There was a general migration of publishers to midtown from downtown. One of the exceptions was Columbia Publications, which pulp writer Chuck Martin in a Writers Digest article in 1947 described as being located in "the badlands" (241 Church St). Galaxy started out published by World Editions at 105 W 40 St (the building has since been demolished). World's printer bought the magazine after a few issues and moved the editorial office downtown to 421 Hudson St. When the magazines were sold to Universal Publications in 1969, the editorial offices moved back to midtown at 235 E 45 St. Some of the publishers were actually based outside of New York, like Ziff-Davis and Popular Publications. However, New York was such a dominant force in the publishing business that they felt a need to establish editorial offices in New York.
I wish that I had taken a picture of Hans Santesson's office building before they tore it down 2 or 3 years ago. The building was so old that Con Ed only supplied it with DC power. I remember Hans chortling triumphantly during one of my visits that he had finally found a clock radio that worked on DC.
Henry Kuttner described his initial experiences after having moved to New York in an amusing article in Writers Digest in 1941. He missed his spacious apartment with a view of palm trees in Beverly Hills that cost him $35/month. Instead he rented an apartment in a brownstone in the West 70's for $55/month with a view of a whorehouse out of his back window. Elevators seemed to have been a novelty to him. He described the steel latticework elevator leading up to the Street&Smith offices at 79 Seventh Ave as being like an iron maiden. I had hoped to take a photo of the elevator but the building has long since been demolished to make way for the huger Vermeer Apt building. Street&Smith moved out of this building into the beautiful Bowery Savings Bank building at 120 E 42 St in 1945. From there, in 1952, they moved to the bland modern building at 575 Madison Ave.
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