The editors atSuper Teenhad some ironclad rules about the profiles of teen matinee idol featured in their Thomas Nelson Page each month . An actor or musician ’s bad demeanour was never discussed ; long - terminal figure relationships were scantily mentioned . Most significantly , there was a permanent prohibition on chest of drawers hair .
" If they have hairy chests , you ’ll see them with their shirts buttoned up , " Bob Schartoff , the magazine ’s originative director , toldtheNew York Daily Newsin 1982 . Facial fuzz was also verboten . When a reporter offer a conjectural — say Scott Baio grow a beard — Schartoff suppose theJoanie Loves Chachistar would efficaciously be excommunicated from his pages .
Super Teen , Tiger Beat , Bop,16 . From the sixties to the 1990s , these glossy , primary - coloredmagazines that looked like the inside of a 13 - year - old girl ’s locker door sold hundreds of thousands of copies each month and provided gleefully trivial sixth sense into the non - threatening sexual urge symbols of their respective eras . Jason Bateman was photographed cradle a Teddy Ruxpin ; Matt Dillon could be seen eating pizza pie like any normal person . Readers were often refer to in the second - person to better avail them project an ingenuous evening with their fame jam . ( " Are YOU the Kind of Girl Adorable Tim Hutton is Looking For ? " )
At time , the magazines foreknow the organic evolution of dimpled pin - ups into existent marquee genius ( Tom Cruise , Michael J. Fox ) . Other clock time , there was a lot of ink spilled over the intragroup works of Menudo . All of it was meant to entice their demographic of 11- to 14 - year - sometime lady friend , which some editor were rather blunt about diagnosing .
" The distinctive proofreader … is shy , self - conscious , quiet , afraid of boys , and not into dating , " Schartoff said . " They ’re ' B ' students and not the pretty one in course . "
The idea of pandering to rooter of white - cut performerswith breathless magazine prose can be traced back to Elvis Presley . In the previous fifties , magazine publisher like16went from print song lyrics to relay details of what it might be like to date the King , balladeer Pat Boone , or thespian Tab Hunter . When the Beatlesarrived statesidein 1964 , the ensue pandemonium flowed into what was rapidly becoming a subgenre of publication — teen perfection worship .
Charles Laufer take notice . A news media and English teacher at Beverly Hills High School , Laufer suppose a magazine devoted to stripling interests would be a success . HelaunchedCoaster , a regional issue for Long Beach locals , in the 1950s . It did n’t succeed until he realize his error : son did n’t want to sit down and take about celebrity lifestyles . Girlsdid .
Laufer renamed the magazineTeenand watched it rise into a collision before leaving to startTiger Beatin 1965 . His timing was fortuitous : The Monkees were just commence to detonate in popularity , andTiger Beatsaw its circulation rise when it profile the merriment - loving group . Laufer sold Monkees fan ball club memberships , posters , and leger before he soldTiger Beatitself to the Harlequin romance house in 1978 for $ 12 million .
The magazine — which began to routine in the heaps and finally in thehundreds — were usually cyclic in nature , their sale come up and falling depending on who happened to be in favor with teen girls at any given fourth dimension . In the ' 70s , John Travolta and Erik Estrada prompt copies . In the ' eighty , it was soap star Jack Wagner , Scott Baio , Rick Springfield , andGrowing Painsactor Kirk Cameron , who was such an ideal of non - minacious sexuality that he became a cover fixity .
Typically , editors would get stacks of photos from publicity departments — like Don Johnson standing next to an inflatable gator — and hope that a competing magazine publisher would n’t be running the same shot that month . Interviews were dependent on a wiz ’s story of fame . Some , likeEight is Enoughheartthrob Adam Rich , sit for question with editor program ; others , like Tom Cruise , mostly shunned any personal involution , fearing they ’d be typecast in juvenile roles . If a star did go for to an interview , their conversation would likely be parse over several months to make it last .
Negativity was a killer . WhenKarate Kidstar Ralph Macchio got conjoin in 1987 , editors tell sports fan he " needs your support , " rather than , say , trying to take down the woman who dared to take Macchio off the marketplace . When a celebrity made a less - than - flattering printing — like the metre the 13 - class - old Rich told his publicist to " shut up " during oneSuper Teensit - down — it was never divulge . When John Schneider walk off the set ofThe Dukes of Hazzardover a pay dispute , fan wrote in to express their letdown . fiscal strikes broke the fantasy , and Schneider - related fall - up sales slumped .
The adulation could be humiliate for thespian trying to take their careers seriously , peculiarly when they were surrounded by the kind of Trapper Keeper collage and single - syllable vernacular favor by the publications . ( Pictures were " pix , " fact were " facsimile machine . " ) Others — or their publicist — control the teen mags as a fomite to promote themselves . Rick Springfield was enounce to have hung around16 ’s New York office looking for a credit before his self-aggrandising break . In 1979 , Kevin Spacey showed up for acattle callto find a new “ stripling idol ” forTiger Beat . ( He never joined the ranks of Cameron and the eternal rest . )
At its tiptop in the 1970s , Tiger Beatand its babe publicationsreached some 2 million lector a month . Others get by on as little as 135,000 give written matter sell . The 1990s diversified with title likeTeen PeopleandSassy , publication that brought a stronger editorial voice to readers and allay up on the kind of copy that did n’t exactly enable feminism . ( " navigate Away with RALPH MACCHIO ! " )
In the nineties , the popularity of the Backstreet Boys and * NSYNC helped keepTiger Beatand the others afloat , but not for long . The net and societal media excised the middleman , allow champion to control their exposure and return calculated glimpses into their lifetime withoutTeen Beatinterfering . Many enduring titles folded . Tiger Beatsold to a group of investors — which let in Nick Cannon — for $ 4 million in 2016 , withplansto modify the brand name for a digital era .
The tens of thou of magazine once reverence like pop culture creed are now submit to recycling bins , basement , or eBay , with one masking or interview mostly identical from another . All reviewer wanted was some gossip , some advice , and to find out whether or not Corey Haim liked pepperoni on his pizza .
" Actually,“Teen Star Photo Albumeditor Lori BernsteintoldthePalm Beach Postin 1988 , " they all kind of say the same things . "
