The Sunday News

Assuming you were not one of those Upper East Side pantywaists or a foaming-at-the-mouth Leftist, you probably picked up a copy of the Sunday News on April 14, like more than 4-million other New Yorkers. You might not agree with its Right Wing editorials and ostensibly sneered at its low-brow focus on celebrities, crime and scandal, but you wouldn't want to miss Dick Tracy or Gasoline Alley. The paper had twice the circulation of its nearest Sunday competitor, the Sunday Mirror, and four times the readership of the Sunday Journal-American and New York Times. And it was easy to read.

Page one that day had the photo of a cop and a corpse, the aftermath of a botched robbery. The headline story was about a vote in Congress to suspend the draft. Of equal, if not more interest to most readers, were the doings of the characters in the News funny papers. The back page of the news section was devoted to sports with the lead story being the Dodgers 3-2 victory over the Yankees in an exhibition game. News items in the Sunday News were short with local news, human interest stories and crime getting big play. The editorial page included the editorial, softer than the highly political editorials of the Daily News, an editorial cartoon and two of the newspaper's most popular features, "The Inquiring Photographer" and "The Voice of the People," as the News called its letters to the editor section. The doubletruck pages in the center of the News carried a spread of stand-alone news photos, mostly of the human interest type.

The paper covered movies, theater, radio and celebrities in its entertainment pages, which included Ed Sullivan and Hedda Hopper's columns. Extensive lifestyle and service features were a major attraction for women readers as was the serialized fiction, which this week was the latest installment of "The Laughing Detective.". The feature stories that week were on the lives of the UN Security Council delegates, the plight of war brides and a true crime story, a Sunday News staple, about a serviceman who had murdered his wife. Coloroto was the News Sunday supplement and was mostly pictures with little text. Penny Singleton, who played Blondie in the movies and on radio, was on the cover. The Brooklyn section also carried community news from Queens and Long Island and was an advertising goldmine.

April 14 was the Sunday before Easter and the Sunday News was thick with ads for women's suits, dresses, hats and coats, despite the clothing shortage. It was mostly the lower end department stores and the bargain basements of the mid-range stores that took ads in the newspaper that week,

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