Look: How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped Define Mid-Twentieth-Century America

384 Pages·2021·57.801 MB·English

by  Andrew L. Yarrow

L O O K
L OO K
L OO K
How a Highly Influential Magazine Helped
Define Mid- Twentieth- Century America
Andrew L. Yarrow
Potomac Books | an imPrint of the University of neBraska Press
© 2021 by Andrew L. Yarrow
All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint
of the University of Nebraska Press.
Manufactured in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Yarrow, Andrew L., author.
Title: Look: how a highly influential
magazine helped define mid- twentieth-
century America / Andrew L. Yarrow.
Other titles: Look magazine.
Description: Lincoln: Potomac Books, an imprint
of the University of Nebraska Press, [2021] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2021015704
isBn 9781612349442 (hardback)
isBn 9781640125100 (epub)
isBn 9781640125117 (pdf)
Subjects: lcsh: Look magazine. | Popular
culture— United States— 20th century. | United
States— Civilization— 20th century. | Bisac: history
/ United States / 20th century | langUage arts &
disciPlines / Journalism | lcgft: Periodicals.
Classification: lcc Pn4900.l6 y37 2021 | ddc 051— dc23
lc record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021015704
Set in Sabon Next by Mikala R. Kolander.
Designed by N. Putens.
To the memory of Michael Rose

contents
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xix
1. A Forgotten, Misunderstood Magazine That Helped
Define America’s Golden Era 1
2. In the Beginning 21
3. Look’s Thirty- Five Years in Mid- Twentieth- Century America 35
4. The People Who Made Look 55
5. Singing the Praises of Postwar Prosperity 73
6. Anything Is Possible 89
7. Look’s Pioneering Role in Covering Civil Rights 107
8. Changing Families, Changing Roles 127
9. Changing Ideas about Women and Men 141
10. Baby Boomers 149
11. When Government and Politicians Were Respected 155
12. Look’s “One World” Internationalism 181
13. Covers, Special Features, and Popular Culture 211
14. The End of Look, the Postwar Consensus,
and America’s Golden Age 235
Notes 247
Index 299
ill Ustrations
Following page 122
1. Look building
2. Editors approving layout
3. Woman with beach ball and Hitler cover
4. Eleanor Roosevelt and Mike Cowles
5. Mike and Fleur Cowles with Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra
6. Earl Theisen with Ernest Hemingway
7. Flair cover
8. Chevrolet assembly, from “gm’s Fifty Years
of Men, Money and Motors”
9. Young people at a Florida swimming pool, from “Florida”