Warren Arthur Angel was born in Brooklyn on November 2, 1887. His father, William Thomas Angel, was born in 1862 in England. His mother, Cordelia Matilda Warren, was born in 1865 in New York. Her ancestry was also English. His parents married in 1883. They had two children. His older sister Adelaide Angel was born in 1884. The family lived with the maternal grandparents, Margaret and William Warren, at 87 Adelphi Street in Brooklyn. The grandfather worked as a night watchman. A maternal uncle, John Warren (b. 1868), also lived with them, and worked as a printer. His father worked as traveling salesman for a Glasswares company in Manhattan. He also sang baritone in the Amici Quartet, a popular Brooklyn song group.
In 1895 his father contracted Tuberculosis. By 1896 there was no hope for recovery, so he was sent to a Home For Incurables in the Bronx, where he died at the age of thirty-four. After this tragic event his mother supported her two children by working as a dressmaker.
In 1897 at the age of ten he completed the sixth grade of public school and then entered the work force. He was hired to work in the warehouse of the Glasswares company that had employed his father.
In 1900 he was thirteen and continued to work at the Glasswares Company. His maternal grandmother died and his Uncle John Warren had married and moved away.
In 1908 his older sister married and moved away, after which he remained at home with his widowed mother and her widowed father, who was seventy-five years old, and still worked as a night watchman.
In 1910 he began to work as a traveling salesman for the Glasswares company as well as for a Brooklyn candy company. He traveled by train throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa. He generally followed the same salesman's routine that his father had traveled twenty years earlier.
On November 18, 1912 the Utica Herald Dispatch reported "Warren Angel in Utica Jail. Warren Angel, indicted for attempted second degree forgery, is now in the Utica jail. He was arrested in Dayton, Ohio, Thursday and Sheriff Backer immediately went after him. Angel induced Undertaker Cassidy to endorse a check for him and the check later proved to be worthless. The Grand Jury last month indicted Angel and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest but he was not located till Thursday when capture was made on the request of the sheriff's department."
On November 25, 1912 The Syracuse Journal carried the headline "Angel In Name, Not In Deeds." and reported, "Warren A. Angel pleaded guilty to forging the firm name of Farrington & Lawrence of Syracuse, druggists at 115 Dudley St. to a check for $13, passed in Utica. It is said that Angel was formerly employed as a traveling salesman by a Brooklyn candy house. Angel's sweetheart and the Rev. George C. Groves of Trinity Church, Utica, appeared in court today in behalf of Angel."
On November 26, 1912, The Daily Sentinel reported under the headline "Criminal Matters. In County Court yesterday afternoon a number of criminal cases were disposed of, after which court was adjourned. Warren Angel, aged 25 years, of Brooklyn, charged with second degree forgery, was given a suspended sentence and placed in charge of County Probation for one year."
In 1915 he was listed as a commercial traveler in Des Moines, Iowa. The following year he was listed as same in Burlington, Iowa.
In 1917 during the Great War he registered with the selective service. He was recorded at the time to be tall of medium build with gray eyes and black hair. He was selected for military service.
After the war he returned to New York, but lived with his sister Adelaide and her husband Charles Martin and their two children in Rockville Center, a suburban neighborhood of Queens, Long Island, NY.
He went to work with his Uncle John Warren at a Printing Shop.
On October 14, 1922 he married Evangeline Silsbee Ludlum. She was born June 3, 1897 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
In 1923 Warren A. Angel was listed in the city directory of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as the owner and operator of the Carey Printing Company. His home residence was in Edgeboro, PA.
In 1924 He and his wife moved back to Rockville Center, to be near his sister's family, where Warren and Evangeline raised four children, Evangeline (b.1925), Warren Jr.(b.1927), Merrillon (b.1929), and Nancy (b.1930).
The nationwide distribution of all periodicals was cpntrolled by the American News Company (ANC), which was governed by a publishers association, which at that time was dominated by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951), a wealthy and powerful businessman who had favored neutrality with Germany.
