Editing Modern Screen (section)

== Founding ==

''Modern Screen'' magazine debuted on November 3, 1930.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/modernscreenmaga01unse/page/n5 Ref to First Issue]</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Shine|first=Anthony|title=Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A History of Star Makers, Fabricators, and Gossip Mongers.|year=2010|publisher=University of Mississippi Press|isbn=978-1-60473-413-3|pages=114}}</ref> Founded by the Dell Company of [[New York, New York|New York City]] it initially sold for 10 cents. ''Modern Screen'' quickly became popular and by 1933 it had become ''[[Photoplay]]'' magazine's main competition. It began to brag on its cover that it had "The Largest Circulation of Any Screen Magazine",<ref name="Shine114">{{cite book|last=Shine|first=Anthony|title=Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A history of star makers, fabricators, and gossip mongers.|year=2010|publisher=University of Mississippi Press|isbn=978-1-60473-413-3|pages=114}}</ref> and [[Jean Harlow]] is seen reading a copy of ''Modern Screen'' in the 1933 film ''[[Dinner at Eight (1933 film)|Dinner at Eight]]''.

During the early 1930s, the magazine featured artwork portraits of film stars on the cover. By 1940 it featured natural color photographs of the stars and was charging 15 cents per issue.

''Modern Screen'' had many different editors in chief over the years, including Richard Heller, who understood the importance of the fan magazine's contribution to movie sales <ref name="Shine188">{{cite book|last=Shine|first=Anthony|title=Inside the Hollywood Fan Magazine: A history of star makers, fabricators, and gossip mongers.|year=2010|publisher=University of Mississippi Press|isbn=978-1-60473-413-3|pages=188}}</ref>  and [[Mark Bego]], the latter of whom edited the book ''The Best of Modern Screen'' <ref>{{cite book|last=Bego|first=Mark|title=The Best of Modern Screen|url=https://archive.org/details/bestofmodernscre00bego|url-access=registration|year=1986|publisher=St. Martin's Press|location=New York|isbn= 9780312077211|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bestofmodernscre00bego/page/224 224]}}</ref>  (St. Martin's Press, 1986). The editor most associated with the magazine, however, was Regina Cannon (1900–1992), but her standards for publication were so low that Carl F. Cotter, who wrote 'Forty Hacks of the Fan Mags' (''The Coast'', 1939), declared her stories to be the worst of the entire lot.<ref name="Shine114"/>

Contributors to the magazine included famed photographer [[George Hurrell]] and famed writers like [[Faith Baldwin]].<ref name="Shine114"/> [[Louella Parsons]] wrote a column entitled "Good News."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kashner|first=Sam|title=The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the 50s|year=2003|publisher=W. W. Norton|isbn= 9780393324365|pages=281}}</ref>