People Like Pictures

"In these rather hectic days of stress and strain we are happy to point out that there is one little magazine in the world (ours) which feels that the mere changing of seasons is a wonderful and momentous thing and we are glad that we have the facilities to record that change."

Thus, Editor Raymond Carlson this week introduced his Arizona Highways to the U.S. at large. For the first time, it blossomed out on newsstands across the nation, and dudes could see what its western readers have long known: that Highways is one of the prettiest byways among American monthlies.

In its 36-page October (35-c- a copy) issue, the 30 color plates are of birds, sorghum-growing, and eye-catching photographs of autumn in the Southwest; the articles are on such subjects as Indian fighters and a ghost mining town. When 44-year-old Editor Carlson, a onetime small-town (Miami, Ariz.) newspaperman, began running Highways in 1937, it was a house organ for road builders, its pages a hodgepodge of construction notices and contractors' ads. With his $100,000 yearly appropriation from the state, Carlson kicked out the ads, and turned Highways into a mirror of the beauties of Arizona.

He ran color pictures of Indians, western life, animals, but mostly of scenery. Without promotion or agents (forbidden by state law), Highways gained 200,000 readers, of whom only 14,000 are in Arizona.

The two-man staff--Editor Carlson and Art Director George Avey, a former highways department draftsman--pick pictures just because they like them, and have no qualms about running the same sort of picture again & again. In five years, Carlson figures they have printed some 250 shots of cactus flowers. Says he: "Every once in a while readers say 'no more Indians,' but never have they said 'too many cactus flowers.' "

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