time
magazine.
. He also maintained his connection to sports, first acquired in his youth in San Francisco, by moonlighting as a sports reporter for the Paris-based English-language International Herald Tribune
, writing a horse racing column under the pseudonym
"Eddie Snow".
Meanwhile, Laguerre was attracting the attention of Time, Inc.'s top brass. In 1948, he was promoted to Paris
bureau chief and, in December 1950, he was brought to New York
by Time founder Henry Luce
for a special one-year assignment to work out of the main Time offices. He returned to Europe in 1951 to serve as London bureau chief. In 1955, after the sudden death of the Paris bureau chief, he was given that position back, and for a time he held both posts simultaneously. While Time bureau chief of London and Paris, he also spent some time writing about his favorite subject, sports, for the magazine, for which he covered the 1948 Winter Olympics
in St. Moritz
, Switzerland
, and the 1952 Summer Olympics
in Helsinki
, Finland
. In early 1956, he accepted a temporary assignment to head a contingent of writers to cover the 1956 Winter Olympics
in Cortina d'Ampezzo
, Italy
for Time, Inc.'s fledgling Sports Illustrated, started two years earlier by Luce. His first article for the magazine was a piece on the dominance of the Soviet Union in their first Winter Olympics. Three months later, Luce installed him as assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
On June 7, 1955, Laguerre married Princess Nathalie Alexandria Kotchoubey de Beauharnais, a Russian princess and descendant of both Catherine the Great and Joséphine de Beauharnais
. The couple had met in 1943 while André was working for General de Gaulle, and Nathalie was a reporter for Time. They had two daughters, Michèle Anne Laguerre and Claudine Hélène Laguerre.
in Melbourne
, Australia
. Among those traveling with Laguerre were Roger Bannister
, the former British track and field
star and first man in history to run a competition mile in under four minutes, and Roy Terrell, who would eventually succeed Laguerre as managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
, Dan Jenkins
, Budd Schulberg
, and Gil Rogin helped change the way people wrote about sports.
Laguerre had been very guarded about his personal life among his coworkers. Frank Deford
, who worked closely with him for many years, and who looked up to him as a mentor, said of him, "Laguerre was a fascinating paradox: He was almost constitutionally withdrawn, but among the friends he chose, he was magnetic." One publisher called him "A powerful personality" while another called him "A close-mouthed, self-contained man who seemed forbidding to some ... despite his reserve, [his] personality was pervading, dominating; he exuded strength and leadership."
Among his more curious and enduring innovations was the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
. The winter months, between the college bowl season and the start of Major League Baseball
's spring training
, was a slow time for sports journalism. At the time, winter team sports like basketball
and ice hockey
were regional niche sports, and there was little to write about. Laguerre had instituted an annual February issue titled "Fun in the Sun", where he sent his staff to an exotic locale to write about and photograph it for his readers. In 1964, he asked Jule Campbell, then a fashion reporter for Sports Illustrated, to "go to some beautiful place and put a pretty girl on the cover" of that year's "Fun in the Sun" issue. That year's issue featured only five pages of girls in swimsuits, and still predominantly featured travel writing, including articles about snorkeling and fish-watching. With the help of that year's "Fun in the Sun" issue, 1964 became the first year that Sports Illustrated would turn a profit. Though originally only planned as a one-off event, Laguerre was convinced by Sports Illustrated art director Dick Gangel to bring back the swimsuits in 1965, only "a lot sexier." Laguerre once again assigned Jule Campbell to scout models and locations. The 1965 issue contained an article entitled "The Nudity Cult" and de-emphasized the travelogue-like writing of previous "Fun in the Sun" issues from which it evolved. Since then, the Swimsuit Issue has become the biggest selling issue of the magazine, and a major cross-over publication for the fashion and modeling worlds as well.
Laguerre's tenure as managing editor had a profound effect on the other 51 issues of the year as well. During the magazine's first several years, prior to Laguerre's arrival, the magazine did not place major American team sports at the forefront. As an example, during 1955 and 1956, the magazine's first two years, it featured as many articles on fishing
as on professional football, 23 articles. By 1965-1966, five years into Laguerre's term, the magazine published only eight articles on fishing, while it published over 60 articles on pro football.
