Maurice Ullman Rosenfield was born on October 16, 1909 in Dallas, Texas. His father Jonas Alton Rosenfield was born in 1886 in Texas. His mother, Caroline Ernestine Frank Ullman, was born in 1880 in Mississippi. His parents married in 1908 and had three children, Maurice (b.1909), Samuel (b.1911), and Jonas Jr. (b.1915). The family lived at 275 Forrest Avenue in Dallas. The father worked as a real estate lawyer, and the mother worked as a kindergarten teacher.
His mother was the daughter of Samuel Ullman (1840-1924), a Russian immigrant who in 1890 moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he owned a dry-goods store and founded the Temple Emmanuel Synagogue.
In 1920 the Rosenfield family lived in Dallas at 1814 Park Row. That same year, the maternal grandfather, Samuel Ullman, turned eighty. To commemorate the occasion the family published his collected writings, "From A Summit Of Years." The book included the memorable poem, "On Youth."
"Youth is not a time of life. It is a state of mind. It is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees. It is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions. It is the freshness of the deep springs of life."
"Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals."
"Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust."
"Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station, so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young."
"When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty."
This commemorative book was produced by the eldest son in the family, Isaac Wise Ullman, who lived in NYC and was a motion picture distributor. To produce the book in Alabama, he relied on an old friend from Birmingham, Frank Z. Temerson, who at that time was a lawyer, WWI veteran, and traveling salesman for his family dry-goods business. Ullman and Temerson later went on to form Ultem Publications in NYC.
Another important development that resulted from the family celebration in 1920 of Samuel Ullman's 80th birthday was that Maurice Ullman Rosenfield's father, Jonas Alton Rosenfield, offered Isaac W. Ullman a lucrative commission as a mortgage salesman in his Dallas real estate business, so his Uncle and Aunt Ullman moved to Dallas and lived with the Rosenfield family for four years, while Maurice was age eleven-to-fifteen.
Along with Dallas real estate, Isaac Wise Ullman, also became involved with sales and distribution of motion pictures in Texas.
On March 21, 1924 his grandfather, Samuel Ullman, died at the age of eighty-three in Birmingham, Alabama.
On November 18, 1924 legal documents were registered in New York State for a new company, Eastern Distributing Corporation, which handled sales of magazines and candy to newsstands. The three partners in the new business were Warren A. Angel, Paul H. Sampliner and Maurice Ullman Falter (1870-1935), who was the uncle of Paul Sampliner, as well as a cousin of Isaac Wise Ullman. Eastern Distributing also extended credit to ambitious entry-level publishers in exchange for partial ownership and the required use of affiliated printers, suppliers, and advertisers. This sort of deal gave the distributor complete control, as well as maximum profit, but several people were willing to take that risk, including Frank Armer, Harry Donenfeld, Theo Epstein, Michael Bleier, Irving S. Manheimer, Harold Hersey, Louis H. Silberkleit, Ned Pines, Aaron A. Wyn, George Shade, and Walter W. Hubbard, Jr. (1893-1974).
In 1926 Maurice Ullman Rosenfield, at the age of seventeen, graduated from Forest Avenue High School in Dallas Texas. After which, he began to work with his uncle as an advertising agent for the Melba Theater in Dallas, as well as the Orpheum Theater of Waco, Texas.
In 1926 Isaac Wise Ullman left Texas and returned to Brooklyn, where he became a Circulation Manager for Eastern Distributing located at 45 West 45th Street. By 1927 he was Advertising Manager for Psychology Magazine, and then a co-publisher with Walter W. Hubbard of Hubbard-Ullman Publications, which produced Broadway & Hollywood Movies and Cartoons and Movies Magazine.
On August 6, 1930 The Plainfield (N.J.) Courier-News reported, "Local Man Buys Quarter Stock In Movie Periodical - A. G. Nelson, director of the First National Bank of Plainfield, and owner of the A. G. Nelson Paper Company acquired one quarter interest in Broadway & Hollywood Movies, which is produced by the Hubbard-Ullman Publications. Besides Hubbard and Ullman, the company also had a third owner, Alicia Rae Roberts (1907-1988), who was the editor.
In 1930 Maurice Ullman Rosenfield, age twenty-one, was still working in Dallas as the advertising agent for the Melba Theater, and living with his parents. On April 29, 1930 two armed bandits forced him to open the box office safe and stole $1000. After this dramatic experience, he left Dallas and moved to New York City to seek his fortune with his uncle, Isaac Wise Ullman, at Eastern Distributing. Maurice Ullman Rosenfield lived at 320 Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
In February 1930 Eastern Distributing Corporation moved from 45 West 45th Street to the Albano Building at 305 East 46th Street. During this expansive phase Eastern Distributing employed Louis Silberkleit, Martin Goodman, Frank Armer, and Michael Estrow as Circulation Promoters.
