Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-04
''Shock-Proof' Public Sees
Passing of Police Gazette

Receivership for the Police Gazette
pink sheet" of the barber shops and
bar rooms of former generations, is
assumed by the public to have resulted
from its failure to achieve the supreme
shocks of modern, daring publications
Once known as the most extreme ex-
ample of its type of journal it has long
since ceased to hold that position.
Comparing the Gazette with its mod
ern competitors, the Chicago Daily
News remarks that "the historic sheet.
blushing pinkly over its fancied naugh-
tiness, seemed by contrast prim and
demure. Its ethical standards were too
high for modern days; its taste too fin
icky." The New York Herald Tribune
says, in recollections of the past: The
Gazette capitalized the arms and legs
Of celebrities for generous profit for
nearly five decades. Men of the time
gazed with wonder and amazement on
the represented biceps of Paddy Ryan
and the Ottomanlike upholstery OF
Lydia Thompson"
"A tradition, but only a tradition,
has passed" according to the Hartford
Courant. which suggests that "the tab
loidS printed pictures that would have
caused the pink sheets of the old week
" to turn carmine" The CHATTANOOGA
Times concludes that "a generation de-
manding and receiving something more
nearly up to the minute, something
more sensational, salacious and porno-
graphic than its mere Victorian naugh-
tiness. let it die" The Lincoln State
Journal feels that ait is a sad COM
mentary on the tastes of part of the
public that it demands richer food of
that sort for its regimen today"
1T didn't change with the times. 4"
records the Omaha World-H Herald
within the span of very few years
its pictures became less daring than the
sights which might be seen on any
city street. So-called art magazines
and fiction magazines corpered the
pornography market. Development of
sprightly newspaper sports sections
undermined its appeal to the fra
ternity OF Sportsmen. The Gazette
found itself with no assets except its
reputation and an outmoded formula
OF recent years it had even vanished
from barber shops. Now it is gone
The loss to society, we presume, will
be exactly nothing. Yet there are
many who will cherish the memory of
its pink pages-pages which were, some
how symbolic of the naivete of
thoroughly delightful age"
Those naughty girls who posed for
the Police Gazette photographers we're
only shrinking violets, after all" thinks
the Escanaba Daily Press, and the Rock
Island Argus feels that sit is creditable
TO the Gazette that suspension was due
to such cause" Recalling that, in its
best days, plump burlesque queens of
the hourglass figure adorned its pages,
and often kicked the shiny silk hats
from the heads of mustached gentle
men" the San Francisco Chronicle
comments: Alternating with such
GENES of wickedness were three-quarter
length portraits of prize ring cham
pions, either in boxing pose or very
majestic with folded arms. The Rich
ard K. Fox diamond belt emblematic
of the championship of this or that
class was always a ready decoration,
for Richard K. was the publisher. The
old Police Gazette had its points. But
the news Of its suspension causes Won
der that it survived so long against the
publications of the new
era 1t was too moderate and too high
brow for such competition"
"Only because it was once such a
great paper mot, however, with the
type of people who now lament so
its Disappearance has 1t
won esteem as something that was ever
so quaint and naive and colorful," says
the Baltimore Sun, while the Oakland
Tribune recalls that lit was naughty
before a world went In strongly for
and the Harrisburg
Telegraph recognizes in its service IAN
emblem of naughtiness
that has lost its appeal" The New
Orleans Tribune offers the comment:
%>~-.lbrows waAo miss the Gazette.
IN: Adsss4. zkakS club members Of