Besides changing the types of sports being covered, the manner in which they were covered changed as well. Under earlier managing editors, the magazine's writing and editorial staff was organized by department. Thus, there was a fashion department, a travel department, and a sports department, which covered all sports. Laguerre reorganized the magazine, giving each sport its own separate department, so there would be a dedicated staff of writers in the baseball department, and a different boxing department, and another for pro football, and so on. Laguerre also encouraged serious investigative journalism, and did not shy away from controversial issues. In 1961, writer Ray Cave broke a story on point shaving
in college basketball
. In 1968, under Laguerre's direction, and under secrecy from his superiors, the magazine ran a five-part series on the experience of black athletes in America.
Laguerre's later years showed less success as the magazine became an industry leader. In 1968, it's coverage of the Mexico City Olympics
was heavily criticized, having been "scooped" on most stories by both Time and Life magazines. A 1969 book by Jack Olsen
, titled The Girls in the Office, embarrassed Time Inc. over its treatment of its female employees, including those at Sports Illustrated. In 1970, 23 women on staff at Sports Illustrated signed a petition demanding equal treatment. Laguerre relented, promoting Pat Ryan
to senior editor, and paying her the same as the men in her same position. By 1973, Laguerre's leadership was under a direct challenge from within his staff and from his superiors. A January, 1973 story in New York Magazine was highly critical of the degrading quality of the writing and of the stagnating corporate culture at Sports Illustrated. By September of that year, Laguerre was asked to step down as managing editor, and his resignation was complete by February 1, 1974.
, and, insulted by the low $45,000 salary Hugh Hefner
offered him, he turned the job down. In 1975, he founded a bi-monthly horse-racing magazine, Classic, which he headed until shortly before his death of a heart attack in New York on January 18, 1979 at the age of sixty-three.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and magazine editor
Editor
The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...
, best known as the managing editor of Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
from 1960 to 1974, during which time he oversaw the growth in the magazine from a niche publication to become the industry leader in weekly sports magazines. It was under his leadership that the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
was first published. When he retired in 1974, he had been managing editor of the magazine for 704 issues, then a record among magazines published by Time, Inc., SI's parent company.
Early life and family
André Laguerre was born June 7, 1915 in England to Frenchman Léon James Laguerre and his English wife, Dorothy. He was the oldest of three children; he had a younger brother, Leon and a younger sister, Odette. His father was in the French diplomatic corps, and the family moved frequently during his early years. Before the age of ten, Andre had lived in England, France and Syria. In the summer of 1927, his father took a post at the French Consulate General in San FranciscoFrench Consulate General, San Francisco
The Consulate General of France in San Francisco is a consular representation of the French Republic in the United States. Its juridiction covers Northern California, North of Nevada, and the following states: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and the Pacific...
. The family lived in the upper-class neighborhood of Sea Cliff
Sea Cliff, San Francisco
Sea Cliff is a neighborhood located in northwestern San Francisco, California. It is known for its large houses and ocean views.-Location:...
, and Andre attended a number of private schools, including the Santa Monica School and St. Ignatius College Preparatory
St. Ignatius College Preparatory
St. Ignatius College Preparatory is a preparatory school in the Jesuit tradition serving the San Francisco Bay Area since 1855. Located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, in the Sunset District of San Francisco, St. Ignatius is one of the oldest secondary schools in the U.S. state...
. While in San Francisco, he became a fan of American sports, especially baseball, and also had his first job in journalism, as a copyboy for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
. In 1929, he was sent back to England for school. He graduated in 1931, having earned an Oxford Certificate
Higher School Certificate (UK)
The Higher School Certificate was a United Kingdom educational attainment standard qualification, established in 1918 by the Secondary Schools Examination Council . The Higher School Certificate Examination was usually taken at age 18, or two years after the School Certificate. It was abolished...
, but he declined to matriculate at Oxford University, instead preferring to pursue a career as a journalist. He enrolled in a correspondence course
Distance education
Distance education or distance learning is a field of education that focuses on teaching methods and technology with the aim of delivering teaching, often on an individual basis, to students who are not physically present in a traditional educational setting such as a classroom...
, and took a job at a book store to support himself.
