Photo courtesy of The Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. Photo by Walter Eisenstaedt A MAN OF HIS TIME HENRY LUCE FOREVER CHANGED THE WAY AMERICANS GET THEIR NEWS BY ALAN H. FEILER IN an era when a universe “We tell the truth as we see it,” self-empowerment is a reflection of communication rests Luce once said of his media kingdom, on that. at our fingertips, and live-streamed which famously included such ground- Luce attended a strict British reporting flourishes, one can’t help breaking ventures as Time, Fortune, boarding school in Chefoo (where but wonder what Henry R. Luce would Life and Sports Illustrated. “Show me a the disciplinary practice of caning was make of it all. man who claims to be objective and I’ll pervasive) and arrived in the United Luce, the founder of the Time-Life show you a man with illusions.” States at age 15 to attend the Hotchkiss magazine empire who died in 1967, Luce was a man with no illusions. School, a college preparatory boarding was one of the most influential private school in Lakeville, CT. At Hotchkiss, citizens in the America of his day. MAKING ‘TIME’ he edited the Hotchkiss Literary He was also known for his often heavy- Characterized by his colleagues and Monthly and worked closely there with handed methods of wielding power contemporaries as an insecure and fellow student Briton Hadden. Luce and influence. taciturn figure, Luce maintained and Hadden both attended Yale and And arguably, he’s best-known a missionary zeal for just about every worked on the Yale Daily News, with as the man who, in his 1941 essay of enterprise he embarked upon. That Luce serving as managing editor and the same name, coined the phrase likely came largely from his parentage. Hadden as chairman. “The American Century,” alluding to He was born in the Chinese city of The two young men were not what was quickly emerging as U.S. Tengchow on April 3, 1898, as the son particularly close friends, but as domination over, well, the whole of a Presbyterian missionary, the allies and fellow journalists they were world—militarily, economically, Rev. Dr. Henry Winters Luce, and his virtually inseparable and quite culturally, philosophically. wife, Elizabeth Middleton Luce, an formidable. “Somehow, despite the One strongly suspects that ex-YWCA worker. The Yale-educated greatest differences in temperaments Luce, always a bit of an outsider Rev. Luce aspired not only to bring and even in interests, we had to work with an insatiable curiosity, would Christianity to the turn-of-the-century together,” Luce recalled. “We were an have thrown himself into today’s Chinese but also to enlighten them organization. At that point everything information technological revolution with Western standards of education, we had belonged to each other.” to a certain degree. But he probably civility and prosperity. Luce and Hadden did part would have retained his strong belief in Luce the younger was greatly company for a while after graduating journalism—and its credo of enhanc- influenced by his father. The younger from Yale; after spending a year ing democracy and the public good Luce’s lifelong commitment to studying history at Oxford, Luce with a solid base of well-coordinated Christianity, evangelism (sectarian worked as a legman for Ben Hecht at news information. and nonsectarian), morality and the Chicago Daily News. But in WWW. DIXONVALVE . COM SPRING 2 0 1 3 ᔢ BOSS 17 December 1921, Luce and Hadden By 1929, when Hadden suddenly life; to see the world; to eyewitness joined forces again, as reporters for died at age 31, Time was a major great events; to watch the faces of the the Baltimore News. success and had reinvented the manner poor and the gestures of the proud.” Soon after, the two cub journal- in which “middlebrow” journalism was It was a tremendous success, spawning ists—who shared a loathing for what delivered: fresh, concise and probing. a slew of copycats. they deemed an epidemic of anemic Though frequently the butt of humor “In an era blighted by Depression, periodicals and newspapers—decided among its “highbrow” counterparts, prejudice, social turmoil and the to create a new type of weekly such as The New Yorker, it became shadow of war, Life offered the magazine, one that synthesized the news of the day with lucid analyses and BY 1929 TIME WAS A MAJOR SUCCESS fresh perspectives. They quit their jobs, sold stocks for a while, attracted a bevy AND HAD REINVENTED THE of Wall Street investors, rolled up their sleeves and got to work. MANNER IN WHICH “MIDDLEBROW” Initially intended to be called JOURNALISM WAS DELIVERED: “Facts,” the magazine debuted as Time in March 1923 with a mission to cater FRESH, CONCISE AND PROBING. to “the illiterate upper classes, the busy businessman, the tired debutante, to required reading among the middle- comforting image of a nation