Eddie Sand stories appeared in a host of serialized, as well as single
episode stories. Bedwell's work was serialized in SATEVEPOST,
and the Frank Munsey owned RAILIROAD magazine. Generally,
the former were better editted into more literary pieces, and
had a wider audience appeal than those produced in RAILROAD.
The Popular Publications RAILROAD had some original Bedwell
stuff, but less than the earlier pulps.
You should understand that the market for periodical fiction
collapsed in the 1950s, secondary to the coming of home TVs
that changed the nature of the use of leisure time. Network
TV, which raised the standard of programming at least through
the mid '60s, and the publics acceptance of the desirable role
of bringing the family together for this communal after dinner
viewing of the evening's fare, led to the demise of almost all
the major players in periodicals featuring fiction.
A number of factors ranging from divorce's impact upon
the family to the coming of multiple TV sets , and later cable
broadcasting revived new fictions impact upon the culture
at least through the 80's.
However, the short story in America never recovered from
the destruction of its periodical base. New short stories are
pretty much restricted to academic and "art" type journals
with high price tags and dependent upon writers themselves
for large shares of their audiences.
"If you wasn't there Charlie", certainly applies to attempting
to try to explain what a newstand of the 1940s looked like to
anyone who was: a Baby Boomer, a Gen Xer, Gen Yer, and
the Millenials - how different the selection was from their eras.
The vast sections devoted to : Skin Mags, Motorcycles and
Autos; FireArms: Military History; Home Repair: Woodworking;
Crocheting and Knitting;Beading and Jewelry; all forms related
to miniatures regardless of type (i.e.whether Doll House related
or Die Cast Collecting and all else); all of the gourmet and
gourmand related mags; all of the travel magazines and
regional publications (e.g. YANKEE and DOWN EAST were only
sold in New England and at select main magazine dealers in
Great Cities that usually also sold out of town and foreign
newspapers); all computer, electronic, and publications
dealing with then nonexistent technology; all gambling and
socailly unacceptable or nonextant pastimes; DID NO EXIST
IN WORLD WAR 2 AND EARLIER.
Understand there were a handful of magazines in a category
say outdoors and hunting. FIELD and STREAM, OUTDOOR LIFE.
HARDING'S MAGAZINE (a/ka/ Fur Fish & Game), SHOTGUN
NEWS, and a couple more. Firstly, the readership was less
affluent than later, and secondly the adverts in these magazines
often included ads for major sporting goods (remember,
fire arms were distributed through the mail and were sold
new by all the major mail order houses as well as by the
mail order gun and fish gear players), and the existance of
fair trade prices encouraged people to shop locally if they had
the cash. The latter, because your local outdoor dealer
would throw in a box of free cartidges for a gun purchase to
keep you from buying one on time from Sears or MonkeyWard,
were players to a greater extent than currently.
Only general women's magazines like McCall's, Redbook,
Chatelaine, and others like them were on newstands. This
didn't mean that there weren't hundreds of copies of various
knitting, crocheting, and sewing related softcovers around.
However, you got them at a fabric, or yarn store or in the
notions/sewing section of your local WOOLWORTHs or
other 5&10 cent store, or in a department store. Hobby Shops
sold fair trade priced goods, and carried periodicals related to
the products. Generally speaking, only the coin magazine
and the two stamp collecting monthlys were to be found in a
large newstands periodical section. People who wanted to
learn how to do something technical, bought a book from
Theodore Audel or a more specialized source (e.g. National
Lockmakers School), and that was how it was.
In other words, and I know this has taken too long for most
of you; an entirely different audience, operating in a world
of entirely different economic as well as technological
constraints, read the large available short story world.
It was not only a pulp fiction world with dozens of monthly
magazines having broad fields like: sports; western; romance;
sci-fi; true tales of action and adventure as well as fiction
about same- it also had magazines dealing with both a
mixed subject matter but were specialized such as the
beloved RAILROAD which started this thread, and its
companions dealing with the sea, and other specialized
areas. It also was a world where fiction was a staple in
mass marketted weekly (e.g. COLLIERr's, SATEVEPOST),
and monthly periodicals. They helped produce many people
who became literary giants, for better or worse - but most
of all they served the North American populations needs
of that time.
Good- Luck, pjb
