POLICE BRUTALITY

The Police Gazette’s graphic boxing covers were some of the best in the magazine’s long history.

Rocky Graziano is one angry man in this stunner of a photo-illustration from The National Police Gazette. Graziano was near the end of his run when this cover appeared in January 1951, but he was one of greats, knocking out fifty-two opponents during a brief five year professional career. The Gazette, published originally way back in 1845, weathered many changes in American society and yet managed to keep on chugging along. Sometime during the 1940s they seemed to have hit on a new formula—sports covers. The magazine had always covered sports, but now they put it front and center with super-saturated action shots and lots of blood. They mainly produced boxing covers—and these were some of the most striking (heh heh) in the magazine’s history. They also occasionally featured football and hockey. This lasted for about ten years, then the Gazette changed its cover style to try and keep pace with the many Hollywood tabloids that had crowded the newsstands. It was at that point that editors adopted the motif you’ve seen in posts like this one and this one. We have more Police Gazette pages below, and we’ll have more sports issues down the line.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1976—Gerald Ford Rescinds Executive Order 9066

U.S. President Gerald R. Ford signs Proclamation 4417, which belatedly rescinds Executive Order 9066. That Order, signed in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, established “War Relocation Camps” for Japanese-American citizens living in the U.S. Eventually, 120,000 are locked up without evidence, due process, or the possibility of appeal, for the duration of World War II.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

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