The May 1919 issue of Law & Labor featured an article entitled, "It Was Unlawful Under Anti-Trust Laws For The American News Company To Agree With The Different Newspapers That It Would Make No Deliveries To Dealers Who Would Not Also Handle Hearst Papers." According to that report, "The big newspapers of NYC, who were defendants in this case, are distributed to newsdealers by ANC. This company is owned and operated by the Publishers Association of NY, of which all the newspapers are members. Included among these are the New York American and The Evening Journal, both of which are owned and operated by William Randolph Hearst. During the summer of 1918 some newsdealers refused to handle Hearst's newspapers on the ground that they were disloyal and so offensive to their customers that many of them refused to purchase any papers from stands that displayed Hearst papers." According to the opinion of the court, "The facts in the case can hardly be said to be in dispute. They clearly point to a combination or conspiracy on the part of the defendants to use the tremendous force of their united power to compel the plaintiff to regulate his business under the direction of the defendants at the hazard of depriving him of the supplies upon which his business depends, and thus to prevent him from competing with other such newsdealers as would transact and carry on their business under the conditions which the defendants should choose to prescribe. In this lies the essence of the case against the defendant. This joint action is in the highest degree arbitrary, coercive, and un-American. For the purpose of this motion, I am constrained to hold it to be prima facie an illegal invasion of the rights of the plaintiff."
To protect ANC from further anti-trust litigation William Randolph Hearst began a defensive scheme to disguise the company's monopoly by discretely establishing "rival" distribution companies, which appeared competitive, but were in fact headed by cooperative affiliates.
From this personal need for self-preservation, William Randolph Hearst set in motion a clandestine organization that changed the history of American publishing as well as the nation itself.
To organize these affiliated distribution companies William Randolph Hearst appointed a member of the Hearst Executive Council, Moe L. Annenberg, the founder of the Chicago Newsstand Distribution Company, who had earned a notorious reputation in Chicago during a circulation war of fire bombings, murders, and violent intimidation of news dealers, and atrocities that had solidified Chicago's gangland culture.
During the roaring twenties Moe L. Annenberg was affiliated in NYC with Teddy Epstein, Harry Donenfeld, Warren Angel, Paul Sampliner, Irving Manheimer, Maurice Silberkleit, and Martin Goodman, all of whom would eventually start an independent distribution company, such as Eastern Distributing, Kable News, PDC, IND, Mutual Magazines, and Leader News.
On November 18, 1924 legal documents were registered in Albany, NY, by Warren A. Angel, Paul H. Sampliner and Morris U. Falter to charter a new incorporation called Eastern Distributing Corporation to handle sales of magazines and candy to newsstands. Morris Falter (1870-1935) was the uncle of Paul Sampliner (1898-1975).
Advertising for Eastern Distributing often contained a non-descript shamrock, which informed newsdealers that their company was an affiliate of ANC, whose company logo also featured a shamrock.
In April of 1926 The New York Times printed several advertisements from Eastern Distributing Corporation for a business to rent a portion of their office space at 45 West 45th Street.
In July of 1926 The New York Times printed a Help Wanted advertisement from Eastern Distributing Corporation, room #502 of 45 West 45th Street for an experienced stenographer.
On November 20, 1926 The Daily Star, a Queens newspaper, reported under the headline, "Boro Promoters Get Charters For New Firms. Warren A. Angel, 79 Cleveland Avenue, Rockville Center, and Samuel H. Hunter, 537 Thirtieth Street, Astoria, are stockholders and incorporators of the Eastern States News Company, Inc., formed with $10,000 capital to deal in magazines."
The contents page of the October 1931 issue of Sky Birds identifies Warren A. Angel as president of Magazine Publishers Inc. at 67 West 44th Street, NYC.
In the 1930 U.S. Census records he was listed as Proprietor of a Distribution Company.
On March 20, 1930 The New York Times reported that "Warren A. Angel, head of the General Magazine Distributing Corporation" had joined with the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America, a celebrated restaurateur, and the head of the Capitol Bus Terminal to sponsor a new civic and trade body to be known as the Great White Way Civic Association to foster business and building activities in and about the Times Square area, which is described as extending "from Fourteenth Street to Seventy-second Street between Eight Avenue and Lexington Avenue and centering in Times Square and the theatrical district." The stated goal of this civic group was to launch a membership campaign to convince two thousand companies, operating within this perimeter of prime Manhattan real estate, to join their organization.
