Frank A. Munsey | |
|---|---|
 Munsey in 1910 | |
| Born | Frank Andrew Munsey August 21, 1854 Mercer, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | December 22, 1925 (aged 71) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Publisher, author |
| Language | English |
Frank Andrew Munsey (August 21, 1854 – December 22, 1925) was an American newspaper and magazine publisher, banker, political financier and author. He was born in Mercer, Maine, but spent most of his life in New York City. The village of Munsey Park, New York is named for him, along with The Munsey Building in downtown Baltimore, Maryland at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets.
Munsey is credited with using new, high-speed printing presses, supplied with inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper, to mass-produce magazines at significantly reduced costs. Each issue could be priced as low as 10-cents; less than half the lowest price then charged for similar publications. Munsey's publishing presented diverse genres; preferring fictional, action-adventure story telling. His magazines were aimed at working-class readers who could neither afford, nor expect to read about, people like themselves, in the 25-cent "slick" magazines of the time.
Munsey's pulp magazine innovation, spawned a new line of publishing, one in which he was well positioned to profit, and from which he did become wealthy. If one of his magazine titles was no longer profitable, Munsey would stop his presses just long enough to typeset/promote one of many titles continuously being field tested. New titles can expand revenue or replace what has been lost when demand for an older title is much reduced.
Munsey was of English ancestry. His family emigrated from England to America during the colonial era in the early 1600s.[1] Early on, Munsey ran a general store, at which he failed. He next became a telegraph operator and then manager of the Western Union telegraph office, in Augusta, Maine. Publishing was a formidable industry in Augusta at the time. Munsey was ambitious; being in charge of the telegraph office (a vital connection for the news media of his day) gave him some insight to the printing business. In 1882, he moved from Augusta to New York City. He would enter the publishing business, having spent some of his own savings to buy publishing rights to multiple stories. He had formed a partnership with a stockbroker he knew in Augusta and a friend in NY before leaving New England. Arriving in New York, he learned the stockbroker had backed out, releasing Munsey from further obligations. Approaching a New York publisher, Munsey had managed to layout, edit and produce the first issue of his magazine, Golden Argosy. His first magazine issue was completed only two months and nine days after arriving in NY.
However, within five months, his NY publisher had declared bankruptcy and the business entered receivership. After filing a claim for his unpaid salary with the bankruptcy court, Munsey found the leverage by which he might gain control of the business. Borrowing $300 from a friend in Maine ($7,800 in 2023 dollars), he managed to keep the magazine open while learning enough about the publishing industry to eventually succeed.
Munsey was a pioneer in the publication of pulp magazines. He expanded into the newspaper business, eventually owning many publications in the eastern United States.
After his death in Broward County, the Frank A. Munsey Company continued publishing various magazines, including pulp detective fiction, such as Flynn's Detective Fiction and All-Story Love. In 1942 they sold out to rival pulp publisher Popular Publications.
Golden Argosy was a weekly adventure magazine in a dime novel format with a mix of both articles and fiction. After a few years, Munsey realized that targeting a young audience had been a mistake. They were hard readers to retain, rapidly growing out of children's magazines. With children of that time having very little spending money, advertisers showed little interest buying ads in publications with young readership.
In 1888, Golden Argosy magazine was renamed The Argosy to attract an older audience. In 1894, The Argosy became a monthly, designed to complement Munsey's Magazine. In December 1896, The Argosy became the first true, pulp magazine, switching to an all-fiction format. Reaching 192-page thickness, content was printed on seven-by-ten inch, untrimmed, pulp paper. The magazine would once again be renamed, becoming Argosy Magazine. By 1903, circulation had climbed to a half million copies per month.
In 1889, Frank founded Munsey's Weekly, a 36-page quarto magazine, designed to be "a magazine of the people and for the people." It provided pictures, art, good cheer and human interest stories throughout."[2] Munsey's Weekly was a success with early sales reaching 40,000 copies per week. In 1891, the magazine became a monthly, Munsey's Magazine and in 1892 the magazine began including a "complete novel" in every issue. In 1893, the price was reduced to 10-cents per issue. By 1895, circulation was over half a million copies per month, reaching 700,000 by 1897. In October 1906, Munsey began publishing Railroad Man's Magazine, the first specialized pulp magazine which featured railroad related stories and articles. This was soon followed by a similar magazine, The Ocean, which featured sea stories and articles. The Ocean debuted with a March 1907 issue. After the January 1908 issue, The Ocean's title was changed to The Live Wire and its content became more general purpose.
Once he became interested in newspapers, Munsey's visibility increased, both locally and nationally . Over a 24 year period he bought, operated and/or sold as many as 17 papers. During a period in which the total number of American newspapers was in decline, Munsey became known for merging many of his properties. Though perhaps wise financially, his mergers earned him a great deal of enmity from those who worked in the industry. He would be referred to at various times as "Executioner of Newspapers",[3] the "Dealer in Dailies" and the "Undertaker of Journalism."