Early career and military service
He worked hard for many years as a freelance journalist, and began to be noticed for his writing. He wrote for both English language and French language publications. In 1938, he covered the Munich AgreementMunich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
for the French daily Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir
Paris-Soir was a large-circulation daily newspaper in Paris, France from 1923-1944.Its first issue came out in 4 October 1923. After June 11, 1940, the same publisher, Jean Prouvost, continued its publication in Vichy France: Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Marseille, and Vichy while in occupied Paris, it...
. When World War II broke out, he enlisted in the French Army as a corporal. His first assignment was on patrol on the Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
. He later served as a liaison to the British forces at Arras
Arras
Arras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
, and remained with them until the Battle of Arras
Battle of Arras (1940)
The Battle of Arras took place during the Battle of France, in the early stages of World War II. It was an Allied counterattack against the flank of the German army, that took place near the town of Arras, in north-eastern France. The German forces were pushing north toward the channel coast, in...
forced their retreat. He stayed with the British forces until the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, where he was one of the last to be evacuated. His evacuation ship was sunk by a mine, and he was rescued by a British destroyer, bleeding heavily from a neck wound. Laguerre credited his rescue to his ease with the English language (his rescuers took him for British). He criticised his rescuers in later years for refusing to help Frenchmen who were around him; many of them drowned.
After his rescue and recovery from his injuries, days after Charles de Gaulle
Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969....
's famous June 18th Speech
Appeal of June 18
The Appeal of 18 June was a famous speech by Charles de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French Forces, in 1940. The appeal is often considered to be the origin of the French Resistance to the German occupation during World War II. De Gaulle spoke to the French people from London after the fall of...
, he was given the option of being discharged from his duties, or to join the Free French forces. He chose the latter. He was assigned as a sentry guarding Charles de Gaulle's headquarters. While at that post, he wrote a letter to de Gaulle suggesting techniques to improve the morale of Free French troops. De Gaulle took immediate notice, making him assistant to the chief press attachè
Press secretary
A press secretary or press officer is a senior advisor who provides advice on how to deal with the news media and, using news management techniques, helps their employer to maintain a positive public image and avoid negative media coverage....
. Within a few months, de Gaulle moved Laguerre into the chief position himself, making him his primary press liaison. He followed de Gaulle on his travels to North Africa in 1943 to inspect Free French forces there, and to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to visit with American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1944. He stayed on de Gaulle's staff for a while after the war, but after interviewing with Henry Luce
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
, the head of Time, Inc., he left de Gaulle's service to accept a job writing for Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine.
Time
Laguerre began his Time career in 1946 as one the magazine's European correspondents. Working mainly out of the Time Paris bureau, he hobnobbed with Paris's top citizens; he was a frequent dinner guest of Albert CamusAlbert Camus
Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
. He also maintained his connection to sports, first acquired in his youth in San Francisco, by moonlighting as a sports reporter for the Paris-based English-language International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
, writing a horse racing column under the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"Eddie Snow".
Meanwhile, Laguerre was attracting the attention of Time, Inc.'s top brass. In 1948, he was promoted to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
bureau chief and, in December 1950, he was brought to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
by Time founder Henry Luce
Henry Luce
Henry Robinson Luce was an influential American publisher. He launched and closely supervised a stable of magazines that transformed journalism and the reading habits of upscale Americans...
for a special one-year assignment to work out of the main Time offices. He returned to Europe in 1951 to serve as London bureau chief. In 1955, after the sudden death of the Paris bureau chief, he was given that position back, and for a time he held both posts simultaneously. While Time bureau chief of London and Paris, he also spent some time writing about his favorite subject, sports, for the magazine, for which he covered the 1948 Winter Olympics
1948 Winter Olympics
The 1948 Winter Olympics, officially known as the V Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in 1948 in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Games were the first to be celebrated after World War II; it had been twelve years since the last Winter Games in 1936...
in St. Moritz
St. Moritz
St. Moritz is a resort town in the Engadine valley in Switzerland. It is a municipality in the district of Maloja in the Swiss canton of Graubünden...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and the 1952 Summer Olympics
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...
in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
. In early 1956, he accepted a temporary assignment to head a contingent of writers to cover the 1956 Winter Olympics
1956 Winter Olympics
The 1956 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event celebrated in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. This celebration of the Games was held from 26 January to 5 February 1956. Cortina, which had originally been awarded the 1944 Winter Olympics, beat out...
in Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo is a town and comune in the southern Alps located in Veneto, a region in Northern Italy. Located in the heart of the Dolomites in an alpine valley, it is a popular winter sport resort known for its ski-ranges, scenery, accommodations, shops and après-ski scene...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
for Time, Inc.'s fledgling Sports Illustrated, started two years earlier by Luce. His first article for the magazine was a piece on the dominance of the Soviet Union in their first Winter Olympics. Three months later, Luce installed him as assistant managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
On June 7, 1955, Laguerre married Princess Nathalie Alexandria Kotchoubey de Beauharnais, a Russian princess and descendant of both Catherine the Great and Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and thus the first Empress of the French. Her first husband Alexandre de Beauharnais had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she had been imprisoned in the Carmes prison until her release five days after Alexandre's...
. The couple had met in 1943 while André was working for General de Gaulle, and Nathalie was a reporter for Time. They had two daughters, Michèle Anne Laguerre and Claudine Hélène Laguerre.
Sports Illustrated
As assistant managing editor, his first major assignment was to head the team of reporters and photographers covering the 1956 Summer Olympics1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. Among those traveling with Laguerre were Roger Bannister
Roger Bannister
Sir Roger Gilbert Bannister, CBE is an English former athlete best known for running the first recorded mile in less than 4 minutes...
, the former British track and field
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
star and first man in history to run a competition mile in under four minutes, and Roy Terrell, who would eventually succeed Laguerre as managing editor of Sports Illustrated.
Managing editor
Laguerre was promoted to managing editor of Sports Illustrated in May, 1960 after four years as assistant managing editor. His time at the magazine is regarded as instrumental in saving what was, when he took over, a financially insolvent publication. He would serve as managing editor for fourteen years, leading the magazine for a total of 704 issues, then a record among Time, Inc. managing editors. During his tenure, the circulation grew from 900,000 to 2,250,000 issues, and the advertising budget grew from $11.9 million to $72.2 million. He altered the look and feel of the magazine, changing its focus from a lifestyle magazine that focused on leisure sports, to one that covered the major American team sports, at a time when television vastly altered the way in which such sports were covered. As such, he kept Sports Illustrated at the head of the growth of interest in these sports. He also placed a heavy emphasis on the use of color photography and late deadline, to keep the magazine up to date and visually appealing. He hired and encouraged writers who were masters at prose, emphasizing writing over sportswriting, and the crop of writers he brought to the magazine, including Frank DefordFrank Deford
Benjamin "Frank" Deford, III is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator for National Public Radio and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO....
, Dan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins
Dan Jenkins is an American author and sportswriter, most notably for Sports Illustrated.Jenkins was born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended R .L. Paschal High School and Texas Christian University , where he played on the varsity golf team...
, Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy-award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the...
, and Gil Rogin helped change the way people wrote about sports.
Laguerre had been very guarded about his personal life among his coworkers. Frank Deford
Frank Deford
Benjamin "Frank" Deford, III is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator for National Public Radio and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO....
, who worked closely with him for many years, and who looked up to him as a mentor, said of him, "Laguerre was a fascinating paradox: He was almost constitutionally withdrawn, but among the friends he chose, he was magnetic." One publisher called him "A powerful personality" while another called him "A close-mouthed, self-contained man who seemed forbidding to some ... despite his reserve, [his] personality was pervading, dominating; he exuded strength and leadership."
Among his more curious and enduring innovations was the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is published annually by Sports Illustrated. It features fashion models wearing swimwear in exotic locales. According to some, the magazine is the arbiter of supermodel succession. In addition, the issue is a media nexus that in 2005 carried in advertising....
