March 19, 2014
Celebrity Culture
Landon Jones
Head Editor – People Magazine – 1989-1997
Celebrity Culture
Landon Jones
Head Editor – People Magazine – 1989-1997
Minutes of the 22nd Meeting of the 72nd Year
At 10:15 AM at the Fields Center, President Ruth Miller called to order the 22nd meeting of the 71st year of The Old Guard of Princeton. Don Edwards led the invocation. The minutes of the meeting of March 12, 2014, were read by Dr. Charles Clark.
Guests: Jock McFarlane introduced Maggie Sullivan; Lanny Jones introduced his wife Sarah Jones and their friend Barb Webb; Michael Mathews introduced his wife Cecilia Mathews. One hundred four members and guests were present.
Ruth Miller asked for a moment of silence in memory of Robert Gunther-Mohr whose memorial service was yet to be scheduled. She then issued a plea for a volunteer to take minutes for the meeting of April 9, and also cautioned members to be attentive to the venue for future meetings of Old Guard as they will oscillate between our two accustomed locales.
Charles Plohn introduced our speaker Landon Young Jones, better known to all by his kennel name “Lanny,” by describing his early years as a journalist-in-gestation at Princeton University and proceeding through his well-nigh legendary career as the editor of multiple publications of Time-Life, Inc., including nearly ten years as managing editor of People magazine, which enjoys the largest circulation, largest readership, and the largest revenues of any American magazine.
Lanny relaxed our expectations by promising what he said might well be the most low-brow presentation ever experienced by The Old Guard of Princeton. This initially seemed a credible prediction, given his choosing to label it “Celebrity Culture” (which may well be the most oxymoronic title we’ve ever experienced).
However Lanny did what Lanny always does, and that is to take us on a rousing ride through the evolution of America’s fixation on the famous, especially as reflected by the arresting cover photographs and text strategies employed by People magazine to prompt passersby to snatch up a copy at newsstands and supermarkets—its sole distribution system for many years.
Lanny excused us for our justifiable ignorance of the myriad persons whom others consider to be celebrities today. We have come a long way from the days of Alexander the Great who became a celebrity because he did great things, to today when anyone with the urge and wherewithal to hire a publicist and/or treat us to a Twitter feed of their daily natterings can get attention.
A celebrity, Lanny said, may be defined as one who has somehow induced the public to be more interested in their private life than in their professional accomplishments. This phenomenon is so infectious that some authorities liken it to a disease—celebrity-worship syndrome—and estimate that about one-third of U.S. citizens suffer from it. [I discovered that the circulation of People magazine is 3.75 million copies per issue but its readership is 46.6 million per issue—more than ten readers per copy (think: waiting rooms)—which suggests to me anyhow that this disease is both virulent and communicable.]
Lanny described the historical stages of our fascination with celebrities, crediting the rise of photography with supplying the faux-intimacy between the public and the famous that makes ordinary folks feel a kinship with the swells.
Charles Lindbergh was cited as perhaps the archetype of the photographically celebrated achiever, but the next wave of those famed through photographs were the Hollywood stars whose achievements were actuallycreated through photography (film-making), not just publicized by photography, producing what seems a perfect tautology. Then the advent of TV massively accelerated this wave of seeming familiarity and slavish followership; instead of going out to see performers in one movie a week, we invited them into our homes for some fifty hours a week of simulated companionship.
By the time People magazine was born in 1974, America was already gaga over many “celebrities” who were famous only for being famous, and as Andy Warhol wryly noted, it appeared that sooner or later everybody would get their own fifteen minutes of fame.
But People magazine set out to focus on interesting people, and to tell what makes them interesting. However, with a limit of 13,000 words of text from cover to cover (some of which were mandated to be spent on the actual names of celebrities’ pets), in-depth profiles were likely to be trumped by photos at every turn.
And so the art and science of the photos and the copy on the cover of this magazine became sine qua non for its success in differentiating itself from the covers of the National Inquirer or the movie fan magazines already alluringly perched next to every supermarket cash register.
