In Robbinsdale we usually associate Captain Billy and Fawcett Publishing with our summer civic festival, Whiz Bang Days., but there was another magazine that helped put Robbinsdale’s publishing giant on the map. A couple years after the success of Whiz Bang magazine, Captain Billy bobbed his hair, hiked up his skirt and stepped into the the middle of a roaring new romance magazine market. Inspired by rival publisher titles, Real Confessions,True Romance, Real Romance and Real Confessions, Fawcett Publishing’s True Confessions made a splash by offering a cash rewards for their reader’s best stories. The cover price on the first issue was a quarter.
Fawcett hired Jack Smalley as the editor. Early issues featured cover illustrations by Norman Saunders. Carrying such articles as “The Romantic Story of Jack Dempsey’s Cinderella Bride.” The magazine climbed to a circulation of two million during the 1930’s. Whiz bang magazine is long gone, but True Confessions can be found at newsstands to this day. A couple years ago a proposal was floated in Robbinsdale for a witner civic celebration called “True Confessions Days”. The idea never caught on, but it would have made for an interesting parade!
Any information on Schaper Toy Mfg Co and it’s physical location would be of great help.