In 1934 Printer's Ink, a trade journal of the publishing industry, reported that Warren A. Angel was Vice President and General Manager of the Kable News Company. S. J. Campbell was president and treasurer and stockholder of Kable News Co.
Samuel James Campbell (1892-1981) was a graduate of Stanford University (Class of 1914). After college he married Eileen Burris and operated a bank in his home town of Mt. Morris, Illinois. In 1929 he took over a bankrupt local printing company, Kable Printing Co., which was operated by twin brothers, Harry G. Kable (1880-1952) and Harvey J. Kable (1880-1931). At the same time Samuel J. Campbell struck up a partnership with Warren A. Angel to form the Kable News Distribution Company. Their first client was Hugo Gernsback's Radio Craft. Magazines distributed by Kable have a small but distinctive block-letter "K" on the cover.
On October 29, 1934 The New York Sun reported that Stanley Gibson, president of Motion Picture Publications, Inc., had announced that Warren A. Angel, Samuel J. Campbell and A. K. Taylor, executives of Kable News Company, a magazine distributing organization, were now associated owners of his company.
On May 13, 1936 New York Supreme Court issued an injunction order to stop Popular Publications from producing the pulp magazine Ace G-Man Stories in unfair competition with the similarly titled G-Men Magazine, produced by Beacon Magazines, Inc. The plaintiff in the case was Ned Pines, president of Beacon Magazines, Inc., whose offices were at 22 West 48th Street. According to the plaintiff's sworn deposition, "I am also the publisher, under a trade name "Thrilling Group," of eleven other pulp magazines, as well as three smooth paper magazines, among which is the well-known College Humor. The total annual distribution of the twelve pulp magazines published under the name "Thrilling Group" is approximately eighteen million copies per year." This publisher's lawsuit was supported by affidavits submitted by four disinterested professionals - Warren A. Angel, Paul Sampliner, Joseph A. Sheeran (1880-1942), and Irving S. Manheimer.
The defendant in this case was Henry Steeger, owner of Popular Publications. During the appeal the defendant claimed, "These affidavits are totally unworthy of credence. This group of affiants appear in every infringement case in which the plaintiff or its affiliated corporations are involved." The defendant went on to list several previous examples. In 1929 Warren A. Angel furnished a supportive affidavit for Ned Pines in a lawsuit with Albert Publishing Co., producer of the pulp magazine Spy Stories, which subsequently ceased publication. After which Spy Stories and Spy Novels were produced by Magazine Publishers Inc, of which Warren A. Angel was listed as president. When those titles ceased publication Ned Pines produced Thrilling Spy Stories. In 1932 Sheeran and Sampliner furnished Ned Pines with supportive affidavits when he was sued for producing Thrilling Adventures in unfair competition with the similarly titled Adventure, one of the oldest and most respected pulps, which was produced by Butterick Publishing Co, which subsequently ceased publication. In 1934 in a lawsuit with Adventure House, Inc., Sheeran, Angel, Sampliner, and Manheimer furnished affidavits for Standard Magazines, Inc., a company which is affiliated with Ned Pines. In 1935 Ned Pines sued Popular Publications, which was again supported by affidavits from Sheeran, Angel, Sampliner and Manheimer. "It will be seen that no matter which side of the case the plaintiff happens to be on, the said individuals have been ever ready to assist. The connection between these gentlemen and the plaintiff is more fully described in the affidavit of Henry Steeger, submitted in opposition to the motion for a preliminary injunction." According to that document, dated April 27, 1936, Steeger stated that Sheeran was Assistant Vice President of the American News Company, which distributed most of Ned Pines publications, so Sheeran's interest in the outcome of the litigation was obvious. Furthermore his interest is all the more understandable when it is realized that Steeger used a rival distributor. Secondly, Warren A. Angel was Vice President of Kable News Company, which distributed Pine's magazine College Life, and was therefore directly interested in the outcome of the case. "Furthermore, Mr. Angel has played the role of professional affiant before. In the suit brought by Magazine Publishers, Inc., versus Albert Publishing Co., Inc. an affidavit by Mr. Angel appears among the papers on the application of Ned Pines for a preliminary injunction. Mr. Angel's affidavit is dated February 4, 1929. In it Mr. Angel states that he was then General Manager of Eastern Distribution Corporation, which outfit was then distributing the magazines of Mr. Pines in that action. After Eastern Distribution Corporation went into bankruptcy, Mr. Angel moved over to Kable News Company, which distributes Ned Pine's magazines. Apparently, Mr. Angel is ever-ready and willing to furnish affidavits to customers of the distributing company with which he happens to be connected at the time. Mr. Sampliner is a personal friend of Mr. Pines. He was one of the owners of Eastern Distributing Corporation mentioned above, the bankruptcy of which cost this defendant at least $30,000 (in unpaid revenues). Mr. Sampliner is a distributor of sex magazines." Furthermore, Henry Steeger says of Irving S. Manheimer, who is Secretary of Gernsback Publications, Inc., located at 99 Hudson Street, that his "interest in a competitor's magazine is too naive to be true. Undoubtedly his personal friendship with Mr. Pines explains his affidavit. He is Mr. Pines foreign distributor."
