Macfadden Publications

Macfadden Publications was an American publishing company, founded by Bernarr Macfadden as "The Physical Culture Publishing Company" in 1898 to publish Physical Culture, Macfadden's first and flagship magazine. The company remained a single magazine publisher for about twenty years, sustaining a nominal circulation, and only began to grow as a publishing house in 1919, when it launched the magazine True Story. Over the next ten years, from 1919 through 1929, the corporation changed its name to Macfadden Publications Inc. and quickly expanded into serial fiction, film, and celebrity magazines, as well as tabloid newspapers, book publishing, and motion pictures, ending the decade with a revenue stream forty times as large as when it began.

Macfadden himself left the company in 1941, reportedly having been ousted following a minority-stockholder initiated vote orchestrated by his longtime second-in-command O. J. Elder, who became president in the aftermath. Elder retired in 1951, being replaced by Irving Manheimer of Publishers Distributing Corp. as president. A majority stake in the company was acquired in 1961 by Bartell Broadcasting Corporation, which was thereafter merged as Macfadden/Bartell.

Selected Publications

Macfadden Publications Inc. was the parent company of several subsidiary corporations, divided into Magazine, Newspaper, Movie and Real Estate divisions.

Magazine Division

• Photoplay (1934-1980)
• Sport (1946-197?) — sold to Downe Communications

True Story Publishing Co.

• True Story

Physical Culture Pub. Co.

• Physical Culture

Beautiful Womanhood Pub. Co.

• True Romances

Constructive Publishing Co.

• Dream World (1924-1934)
• Your Home
• Ghost Stories (1926-1930) — sold to Good Story Magazine Co.

New Metropolitan Fiction, Inc.

• True Detective Mysteries, a.k.a. True Detective (1924-1971)
• True Experiences (1925-19??)
• Flying Stories (1928-1929) — sold to Good Story Magazine Co.
• The Master Detective (1929-19??)
• Metropolitan Magazine, a.k.a. 'Macfadden Fiction-Lovers Magazine (1923-1925)
• Fighting Romances from the West and East (1925-1926)
• Red Blooded Stories, a.k.a. Tales of Danger and Daring (1928-1929)

The Dance Pub. Co.

• The Dance

True Strange Stories Pub. Co.

• True Strange Stories

Airplane News Pub. Co

• Model Airplane News

Newspaper Division

• New York Evening Graphic (Daily Graphic, Inc.)
• Daily Investment News (Financial Guide, Inc.)
• Automotive Daily News (Automotive Daily News Pub. Co.)
• Philadelphia Daily News (Macfadden Newspapers Co.)
• Detroit Daily (Macfadden Detroit Daily, Inc.)
• New Haven Times-Union (The Times Co.)