Dean of the One-Shotters

Bridey Murphy has faded away into the thin air that produced her, but a weird new phenomenon is loose in the land; a teen-age craze for a boyish Hollywood actor named James Dean, who has been dead for eleven months. Barely a celebrity when he was killed in a sports-car crackup, Dean last week was haunting U.S. newsstands, which are plastered with four fast-selling magazines devoted wholly to him, e.g., Jimmy Dean Returns! ("Read his own words from the beyond!"). The actor is also a current "must" in every movie magazine, while three national magazines and two book publishers prepare to jump aboard the bandwagon that looks disconcertingly like a hearse.

An actor of genuine promise, Dean made only three movies (East of Eden Rebel Without a Cause, Giant), and only the first had appeared at his death. Today he ranks No. 1 in Photoplay's actor popularity poll, draws 1,000 fan letters-a week ("Dear Jimmy: I know you are not dead") at Warner's--more than any live actor on the lot. Marveled one Wesf Coast cynic: "This is really something new in Hollywood--boy meets ghoul.'' Hollywood's explanation: Dean not only appeals to a "mother complex" among teen-age girls, but his roles as a troubled insecure youth prompted many young movie fans to identify with him.

A 20 Million Volley. The phenomenon of Dean magazines, now selling well into their second million, is part of a large one: the "one-shot" magazine, i.e., a deliberate publishing flash in the pan devoted to a single subject. Together, growing steadily since World War II, the one-shotters add up to a circulation volley that now hits more than 20 million a year.

One-shotters make their biggest mark with personalities as subjects (Elvis Presley, Pope Pius XII, Billy Graham, Marilyn Monroe). But the bulk of them do well on hobbies and special guidance. Sample: Your Hair-Do, How to Buy Air Conditioning, Fix-It Yourself, Complete Guide for Young Marrieds. The magazines sell from 15-c- to $1, take two months to produce in any quality, usually print at least 100,000 copies and live from three months to a year on the newsstands. Five publishers dominate the field, using small but expert editing and layout staffs and free-lance writers. Only the biggest, Manhattan's Fawcett Publications, Inc., which turns out 55 of a year's 200 one-shot titles, manages to sell advertising regularly in such ephemeral ventures.

One Big Life. Since it depends more than any other magazine on the pulling power of its cover, the one-shotter tends to sensation, and the very nature of the field attracts fly-by-nights with the hope of a quick killing. But the magazines vary violently from trash to high quality. Two of the top companies have their one-shotters reprinted regularly between hard covers by book publishers and sold at book prices. One notable success: The Family of Man, a photographic one-shotter that has sold 600,000 in its original $1 version, also sells in a $10 edition.

Sometimes a successful one-shotter graduates into an annual or a quarterly, e.g., Screen Album Magazine, Baseball. But that is not the goal of the one-shot specialist, who is always looking for the magazine that will live big even if (unlike James Dean) it lives only once.

* In Dorothy Dix's syndicated advice column a girl wrote: "I am 15 and in love. The problem that I love the late James Dean . I don't know what to do." Miss Dix's advice: "Time heals all wounds . . ."

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