General Category > Comic Related Discussion
Holyoke is a Myth...
archiver_USA:
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
(section at the bottom of the this article by Jon Berk, he didn't mention his sources but you probably could e-mail and ask him).
Henry Andrews (fox_centaur):
--- Quote from: archiver_USA on April 17, 2010, 04:21:54 PM ---DOWN BUT NOT OUT
(section at the bottom of the this article by Jon Berk, he didn't mention his sources but you probably could e-mail and ask him).
--- End quote ---
This does have the scan of the little notice for the Fox bankruptcy proceedings and Fox's purchase of a paper mill. However, it also has a number of the common folklore inaccuracies, so reader beware (for instance, the persistent assertion that Captain Aero's numbering followed from Fox's Samson, already discussed and debunked in this thread).
JVJ (RIP):
--- Quote from: archiver_USA on April 17, 2010, 04:21:54 PM ---DOWN BUT NOT OUT
(section at the bottom of the this article by Jon Berk, he didn't mention his sources but you probably could e-mail and ask him).
--- End quote ---
This is an excellent example of where you could help straighten us out, M.
Is Victor Fox one of the guys who was "set up" by the guys behind the scenes? If so, was he set up by the distributors? Berk's post says that Fox went bankrupt because the distributor went under. So is all that bogus? Financial under the table shenanigans? If the Berk Fox post can be trusted in this Down But Not Out section (never mind the other inaccuracies), can you shine some light on the what went on in the world that you've studied?
And did Bowles (Holyoke) have some connection with any of the creditors Berk names (Bulkley, Dunton & Co., Phelps Publishing, and Chemical Photo Engraving Inc.)? It would seem like he must have or why else did he end up with Blue Beetle?
I'm pretty sure that the statement that " Fox started a new line of comics and wrested Blue Beetle Comics back from Holyoke Publishing Co." is a gross oversimplification of a much more complex deal, but perhaps you can sort that out for us as well. We're trying to deal in the real world here, not in the maze of indicia.
Peace, Jim (|:{>
mmiichael:
I respect the pioneer comic historians like Jerry Bails, Jim V, Hames Ware - who accumulated data and tracked down so many veterans.
But copyrights information, past media sources, shared fan researches are now online and deeper investigation is possible. John Berk did a great piece on Fox for one of the fanzines and it is now online at Comicartville.
Quoting:
"Fox was forced into involuntary bankruptcy on March 6, 1942 by a number of his creditors including, Bulkley, Dunton & Co., Phelps Publishing, and Chemical Photo Engraving Inc. with monies owed in excess of $100,000. (This was due in no small part to the fact its distributor, Colonial News, Inc. went under, owing Fox Publishing $173,551.)"
These are the entities positioned to assume control of Fox's assets, inventory and 2nd class mailing rights deposits especially. (Note in 1944 Fox successfully petitioned for the return of these giving is unpaid creditors a 33% stake in the proceeds)
Bukley, Dunton was a paper supplier, Phelps was a Bowles subsidiary, and Chemical Photo Engraving was a service used by most Manhattan comic publishers.
Based on accumulated circumstantial evidence, I am pretty certain Temerson, originally a crooked attorney from Alabama was put in charge of a consortium of the a couple of the above interests, primarily Bowles, operating as Holyoke. A somewhat suspicious operation according to those who interfaced with them, with fancy offices in Lower Manhattan. A constant stream of low end mags, racy humour digests, cheap pulps, exploitational sheets. PDC and Kable were the main distributors and very likely silent partners.
In the day Massachussets, New Jersey and Connecticut mailing addresses were used to discourage visitors but also because securing mailing rights was easier out of New York State. Publishing entities were often incorporated in Delaware as it has especially lenient laws regarding culpability in the event of bankruptcies and legal transgressions.
When the information inside a publication instructs readers to send subscription money to a printer’s address, it is usually an indication the nominal publisher is just a front.
Holyoke looks to me like a catch-all umbrella for a number of small lines and the entity TIME magazine referred to in a contemporary report on Bowles’s activities. Very likely a benign secondary mob operation that couldn’t help but do well in the 1943-5 period when everything in print was selling full runs.
The Holyoke operation is still around into the 60s, assembling publications on site for cheap magazines mostly, but pretty much out of comics by 1947. A series of labour disputes that year put Bowles’s newspapers out of action for a while and he sold off many of his assets. The also took control of much of the periodical distribution lines that year.
They had their own dedicated publication lines like the new Fox, and Leader News product like the Trojan line of comics and pulps, companies like Youthful, Master, etc.
Henry Andrews (fox_centaur):
--- Quote from: mmiichael on April 17, 2010, 08:34:50 PM ---When the information inside a publication instructs readers to send subscription money to a printer’s address, it is usually an indication the nominal publisher is just a front.
Holyoke looks to me like a catch-all umbrella for a number of small lines and the entity TIME magazine referred to in a contemporary report on Bowles’s activities. Very likely a benign secondary mob operation that couldn’t help but do well in the 1943-5 period when everything in print was selling full runs.
The Holyoke operation is still around into the 60s, assembling publications on site for cheap magazines mostly, but pretty much out of comics by 1947. A series of labour disputes that year put Bowles’s newspapers out of action for a while and he sold off many of his assets. The also took control of much of the periodical distribution lines that year.
They had their own dedicated publication lines like the new Fox, and Leader News product like the Trojan line of comics and pulps, companies like Youthful, Master, etc.
--- End quote ---
Hi Mike,
I think something that would be really helpful is some guidance on what should be recorded about these "publishers" and how it should be specified and linked together. There's lots of information in your post, but it's rather hard to get a handle on it. If I had to cite it in another thread somewhere, I'd be reduced to saying something like "Mike Feldman thinks..." which is likely to end up implying the wrong thing and is how we got into this in the first place.
I've advocated in the past a system of recording known entities (corporations, legal owners, addresses, credited publishers/editors/art directors, etc.) and both documented and speculative associations. For instance, the Fox bankruptcy and "Holyoke"s acquisition of Blue Beetle has some documentation behind it, per the Berk article. Sometimes shared addresses are significant (for instance, your observation about subscription addresses being the same as printer addresses, and what that means). Sometimes they are not, and in some cases we can document that as well.
What should be documented here? Which companies (Brookwood, Tem, Nita, Helnit, Et-Es-Go, Continental, Worth, Bilbara, Hit, Holyoke) were tied to which other entities (distributors, creditors, shadowy mafia "entities", etc.?) I don't think anyone here disputes that the system of "Master Publishers" perpetuated in various places completely fails to capture what was actually going on. We're trying to figure out what *does* capture *useful* information. And figure out how to record that (well, at least that's my agenda here).
If you have a system, we would love to hear it. But it's hard to make a useful fact out of a general assertion that Holyoke was a catch-all umbrella for something shady. We pretty much figured that out. When exactly does Temerson get pulled in? Were his earlier companies part of a different shady activity, or was it the thing we're dubbing "Holyoke" (not to be confused with Holyoke Publishing Co., Inc., the indicia publisher) that was behind it all including things like Brookwood, Tem and Nita? These details are key.
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