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52-517: The school was founded by Bennett Cerf , a Random House editor and well-known television personality, Gordon Carroll , an occasional editor for Reader's Digest , and Albert Dorne , an illustrator whose school, the Famous Artists School , owned Famous Writers. It began operations in 1961, based in Westport , Connecticut. The ubiquitous advertising copy for the school, which was often found in

104-597: A McCall's column, "If You Ask Me". The former First Lady gave brief answers to questions sent into the magazine. Starting in May 1951, and lasting until at least 1995, Betsy McCall paper dolls were printed in most issues. Children could cut out the printed dolls and clothing, or for a small fee (10¢ in 1957, 25¢ in 1967) paper dolls printed on cardboard could be ordered. Betsy McCall became so popular that various sized vinyl dolls were produced by Ideal and American Character Dolls . Another popular feature which ran for many years

156-413: A "Togetherness" slogan; it was announced that the magazine would no longer be just for women, but aimed at the entire family. During this time period paid circulation was 4.5 million per issue. In 1953, financier Norton Simon began purchasing shares of McCall Corporation, and in 1956, Simon's group of investors was in control of the corporation. In 1958, Simon named Arthur B. Langlie as president of

208-458: A better time than today. Everything indicates that the demand for good prose is growing much faster than the supply of trained talent." Mitford noted that the complete opposite was true at the time, and that "the average free-lance earns just over $ 3000 a year." Students were required to sign a contract with the school. Cerf noted that "once somebody has signed a contract with Famous Writers he can't get out of it, but that's true with every business in

260-510: A means of advertising his patterns, McCall founded a four-page fashion journal entitled The Queen: Illustrating McCall's Bazaar Glove-Fitting Patterns . When McCall died in 1884, his widow became president of McCall Company, and hired Mrs. George Bladsworth as magazine editor. Mrs. Bladsworth held the position until 1891. Though still mainly a vehicle to sell McCall's sewing patterns, The Queen began to publish homemaking and handiwork information, and by 1890 had expanded to 12 pages. In 1891,

312-583: A refund before the course had begun. Mitford began researching the school, touring the campus in Westport, interviewing members of the Guiding Faculty including Bennett Cerf, and placing advertisements looking for students of the school who could share their experiences. Several of the Guiding Faculty attempted to defend the school's practices, with Faith Baldwin saying "Oh, that's just one of those things about advertising.... Anyone with common sense would know that

364-668: A reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and for some time in a Wall Street brokerage . He then was named a vice president at Boni & Liveright , a publishing company. In 1925, Cerf and Donald S. Klopfer formed a partnership to purchase the rights to the Modern Library from Boni & Liveright, and they went into business for themselves. The two increased the popularity of the series, and in 1927, they began publishing general trade books that they had selected at random. Cerf and Klopfer's acquisition of Modern Library

416-829: A strong literary and social influence on the teenager. Cerf graduated from Townsend Harris Hall Prep School in Hamilton Heights in 1916, the same public school as publisher Richard Simon , author Herman Wouk , and playwright Howard Dietz . He spent his teenage years at 790 Riverside Drive, an apartment building in Washington Heights , which was home to two of his friends who became prominent as adults: Howard Dietz and Hearst newspapers financial editor Merryle Rukeyser . Cerf received his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College of Columbia University (1919) and his Litt.B. (1920) from its School of Journalism . After graduating from Columbia University , Cerf worked briefly as

468-515: Is named after him. This is the location of the Random House Westminster Distribution Center and Offices, one of two Random House distribution facilities in the U.S., as well as the location of Bennett Cerf Park. The band Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet have a song called "Bennett Cerf" on their 1988 album "Savvy Show Stoppers". McCall%27s McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine , published by

520-463: The McCall Corporation , that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. The publication was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873. In 1897 it was renamed McCall's Magazine—The Queen of Fashion (later shortened to McCall's ) and subsequently grew in size to become a large-format glossy. It

