By Bonnie Brown

Columnist

Back many years ago, I had a fascination with magazines.  I remember we subscribed to Look Magazine, and I thought that it was fantastic.  I loved the look and feel of the publication.  It had slick pages, and all the print and pictures were fabulous, so much color on each page.  Not like the daily newspaper we got each day.  There was also another magazine called Life Magazine.  And let us not forget Ladies Home Journal which was founded in 1883 and ended publication in 2016.  

Magazines seemed to bring the outside in.  There were stories that took place in other parts of the country, and the world.  I remember my mother reading True Story magazine which was directed at adult women and supposedly contained true stories.  

Today many magazines are still published but so many publications simply died.  I looked up a list of defunct American magazines and the list was so long and contained many titles I had never heard of.  And today’s offering of magazines is available either in print or online.  In my opinion, an on-line version of a magazine cheats you out of the feel and pleasure a hard copy version delivers.  

I think that magazines are very artistic.  The photos, the way the article is displayed on the page, and the print are attractive and very eye-catching.  However, there are so many ads for products and services that every other page is hawking something.  It detracts from the appeal of the magazine, in my opinion.  And if you notice, all magazines have pretty much the same advertisements.  Boring!

I particularly remember the era of Eddie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds-Elizabeth Taylor.  Such a scandal!  And every magazine seemed to carry all the torrid details (as they knew it).  It was the talk of the neighborhood ladies any time they were together.  How could he abandon Debbie for Liz?  There were so many photos, I feel certain many were likely published so as to further the scandal and magazine sales.  

Today, magazines seem to focus on fewer celebrities and more on background stories of people in the news.  However, there is People Magazine which launched on March 4, 1974, and featured actress Mia Farrow from The Great Gatsby on the cover.  People Magazine was touted as a “weekly celebrity and human-interest magazine spotlighting the personal lives of notable and intriguing people.”  

I subscribed to People Magazine several years ago and enjoyed reading the expanded version as told in print about the various celebrities.  It was so entertaining to read about these people in the news that lived their lives under a microscope and were likely exaggerated somewhat by the articles.  

I received a complimentary copy of People Magazine in the mail recently along with an offer to subscribe at a significantly discounted price.  I was impressed and seriously considered accepting the offer.  However, I spent quite a while reading the articles and stories about the celebrities in the magazine sent to me.  Frankly, I must be so out of touch because I didn’t recognize many of the “celebrities” contained in the articles.  I did read the article about Meghan Markle, also known as the Duchess of Sussex.  It seems she’s been quite busy with a Netflix series along with other projects.  It also seems like she’s the breadwinner in the royal couple.  

I tossed the offer of a discounted subscription to People since I clearly am out of the know (and apparently lack interest) in today’s celebrities and their projects/antics.  How did I get so old so fast?