“Look: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-Twentieth Century America” by Andrew Yarrow

Of all the general-interest magazines that held sway for decades before bowing out in the mid-20th century, Look is the one that’s often forgotten, said Peter Yarrow, whose book on the magazine points out that the publication had 35 million readers at its peak.Unlike Life, Reader’s Digest and the Saturday Evening Post, the other major magazines of the day, Look tends to be overlooked, he told Steve Tarter.“Look—which has slipped from national memory—had an extraordinary influence on mid-20th century America,” said Yarrow, noting that the magazine was published from 1935 to 1971 before closing. While a bit on "the schlocky side" at first, by the late 1940s, Look had grown into a powerful force with pictures and stories that both informed and entertained Americans, he said.While Life continues to resurface at the supermarket counter with special editions on topics from the Beatles to the sinking of the Titanic, Look remains lost in the past. Unlike Life, Look has also never been digitized, said Yarrow, at work on a documentary of the magazine at present.The loss of national magazines that were often optimistic about solving some of the social problems of the day has proved to be a major loss for the country, he said. “Instead of Look’s thoughtful, public-spirited journalism, we now live in a maelstrom of countless, small-audience, online, broadcast and print media,” said Yarrow, who points to an underappreciated past.“The mid-20th century was a golden age (featuring) an increasingly prosperous middle class, a government that actually got things done and a reasonably well-informed citizenry,” he said.Look took strong stands on civil rights and was one of the first national publications to profile gay Americans, said Yarrow. While Norman Rockwell is famous for the many covers he produced for the Post, it’s often forgotten that he also did some 30 paintings for Look, including the famous 1964 work that depicted Ruby Bridges, an African American grade schooler being escorted by federal marshals to a New Orleans school ordered to integrate, he said.Film director Stanley Kubrick worked as a photographer for Look for six years, starting when he was just 16, said Yarrow.Magazines like Life (which ended regular publication a year after Look) had millions of subscribers up until the day they folded but weren't able to hold advertisers who moved to television in the 1960s, said Yarrow, pointing to an increase in postal rates and competition from special-interest magazines as helping bring the curtain down on the country's general-interest magazine era. Additional information on Yarrow’s documentary project is available at https://andrewlyarrow.com/the-life-of-look-the-film.