1930 - Communications, Media

Communications, Media

The Daily Worker begins publication at London January 1. The Communist Party organ will continue until 1941 and become the Morning Star in 1966.

The Moscow News begins publication with Anna Louise Strong as editor-publisher. The English-language paper is for foreigners.

The Times of London publishes its first crossword puzzle February 1 (see Sunday Express, 1924).

The afternoon paper Paris-Soir begins publication under the direction of textile mogul Jean Prouvost, now 45, whose publishing ventures will rival his textile enterprises (see Paris-Match, 1938).

William Randolph Hearst owns 33 U.S. newspapers, whose circulation totals 11 million.

"Mickey Mouse" debuts January 12 in the New York Mirror with drawings by Ub Iwerks, copy by Walt Disney (see film, 1928). Iwerks tells Disney's older brother Roy January 21 that he wants to leave the company, Roy buys his 20 percent share of the company for $2,920, but Iwerks will return within a few years.

"Joe Palooka" debuts April 19 in 20 U.S. newspapers. Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-born cartoonist Hammond Edward "Ham" Fisher, 28, met a boxer while working as a teenaged journalist, began developing the cartoon character based on the boxer's grammar and gentle personality, worked until last year as an advertising salesman for the New York Daily News, and has helped secure 40 newspaper clients for the McNaught Syndicate's troubled comic strip "Dixie Dugan." His new strip is an instant success, Fisher will use the virtuous "Palooka" to represent traditional virtues, and more than 500 newspapers will carry it by the late 1930s (see 1940).

"Blondie" debuts September 8. Chicago cartoonist Murat Bernard "Chic" Young, 29, has been drawing "Dumb Dora." His jazz-age flapper heroine is married to playboy Dagwood Bumstead, their antics will make "Blondie" the most widely syndicated of all cartoon strips, more than 1,600 U.S. newspapers plus some foreign papers will carry the strip, and the huge sandwiches created by Bumstead on evening forays to the refrigerator will become widely known as "dagwoods."

Fortune magazine begins publication at New York in February with writers who include Archibald MacLeish. The new Henry Luce business monthly has 182 pages in its first issue and sells at newsstands for $1 ($10 per year by subscription) (see Time, 1923; LIFE, 1936; commerce [Fortune "500"], 1954).

Former Ladies' Home Journal editor Edward W. Bok dies at Lake Wales, Fla., January 9 at age 66 and is buried at the base of the "Singing Tower" carillon that he built there last year; New Republic magazine editor Herbert D. Croly dies at Santa Barbara, Calif., May 17 at age 61. His opposition to the vindictive terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty 11 years ago cut the readership of his magazine in half and he has lost interest in public affairs.

Philadelphia Storage Battery Co. (later Philco) becomes the world's largest manufacturer of radio sets, having paid off its loan and grossed $34 million at a time when nearly 10 percent of Americans are unemployed (see 1926). The company purchases Transitone Co., which has pioneered development of automobile radios (see 1932).

The first practical radio for automobiles is introduced in June by the 2-year-old Chicago firm Galvin Manufacturing Co., which will become Motorola Inc. in 1947. Patented August 7, it has been invented by Hannibal, Mo.-born high-school dropout William P. (Powell) Lear, 28, who has lacked the funds to produce the radio himself, but has persuaded Paul Galvin to manufacture the receiver that can play in a moving car without interference from the car's electrical system. Its tuner is mounted on the steering column, it is twice the size of a tackle box, its bulky speaker is stuffed under the floorboards, and its audio qualities leave much to be desired, but car owners buy the new radios from automotive parts distributors and tire dealers.

U.S. radio set sales increase to 13.5 million, up from 75,000 in 1921. U.S. advertisers spend $60 million on radio commercials (see 1922; FCC, 1934).

Lowell Thomas begins a nightly radio network news program September 29 (see Nonfiction, 1924). Now 38, Thomas said in 1922, "The radio craze . . . will die out in time," but his program will run on both NBC and CBS for a year, NBC will carry it from 1931 to 1946, CBS from 1946 until May 14, 1976.