. The winter months, between the college bowl season and the start of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
's spring training
Spring training
In Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
, was a slow time for sports journalism. At the time, winter team sports like basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
were regional niche sports, and there was little to write about. Laguerre had instituted an annual February issue titled "Fun in the Sun", where he sent his staff to an exotic locale to write about and photograph it for his readers. In 1964, he asked Jule Campbell, then a fashion reporter for Sports Illustrated, to "go to some beautiful place and put a pretty girl on the cover" of that year's "Fun in the Sun" issue. That year's issue featured only five pages of girls in swimsuits, and still predominantly featured travel writing, including articles about snorkeling and fish-watching. With the help of that year's "Fun in the Sun" issue, 1964 became the first year that Sports Illustrated would turn a profit. Though originally only planned as a one-off event, Laguerre was convinced by Sports Illustrated art director Dick Gangel to bring back the swimsuits in 1965, only "a lot sexier." Laguerre once again assigned Jule Campbell to scout models and locations. The 1965 issue contained an article entitled "The Nudity Cult" and de-emphasized the travelogue-like writing of previous "Fun in the Sun" issues from which it evolved. Since then, the Swimsuit Issue has become the biggest selling issue of the magazine, and a major cross-over publication for the fashion and modeling worlds as well.
Laguerre's tenure as managing editor had a profound effect on the other 51 issues of the year as well. During the magazine's first several years, prior to Laguerre's arrival, the magazine did not place major American team sports at the forefront. As an example, during 1955 and 1956, the magazine's first two years, it featured as many articles on fishing
Angling
Angling is a method of fishing by means of an "angle" . The hook is usually attached to a fishing line and the line is often attached to a fishing rod. Fishing rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a mechanism for storing, retrieving and paying out the line. The hook itself...
as on professional football, 23 articles. By 1965-1966, five years into Laguerre's term, the magazine published only eight articles on fishing, while it published over 60 articles on pro football.
Besides changing the types of sports being covered, the manner in which they were covered changed as well. Under earlier managing editors, the magazine's writing and editorial staff was organized by department. Thus, there was a fashion department, a travel department, and a sports department, which covered all sports. Laguerre reorganized the magazine, giving each sport its own separate department, so there would be a dedicated staff of writers in the baseball department, and a different boxing department, and another for pro football, and so on. Laguerre also encouraged serious investigative journalism, and did not shy away from controversial issues. In 1961, writer Ray Cave broke a story on point shaving
Point shaving
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to prevent a team from covering a published point spread. Unlike other forms of match fixing, sports betting invariably motivates point shaving. A point shaving scheme generally involves a sports gambler and one...
in college basketball
College basketball
College basketball most often refers to the USA basketball competitive governance structure established by the National Collegiate Athletic Association . Basketball in the NCAA is divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II and Division III....
. In 1968, under Laguerre's direction, and under secrecy from his superiors, the magazine ran a five-part series on the experience of black athletes in America.
Laguerre's later years showed less success as the magazine became an industry leader. In 1968, it's coverage of the Mexico City Olympics
1968 Summer Olympics
The 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
was heavily criticized, having been "scooped" on most stories by both Time and Life magazines. A 1969 book by Jack Olsen
Jack Olsen
Jack Olsen was an American journalist and author known for his thorough, scholarly approach to crime reporting. Olsen was Senior Editor and Chief for the Sun-Times in Chicago Illinois in 1954...
, titled The Girls in the Office, embarrassed Time Inc. over its treatment of its female employees, including those at Sports Illustrated. In 1970, 23 women on staff at Sports Illustrated signed a petition demanding equal treatment. Laguerre relented, promoting Pat Ryan
Pat Ryan
Patrick J. C. Ryan is a Canadian curler originally from Edmonton, Alberta. Ryan is a former World Champion skip, and three time Brier champion. Ryan currently lives in Toronto....
to senior editor, and paying her the same as the men in her same position. By 1973, Laguerre's leadership was under a direct challenge from within his staff and from his superiors. A January, 1973 story in New York Magazine was highly critical of the degrading quality of the writing and of the stagnating corporate culture at Sports Illustrated. By September of that year, Laguerre was asked to step down as managing editor, and his resignation was complete by February 1, 1974.
Later career and death
After retiring as managing editor, he remained with Sports Illustrated in order to head a group looking into publishing international editions of the magazine. He was offered the job as managing editor of PlayboyPlayboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, and, insulted by the low $45,000 salary Hugh Hefner
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
offered him, he turned the job down. In 1975, he founded a bi-monthly horse-racing magazine, Classic, which he headed until shortly before his death of a heart attack in New York on January 18, 1979 at the age of sixty-three.