Feb 4th, 2016: National Police Gazette

[xoxoxoBruce]

From 1845 to 1977 the National Police Gazette was the chronicler of the seamy side of America.
Pictures are worth a thousand words but cameras, back in the day, were rarely where the action was,
and not fast enough to catch the juicy stuff anyway.
Besides, illustrators can draw up what the editor wrote, without regard to what really happened.

I highly doubt she wore that, or strangled him like that, but it sells papers.

"We offer a most interesting record of horrid murders, outrageous robberies, bold forgeries, astounding burglaries, hideous rapes, and vulgar seductions in various parts of the country.... The whole country swarms with hordes of English and other thieves, burglars, pickpockets, and swindlers, whose daily and nightly exploits give continual employment to our police officers, and whose course through the land, whatever direction they may take, may be traced by their depredations."
–The National Police Gazette, 1845, the year of its founding

But the paper didn’t have a big impact on journalism until 1877, when the mission of reporting was joined by
equal partners, instigating and accelerating, after it was taken over by a new editor/publisher named FOX.
Hmm, FOX News, the prequel.

A century before Howard Stern hit the airwaves, there was a man who not only recognized the appeal of quasi-lesbian imagery, but–like Stern–knew how to make it an acceptable part of popular culture. Five generations before Stephen Colbert and Sacha Baron Cohen blurred the distinction between the real and fictional news correspondent, there was a man who populated his real-news publication with fictional editors and their semi-real exploits. Before there was the celebrity gossip column, he invented it. Before there was a sports page, he created it. Before the advent of the girlie magazine, he provided it. When the sport of boxing was illegal and widely considered immoral, this man championed, promoted, and popularized it all the way into legal and public acceptance. The heads of "respectable" publications looked down on him, but then raced to imitate him when his success became undeniable.

Hugely popular, even across the ocean, the publication made an appearance in James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses. At a time when the barbershop was not just a place to get your hair cut, but served as the de facto gentlemen's club for the working class, it was known as the "bible of the barbershop." Its recipe mixed the titillating and funny with the informative and serious in just the right proportion, in a way that had never been thought of previously, in a way that led directly to what we know as today's tabloid journalism, sports reporting, skin magazines, shock jocks, and quasi-news programs such as the "Daily Show." The purveyors of these current forms of entertainment, as well as the professional sport of boxing, can address their gratitude to one Richard K. Fox and his publication the National Police Gazette.

Ladies living, dying, murdering, fighting, playing, or engaged in antisocial behavior like cigarettes and booze, it mattered not.
As long as they were showing as much skin as possible, and large bosoms, they were fantasy fuel.
National Police Gazette is now online with hefty archives to debauch future generations.