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.
By this time Michael Bleier had become the co-owner with Theodore Epstein of Mayfair Publishing Company at 542 Fifth Avenue on 45th Street. The company produced a variety of books about gambling tactics and erotic stories. Theodore Epstein was a business associate of Moe L. Annenberg, Paul Sampliner, Irving Manheimer and Harry Donenfeld. Mayfair Publications listed their editor as "Maurice R. Reese." That was a pen-name for Maurice Ullman Rosenfield.
In 1930 Mayfair Publishing Company produced "The Confessions of an After-Dinner Speaker" by Ernest Dupille.
In 1932 the Hubbard-Ullman Publishing Corporation was re-named the Brookwood Publishing Company. "Brookwood" was the name of the hometown neighborhood in Birmingham of both the Ullman and the Temerson families, so this name change signaled the formal addition of Frank Z. Temerson as a corporate partner.
By 1932 the stock market had crashed and the Great Depression was in full swing, but Ullman and Temerson were co-owners of a prosperous printing, publishing and distributing business. They jointly owned Vamos Color Printing of NYC, which was operated by Frank and George Vamos. Ullman and Temerson also owned Inspirational Publications of Wilmington, Delaware. This was the same location also used by other out-of-state shell company publishers of indecent magazines, such as Frank Armer and Harry Donenfeld, whose products were handled by Eastern Distributing Corporation.
In 1933 the Mayfair Publishing Company moved to new offices at 1270 Sixth Avenue in the newly-built Rockefeller Center. This same building was also the stage entrance to Radio City Music Hall at 29 West 51st Street.
The Mayfair Publishing Company was advertised in the back pages of pulp magazines, comic books and newspapers.
On December 5, 1933 Prohibition formally ended, but the era had left a permanent impact on the character of distribution in America, which was controlled by a corrupt monopoly owned by ANC that skirted anti-trust laws by creating a supposedly-competitive association of supposedly-independent distribution companies, which were in fact subordinate affiliates.
The February 1935 issue of Movie Humor Magazine listed Ultem Publications, Inc. at 1450 Broadway with I. W. Ullman as President, S. J. Campbell as Vice President, and Frank Z. Temerson as Treasurer and Business Manager. The company name "Ultem" is a combination of the first syllables from both names, Ullman and Temerson.
On November 22, 1935 The New York Times reported that Ultem Publications had leased business space at 381 Fourth Avenue, which was on the corner of East 53rd Street and Park Avenue. Five months later Ultem Publications leased a second business space in the same building.
On May 29, 1936 Maurice Ullman Rosenfield married Harriet Obstfield. She was born in 1914 in New Jersey and was a high school graduate. She worked as a saleslady at a department store.
In 1937 Resolute Publications produced Personal Adventure Stories. The owner was Michael Bleier and the editor was Maurice Rosenfield. This confession adventure magazine folded after five issues.
On June 23, 1938 The New York Times reported the Federal Trade Commission had ordered Michael Bleier and Mayfair Publishing Company to stop printing the false advertising claim "that their piano course enables one to play any tune one can sing, whistle or hum." As well as, "that anyone with or without musical knowledge can play the piano."
In 1939 Speed Comics were produced by Brookwood Publications. The editor was listed as Maurice Rosenfield. Statements of Ownership included the name "J. A. Rosenfield," who was Maurice Rosenfield's father, Jonas Alton Rosenfield. However, he was only acting as a corporate proxy bidder on behave of a business partner, who preferred to remain anonymous, but was most likely a member of the Ullman family, which might be Maurice Ullman Rosenfield, Isaac Wise Ullman, or Paul Sampliner, who was the nephew of Maurice Ullman Falter.
In 1942 Maurice Rosenfield's mother, Caroline Ullman Rosenfield, died at the age of sixty-two in Dallas.
In 1942 he was listed as the publisher of Halt! a pin-up joke book for servicemen from Crestwood Publishing at 1790 Broadway, which was owned by Theo Epstein. The editor was the artist Ken Browne, who also contributed cartoons to Army Laffs, Army Laughs, Army Fun, Laff Time, Broadway Laffs, and Pictorial Thrill, all of which were published by Theodore Epstein at 1790 Broadway or Bleier & Epstein at 1270 Sixth Avenue. Ken Browne also drew features for comic books that were published by Bleier & Epstein in Headline Comics and Prize Comics.
In 1943 during WWII Maurice Rosenfield served in the Navy as a Chief Petty Officer on the U.S.S. George W. Ingram.
In 1944 his son Jay was born.
After the war, Maurice Rosenfield returned to NYC and resumed his career in publishing. In 1946 his son Robert H. Rosenfield was born.