572-596: The Pritzker family in 1973. Norton Simon kept the McCall pattern business, which continues under different ownership. In 1986, McCall's Publishing Company was bought by Time Inc. and Lang Communications. In 1989, McCall's was sold to The New York Times Company , and in 1994, German-based Gruner + Jahr announced plans to purchase their magazine business. Gruner + Jahr rebranded the magazine as Rosie before selling it to Meredith Corporation in 2003. Throughout these transitions,

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624-699: The "Togetherness" slant, and came up with a new slogan, "First Magazine For Women." He introduced additional color pages, and used more fiction. In 1962 Mayes became president and CEO of McCall Corporation. From 1962 to 1965, John Mack Carter was editor of McCall's . Under his leadership, circulation rose to 8.4 million, making it the third most popular magazine in the United States after Reader's Digest and TV Guide . In 1965, Carter left to become editor of Ladies' Home Journal . A rapid succession of editors followed Carter, including Robert Stein and James Fixx. In 1969, Life magazine columnist Shana Alexander

676-570: The American funeral industry, The American Way of Death .) When the piece was published, more than 300 students sent letters to the Atlantic Monthly who "felt they had been swindled and who wanted to get out of the contract." Mitford was invited onto numerous television programs, her article was read into the legislative record in Utah and attorneys general in several states initiated lawsuits against

728-622: The CBS Films (now Viacom ) syndicated version of What's My Line? , along with Arlene Francis. Cerf was known as "Bennett Snerf" in a Sesame Street puppet parody of What's My Line? During his time on What's My Line? , Cerf received an honorary degree from the University of Puget Sound , and an honorary doctorate of letters in November 1965 from William Jewell College, in Liberty, Missouri. Cerf twice

780-551: The Master's Crop", a compilation of Cerf's jokes, gags, stories, puns, and wit. Before 1951, Cerf was an occasional panelist on the NBC game show Who Said That? , on which celebrities tried to identify the speakers of quotations taken from recent news reports. In 1951, he began appearing weekly on What's My Line? , where he stayed for 16 years, until the show ended its run on CBS, in 1967. Until his death, Cerf continued to appear regularly on

832-444: The McCall pattern business remained separate and continued under different ownership. In 2000, entertainer Rosie O'Donnell became editorial director of McCall's . In 2001 McCall's was renamed Rosie . O'Donnell stated, "I wanted a magazine that celebrates real women, that understands that they care about more than waistlines or the latest makeup styles or fashions, that they want to be relevant and help each other and care about

884-597: The assistant U.S. attorney assigned to assess the work's obscenity considered it a "literary masterpiece", he also felt it was obscene within the meaning of the law. The office then sued under the Tariff Act of 1930, which allowed a district attorney to bring an action against obscene literature. Cerf later presented the book in question to Columbia University . In 1944, Cerf published the first of his books of jokes and anecdotes, Try and Stop Me , with illustrations drawn by Carl Rose . A second book, Shake Well Before Using ,

936-454: The back of magazines, listed the following writers (who were also stockholders) as the school's "Guiding Faculty": Faith Baldwin , John Caples , Bruce Catton , Bennett Cerf , Mignon G. Eberhart , Paul Engle , Bergen Evans , Clifton Fadiman , Rudolf Flesch , Phyllis McGinley , J. D. Ratcliff , Rod Serling , Max Shulman , Red Smith and Mark Wiseman . Cerf is quoted in the advertisements as saying: "We approached representative writers,

988-504: The best we could get in each field: fiction, advertising, sports writing, television. The idea was to give the school some prestige." Between 1960 and 1969, revenue from tuition increased from $ 7 million to $ 48 million, and the stock increased in value from $ 5 to $ 40. Radio spots featuring Guiding Faculty, including Baldwin and Eberhardt, being interviewed by Cerf were aired. By 1964, they were offering four different programs: fiction, non-fiction, advertising, and business writing. To enter

1040-555: The business practices of the Famous Writers School , which Cerf founded. S. J. Perelman 's 1945 feuilleton "No Dearth of Mirth, Fill Out the Coupon", describes Perelman's fictionalized encounter with a jokebook publisher named Barnaby Chirp. Perelman's 1962 play The Beauty Part features the caricature Emmett Stagg of the book-publishing empire Charnel House, who was based on Cerf and played on Broadway by William LeMessena. He

