People celebrate the New Year in a host of fashions.
In New York City, thousands of people gather in Times Square to watch the ball drop at midnight. Elsewhere, they launch fireworks and ooh and aah.
People attend gatherings large and small, often counting down together the final ten seconds of the year. Then, depending on their mood or state of consciousness, they make a lot of noise, toss confetti into the air, share a kiss, or toast with some champagne. Or perhaps all of the above.
Some spend New Year’s Eve watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. Or sing “Auld Lang Syne.” Or simply listen to a recording of the tune by Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians.
The New Year means that it’s time for the Mummers Parade in Philly. On the Pacific side, it’s the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena.
Down south, folks eat a serving of Hoppin’ John — a dish of black-eyed peas, pork, and rice — to bring good luck. In Pennsylvania Dutch country, they eat pork and sauerkraut. Others believe the color of their underwear will decide their fate in the coming year.
And then there’s football. The Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Peach Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, the Pulp Bowl . . . err . . . not the last one. New Year’s means that its time for America to celebrate college football.
Back during The Great Depression, Fiction House debuted a decidedly non-fictional magazine. Launched in 1930 and published through 1953, the Illustrated Football Annual was the first annual college football magazine and the preeminent college football guide for most of its 24-year run. Published annually, it offered readers the most comprehensive look at the college game across America. The text was supplied by some of the leading football writers of the day — Braven Dyer, O.B. Keeler, Bill Leiser, Francis J. Powers, Grantland Rice — to name a few. For most of its run, the covers were painted by George Gross, undoubtedly the company’s leading sports pulp artist.
Street & Smith got the ball rolling by introducing Sport Story Magazine in 1923 — the first sports pulp. However, it was J. Q. Glenister’s and John B. Kelly’s Fiction House that led the specialized sports pulp field.
Beginning with Fight Stories — launched in mid-1928 — Fiction House published over 200 issues of single-sports pulps through 1954. Their non-boxing titles included All-American Football Magazine, Baseball Stories, Basketball Stories, Football Action, and Football Stories. The company also published three issues of a general-interest sports pulp entitled Bull’s Eye Sports.
Join PulpFest in the coming year as we celebrate the centennial of Fiction House, the 90th anniversary of Popular Publication’s “Dime” pulps, and the golden anniversary of PulpFest, by far, the world’s longest-running pulp con.
We hope you’ll join us from August 4 – 7 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry in Mars, Pennsylvania for “Action for a Dime” and “A Half-Century of Pulp Cons.” Click the “registration” button at the top of our website to learn how to become a PulpFest 50 member.
Your friends from PulpFest — Mike Chomko, Jack and Sally Cullers, Bill Lampkin, Sara Light-Waller, Craig McDonald, William Patrick Maynard, and Barry Traylor — would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.
George Gross painted countless covers for Fiction House magazines, including Action Stories, Air Stories, Baseball Stories, Detective Book Magazine, Fight Stories, Football Stories, Illustrated Football Annual, Jungle Stories, Lariat Story Magazine, North-West Romances, Two Complete Detective Books, and Wings. Pictured here are two of his Fiction House covers — the Fall 1949, second number, of All-American Football Magazine, and Football Action for Fall 1943, 1st number. Our featured image is a portion of the artist’s cover for Football Stories for Fall 1946, 1st number.
Although Gross painted the bulk of the 24 issues of Illustrated Football Annual, the cover art for the 1937 annual was done by Charles DeFeo, a freelance artist who worked for all of the major publishers of pulp magazines.
We hope you’ll join us August 4 – 7 for PulpFest 50. We’ll have a profile of the career of George Gross during our evening programming.