General Douglas MacArthur (1883-1966) was inspired to keep in his wallet a copy of the poem "On Youth" by Samuel Ullman. During his post-war term as Military Commander of occupied Japan, MacArthur had an enlargement of the poem hung on the wall of his office. Visiting Japanese leaders were in turn inspired by the poem and distributed thousands of copies as an inspirational message to struggling citizens as they rebuilt their nation. As a result of these events, "On Youth" became one of the most widely-known poems from English literature in Post War Japan.
During the 1950s Maurice Rosenfield was affiliated with Hanro Corporation at 441 Lexington Avenue, which published Orbit - The Best in Science-Fiction and Satellite - The Best In Science Fiction. Hanro also produced Astrology Guide, Astro Guide, and Your Guide, which were all edited by Mr. Dal Lee, also known as Adalbert Nebel(1895-1973).
In 1960 Maurice Rosenfield formed Reese Publishing. The company name was also the nickname for Maurice, "Reese," which was derived from the second syllable in pronouncing his name "Mor-Reese." Reese Publishing produced Hollywood fan magazines, men's adventure magazines and detective magazines. As with most of his work, the distributor was PDC, which was founded by Theo Epstein and owned by Irving S. Manheimer, and the advertising was handled by Hammond Associates, which was owned by Harold Hammond, a business associate of Louis Silberkleit. The offices of Reese Publishing were in the modern skyscraper at 1180 Sixth Avenue at West 46th Street. Their periodicals were printed under a variety of company names, including EmTee Publishing Company, Q.M.G. (Quality Magazine Group), Hanro Corporation, and The Sterling group. His editor was Barnett "Bud" R. Ampolsk (1922-2010), who was the nephew of the renowned Hearst newspaper editor, Lewis Taplinger (1879-1939). His art Director was Ben Harvey Lipson (1911-1991), who was an advertising artist that had worked for Macy's Department Store from 1944-1950. Reese produced Man's Story, Man's Book, Man's Epic, Man's Conquest, Man's Illustrated, New Man, Men Today, World Of Men, Real Combat Stories, and Blue Book. The artists that worked for this company were Norman Saunders, Rafael DeSoto, John Duillo (1928-2003), Norm Eastman (1931-2006), Carl Pfeuffer (1910-1980), and Walter Popp. Although the covers only paid $150, at that time illustration art had grown unfashionable, so the artists were grateful for even low-paying work.
On August 15, 1963 The New York Times reported, "Sunday Newspaper Magazines in Turmoil - This is a time of upheaval in the Sunday Supplement field. The Hearst Publishing Company announced that its 67-year-old supplement, The American Weekly, would cease publication." Nevertheless, the Supplement Publishing Corporation announced it was producing Poise Magazine, aimed at young women from fifteen to twenty-two. Maurice Rosenfield was Chairman of Supplement Publishing Corporation, as well as Reese Publishing, which were both partly owned by Jack Wrather and William Shay. Poise Magazine was included in over five million nationwide Sunday newspapers, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chicago Sun-Times, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Atlanta Journal & Constitution, Seattle Times, Washington Star, Dallas News, Los Angeles Times, and The Philadelphia Bulletin.
In 1964 his father Jonas A. Rosenfield died at the age of seventy-eight.
In 1967 The New York Times identified The Sterling Group, where Maurice Rosenfield worked, as the publisher of Movie Mirror, which was also listed as a Macfadden Publication that was distributed by PDC. At that time Irving S. Manheimer was the President of both Macfadden Publications and PDC.
On May 8, 1984 The Washington Post reported that a County Supervisor wanted to ban Detective Magazines. "He suggested the covers of Front Page Detective and True Detective are generally offensive and may promote violence against women. The combination of nudity, bizarre clothing and sadomasochism was not appropriate for public display at convenience stores. 'That is obviously a bad thing for kids to see.' The publisher of both titles, as well as three other detective magazines, is Maurice Rosenfield, who said, "We've never been classified with girlie magazines. This seems far fetched.' When asked about the whips, chains, and sadomasochism portrayed on the covers he said, 'That has been the trademark of detective magazines for decades.'"
In 1989 Maurice Rosenfield retired from publishing.
He was a founder and president of the Periodical and Book Association of America.
He served as president of the Ethical Culture Society of Long Island and oversaw the construction of their Nassau County chapter in New Hyde Park, NY.
He also served as president of the Roslyn Little League.
On June 26, 1996 his wife Harriet (Obstfield) Rosenfield died at the age of eighty-two in Roslyn, NY.
In 2000 his younger brother, Samuel Ullman Rosenfield, died at the age of eighty-nine, and his youngest brother, Jonas Alton Rosenfield, Jr., died at the ages of eighty-five.
Maurice Ullman Rosenfield died at the age of ninety-one on August 12, 2001 in Roslyn, NY.
© David Saunders 2018 |