1092-430: The company. Otis Wiese, who had been vice president, as well as editor and publisher of McCall's , had expected to be named president. When Langlie was named to the position, Wiese and a number of staffers resigned in protest. A Business Week article stated "The house of togetherness had come apart at the seams." Simon replaced Wiese with Herbert Mayes , who had been editor of Good Housekeeping . Mayes did away with

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1144-495: The country working on a "straight commission basis." In 1970, about 2000 veterans were signed up for the program through the GI bill at the taxpayer's expense. The school came to the attention of Mitford after her husband, Robert Treuhaft , a lawyer in Oakland , California, began representing a 72-year-old woman who emptied her bank account to sign up for the course and later attempted to get

1196-432: The country." Assignments were graded by a staff of fifty, including some well-respected free-lance writers. The comments they provided on students' papers were described as "formulaic, often identical, responses" and as "good as you'd get from a mediocre professor in a so-so creative writing program." The cost was also "about fifteen times" the cost of correspondence courses offered by universities. Students who signed up for

1248-464: The course were provided with "four hefty 'two-toned, buckram bound' volumes with matching loose-leaf binders for the lessons." At the time of Mitford's reporting, the school's enrollment was 65,000 students, each of whom was paying $ 785 to $ 900 for the three-year course. Mitford reported a high dropout rate (between 66 and 90%), which she concluded was partly responsible for the school's financial success. The school employed about 800 salesmen throughout

1300-461: The early 1950s, while maintaining a Manhattan residence, Bennett and Phyllis Cerf bought an estate at Mount Kisco, New York , which became his country home for the rest of his life. A Mount Kisco street named Cerf Lane, named after him, runs from Croton Avenue in Mount Kisco. Cerf died of natural causes in Mount Kisco, on August 27, 1971, aged 73. He had undergone surgery shortly before his death. He

1352-588: The early 1970s the National Lampoon published a parody of the Famous Writers School teaching material. Written by Michael O'Donoghue , it was titled "How to Write Good", with a real quote at the beginning from Eliot Foster, Director of Admissions, Famous Writers School. A novel by Steven Carter entitled Famous Writers School was published in 2006. It dealt with a man who runs a correspondence course and consists of lessons he mails to his students and

1404-399: The fifteen of us are much too busy to read the manuscripts the students send in." Mitford's article on the school, "Let Us Now Appraise Famous Writers", was originally commissioned by McCall's , but it declined to print it for fear of offending Bennett Cerf. The Atlantic Monthly printed the piece in its July 1970 issue. (Mitford was already well-known for her 1963 investigative book about

1456-586: The first "magazine with a national circulation which has ever paid tribute to the public service record of any group in radio and television," with the Golden Mikes being "the only awards given exclusively to women Broadcasters and Executives for public service accomplishments in the communications field." Award criteria were based "exclusively on civic engagement, community service, charity, health and safety.... Judges were commissioners of education, presidents of women's clubs, and senators ." The 1964 awards ceremony

1508-564: The first women's magazine to print a complete novel in one issue. Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941, and Otis Wiese immediately revamped the February 1942 issue then in preparation. A frilly valentine cover was replaced with a woman wearing an "I've Enlisted" consumer pledge button. Readers were asked to sign a pledge that stated "As a consumer, in the total defense of democracy, I will do my part to make my country ready, efficient and strong. I will buy carefully. I will take good care of

1560-591: The judge ruled against both sides and dismissed the case. Gruner + Jahr exited the U.S. magazine business in 2005, selling its women's magazine portfolio to the Meredith Corporation and its business magazine portfolio to Mansueto Ventures. From 1951 to 1967, McCall's , in partnership with American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT), presented the Golden Mike Award for Women in Radio and Television, making it

1612-486: The magazine's name became The Queen of Fashion , and the cost for a year's subscription was 30 cents. In 1893, James Henry Ottley took over the McCall Company. He increased the subscription price to 50 cents a year, increased the number of pages to between 16 and 30 per issue, and began to publish articles on children's issues, health, beauty, and foreign travel. In order to reflect the magazine's expanded range of topics,

