If the April 1950 Issue of Holiday Magazine had never been published, there’s more than just a slight possibility that the Lower Merion community of Belmont Hills might still be called West Manayunk.
But there was an April issue of Holiday Magazine, and it triggered an uproar on The Hill.
Holiday Magazine was created in 1946 by the Philadelphia-based Curtis Publishing Company. At that time, the two pillars of the Curtis Empire were the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal. Combined, the two magazines had circulations of more than 8 million. By 1950, Holiday Magazine’s circulation was well in excess of 500,000.
In 2013, Michael Callahan wrote in Vanity Fair “The concept was basically to get famous authors who had maybe one or two weeks in between their books or projects to go and travel and write glorious pieces,” says John Lewis Stage, a photographer who circled the globe taking pictures for Holiday. “So you’d have James Michener sent off to the South Pacific, for example. It was an intriguing way to put together a magazine. It was an oddball publication that used photographs to tell stories.”
Instead of sending Michener halfway around the world to write a story, in 1949, Curtis found a way to cut some money out of its travel budget. They sent the distinguished author to Lower Merion to write a 23-page cover story, cleverly titled, “The Main Line.”
It is doubtful that Michener, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for “Tales of the South Pacific,” was particularly proud of “The Main Line.”
In 2008, Mark Dixon wrote in Main Line Today –
Later in his career, Michener could afford to turn down hack writing assignments. But in 1949, he agreed to do a profile of the Main Line for Holiday magazine, an upbeat travel publication. It paid well. There was no shame in it. John Steinbeck and Irwin Shaw also wrote for Holiday.
The article itself was pure puffery. In prose accompanied by photographs of stone mansions, debutantes, horses and Quaker meetings, Michener praised the old families who ran the place so well. The article did acknowledge that the Main Line’s heyday had passed. Rather than a pile of stone costing millions, he wrote, “today’s Main Line aristocrat prefers a $40,000 house. And rather than 30 servants, he strives to get—and keep—one.”
Overall, Michener depicted a suburban utopia where most residents wanted—and got—little change.
The Michener article stretched out for 23 pages, but it was one small paragraph that produced so much outrage on The Hill.
The Incendiary Paragraph
Farther downriver, the cliffside town of West Manayunk perches Pittsburgh-like in the gloom. ‘It’s a disgrace to call that a part of Lower Merion,’ the Main Liner is likely to protest. ‘It really belongs to Philadelphia.’ The school board, however, is determined to provide the best that democracy can afford, and sends the West Manayunk children to the ultra-lovely Bala Cynwyd Junior High. ‘By the time we get them in Lower Merion High,’ the officials say, ‘you can’t tell them from the others. Good kids, those Manayunkers.
Here’s what Michener had to say about Barnes and the Barnes Foundation.
After the article was published, other than “those Manayunkers,” most of the Main Line just went about its privileged way, pretty much oblivious to Michener’s article, with one notable exception – Dr. Albert Barnes. The irascible scientist businessman, with the world-renowned art collection, was less than thrilled about the way in which Michener had depicted him and his foundation (above).
Ann Meyers in her book “Art, Education, & African-American Culture : Albert Barnes and the Science of Philanthropy,” wrote –
Immediately after reading the article, Barnes sent a hand-delivered letter to the Michener that began –
“Somebody gave me a copy of the menstrual drip, Holiday, in which you let the world know you are on call by a Philadelphia concern that runs a chain of houses of prostitution of literature.”
It ended “You glamorize ordinary people, lick their boots ad nauseum, comfort smug complacency of snobs.”
Here’s how the Main Line Times covered the story – April 6, 1950.
Click above to enlarge.
A sampling of letters to the Main Line Times commenting on the article. Click above to enlarge.
Main Line Times Editorial
Barnes letter in support of West Manayunk
The Silver Lining – Thanks to Michener, West Manayunk had a civic association.
In October of 1953, The West Manayunk Civic Association organized a referendum, and without mentioning Holiday Magazine or James Michener, the community voted to change its name to Belmont Hills.
Photo – Philadelphia Inquirer
Less than a year after Barnes and Michener engaged in their war of words, Barnes was dead – killed on July 24, 1951 at the age of 79, when the car he was driving was struck by a truck.