Look (American magazine)
Encyclopedia
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 published in Des Moines, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

 from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...

s than articles. A large-size magazine of 11 by 14 inch
Inch
An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

es, it was generally considered the also-ran to Life magazine
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....

, which began publication months earlier and ended in 1972.

It is known for helping launch the career of film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

, who was a staff photographer.

Origin

Gardner "Mike" Cowles, Jr. (1903–1985), the magazine's co-founder (with his brother John) and first editor, was executive editor of The Des Moines Register and The Des Moines Tribune
Des Moines Tribune
The Des Moines Tribune was a daily afternoon newspaper published in Des Moines, Iowa. It was founded in 1906 and purchased in 1908 by the Cowles family, which owned the Des Moines Register. The newspapers shared production and business operations, but maintained separate editorial staffs which...

. When the first issue went on sale in early 1937, it sold 705,000 copies.

Although planned to begin with the January 1937 issue, the actual first issue of Look to be distributed was the February 1937 issue, numbered as Volume 1, Number 2. It was published monthly for five issues (February–May 1937), then switched to bi-weekly starting with the May 11, 1937 issue. Page numbering on early issue counted the front cover as page one. Early issues, subtitled Monthly Picture Magazine, carried no advertising.

The unusual format of the early issues featured layouts of photos with long captions or very short articles. The magazine's backers described it as "an experiment based on the tremendous unfilled demand for extraordinary news and feature
Feature story
- Published Features & news :While the distinction between published features and news is often clear, when approached conceptually there are few hard boundaries between the two. It is quite possible to write a feature in the style of a news story, for instance...

 pictures." It was aimed at a broader readership than Life, promising trade papers that Look would have "reader interest for yourself, for your wife, for your private secretary, for your office boy."

Circulation peak

Within weeks, more than a million copies were bought of each issue, and it became a bi-weekly. By 1948 it sold 2.9 million copies per issue. Circulation reached 3.7 million in 1954, and peaked at 7.75 million in 1969. Its advertising revenue peaked in 1966 at $80 million. Of the leading general interest large-format magazines, Look had a circulation second only to Life and ahead of The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

, which closed in 1969, and Collier's
Collier's Weekly
Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

, which folded in 1956.

Look was published under various company names: Look, Inc. (1937–45), Cowles Magazines (1946–65), and Cowles Communications, Inc. (1965–71). Its New York editorial offices were located in the architecturally distinctive 488 Madison Avenue, dubbed the "Look Building," now on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
This is a list of properties and districts in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.This is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets...

.

Beginning in 1963, Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell
Norman Percevel Rockwell was a 20th-century American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations of everyday life scenarios he created for The Saturday Evening...

, after closing his career with the Saturday Evening Post, began making illustrations for Look.

Look ceased publication with its issue of October 19, 1971, the victim of a $5 million loss in revenues in 1970 (with television cutting deeply into its advertising revenues), a slack economy and rising postal rates. Circulation was at 6.5 million when it closed.

Aftermath

Hachette Filipacchi Médias
Hachette Filipacchi Médias
Hachette Filipacchi Médias, S.A. is a magazine publisher. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lagardère Media of France.- History :Hachette Filipacchi was founded by Louis Hachette in 1826 when he purchased the Librarie Brédif. Hachette was purchased by Matra in 1980, a firm associated with Ténot &...

 brought back Look, The Picture Newsmagazine in February 1979 as a bi-weekly in a slightly smaller size. It lasted only a year.

The Look Magazine Photograph Collection was donated to the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 and contains approximately five million items.

After the closure, six Look employees created a fulfillment house
Fulfillment house
A fulfillment house is a company specializing in product fulfillment services, on behalf of the product owner.- Fulfillment house overview :...

 using the computer system newly developed by the magazine's circulation department. The company, CDS Global
CDS Global
CDS Global, Inc. is a privately owned, international data management company based in Des Moines, Iowa that specializes in magazine fulfillment services for leading publishers around the world. Currently, the company is ranked the top fulfillment service bureau in North America...

, is now an international provider of customer relationship services.

Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick was a staff photographer for Look before starting his feature film career. Of the more than 300 assignments Kubrick did for Look from 1946 to 1951, more than 100 are in the Library of Congress collection. All Look jobs with which he was associated have been cataloged with descriptions focusing on the images that were printed. Other related Kubrick material is located at the Museum of the City of New York.

In popular culture

  • The magazine is mentioned in numerous films, including The Shawshank Redemption
    The Shawshank Redemption
    The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman....

    (1994), A Christmas Story
    A Christmas Story
    A Christmas Story is a 1983 American Christmas comedy film based on the short stories and semi-fictional anecdotes of author and raconteur Jean Shepherd, including material from his books In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, and Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories. It was directed by Bob Clark...

    , Crazy in Alabama
    Crazy in Alabama
    Crazy in Alabama is a 1999 comedy-drama film directed by Antonio Banderas, written by Mark Childress , and starring Melanie Griffith as an abused wife who heads to California to become a movie star while her nephew back in Alabama has to deal with a racially-motivated murder involving a corrupt...

    , An Affair to Remember
    An Affair to Remember
    An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and directed by Leo McCarey. It was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation....

    and The Hoax
    The Hoax
    The Hoax is a 2007 American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström. The screenplay by William Wheeler is based on the book of the same title by Clifford Irving and focuses on the autobiography Irving supposedly helped Howard Hughes write...

    .
  • On The Simpsons
    The Simpsons
    The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

    episode "Bart on the Road
    Bart on the Road
    "Bart on the Road" is the twentieth episode of The Simpsons seventh season. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on March 31, 1996. In the episode, Bart makes his own fake driver's license. He rents a car with it and takes Milhouse, Martin, and Nelson on a road trip to...

    ", a marquee in Branson, Missouri
    Branson, Missouri
    Branson is a city in Taney County in the U.S. state of Missouri. It was named after Reuben Branson, postmaster and operator of a general store in the area in the 1880s....

     advertises an Andy Williams
    Andy Williams
    Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...

     show with a quote from Look magazine ("Wow! He's still got it!"), although Look magazine had folded 25 years earlier.
  • An episode of I Love Lucy
    I Love Lucy
    I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...

    had a Look photographer coming to Lucy and Ricky's apartment only to have the shoot spoiled by Lucy.
  • In Season One Episode Five of Mad Men
    Mad Men
    Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...

    , on a comment about Don Draper
    Don Draper
    Donald "Don" Draper is a fictional character and the protagonist of AMC's television series Mad Men. He is portrayed by 2008 Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm. Until the third season finale, Draper was Creative Director of Manhattan advertising firm Sterling Cooper...

    's secretary Peggy Olson
    Peggy Olson
    Margaret "Peggy" Olson is a fictional character in the AMC television series Mad Men, and is portrayed by actress Elisabeth Moss. Initially, Peggy is secretary to Don Draper , creative director of the advertising agency Sterling Cooper. Later, she is promoted to copywriter, the first female writer...

     by his wife, Betty Draper
    Betty Draper
    Elizabeth "Betty" Francis is a fictional character on AMC's television series Mad Men, portrayed by January Jones...

     he remarks, "Have you been reading the Look magazine?".
  • The magazine is a major plot point in the 1953 film I Love Melvin
    I Love Melvin
    I Love Melvin is a 1953 comedy film directed by Don Weis and starring Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds.-Plot:Small-time actress Judy Schneider dreams of becoming a Hollywood star even as she struggles along playing a human football in a kitschy Broadway musical. One day in Central Park she bumps...

    starring Donald O'Connor
    Donald O'Connor
    Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor was an American dancer, singer, and actor who came to fame in a series of movies in which he co-starred alternately with Gloria Jean, Peggy Ryan, and Francis the Talking Mule...

     and Debbie Reynolds
    Debbie Reynolds
    Debbie Reynolds is an American actress, singer, and dancer.She was initially signed at age 16 by Warner Bros., but her career got off to a slow start. When her contract was not renewed, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer gave her a small, but significant part in the film Three Little Words , then signed her to...

    .

External links

  • Look Magazine (Memory): from American Treasures of the Library of Congress
    Library of Congress
    The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

    .
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