The 818 Now

Glendale News-Press, 1936

OK, so I made a bit of a faux-pas: I called my dad and asked him what he could remember about the Abdication.

“The what?”

“The Abdication. You know, Edward VIII in 1936.”

There is a pause. “How bloody old do you think I am?”

“Er… I have to go, the cats are on fire.”

With that behind me (dad was born in 1938) here’s another old News-Press. Hard to think why the abdication of a foreign monarch would be front-page news in what is a community newspaper, but the Constiutional Crisis was headline news all across the globe and especially in what was then our Empire (not that it included Glendale, of course). It’s another AP story so I’m assuming the regular reporters were all across the road in the pub while the poor comps had to glue the paper together.

I know it’s a huge story but let’s face it, two lines of all-caps headline with three lines of all-caps keydeck and another three-line sub-deck is a bit much. I don’t think the paper I worked for in Britain had that much when Princess Diana died. And “PREPARES TO FLEE COUNTRY” is a bit harsh, although not entirely unfair as he was packed off to Bermuda during World War II for his alleged Nazi sympathies.

Nice to see the primitive skybox in 1936; that’s the bit about bus fares that’s running across the top of the page. We’re bringing that back with the redesign, although ours will be a bit heavier on the colour and graphics. But I am a bit lost as to its purpose, as the skybox is supposed to plug an inside story such as sports or entertainment and this one doesn’t have any page refer. Also, why does it say “Six Months’ Trial Of City-Wide 5-Cent Bus Fare Ordered” when a couple of inches below is a story headlined “Reduced Fares On Buses To Be Tested”. Unless they’re the same story, but that would be odd to say the least.

And the masthead – we’ve travelled back from the ’40s brush script to Gothic, a style I’ve never liked. I can’t say I’m a fan of this one. It doesn’t have much of a presence on the page and is swamped by the mass of type around it. Maybe if they’d done it white on black it might stand out, but as it is it’s just lost.

Next up: The RD White explosion.