Plain Talk

Plain Talk was an American monthly anticommunist magazine that was published for 44 months from 1946 to 1950. Its editor-in-chief was Isaac Don Levine.[1]

This article is about the magazine. For the Jimmy Smith album, see Plain Talk (album).
Plain Talk
EditorIsaac Don Levine
Frequencymonthly
FounderIsaac Don Levine, Alfred Kohlberg
First issueOctober 1946 (1946-10)
Final issueJanuary 1950 (1950-01)
CountryUnited States
Based inNew York City
LanguageEnglish
ISSN0190-4140
OCLC1604676

Description

Plain Talk featured articles by many conservative writers of the time, including John Chamberlain, Suzanne La Follette, Eugene Lyons, George S. Schuyler, and Ralph de Toledano.[2][3] The magazine was published on a monthly basis.[4]

History

In the 1970s, Levine wrote that in July 1946, Benjamin Mandel (a "guide to the mission" of the magazine), accompanied by Father John F. Cronin and Alfred Kohlberg, approached Levine at home in Norwalk, Connecticut. Kohlberg provided $25,000, a free office, and funding for five staffers.[1]

The magazine was established in 1946,[2] and the first issue appeared in October 1946.[3] Its low circulation and readership levels made the magazine cease publication in May 1950. Former US President Herbert Hoover had provided some "half-hearted" funding, but it did not succeed in shoring up the magazine.[1]

Connected to the magazine was the name Theodore Cooper Kirkpatrick, who, with fellow ex-FBI agent Kenneth M. Bierly, was implicated in "pirating" of security informants for Plain Talk magazine and soon for the Counterattack newsletter. Kirkpatrick and Bierly also used FBI information to capitalize upon their association. Kirkpatrick and Bierly joined with a third ex-FBI agent, John G. Keenan, to form "John Quincy Adams Associates" in Washington, DC, and then "American Business Consultants, Inc." in New York City, the publisher of Counterattack.[5][6][7]

In 1950, several writers and editors from Plain Talk started to work for The Freeman, which was founded later that year and acquired the Plain Talk subscription list.[2][3]

Personnel

Works

An anthology of articles from the magazine was published in 1976.[3]

  • Plain Talk magazine (October 1946–May 1950)
  • Plain Talk: An Anthology from the Leading Anti-Communist Magazine of the 40s (1976)[1]

See also

References
  1. Don Levine, Isaac (1976). Plain Talk: An Anthology from the Leading Anti-Communist Magazine of the 40s. New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House. pp. xii–xiv. ISBN 978-0-87000-348-6.
  2. Critchlow, Donald T. (2007). The Conservative Ascendancy: How the GOP Right Made Political History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-674-02620-9.
  3. de Rosa, Peter L. (1999). "Plain Talk 1946-1950". In Lora, Ronald; Henry, William Longton (eds.). The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 461–469. ISBN 0-313-21390-9.
  4. "Isaac Don Levine, 89, Foe of Soviet". The New York Times. February 17, 1981. Retrieved February 21, 2016.
  5. "Guide to the Ernie Lazar FBI FOIA Files on Anti-Communism and Right Wing Movements TAM.576". Tamiment Library. March 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
  6. "Guide to the Church League of America Collection of the Research Files of Counterattack, the Wackenhut Corporation, and Karl Baarslag TAM.148: Descriptive Summary". Tamiment Library. July 2014. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
  7. "Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television". Billboard. September 9, 1950. pp. 4, 18, 59, 61 (John Quincy Adams Associates).
  8. Robb, David L. (2012). The Gumshoe and the Shrink: Guenther Reinhardt, Dr. Arnold Hutschnecker, and the Secret History of the 1960 Kennedy-Nixon Election. Santa Monica Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-59580-850-9.
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