Monday, May 12, 2008

THE FRONT PAGE April, 1956





We have another magazine with a different twist to the story we worked on last week. I emailed my friend in Arizona and told her I was going to send it to her when I had all the information together. I warned her the magazine smelled like an old man. :)


As you can see by the cover, the issue is April and cost 25 cents. The time stamp says LIBRARY COPY DO NOT REMOVE Feb 10, 1956. This means this article about Kenneth Lindberg was published before the one in the True Detective magazine.


Some of the titles are:


Gloomy Gus and the Big Knife

Those Four Incredible Days

Thou Shalt Not

Blind Man's Bluff

A Stranger on the Plane

This Lady was for Burning


One of the seven features was Strictly Stag.


Strictly stag is a two page spread. It includes a safe electrical outlet box, ($6.95 and perfect for electric trains), much like a power strip; a box to kill ants, 69 cents for three; a paint color selector with 700 colors, no price listed; a fishing kit, $ 4.95; an indoor clothes line, $3.95; a two temperature insulated carrier, $12.95; a screw driver with a flash light, $1.98; a carry table which unfolds to 27 x 60, $19.95; a key ring, $1.00; a grass seeder, $6.40; a utensil to pry caps off jars and bottles,25 cents; and a tiny radio which you assemble in one evening. Turner covers full broadcast band. Gets good reception from stations up to 100 mile away. Radio kit without batteries is $4.98. Battery set is $1.25.


Can you tell me just why these items are STRICTLY STAG? Oh good grief!!!


Let's move on to a quiz:


This is called Headquarters Lineup


The question is: State prisons employ psychologists to help inmates gain insight into their behavior, so that they may not repeat their offenses. How does the run of the mill felon respond to this opportunity?


a. He has sense enough to take advantage of anything that will keep him from ever having to go back to prison


b. He shies away from it--suspecting that the nut doctors are sorting out transfers to the mental hospital.


B is the answer.


Another question:


What do you think the proportion of drug addicts to alcohol addicts among offenders convicted in New York City in 1956?


Answer: 1 in 4 is a drug addict, 1-16 is an alcoholic


Let's take a look at the back:


Imagine $5,000 for a serious illness! Imagine cash payments to your doctor for a total of UP TO $150!!! And this was considered not to bad a policy then. Private room rates in Thief River Falls in 1959 were $15 a day. Tell me, what are rates NOW?


The name of the article we are going to explore starting tomorrow is called "The Stranger on the Plane". If you read the four articles from the True Detective magazine, then you will see this story has an totally different twist to it.


I am thinking about my writer daughter. I am thinking about all the variables she could list to present this same story from a different side.


I am thinking about the numerous articles I have gleaned from the local paper and am still not finished. I am thinking about the incredible amount of digging Shirley did to find another way of looking at this tragedy. I am thinking about a book written by the slayer of Kenneth Lindberg and how he looks at it in the book. I plugged the name of the book at the library I love and they don't have it. Guess I am going to have to order it. Oh good grief!


Stay tuned tomorrow for Front Page Detective, part one.


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