Bigger Chicagoan

More and more does Chicago become conscious of its obligations to itself as a great city. With an eye to the World's Fair of 1933 it is learning to wear a silk hat and carry a gold-headed stick. Last week was added a new note of Chicago elegance.

Created in the image of The New Yorker, five years ago The Chicagoan first appeared, drawing its inspiration from the East, its pocket money from the West. Publisher was Martin Quigley, a hardworking, red-headed newspaper man who had made enough money out of cinema trade magazines (Motion Picture Almanac, Herald and Daily, Better Theatres, Hollywood Herald) to take up polo. First issues reminded readers not so much of The New Yorker as of an imitation of a college funnypaper imitating The New Yorker. But the magazine improved with age, reported the local drama, sport, social goings-on with a ton which was cheerful if derivative. It also carried little comic stories by Chicago writers, jokes illustrated in the manner of Peter Arno. Suddenly and surprisingly last week, those Chicagoans who buy the magazine found a new kind of Chicagoan on their newsstands. This time Publisher Quigley had Vanity Fair in the back of his mind. Henceforth The Chicagoan (circulation: 23,000), enlarged to the page-size of The Spur, will cost 50-c- the copy, will appear only once a month.

The first big issue contained an article by Editor Peter Vischer of Polo (which Publisher Quigley used to own) on Chicago's exciting fortnight of international polo at Onwentsia (TIME, July 20). Other contributors were talent mustered from around the town. Arthur Meeker Jr., arty son of one of the best families, wrote rather harshly about having to stay in Illinois in the summertime. William C. Boyden, Harvardman, literary lawyer, did a comic piece about actors and actresses he had known. He used to be theatre critic for the earlier Chicagoan. Another old contributor--Durand Smith, Oxonian, Lake Forest socialite--sent in some travel notes from Italy. Helen Young wrote a page of tittle-tattle. She is society editor of Hearst's Herald & Examiner. William Randolph Weaver, younger brother of Poet John Van Alstyn Weaver (In American) and the magazine's editor, wrote about soap models. C. J. Bulliet, theatre critic and art editor of the Evening Post, gave an elementary lecture on modern art. There were two pages in four colors, several pages of photographs in the modern manner, eight pages of illustrations in blue ink. All was put together with a finish and flair worthy of a national publication, to make a magazine worthy of bigger & better Chicago.

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