The Press: 90-Day Wonder

• Share

When the flossy fashion-trade magazine Kaleidoscope made its bow this fall, magazine men were amazed at the jet-propelled speed with which it had been put together (TIME, Sept. 13). Last week, Kaleidoscope set another speed record of sorts: after only three issues, it fizzled out like a spent rocket. On Thanksgiving eve dismissal notices went to the staff.

In its short life, the monthly had burned up $800,000 invested by Backers Harold Talbott, Jack Chrysler, Angier Biddle Duke, Joe Uihlein Jr. (Schlitzbeer) and others. To keep going, Kaleidoscope needed another $1,400,000, and nobody wanted to risk that much. Explained Publisher William Husted: "There's a falling market in the fashion industry right now ... and we just didn't get enough advertising." (From 172 pages of ads in October, sales had dropped to 56 in November, only 22½ in December.)

Editor Martha Stout had a different reason. "None of those boys knew a thing about publishing," she said bitterly. "It's pretty tough these days even for publishers who know what they're doing."

Adman Arthur Collins, who had founded Kaleidoscope and was squeezed out of it three weeks after the first issue appeared, agreed with Editor Stout. "The sole cause of their failure was their management, or lack of it," said he. "It was sure what one magazine called it—a '90Day Wonder."