Lanny then proceeded to illustrate this art and science by displaying dozens of examples of People magazine covers, describing the considerations and priorities and decision-making that resulted in whichever cover finally went to press. Almost all featured multiple photos, and since one picture is worth ten thousand words, I have calculated that it would take me 26,420,000 words to reproduce what he presented on screen. So I will limit myself to one single example that caught my attention.
Two events of major importance to those who follow famous people both happened to fall in the first week of June, 2004: the death of Ronald Reagan (once a well-known president of the United States) and the joining in holy matrimony of two Hollywood personages named Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez (“J-Lo” to her millions of fans). Lanny showed us approximately five different layouts in which the editors of People struggled to determine the optimum display of both President Reagan and the newlyweds on the same cover, first with one party’s visage dominating the page and the other somewhat less prominent, and vice-versa. Back and forth the struggle went, big Ronnie and little hotties, big hotties and little Ronnie, both equal-sized, one over and the other under, side by side. Well, in the end they finally decided to let our late President’s friendly face dominate and reduced the hotties to a considerably smaller display.
But nothing dismayed, the editors were apparently determined to hook and trigger every purchase impulse possible from the fans of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. And so perhaps some of the rest of you noticed as I did that when Lanny showed the final version, with the newlyweds’ picture much reduced, there appeared for the first time a banner across the top of the cover that included a salacious tease: “J-Lo and Marc marry: Is she pregnant?”
Lanny noted that, given the ubiquity, intrusiveness, and immediacy of media streaming into everyone’s TV, email, phone, and internet links, there are few gatekeepers these days to screen out the wannabes from those who have some reason to deserve our attention. People magazine struggles and strives to be a safe harbor of integrity for the latter, but Lanny made it clear that proposition is under heavy duress.
In the abbreviated Q&A session, Lanny noted that his own heroes included writers like John McPhee and leaders like Nelson Mandela. He also illuminated his own enduring fascination with interesting people when noting that his undergraduate encounter with Malcolm X totally upended his expectations, and awakened him to the possibility that more lay behind the images of the famous than he might ever have imagined.
Respectfully submitted,
Eliot Daley
Guests: Jock McFarlane introduced Maggie Sullivan; Lanny Jones introduced his wife Sarah Jones and their friend Barb Webb; Michael Mathews introduced his wife Cecilia Mathews. One hundred four members and guests were present.
Ruth Miller asked for a moment of silence in memory of Robert Gunther-Mohr whose memorial service was yet to be scheduled. She then issued a plea for a volunteer to take minutes for the meeting of April 9, and also cautioned members to be attentive to the venue for future meetings of Old Guard as they will oscillate between our two accustomed locales.
Charles Plohn introduced our speaker Landon Young Jones, better known to all by his kennel name “Lanny,” by describing his early years as a journalist-in-gestation at Princeton University and proceeding through his well-nigh legendary career as the editor of multiple publications of Time-Life, Inc., including nearly ten years as managing editor of People magazine, which enjoys the largest circulation, largest readership, and the largest revenues of any American magazine.
Lanny relaxed our expectations by promising what he said might well be the most low-brow presentation ever experienced by The Old Guard of Princeton. This initially seemed a credible prediction, given his choosing to label it “Celebrity Culture” (which may well be the most oxymoronic title we’ve ever experienced).
However Lanny did what Lanny always does, and that is to take us on a rousing ride through the evolution of America’s fixation on the famous, especially as reflected by the arresting cover photographs and text strategies employed by People magazine to prompt passersby to snatch up a copy at newsstands and supermarkets—its sole distribution system for many years.
Lanny excused us for our justifiable ignorance of the myriad persons whom others consider to be celebrities today. We have come a long way from the days of Alexander the Great who became a celebrity because he did great things, to today when anyone with the urge and wherewithal to hire a publicist and/or treat us to a Twitter feed of their daily natterings can get attention.
