34 Facts About Frank Munsey

Frank Andrew Munsey was an American newspaper and magazine publisher, banker, political financier and author.

Frank Munsey was born in Mercer, Maine, but spent most of his life in New York City.

Frank Munsey is credited with using new, high-speed printing presses, supplied with inexpensive, untrimmed, pulp paper, to mass-produce magazines at significantly reduced costs.

Frank Munsey's magazines were aimed at working-class readers who could neither afford, nor expect to read about people like themselves in, the 25-cent "slick" magazines of the time.

Frank Munsey was born on August 21,1854, on a farm a couple of miles from Mercer, Maine.

Frank Munsey's father, Andrew Chauncey Munsey, was a Civil War veteran who had been born in Quebec; his mother was Mary Jane Merrit Hopkins Munsey.

Frank Munsey had three older sisters, and a younger sister and brother.

Frank Munsey worked at a grocery store in Lisbon Falls, and since the store included the local Post Office he was able to teach himself to use the telegraph.

Augusta was the center of a major part of the American magazine publishing industry, and among other local businessmen Frank Munsey met Edward Charles Allen, who had founded People's Literary Companion in 1870 and become very successful in the business.

Frank Munsey became determined to publish a magazine, and having saved $500 and persuaded two acquaintances to invest $3,500, he spent his $500 on acquiring manuscripts, and left Augusta for New York in 1882.

Frank Munsey simplified the plans for the new magazine and wrote to the main investor for the funds, but received no reply.

Frank Munsey was forced to give up the idea of launching the magazine himself as he had only $40 in hand along with the manuscripts he had bought.

Rideout went bankrupt in early 1883, but Frank Munsey was able to claim the magazine's title and subscription list in lieu of unpaid salary, and the magazine continued with Frank Munsey as publisher.

In 1884 Blaine was the Republican candidate for President, and Frank Munsey proposed to start a magazine, Frank Munsey's Illustrated Weekly, to carry campaign news.

The magazine ceased publication after the election but its apparently official nature helped Frank Munsey get credit for paper and other supplies.

The improvement was temporary; Frank Munsey later realized that magazines for children were uninteresting to advertisers as children had no buying power, and the subscriptions dropped as the children grew up.

Frank Munsey shortened the title to just The Argosy in 1888, and experimented with changing the page size and page count, but made no headway.

Frank Munsey had to struggle to distribute it at this price, since the American News Company had a monopoly on magazine distribution and only offered him four cents a copy from his 164 page magazine, the same price they were paying for 32 page dime novels.

Frank Munsey decided that he could handle his own primary distribution, bypassing American News, and generate more profit in the process.

The Argosy's circulation had dropped to 9,000 by March 1894, but jumped to 40,000 when Frank Munsey converted it to monthly publication the following month.

In October 1906, Frank Munsey began publishing Railroad Man's Magazine, the first specialized pulp magazine which featured railroad-related stories and articles.

Once he became interested in newspapers, Frank Munsey's visibility increased, both locally and nationally.

The sale of the Herald in 1924 left Frank Munsey owning only two newspapers at the time of his death the following year.

Frank Munsey became directly involved in presidential politics when former president Theodore Roosevelt announced his candidacy to challenge his hand-picked successor President William Howard Taft for the 1912 Republican Party nomination for the presidency.

When Roosevelt and his supporters bolted from the convention, Frank Munsey was one of the most outspoken critics of what were labeled as "corrupt proceedings" and announced that Roosevelt would run at the head of a new party.

Frank Munsey was one of its most ardent supporters and one of the largest contributors to its "third party" campaign expenses.

In 1905, Frank Munsey built the Frank Munsey Trust Building in downtown Washington, DC, on 'F' Street, between 12th and 13th Streets next to the National Theatre, off Pennsylvania Avenue.

DC's Frank Munsey Trust Building was torn down in spite of a court case and extensive protests by historical preservationists.

The Frank Munsey Building sits at the southeast corner of North Calvert and East Fayette Streets in downtown Baltimore.

Baltimore's Frank Munsey Building had briefly been that city's tallest building.

The Frank Munsey Building was notable for its upstairs offices and its ground floor printing presses, visible to passers-by through large department store, display-style windows designed and built for "The News" of Baltimore.

Under Hearst's ownership, the paper moved again in 1924 to East Pratt Street between Commerce and South Streets, The Frank Munsey Building, by then separated from the newspaper was later renovated into an elaborate bank headquarters and customer service lobby of marble, brass and bronze for his Frank Munsey Trust Company.

Frank Munsey died in New York City on December 22,1925, from a burst appendix at age 71.

Frank Munsey bestowed large sums to 17 of his upper management employees, but nothing to the numerous employees who worked for him.