Hearst Magazine Building

History and architecture

The Hearst Magazine Building was designed in 1926-27 by Joseph Urban (one of the foremost theater designers in America in the early twentieth century as well as a skilled architect) in association with George B. Pest & Sons (noted commercial architects). Stretching a full block along the west side of Eighth Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, the building remains the expectant six-story base of an office tower that was never constructed. It is a stylistic synthesis of Art Deco ornament, Secessionist influence and Baroque theatricality.

Further enriched by classical allusions which are both imposing and dramatic, the building survives as a relic of unrealized plans to transform greater Columbus Circle into New York's new cultural and commercial center as well as the corporate headquarters of Hearst's vast publishing empire. The unique product of a uniquely skilled designer, the Hearst Magazine Building is an important monument in the architectural heritage of New York.

William Randolph Hearst

Hearst was born in San Francisco on April 29, 1863, the son of a United States Senator who also owned several newspapers. In 1882 young "Willie" Hearst enrolled in Harvard University where, aside from American history, he showed little interest in his studies. Instead, he became involved in the Hasty Pudding Club and especially the Harvard lampoon which Hearst made profitable for the first time in years. After a rowdy career , Hearst was expelled from Harvard in his senior year.

He returned to California and persuaded his father to let him take over the San Francisco Examiner. Within eight years he transformed this unprofitable four-page daily — "easily the worst in San Francisco" — into the largest newspaper on the West Coast. And while it remained the political mouthpiece of Senator Hearst, the Examiner also launched independent crusades against civic, corporate and governmental corruption. Thriving on sensational journalism, it previewed the trend of ''gee whiz emotion" that

would characterize Hearst's later publications and which lay at the core of his multi-million dollar fortune.

Eager to achieve national prominence, Hearst moved to New York with the purchase of the Morning Journal in 1895- He burst upon Printing House Square, quickly violating all the traditions of this previously sedate bastion of newspaper publishing. Hearst's major opponent was Joseph Pulitzer whose World he studied, copied, and ultimately conquered- He reduced the price of the Journal to a penny (forcing Pulitzer to do the same) and through enormous salary increases manned his staff with the best managers, editors and reporters, most cf whan were lured away from Pulitzer. In time Hearst also took Pulitzer's publisher and when, in 1927-28, he built the International Magazine Building near Columbus Circle, he employed the successor firm of George B. Post, architect of Pulitzer's World Building in 1889-90 (demolished).

By 1900 Hearst was personally involved in national politics. He was twice elected New York State Congressman (1902-06), but otherwise launched unsuccessful bids for the vice-presidency (1900) and presidency (1904) of the United States, mayoralty (1905) and governorship (1906) of New York. He was defeated in the latter (his last major candidacy) after Secretary of State Elihu Root accused him of responsibility for the assassination of President McKinley.

In the coarse of his political career, Hearst continued to build his publishing empire. To the Morning Journal (Journal American after 1902) he added the Evening Journal (1896) which, within a year, had the largest circulation in the English speaking world. He also established or purchased the New York Morning Advertiser (1897) and Daily Mirror (1924) as well as other newspapers in virtually every major American city. By 1926 Hearst was receiving an annual income of $150 million from the 72 companies of which he was sole proprietor; he had no stockholders.

In addition to his 26 newspapers, Hearst owned over a dozen magazines, Cosmopolitan (1905), Good Housekeeping (1911), Harper's Bazaar (1912) and Hearst's Internationa1 (1920) among them. In 1923 he became a newsreel pioneer with the Hearst-Selig Weekly, subsequently increasing his film involvements with motion pictures, most of which were vehicles for actress Marion Davies. Hearst met Miss Da vies (his mistress for the latter third of his life) in 1917 when she appeared as a chorus girl in Florenz Ziegfeld's Follies.

The production was especially memorable for its dreamy stage sets by Joseph Urban. In the following years, Hearst, Urban and Ziegfeld had various associations, the most important being the new Ziegf eld Theater on 56th Street and Sixth Avenue (1928; demolished) which Hearst subsidized and Urban designed (in collaboration with Thomas Iamb). In the same year Hearst engaged his by then close friend Joseph Urban to design the International Magazine Building.

It was to be located on West 57th Street, a rapidly developing section of New York already distinguished by imposing commercial buildings, Carnegie Hall (1891), the Art Students' league (1892) and numerous art galleries ranch frequented by Hearst.