united prepare them at least once a week for class and up-and-coming journalists behind a shared, if contrived, vision a table conversation. ... Time gives both and politicos. of the ‘American Dream,’” writes Luce sides but clearly indicates which side it Despite the loss of his brilliant biographer Brinkley. believes to have the stronger position.” partner, Luce proceeded in mapping All three Luce publications featured Of the highly self-confident Luce out his empire, first by creating the the works of some of the finest writers and Hadden, Alan Brinkley, author of business magazine Fortune in 1930. of the time—Archibald MacLeish, the 2010 biography The Publisher, “Business is obviously the greatest John O’Hara, Stephen Vincent Benet, Henry Luce and His American Century, single denominator of interest among James Agee and Theodore White, writes, “They were nothing if not the active leading citizens of the to name but a few. presumptuous—two 24-year-olds, with USA ... the distinctive expression of almost no money and less than two the American genius,” Luce said. NO HOLDING BACK years of professional journalism Six years later, he launched his With his rising success and stature, experience between them, setting out most successful creation, the picture Luce—who served as editor-in-chief to start a magazine at the tail end magazine Life. Its stated mission as a of his publications until 1964— of a severe recession.” photojournalistic endeavor was “to see became a force to be reckoned with 18 BOSS ᔢ SPRING 2 0 1 3 on the national political scene. He “In 1952, when it sniffed victory era before television and the Internet. was a strong advocate of foreign in the air at long last, there was no Or as Luce himself called it, the policy imperialism and intervention holding back Time,” Matthews recalled. creation of “journalism of information (particularly when it came to China “The distortions, suppressions and with a purpose.” That, of course, and its nationalist leader, Chiang slanting of its political ‘news’ seemed to often veered onto the slippery slope of Kai-shek), and a strong foe of me to pass the bounds of politics and propaganda, Luce’s critics charged. communism (despite his aversion to to commit an offense against the ethics Sen. Joseph McCarthy). He was also of journalism.” A particular Time cover A ZEAL FOR NEW IDEAS a defender of big business and a story about Stevenson, Matthews In the mid-1950s, picking up on staunch critic of big labor, a bitter charged, was “a clumsy but malign [sic] America’s growing obsession with opponent of Franklin Delano and murderously meant attack.” sports, Luce created Sports Illustrated, Roosevelt and a devoted friend to all Despite his limitless ambitions with stories going beyond scores and causes (and candidates) of a conserva- and agendas, Luce never quite acquired surface statistics. tive hue. And he wasn’t shy about using the brand of power and influence of His second wife, the glamorous Time and his other publications as which he dreamed. As Brinkley points and occasionally controversial Clare soapboxes for his political leanings and out, Luce was often frustrated by his Boothe Luce, was a force of nature views, notably his support for U.S. inability to turn public favor away from unto herself. A playwright, she served military intervention in Vietnam in FDR, and Luce’s virtual obsession with two terms in the House of Representa- the 1960s. liberating China received little backing tives from Connecticut from 1943 to “No restraint bound him in using among American policymakers. Besides 1947. In 1953, President Eisenhower his magazines to spread the message of failing to push presidents and other appointed her ambassador to Italy. his conscience,” said one of Luce’s lawmakers to adopt his viewpoints, he (Later, she and Luce made headlines correspondents. sporadically found it an uphill battle to for publicly discussing their experi- In his autobiography Name and convince his own editors and writers mentations with LSD, including one Address, T.S. Matthews, a former to tow his party line. acid trip in which Henry Luce pro- Time editor, described Luce as a Nonetheless, David Halberstam claimed that he chatted with God.) publisher who could be challenged dubbed Luce “the most powerful At the time of his death in February on his positions. But Matthews said conservative publisher in America, and 1967, at age 68, Henry Luce was said Luce was not above pulling rank in the ’50s at least as influential as the to be worth $100 million in Time Inc. and embracing partisanship for a secretary of state.” stock (about $688 million in today’s cause. A prime example was the Brinkley contends that Luce’s currency). Hedley Donovan, his 1952 presidential election between true legacy lies in how he “helped successor as editor-in-chief at Time, Dwight D.