Newspapers with a Period of Munsey Ownership:
The sale of the Herald in 1924 left Munsey owning only two newspapers at the time of his death the following year.[4] The Evening Telegram was sold to Scripps-Howard in 1927, two years after Munsey's death.
Other Munsey pulps and magazines included Puritan, Junior Munsey, All-Story Magazine, Scrap Book, Cavalier, Railroad and Current Mechanics.
Munsey also authored a number of novels:
Munsey founded the Munsey Trust Company in 1913.[10] It was re-organized in 1915 as The Equitable Trust Company with Munsey as chairman of the board, and became one of the city and state's dominant financial institutions into the late 20th century. It was purchased by Maryland National Bank in 1990.[11]
Munsey became directly involved in presidential politics when former president Theodore Roosevelt announced his candidacy to challenge his hand-picked successor President William Taft for the 1912 Republican Party nomination for the presidency. Munsey and George W. Perkins provided the financial backing for Roosevelt's campaign leading up to the Republican National Convention in Chicago.[12]
When Roosevelt and his supporters bolted from the convention, Munsey was one of the most outspoken critics of what were labeled as "corrupt proceedings" and announced that Roosevelt would run at the head of a new party. Muncy's encouragement and his offer of financial backing led to the formation of the Progressive Party, which acquired the nickname the "Bull Moose Party" (from TR's quote: "I'm as strong as a bull moose", when questioned about his age after previously becoming the youngest president upon McKinley's assassination, serving almost two terms as president) then nominated Roosevelt for president. Munsey was one of its most ardent supporters and one of the largest contributors to its "third party" campaign expenses and pulled one of the largest votes ever for a candidate not from one of the two main dominant parties in American history.[13]
In 1905, Munsey built the Munsey Trust Building in downtown Washington, D.C., on 'F' Street, between 12th and 13th Streets next to the National Theatre, off Pennsylvania Avenue. Designed by McKim, Mead and White of New York City with 13 floors, it had ranked among the tallest structures in the Nation's Capital. The first national headquarters of the Girl Scouts of the USA was located in this building from 1913 to 1916. D.C.'s Munsey Trust Building was torn down in spite of a court case and extensive protests by historical preservationists.
Thirty-five miles northeast of D.C., two additional buildings have carried Frank Munsey's surname. The Munsey Building sits at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets in downtown Baltimore. Its located across from the central Battle Monument Square. The building was rebuilt in 1911 by architectural firms Baldwin & Pennington of Baltimore and McKim, Mead and White of New York City. Baltimore's Munsey Building had briefly been that city's tallest building. This rebuilt structure replaced the newspapers' previous headquarters which had been lost in the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904. The original location was on the northern edge of the devastated downtown district. The Munsey Building was notable for its upstairs offices and its ground floor printing presses, visible to passers-by through large department store, display-style windows designed and built for "The News" of Baltimore.
Under Hearst's ownership, the paper moved again in 1924 to East Pratt Street between Commerce and South Streets (facing the old "Basin"/Inner Harbor piers), The Munsey Building, by then separated from the newspaper was later renovated into an elaborate bank headquarters and customer service lobby of marble, brass and bronze for his Munsey Trust Company. In the early 2000s, after a series of bank mergers and out-of-town take-overs, the building was transformed into apartments and condos with some commercial food and snack shops located on the ground floor, where the grimy printing presses once rumbled and rolled, replaced later by the ornate brass and marble counters for customer service with wood and paneling framed, glass-partitioned offices of the banking empire, but the name remained. Ironically, by 2013, a modern branch office of M&T Bank, an out-of-town corporate bank which also put its name on the city's pro football stadium for the Baltimore Ravens, opened on the first floor facing the ground level streets.
Munsey died in New York City on December 22, 1925, from a burst appendix at age 71. In his will he made large bequests to his sister, nephew and niece, generous bequests to many cousins, and gifts and annuities to a large number of old acquaintances. He also bestowed large sums to 17 of his upper management employees, but nothing to the numerous employees who worked for him. Surprisingly, he bequeathed an annuity of $2000 to Annie Downs, a love interest of the young Munsey who "turned him down for marriage because she didn't think he was a good enough prospect for success." Munsey also contributed considerably to Bowdoin College, the Maine State Hospital at Portland, and Central Main General Hospital at Lewiston.
All the remainder of his fortune he gave to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue in New York City. This bequest included ownership of the Sun-Herald newspaper, The Mohican Stores grocery chain, and real estate holdings in Manhasset, New York, on the north shore of Long Island. Under the leadership of Museum President Robert W. DeForest, the Metropolitan Museum developed part of the land into a planned residential community called Munsey Park, New York. It featured Colonial-style houses and streets named after American artists. The community's first model home opened in 1928. By 1950 the Museum had sold the Munsey real estate interests to other developers, realizing an estimated four million dollars from these transactions.[14]
At the time of his death his fortune was estimated to be $20 million to $40 million. Today with the rate of inflation it would be valued at $250 million to $500 million.
