Posted in: Comics, Vintage Paper | Tagged: pulps, spicy history stories, Ziff-Davis

The Mystery of William B. Ziff's Doc Wizard

On the trail of the obscure history of the Arthur Gontier era of 10 Story Book, a mystery involving Ziff-Davis founder William B. Davis emerges.

While researching some odd twists and turns of Arthur J. Gontier's early years as a pulp publisher for our next installment of the 10 Story Book publishing saga (parts 1, 2, and 3 are already available) and related matters, I go into an interesting side-quest involving another Chicago publishing figure, William B. Ziff.  Best known as the founder of the publishing empire that became officially known as Ziff-Davis in 1936, there are a few gaps in the biographic blurbs on Ziff from before that date that lead to interesting places.

Welcome back, and it's time for Spicy History Stories #10, the ninth installment of a regular column about pulp magazine history that we've launched to coincide with Heritage Auction's weekly pulp magazine auctions.  Unlike other auction-centric posts we've done here, this column is not necessarily designed to be closely tied to any particular items up for auction.  Mostly, it's this: if you enjoy the nerdy details of comic book history, you're going to love the astounding (and yes, sometimes weird) history of the people and companies that made the pulps.

The catnip that led me down this avenue of inquiry was found in Keeler News #83, the bulletin of the Harry Stephen Keeler Society.  Keeler had a long association with Gontier and 10 Story Book as a writer and editor that we'll get into in more detail in an upcoming post.  In an article titled "Bill Brannon Remembers," Keeler News editor Richard Polt presents some notes on Keeler by his longtime friend William T. Brannon.  Brannon wrote, "There was a vacancy for an editor at 10 Story Book, published by Bill Ziff and A.J. Gontier, both of whom I later got acquainted with. There wasn't much work to the job and Harry did it one day a week. Gontier got control of 10 Story Book and Ziff set up his own company, later to be known as Ziff-Davis."

The suggestion that Ziff and Gontier were in partnership on 10 Story Book together within the timeframe suggested (of Keeler becoming editor at 10 Story Book), or that Ziff could have had some kind of involvement with the title at that time is unlikely. After 10 Story Book and Daily Story Publishing Company founder Dwight Allyn's death in late 1910, Gontier acquired the business from Allyn's family in 1912, when Ziff was 14 years old.  In 1916, during Keeler's initial brush with editing for Gontier, Ziff was attending the Chicago Art Institute and becoming a Chicago Daily News cartoonist. He then served in World War I 1918-1919, and by 1920 had founded the W.B. Ziff Company advertising agency.  Ziff's Magazine followed in 1923.

That would also seem to leave little possibility for Ziff's involvement with Gontier around the time of the beginning of Keeler's lengthier tenure as editor of 10 Story Book in 1919, but it may not close the door entirely on the subject.  On the one hand, Brannon might have misinterpreted what he learned about this from Keeler, or understandably may have misremembered the timeline or details when recalling them years later. On the other hand, Ziff's pre-Ziff-Davis origin story has been written about surprisingly little, given that it's the beginning of one of America's great magazine publishing empires.

While trying to close some of the gaps in the early William B. Ziff timeline, I stumbled across the solution to a mystery posed in Keeler News #89, in which editor Richard Polt ponders the meaning of a 1935 letter addressed to someone named Albert in which Keeler mentions "Bill's Doc Wizard's" magazine.  This would appear to be a highly obscure pre-Ziff-Davis William B. Ziff one-issue title called Doc Wizard's Lucky Systems.  Ziff and editor Ed Bodin posed for the attached publicity photo for the magazine's launch in 1934, which seems to be the only public indication that Ziff is behind this endeavor.   Keeler's letter correspondent here is then likely Albert Yates, the cover artist for this issue.

During the magazine's rollout, newspapers seemed to enjoy engaging with the gimmick of Doc Wizard, a persona presumably orchestrated by Bodin, with one paper taking issue with the Doc's prediction of the beginning of "the next war in which the United States will be involved" in April, 1937, while another paper ran with the gag even further by imploring Doc Wizard to predict upcoming college football scores, and claiming to have gotten a list from him:  "In a more conciliatory tone we approached the Doc and soon had him agreeing to write out his Saturday's list of information a day ahead of tie and then go on to Birmingham for the weekend."  Among other scores, Doc apparently predicted Alabama: 19 Tennessee: 6 for that Saturday. Alabama actually defeated the Vols 13 to 6 in that game, so this supposed Doc Wizard prediction wasn't too far off.

Editor Ed Bodin explained the plan for Doc Wizard's Lucky Systems for Writer's Digest on a couple of occasions during 1934: "Doc Wizard's Lucky Systems, 551 Fifth Avenue is stepping cautiously at first, coming out as a quarterly until the market for it is sure. It gives a chance for selling some unusual types of articles. Mr. Bodin is particularly anxious to get some glamorous true-fact stories of the old gambling days of the West; of the systems of gambling used. It seems these are hard to find. Also, articles giving the inside dope on unusual present-day gambling methods are needed. And have you unusual pictures, with brief articles, of strange foreign superstitions?"  Another blurb noted that stories of "superstitions, luck, black magic, etc" were also emphasized.

Notably, the magazine was published by an entity called Feature Magazine Corp. and edited by Bodin in New York, while another Feature Magazine Corp. publication called Mail Order Journal can also be specifically tied to Ziff during this era. Unfortunately, Author and Journalist reported in January 1935 that, "Doc Wizard's Lucky Systems, 551 Fifth Ave., New York, made a fair showing with its first issue, but not sufficient to satisfy the publishers, who have instructed Ed Boden, agent (and editor of the magazine), to place it on the market. Which means that the magazine will be discontinued unless a new publisher is found to continue it."

While Ziff's Doc Wizard ended after a single issue, it may provide us with a breadcrumb leading toward a connection between Ziff and Gontier.  We'll talk about that possibility, plus more on Gontier, Keeler, the early days of William B. Ziff, and the strange 1916-1919 period of 10 Story Book and Daily Story Publishing Company next time.  In the meantime, the wealth of historical information available in Keeler News is highly recommended.

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