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1664-450: The name was changed to McCall's Magazine—The Queen of Fashion in 1897. In time, the name would be shortened to McCall's. Despite the name changes, for many years information on McCall's patterns filled an average of 20 percent of the magazine's pages. In 1913, the magazine was purchased by the banking firm of White Weld & Co. , which organized the McCall Corporation under the direction of president Edward Alfred Simmons. In 1917,

1716-505: The nephew of Mignon Eberhart , Cerf had warned her, and presumably other members of the Guided Faculty, to sell their stock in the school, which she allegedly refused to do. From at least 2002 until mid-2015, a group in Wilton , Connecticut, calling itself the Famous Writers School, still existed, selling a course and set of books identical to those of the original Famous Writers School. In

1768-498: The panel game show What's My Line? Cerf was born on May 25, 1898, in Manhattan , New York City, to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German ethnicity. Cerf's father Gustave Cerf was a lithographer ; his mother, Frederika Wise, was heiress to a tobacco-distribution fortune. She died when Bennett was 15; shortly afterward, her brother Herbert moved into the Cerf household and became

1820-457: The post-war era, fiction was no longer such an important draw for readers; they wanted more articles and picture spreads. To provide lively nonfiction Wiese hired two former Look magazine editors. Daniel Danforth Mich became editorial director, and Henry Ehrlich was named managing editor. McCall's Three Magazines in One format was discontinued in 1950. In 1954 Wiese began to reformat McCall's with

1872-662: The price was raised to 10 cents per issue. In 1922, Harry Payne Burton became editor, and for the first time such well-known fiction writers as Kathleen Norris , Harold Bell Wright , Zane Grey and Booth Tarkington had stories published in McCall's. In 1928, the 23-year-old associate editor, Otis Wiese, was promoted to editor. He believed "women were ready for more significant fiction than Gene Stratton-Porter " and suggested that McCall's sell Burton's acquisitions of popular fiction to Ladies Home Journal and Woman's Home Companion . Such radical ideas caused Wiese to be fired at least six times within his first year as editor, but he

1924-413: The program, the course required students to submit aptitude tests, which were almost uniformly accepted. The advertisements implied that the celebrity faculty would evaluate the student's tests, a statement that Bennett Cerf, a leader of the group, admitted was false. Once a student's test was accepted, they were sent a letter filled with praise, suggesting that "you couldn't consider breaking into writing at

1976-503: The rights to publish the book in the United States, and they arranged for a test case to challenge the implicit ban so as to publish the work without fear of prosecution. The publisher, therefore, made an arrangement to import the book and to have a copy seized by the United States Customs Service when it arrived. After seizure, the United States attorney took seven months before deciding whether to proceed further; although

2028-624: The school. Officials in Indiana and Washington sent reprints of the article to every high school counselor and principal. A member of Congress entered the entire article in the Congressional Record and convinced the Federal Trade Commission to investigate. The school's stock steadily declined, and in 1972, the school filed for bankruptcy, although Mitford noted in 1974 that the school was "creeping back." According to Bill Vogelsang,

2080-424: The things I have. I will waste nothing." Within three weeks, 150,000 readers signed the pledge and sent in a coupon printed in the magazine. During World War II, all women's magazines took on a patriotic slant, but McCall's received much positive press coverage for being the first magazine to do so. McCall's began a "Washington Newsletter" section, which provided information on rationing and conservation. During

2132-640: The two became lifelong friends. In 1933, Cerf won United States v. One Book Called Ulysses , a landmark court case against government censorship , and thereafter he was the first in the United States to publish James Joyce 's unabridged Ulysses . (Originally published in Paris by Sylvia Beach in 1922. One chapter from its previous serialization in Margaret Anderson and Jane Heap's Chicago-based literary magazine, The Little Review , had led to its being found "a work of obscenity" .) In 1932, Random House had

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2184-419: The world." Rosie ceased publication at the end of 2002. O'Donnell said in a statement, "I decided I could not participate in a magazine that bears my name when I could not be assured it would reflect my vision, values and editorial direction." After publication of the long-running magazine ended, a highly publicized legal battle between O'Donnell and the publisher, Gruner + Jahr , began in 2003. Ultimately,

