Broadway Brevities
Posted: Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:21 pm
Does anyone know of anyplace that has any issues of Broadway Brevities and Society Gossip from the early 1920's (preferably 1922)? The publication seems to now be so rare that I can't even find it listed in worldcat.org. It should not be confused with later publications having the same title, or the musicals or films with a similar title.
A scholarly article on the publication can be found at http://strawresearch.mcgill.ca/brevities.pdf and that article has an image of the July 1923 issue:
The magazine was focused on gossip and scandal, and in 1924 the publisher, Stephen Clow, was charged with using his publication to blackmail various individuals. (When the magazine dug up some particularly unpleasant material on someone, they would approach the individual and offer to kill the story if the person would buy advertising in the magazine.)
According to press reports, Clow had been summoned to testify in the 1921 NY coroner's hearings into the death of Zelda Crosby. (Presumably, either Clow had published information pertaining to her death, or else had suppressed publication of such information.)
Anyway, it would be interesting to see some issues from around 1922, and I was wondering if anyone here had ever seen any.
A scholarly article on the publication can be found at http://strawresearch.mcgill.ca/brevities.pdf and that article has an image of the July 1923 issue:
The magazine was focused on gossip and scandal, and in 1924 the publisher, Stephen Clow, was charged with using his publication to blackmail various individuals. (When the magazine dug up some particularly unpleasant material on someone, they would approach the individual and offer to kill the story if the person would buy advertising in the magazine.)
According to press reports, Clow had been summoned to testify in the 1921 NY coroner's hearings into the death of Zelda Crosby. (Presumably, either Clow had published information pertaining to her death, or else had suppressed publication of such information.)
Anyway, it would be interesting to see some issues from around 1922, and I was wondering if anyone here had ever seen any.