Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Tom Black/Smithsonian Magazine Oral History Interview

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0505
Creators:
Black, Tom, 1924-
Wiener, Tom
Dates:
1993
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
1.5 Cubic feet
3 boxes
Repository:
Oral history interview, transcripts, and background material documenting Tom Black's career as director of advertising for Smithsonian Magazine from its founding in 1969 until his retirement in 1994.

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of 4.25 hours of interview material. Oral historian Tom Wiener spoke with Black in his New York office December 15‑16, 1993. Black also generously loaned materials from his files, including charts and statistics which illustrate some of his observations about the growth of the magazine and the shifting demographics of American society that have affected magazine readership and advertising, plus internal memos from the magazines's early days. Also included are an unedited transcript of the interview, plus an edited version. The latter was the basis for a booklet, which was presented to Black and guests at his retirement party in the spring of 1994. A copy of the booklet rounds out the collection.

Arrangement

Arrangement
The collection is arranged into three series.
Series 1: Oral History Interview
Series 2: Transcripts
Series 3: Background Files

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
Tom Black was
Smithsonian Magazine
's first Director of Advertising. He joined the magazine in September 1969 and retired in the spring of 1994. During his tenure, the magazine became one of the major success stories in publishing, mushrooming from an initial circulation of 164,000 to over 2 million, making it the leading magazine in the so‑called quality field. From the beginning, the magazine's readership ranked high in such demographic factors as level of education and disposable income. Black and his sales force, however, had problems at first trying to sell a magazine which many advertisers associated with a musty, dusty museum complex in Washington, D.C. Just when sales were at their lowest ebb, in the summer of 1971, sales turned the corner and took off. Black's father, Howard Black, was
Time
Magazine's first ad salesman, and Tom grew up with Henry Luce, the father of modern magazine publishing, as a frequent guest in his parents' home. After serving in World War II, Tom Black joined J. Walter Thompson, then the world's leading advertising agency, as a trainee but soon decided that he was more interested in being a part of a new and growing enterprise. He joined the fledgling sales force of ABC Television and wrote the network's first rate card. After a short stint with
The March of Time
newsreel operation, he found himself on the sales force of
Life Magazine
, where he spent most of the 1950s, switching over to
Time
for much of the 1960s. In 1969, at the age of 45, Black was looking for a new challenge when he was contacted by former
Life
editor Edward Thompson, who was starting a new magazine for the Smithsonian Institution. As Black modestly recalls it, Thompson probably remembered a favor Howard Black had done years before for Thompson and his son in making Tom Black
Smithsonian
's first ad director.

Administration

Author
Tom Wiener
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Tom Black agreed to be interviewed for the project and donated the related papers, which were photocopied, in December 1993.
The Tom Black Oral History Collection was made possible by a generous gift to the Center for Advertising History by
Smithsonian
Magazine.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Tom Wiener, January 27, 1994.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
Tom Black/Smithsonian Magazine Oral History Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.

Related Materials
Materials in the Archives Center
The Estelle Ellis Collection (AC0423) also contains material on the history of magazines, in that case the consumer periodicals
Seventeen
and
Charm
/
Glamour
.

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Transcripts Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Interviews -- 1980-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Oral history -- 1990-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising, magazine -- 1960-2000 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Audio cassettes -- 1990-2000 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising executives -- 1960-2000 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

Archives Center, National Museum of American History
P.O. Box 37012
Suite 1100, MRC 601
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012
archivescenter@si.edu