The Press: If Johnny Can't Read

The "world's first talking magazine" prepared last week to assault the ears of the reading public. Hear, a new 35¢ movie-fan bimonthly, will have pliable acetate records embedded in its front and back covers. By punching out the perforated record and playing it on a 78 r.p.m. phonograph, the fan will be able to hear his favorite star's very own voice. The first issue, with 300,000 copies already run off, will hit the newsstands early next month carrying recorded interviews with Tony Curtis and Jane Powell. For fans who can read, Hear also offers such written staples as "Who Put the Heat on Tab Hunter?" and "The Tragedy of Ava Gardner." The new magazine is the brain child of two Hollywood pressagents, gets its disks from Rainbo Records, whose president, Jack Brown, ran a World War II experimental project for the U.S. Navy to combat mosquito pollution by wooing the insects with recorded mosquito mating sounds. In its second issue Hear plans to woo fans with the breathy, come-hither voice of Marilyn Monroe, who will chat "about her romances . . . and all sorts of things."