A celebrity, Lanny said, may be defined as one who has somehow induced the public to be more interested in their private life than in their professional accomplishments. This phenomenon is so infectious that some authorities liken it to a disease—celebrity-worship syndrome—and estimate that about one-third of U.S. citizens suffer from it. [I discovered that the circulation of People magazine is 3.75 million copies per issue but its readership is 46.6 million per issue—more than ten readers per copy (think: waiting rooms)—which suggests to me anyhow that this disease is both virulent and communicable.]
Lanny described the historical stages of our fascination with celebrities, crediting the rise of photography with supplying the faux-intimacy between the public and the famous that makes ordinary folks feel a kinship with the swells.
Charles Lindbergh was cited as perhaps the archetype of the photographically celebrated achiever, but the next wave of those famed through photographs were the Hollywood stars whose achievements were actuallycreated through photography (film-making), not just publicized by photography, producing what seems a perfect tautology. Then the advent of TV massively accelerated this wave of seeming familiarity and slavish followership; instead of going out to see performers in one movie a week, we invited them into our homes for some fifty hours a week of simulated companionship.
By the time People magazine was born in 1974, America was already gaga over many “celebrities” who were famous only for being famous, and as Andy Warhol wryly noted, it appeared that sooner or later everybody would get their own fifteen minutes of fame.
But People magazine set out to focus on interesting people, and to tell what makes them interesting. However, with a limit of 13,000 words of text from cover to cover (some of which were mandated to be spent on the actual names of celebrities’ pets), in-depth profiles were likely to be trumped by photos at every turn.
And so the art and science of the photos and the copy on the cover of this magazine became sine qua non for its success in differentiating itself from the covers of the National Inquirer or the movie fan magazines already alluringly perched next to every supermarket cash register.
Lanny then proceeded to illustrate this art and science by displaying dozens of examples of People magazine covers, describing the considerations and priorities and decision-making that resulted in whichever cover finally went to press. Almost all featured multiple photos, and since one picture is worth ten thousand words, I have calculated that it would take me 26,420,000 words to reproduce what he presented on screen. So I will limit myself to one single example that caught my attention.
Two events of major importance to those who follow famous people both happened to fall in the first week of June, 2004: the death of Ronald Reagan (once a well-known president of the United States) and the joining in holy matrimony of two Hollywood personages named Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez (“J-Lo” to her millions of fans). Lanny showed us approximately five different layouts in which the editors of People struggled to determine the optimum display of both President Reagan and the newlyweds on the same cover, first with one party’s visage dominating the page and the other somewhat less prominent, and vice-versa. Back and forth the struggle went, big Ronnie and little hotties, big hotties and little Ronnie, both equal-sized, one over and the other under, side by side. Well, in the end they finally decided to let our late President’s friendly face dominate and reduced the hotties to a considerably smaller display.
But nothing dismayed, the editors were apparently determined to hook and trigger every purchase impulse possible from the fans of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. And so perhaps some of the rest of you noticed as I did that when Lanny showed the final version, with the newlyweds’ picture much reduced, there appeared for the first time a banner across the top of the cover that included a salacious tease: “J-Lo and Marc marry: Is she pregnant?”
Lanny noted that, given the ubiquity, intrusiveness, and immediacy of media streaming into everyone’s TV, email, phone, and internet links, there are few gatekeepers these days to screen out the wannabes from those who have some reason to deserve our attention. People magazine struggles and strives to be a safe harbor of integrity for the latter, but Lanny made it clear that proposition is under heavy duress.
In the abbreviated Q&A session, Lanny noted that his own heroes included writers like John McPhee and leaders like Nelson Mandela. He also illuminated his own enduring fascination with interesting people when noting that his undergraduate encounter with Malcolm X totally upended his expectations, and awakened him to the possibility that more lay behind the images of the famous than he might ever have imagined.
Respectfully submitted,
Eliot Daley