![]() In January 1936, The Billboard published its first “Chart Line,” a tally of the songs played most often on three major radio networks. At this point, concerts, movies and stage shows had largely outstripped circuses and whale shows in popularity and influence, and more and more of the magazine was dedicated to the exploits of singers and actors. When Donaldson died in 1925-after a long retirement in a Florida home flanked by both Ringling Brothers-the magazine continued expanding along with the entertainment scene. The Billboard 1896 Christmas issue (left) and The Billboard’s Tenth Anniversary issue, from 1904 (right). Donaldson also used his platform to advocate against both “filth” and censorship, hoping, presumably, that the entertainers would clean up their own acts. It now contained advertisements instead of advertising advice, and juicy show biz news instead of “poster-paste recipes,” Schlager writes. Schlager describes the service as “a precursor of today’s E-mail,” and within 20 years, he says, “more than 42,000 performers, agents and other showmen” were taking advantage of the Letter List.ĭuring this time, the magazine shortened its name to The Billboard, and lengthened itself to double its original eight pages. Billboard top 100 2005 free#Soon, thanks to a feature called the “Letter List,” readers could even use the magazine’s address as their own, and Billboard Advertising would forward them their mail or keep it for them at headquarters, free of charge, writes Ken Schlager in an official company history. The first issue, published that November, had eight pages of relevant tidbits, laid out in columns like “Bill Room Gossip” and “The Indefatigable And Tireless Industry of the Bill Poster.” Now the “advertisers, poster printers, bill posters, advertising agents, and secretaries of fairs,” as the issue categorized them, could pick up a magazine at a newsstand anywhere in the country and know what to expect on the opposite coast. In 1894, Donaldson started to spend his nights and weekends putting together Billboard Advertising, a trade publication dedicated to gathering all the news that might be relevant to his more itinerant peers. Donaldson realized that most of his clients-the managers and owners who ordered the posters, and, especially, the billstickers tasked with staying one step ahead of the shows and pasting the posters to every available surface-lacked permanent addresses, and thus were unable to communicate with each other.Ī Donaldson Lithographing Co. Donaldson worked for the family business, a Newport, Kentucky-based lithography shop that churned out advertisements and posters for the circuses, fairs, and other traveling shows that criss-crossed the country. “Bill” Donaldson, built the magazine to serve an entirely different need. Littleford, Jr., the founder of Billboard, William H. The magazine that now tells you that more people enjoyed Justin Bieber than Ed Sheeran that week started out as a circus trade rag in the 19th century, and spent the following decades undergoing more loop de loops and drops than a Skrillex song.Īccording to a history written by his grandson, Roger S. (Image: WikiCommons/Public Domain)Īs it turns out, the chart is just the most enduring of Billboard’s many attempts to bring information from one entertainment industry sector to the other. Teen heartthrob Ricky Nelson, the first ever Hot 100 chart-topper. Just as a Billboard-populated Top 40 is the easiest way to DJ a party with a variety of guests, a cheap jab at the moment’s #1 is the best way to criticize the entire United States at once. But how did the Hot 100, which turned 57 years old today, become America’s go-to weekly popularity contest? Alternatively, say you want a three-minute sum-up of the current zeitgeist, a way to figure out where our collective heads are at right now. Where do you go? Say you want a three-minute break from work, something to help you kick back and forget about the world for two verses and three choruses. A 1947 Billboard Jukebox Chart-one step on the road to Hot 100 greatness. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |