Hollywood Studio Magazine was published out of the San Fernando Valley in various iterations (and various titles) from 1966 until 1992. What started as a local organ aimed at the workers of Hollywood ended as a nostalgic fan magazine about Hollywood Then and Now. The various title changes and revisions to its mission reflect not just the economic realities of magazine publishing, but a changing relationship to Hollywood and the industry itself. The earliest issues of Studio Magazine read like a house organ of a steady, entrenched industry documenting the comings and goings and notable events of the San Fernando Valley, with special emphasis on Universal. Fandom first became part of the discourse of the magazine through collecting. The Collectors’ Column page beginning in the early 1970s allowed memorabilia collectors to advertise their wares to each other. In 1983, the founder of the magazine, Dorothy Denny gave over the reins to Ralph Benner, the founder of Tiger Beat. This marks the clear separation between the original publication and its focus on Hollywood production culture and the move toward a publication centered on star narratives and fan culture. In covering the two and a half decades from the collapse of the system to the point where classical movie stars were phantoms instead of living people, the magazine offers insight into the transformation of old Hollywood from a lived reality to a memory to a myth.
-- Luci Marzola