2236-414: The writing samples they send back. Bennett Cerf Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House . Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns , for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his weekly television appearances for over 17 years on

2288-677: Was a juror at the Miss America pageant. Cerf was interviewed in 1967 and 1968 by Robin Hawkins, a freelancer working for the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University . Cerf said that he was "genuinely proud of" the awards that had been bestowed on him by The Yale Record and The Harvard Lampoon . In July 1970, Cerf was the subject of an exposé by Jessica Mitford , published in Atlantic Monthly , which denounced

2340-431: Was always rehired because, as he put it, "there was no one else around the place with ideas." In 1932, Wiese changed the format to what he called Three Magazines in One. Three sections—News and Fiction, Homemaking, Style and Beauty—had their own cover, and each contained ads tailored to its contents. A survey was conducted that showed fiction was a major attraction for female magazine readers, and in 1937 McCall's became

2392-531: Was named editor. Alexander had no editing experience, and at the time of her appointment stated "I have to educate myself about women's magazines, but I think I know something about women." Alexander left in 1971. Robert Stein was editor from 1972 to 1986. During Stein's tenure, McCalls gained the slogan / subtitle "The Magazine for Suburban Women." After Stein left, the quick turnover of editors returned. Ownership of McCall's began to change nearly as fast as editors came and went. Norton Simon sold McCall's to

2444-429: Was one of the " Seven Sisters " group of women's service magazines. McCall's published fiction by such well-known authors as Alice Adams , Lester Atwell , Ray Bradbury , Gelett Burgess , Willa Cather , Jack Finney , F. Scott Fitzgerald , Barbara Garson , John Steinbeck , Tim O'Brien , Tony J. Caridi , Anne Tyler and Kurt Vonnegut . From June 1949 until her death in November 1962, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote

2496-668: Was published in 1949. Then, he became a member of the Peabody Awards board of jurors, where he served from 1946 to 1967 and 1970–1971. He was chair juror of the Peabody Jurors Board from 1954 to the end of his first term in 1967, and published a weekly column, "The Cerf Board", in the Sunday supplement magazine This Week . Cerf was also inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa in 1967 at Florida Southern College . In 1959, Maco Magazine Corporation published what became known as "The Cream of

2548-445: Was similarly portrayed as publisher Bennett Blake on The Patty Duke Show in the 1964 episode "Auld Lang Syne". In 2006, Peter Bogdanovich portrayed Cerf in the film Infamous . Cerf married actress Sylvia Sidney on October 1, 1935; they divorced six months later, on April 9, 1936. On September 17, 1940, he married actress Phyllis Fraser , a cousin of Ginger Rogers , with whom he had two sons, Christopher and Jonathan. In

2600-517: Was survived by his wife and sons. Random House published his posthumous autobiography, At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf , in 1977, which Phyllis Cerf and a former Random House Editor Albert Erskine put together from his interviews for Columbia's oral history program along with his diaries and scrapbooks. Bennett Cerf Drive, just outside the City of Westminster in Carroll County, Maryland,

2652-530: Was the cartoon panel It's All in the Family by Stan and Jan Berenstain . A pair of pioneering female illustrators, Jessie Willcox Smith and Neysa McMein , drew dozens of McCall's cover portraits. Film critic Pauline Kael worked at McCall's from 1965 to 1966, and was reportedly fired after writing a highly unfavorable review of The Sound of Music . In 1870, Scottish immigrant James McCall began designing and printing his own line of sewing patterns. As

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2704-607: Was the beginning of their publishing business, which they later named Random House . The publishing company used as its logo a little house drawn by Cerf's friend and fellow Columbia alumnus Rockwell Kent . Cerf's talent in building and maintaining relationships brought contracts with such writers as William Faulkner , John O'Hara , Eugene O'Neill , James Michener , Truman Capote , Theodor Seuss Geisel , and others. He published Atlas Shrugged , written by Ayn Rand , though he vehemently disagreed with her philosophy of Objectivism . He admired her "sincerity" and "brillian[ce]", and

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