It is interesting to consider that by the date of this case, 1935, Hugo Gernsback had lost control of his magazines and that Ned Pines would later produce Thrilling Wonder.
On January 30, 1937 The Chicago Daily Tribune reported the congressional house ways and means committee, in an effort to combat organized crime syndicates, had disclosed a list of large payments made by Illinois corporations during the 1935 calendar year. Among that list was a payment of $19,700 to W. A. Angel, Vice President of the Kable News Company of Mount Morris, IL. That same company also paid $23,300 to S. J. Campbell, President-treasurer. It is also noteworthy that $18,500 was paid to Harry G. Kable, President of Kable Brothers Printing Company of Mount Morris,IL.
On October 15, 1937 The New York Times reported that Mr. & Mrs. Warren A. Angel gave a dinner in the Starlight Roof at the Waldorf Astoria to celebrate the 15th anniversary of their marriage.
In 1938 Samuel J. Campbell and Warren A. Angel formed C.& A. Publishing Company with offices at 420 Lexington Avenue.
On October 19, 1938 The Long Island Star reported the incorporation of Ace Publications by director Patrick L. Reilly of 40-23 Colden Avenue, Flushing Queens. Contrary to this public notice, Patrick L. Reilly was not the "director" of Ace Publications. In 1938 he was a fifty-five-year-old retired law clerk with an 11th grade education, who lived at 46-23 Colden Street, and not "40-23 Colden Avenue," a nonexistent address.
The January 1943 issue of Super Mystery Comics lists the publisher as Periodical House Inc., located at 67 West 44th Street. It also names Warren A. Angel as an owner, along with Rose and A. A. Wyn. The comic book is printed by C.& A. Publishing Co.
On April 23, 1947 The Kable News Co. celebrated fifteen years of successful business. According to a newspaper account, "The growth of the company since its humble beginnings is reflected in the total number of publications now distributed by Kable News Co, and the billings to wholesalers, which average well over 12,000,000 copies monthly."
The March 1948 issue of Super-Mystery Comics includes an interesting Ownership Statement that identifies Warren A. Angel as the owner of Ace Publications, instead of Aaron A. Wyn (1898-1967), who was listed as owner in most previous cases. According to the statement, the owner of Ace Periodicals, Inc., 23 West 47th St., is Warren A. Angel, of Rockville Center, NY, along with Evangeline L. Angel (his wife), Evangeline Rodenbaugh (his married daughter), Warren A. Angel, Jr. (his son), Merrillon Angel (his second daughter), and Nancy Angel (his youngest daughter).
On July 16, 1948 after a prolonged period of illness, his wife Evangeline L. Angel died from cancer at the age of fifty-one.
In 1949 Warren A. Angel still had a business office listed at 420 Lexington Avenue.
After suffering from a heart condition he retired from the distribution business. He was replaced as Vice President at Kable News Co. by George B. Davis.
Six months after the death of his wife, Warren A. Angel died of a heart attack at age sixty-two on January 21, 1949.
© David Saunders 2014 |
