Posts Tagged ‘LIFE Magazine’
Emilio, Molly and Judd
LIFE Magazine. Apr, 1985.
Life, then and now
I’ve always admired the concept of LIFE magazine, and remain heartbroken over its decline as our preferences for digestion of news, entertainment, sports — all things “life” — changed unexptectedly as the 20th century drew to a close.
The publication started out as a general interest magazine in 1883, but it wasn’t until 1936 — when Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine — that it was repackaged in the now-iconic format, becoming a coffee-table standard. These were the heydays of LIFE, and it enjoyed a successful run as a weekly publication with a strong emphasis on photojournalism to reach its audience through 1972.
Dwindling sales brought LIFE down to an intermittent “special” that was published sporadically until 1978. Renewed interest then brought the magazine back to a monthly publication through 2000. It’s final incarnation was seen in the format of a thin, Sunday newspaper supplement published by Time Inc. from 2004 to 2007.
Here, an ironic cover from October 8, 1971 parallels the country today, 38 years later to the date. Seems we have a bit more way to go, though, before we can borrow the feature story’s title.
