Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Profit (f)or the Public Good?

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13688804.2014.898898

1469-9729

Justin Bengry,

Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology

AbstractFrom the Sunday Pictorial's 1952 ‘Evil Men’ series, the first postwar exposé on homosexuality to appear in the British popular press, to the 1964 achievement by its stable mate the Daily Mirror of record circulation figures, both papers commodified and sensationalized homosexuality for consumption by mass newspaper audiences. Sensationalism was combined with homosexuality as a deliberate strategy to succeed in Britain's highly competitive postwar circulation wars and also to promote particular personal and political agendas of key directors. But historians have tended to focus on the vitriol of sensationalism, emphasizing its homophobic content, without fully interrogating the tactic itself. This paper looks at the origins of sensationalism as a strategy at Mirror Group newspapers, asserting that sensational treatments of homosexuality concretely illuminate the multiple interactions between subjective beliefs and the seemingly objective profit motive. At the Daily Mirror and Sunday Pictorial, homosexuals held a negative moral, political, and social value, but critically, they also held a high commercial value.KEYWORDS: Sensationalismhomosexualitytabloidsnewspapers1950sGreat Britain AcknowledgementFor their insightful comments on earlier versions and revision of this article I would like to thank Jessica Clark, Julia Laite, Brian Lewis, and Bianca Murillo. I also appreciate the feedback and suggestions of the two anonymous reviewers from this journal.Notes1. Douglas Warth, ‘Evil Men,’ Sunday Pictorial, May 25, 1952, 6 and 15. Other articles appeared: 1 June 1952, 12; 8 June 1952, 12. See Jeffrey CitationWeeks, Coming Out, 162–3.2. I am indebted to Chris Waters for his astute feedback on the need for engagement with the category of sensationalism both among the papers that made up the panel, and now this journal, but also on the field more broadly. Chris CitationWaters, Comments for the panel ‘Sexual Sensations: The Popular Press in Twentieth-Century Britain,’ North American Conference on British Studies, Montreal, 9 November 2012.3. CitationWeeks, Coming Out, 162 (italics original).4. CitationJeffery-Poulter, Peers, Queers and Commons, 11–12.5. CitationHiggins, Heterosexual Dictatorship, 283–93.6. CitationGreenslade, Press Gang, 87.7. The Sexual Offences Act (1967) only decriminalized homosexual acts between consenting men in England and Wales over the age of 21 committed in private. It did not apply to Scotland, Northern Ireland, the merchant navy or the armed forces.8. CitationWaters, ‘Disorders of the Mind,’ 139–40. This ‘tabloid discourse’ competed in the 1950s with scientific discourse ‘for both popular and state acceptance.’9. CitationBingham, Family Newspapers? 182.10. CitationHoulbrook, Queer London, 238; see also CitationHoulbrook and Waters, ‘The Heart in Exile.’11. CitationBengry, ‘Queer Profits.’12. There is similarly a long history of the transformation of British popular papers into sensational tabloids. CitationConboy, Tabloid Britain, 1–13.13. This description is from an unnamed woman born in Pembrokeshire, Wales in 1954. Box 6 5/535A, National Lesbian and Gay Survey, University of Sussex Library. See for example ‘They Infested a City,’ News of the World, August 1, 1954; Michael Knight, ‘Polluted,’ The People, August 16, 1964; and Noyes Thomas, ‘Into the Twilight World,’ News of the World, July 27, 1964.14. CitationWeeks, Coming Out, 162–3; and CitationHiggins, Heterosexual Dictatorship, 275 and 281.15. Of course employment of sensationalism was not limited to treatments of queer sexuality or homosex. Adrian Bingham identifies a ‘tradition of prurient journalism’ reaching back to the earliest news sheets of the sixteenth century. CitationBingham, Family Newspapers? 1. Most famously W. T. Stead, a key figure of the ‘New Journalism,’ used sensationalized accounts of child prostitution and the ‘white slave trade’ to appeal to an emerging mass market in the late nineteenth century. CitationLaite, Common Prostitutes, 55–8 and CitationLaite, ‘Justifiable Sensationalism.’16. CitationCocks, ‘Secrets, Crimes and Diseases,’ 115.17. CitationCocks, Nameless Offences, 123 and 133.18. CitationUpchurch, Before Wilde.19. See among many others: CitationBingham, Family Newspapers? 173–4; CitationHyde, The Other Love, 96–98, 123–33, 149; CitationKaplan, Sodom on the Thames, 171; CitationUpchurch, ‘Forgetting the Unthinkable,' 127–57; CitationSinfield, The Wilde Century; and CitationDavid, On Queer Street, chap. 1.20. On the competing interests of social reform and commercial concern in the ‘New Journalism’ see CitationHampton, ‘Representing the Public Sphere,’ 15–29.21. CitationBingham, ‘An Organ of Uplift?,’ 651; and CitationBingham, Family Newspapers? 16.22. For example, the three volumes by Hugh CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, Publish and Be Damned! and CitationWalking on the Water.23. Royal Commission on the Press, 1947–1949, 60. See also CitationCudlipp, Publish and Be Damned! 21.24. CitationReport of the Royal Commission on the Press, 17.25. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 49. On the transformation of the Mirror to a populist, sensationalist tabloid, see CitationConboy, The Press and Popular Culture, 126–33. And for a more recent survey of tabloids’ exploitation of sex, particularly in relation to issues surrounding women, see CitationConboy, Tabloid Britain, 123–51.26. CitationCudlipp, Publish and be Damned, 48–54. Cudlipp went on to become the editorial director of both papers in 1952 and in 1963 chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers.27. CitationCudlipp, Publish and be Damned, 78.28. CitationBeers, Your Britain, passim. On Guy Bartholomew and Cecil King's motivations and transformation of the Mirror, see CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 100–6.29. On King's hiring of CitationCudlipp and subsequent transformation of the Sunday Pictorial roughly along the lines of the Mirror, see CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 108–10.30. CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 109.31. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 182–5 and 194.32. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 45.33. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 87–8.34. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 90.35. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 182.36. CitationSwanson, Drunk with the Glitter.37. ‘Minutes of Evidence taken before the Royal Commission on the Press: Twenty-Second Day, 19 February 1948,’ Cmd. 7398 (London: HMSO, 1948), 12. See for example ‘False Modesty won't stop this Disease,’ Daily Mirror, February 19, 1943, 3.38. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 182.39. Sunday Pictorial, July 3–31, 1949 cited in CitationBingham, ‘The “K-Bomb”,’ 156–79.40. CitationLaite, Common Prostitutes, 178–80; See Sunday Pictorial, February 13, 1949.41. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 56.42. Silvester Bolam, ‘Alive and Kicking,’ Daily Mirror, July 30, 1949, 1.43. The 1949 Royal Commission on the Press had been struck to consider the press's financial and managerial organization and whether concentration of ownership could adversely affect its quality and freedom.44. Royal Commission on the Press, 131–3.45. Royal Commission on the Press, 264.46. Royal Commission on the Press, 133. The Daily Express was only marginally further behind at 38%.47. Royal Commission on the Press, 132.48. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., vol. 467 (1949), cols. 2683–794. House of Commons debate on the CitationReport of the Royal Commission on the Press, July 28, 1949.49. Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., vol. 467 (1949), col. 2713.50. Stanley questioned whether public taste had changed since the beginning of the war and if the press was ‘actually encouraging feelings which might otherwise have subsided.’ Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 5th ser., vol. 467 (1949), cols. 2714–16.51. CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 101.52. CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 101.53. CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 105–6.54. CitationKing, Strictly Personal, 102.55. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 115–6.56. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 51.57. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 47.58. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 44.59. Cudlipp called this the ‘Second Mirror Revolution,’ though it impacted the policy and content of the Sunday Pictorial to a similar extent. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 108.60. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 109. Cudlipp was describing their goals for the Mirror, but the same could easily be said of the Pictorial.61. CitationEdwards, Newspapermen, 224.62. Cudlipp attributes this innovation to early days of the tabloid revolution at the Mirror. Such headlines were sometimes twice as large as the article itself and were a ‘signal that all could see of the excitements to come.’ CitationCudlipp, Publish and be Damned, 64.63. Warth, ‘Evil Men,’ June 8, 1952, 12.64. CitationHornsey, The Spiv and the Architect, 82.65. ‘Evil Men’ was not the paper's first postwar discussion of homosexuality, but it was the first postwar exposé. Throughout the first half of the 1950s, both the Mirror and the Pictorial doggedly pursued the case of the London Choir School's ‘Father Ingram’ as well as other masters and staff who assaulted boys. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 317–25.66. CitationHoulbrook, Queer London, 224–7.67. CitationHoulbrook, Queer London, 238–9.68. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 317.69. Protests came from Sunday Pictorial shareholders and circulation managers alike. Even the Financial Director, James Cooke, cancelled his subscription. CitationBingham, Family Newspapers, 180–3.70. From unpaginated graph of Sunday newspaper circulations 1947–61. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril.71. For more on competing papers’ treatment of homosexuality, see especially CitationBingham, Family Newspapers? Chap. 5.72. Though he focused on the press ‘orgy’ following the release of Alfred Kinsey's 1953 Report on the human female, Gordon was well known for his thoughts on homosexuality. John Gordon, ‘Our Sex-Sodden Newspapers,’ Sunday Express, August 23, 1953.73. ‘Sex, Crime and the Press,’ Daily Mirror, November 11, 1953, 1.74. With a flurry of high-profile queer trials including that of Labour MP William Field, author Rupert Croft-Cooke, recently knighted Shakespearean actor Sir John Gielgud, 1953 saw a growth in column inches as the lucrative potential of the subject became clearer. On homosexual trials that appeared primarily in 1953 and 1954, see CitationHiggins, Heterosexual Dictatorship, 179–230 also 268–70. For descriptions of this and the Montagu case, see CitationHyde, The Other Love, 216–26.75. ‘Now Will They Act?’ Daily Mirror, November 6, 1953, 2.76. CitationCudlipp, Publish and be Damned, 285.77. ‘A Social Problem,’ The Sunday Times, November 1, 1953. The paper was conscious of its historical position, highlighting for ‘surprised’ readers: ‘This is possibly the first time that a national newspaper of standing has devoted its whole leading article this subject.’78. Peter Woods, ‘Guilty: Montagu—12 Months,’ Daily Mirror, March 25, 1954, 1.79. ‘Law and Hypocrisy,’ The Sunday Times, March 28, 1954.80. See especially: CitationWeeks, Coming Out, 156–67; CitationGrey, Quest for Justice, 19–33; and CitationWaters, ‘Disorders of the Mind,’ 134–6 uses the term whiggish.81. CitationBengry, ‘Queer Profits,’ 174–9.82. See especially CitationWeeks, Coming Out, 159–60. Besides Weeks, Peter Wildeblood himself propounded the theory of a witch-hunt to explain his own arrest and incarceration. It was further taken up by MP and independent scholar H. Montgomery Hyde. See CitationWildeblood, Against the Law; CitationHyde, The Other Love, 212–6. More recently, scholars of British homosexuality have largely dismissed the theory of US Cold War pressure precipitating any kind of top-down witch-hunt for homosexuals in the UK. See CitationHiggins, Heterosexual Dictatorship, 247–66; and CitationHoulbrook, Queer London, 242–3.83. ‘The Squalid Truth,’ Sunday Pictorial, September 25, 1955, 1.84. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 96.85. CitationEdwards, Newspapermen, 247.86. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 299.87. Interview with Cudlipp, November 16, 1992 cited in CitationEdwards, Newspapermen, 249.88. CitationReport of the Committee on Homosexual Offences and Prostitution, 7.89. ‘Vice: Official,’ Daily Mirror, September 5, 1957, 1. Accused of focusing on prostitution in its September 5 cover story, the Mirror made support of homosexual law reform unambiguous a week later. ‘Playing Safe?’ Daily Mirror, September 12, 1957, 2.90. CitationBingham, Family Newspapers, 189.91. ‘Why Are They Scared?’ Daily Mirror, November 26, 1958, 2. quoted in CitationBingham, Family Newspapers, 189.92. ‘Get a Move on, Mr. Butler,’ Daily Mirror, June 9, 1958, 2. This failure to gain headway on the report's recommendations, along with an apparent resurgence of prosecutions against consenting homosexuals in the spring of 1958, notes Antony Grey, ‘directly precipitated the formation of the Homosexual Law Reform Society,’ which worked to see the Wolfenden recommendations enacted into law. CitationGrey, Speaking Out, 30.93. Cassandra, ‘Yearn-Strength Five,’ Daily Mirror, September 26, 1956, 6.94. William Connor cross-examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q. C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. II, 10 June 1959, 40–3. University of Cardiff, Hugh Cudlipp Papers, HC 7/2. All subsequent references to Liberace transcripts are held in the same location.95. William Connor cross-examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q. C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. II, 10 June 1959, 44.96. William Connor cross-examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q. C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. II, June 11, 1959, 10.97. See CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 336–41 for his account of the Liberace trial.98. CitationCudlipp, Publish and be Damned, 249.99. Hugh Cudlipp cross-examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q. C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. III, 15 June 1959, 73.100. Liberace examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q.C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. I, June 8, 1959, 15.101. Dail Betty Ambler examined by Gilbert Beyfus, Q. C., Liberace v. Daily Mirror and W. Connor, 1956 L. 1901, Vol. I, June 9, 1959, 56.102. CitationPyron, Liberace, 233.103. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 336.104. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 337.105. CitationCudlipp, ‘Laughter in Court,’ 23.106. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 293–4. The Pictorial had narrowly missed becoming the first to achieve 500,000 when the People's scoop of Errol Flynn's explicit memoir pushed it ahead by ‘publish[ing] far more purple passages than the Pictorial would have dared.’107. A. Hallidie Smith quoted in CitationGrey, Quest for Justice, 45.108. ‘Films’ [Review of Victim], Man and Society, 1, no. 2 (Autumn 1961): 18–19.109. In July 1965, it was announced that these points were informally brought about not by legislation but at the request of the Director of Public Prosecutions himself. CitationGrey, Quest for Justice, 85–6.110. CitationVassall, Vassall, 145. According to CitationVassall, the News of the World had offered £10,000 for an ‘exclusive and extensive story.’ Vassall took the Pictorial's offer, because it was ‘to the point and would pay for my costs.’111. Lionel Crane, ‘How to Spot a Possible Homo,’ Sunday Mirror, April 28, 1963, 7.112. CitationGrey, Quest for Justice, 82.113. CitationCudlipp, At Your Peril, 126.114. CitationCudlipp, Walking on the Water, 245.