{"id":31,"date":"2011-06-27T01:06:10","date_gmt":"2011-06-27T01:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/?page_id=31"},"modified":"2011-06-27T01:30:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-27T01:30:16","slug":"the-long-strange-trip-of-clifton-magazine-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/?page_id=31","title":{"rendered":"The long strange trip of Clifton Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The cover of the first issue of Clifton magazine in the fall of 1972.<\/p><\/div>\n

(Editor\u2019s note: This article was written in April 2008 and first published on the University of Cincinnati website. Lissa wrote the article for a research project that included indexing the magazine’s content and posting online the cover images for all issues.)<\/em><\/p>\n

By Lissa Kramer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jon Hughes looked away from the magazine and bent over in his chair, allowing himself to be consumed, for a moment, by a fit of laughter.\u00a0\u00a0 When he had recovered, he removed his glasses to wipe his eyes and said, \u201cThat has to be a joke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jon had just finished reading a \u201cletter to the editor\u201d from the autumn 1973 issue of Clifton Magazine<\/em>, the award-winning UC student magazine that ran from 1972 to 1994.\u00a0 The magazine took its name from the neighborhood in which the University of Cincinnati was located.\u00a0 The letter, written to Cliff Radel, was from a Baptist virgin who begged him to not \u201cprint any more four-letter words or dirty pictures because (she) might, just might, find (herself) enjoying them.\u201d\u00a0 There are some in the Journalism Department today, including Hughes, who knew Radel and suspect that the whole thing was orchestrated by him.<\/p>\n

Radel set the tone for future issues of Clifton Magazine<\/em> when he promised in his first editorial to take \u201ca sideways look at the University.\u201d There was a lot going on in Clifton in 1972, and the student journalists made it a point to be in the middle of it.\u00a0 \u201cBeing the magazine of the University of Cincinnati entails certain obligations,\u201d Radel says.\u00a0 Clifton<\/em> appeared during a time when female students on state campuses were locked in their dorms at night.\u00a0 Coverage of the Kent State University shootings in 1970 during protests against the Vietnam War captured the spirit of campus demonstrations all across the country.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Lissa in 2008 researched the history of the University of Cincinnati student publication Clifton Magazine.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAll these people had rebelled from the News Record<\/em> (the student newspaper at UC) and its staid presentations.\u00a0 We were a very motley crew,\u201d Radel says.\u00a0 \u201cEverybody was on fire.\u00a0 Nobody had to be told \u2018Hey, you need to do some work.\u2019 Being given the encouragement by Jon, and tacitly by the university, to do whatever the heck you wanted to; to be creative, to make a statement, to strive for excellence, especially in a city like Cincinnati, is one heck of a thing, and it\u2019s an incredible opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the context of that era, the race riots of the late 1960s left the youth of the city, of all races, ready to fight.\u00a0 Cincinnati\u2019s inner-city neighborhoods had a reputation for being unsafe, and Clifton was no exception.\u00a0 Many wandered into the serene surroundings of Burnet Woods, only to be mugged or worse (\u201cCincinnati Night Run,\u201d Autumn 1972).<\/p>\n

At the time, Ludlow Avenue in Clifton was not the thriving business and entertainment district that it is now.\u00a0 The Esquire Theater was closed and in disrepair.\u00a0 Graffiti covered many buildings.\u00a0 Up the hill near campus, McMillan Street was run down, and Calhoun Street was considered unsafe.\u00a0 Short Vine held amusing possibilities for students looking for a good time in head shops, boutiques, and bars – much like it does now – but it was a haven more for rednecks than hippies.\u00a0 At the time, hippies generally found peace and love in the neighborhood of Mt. Adams.<\/p>\n

The films \u201cDeliverance\u201d and Woody Allen\u2019s \u201cEverything You Always Wanted To Know About Sex\u201d were playing around town, and when the university ran the controversial erotic film \u201cLast Tango in Paris,\u201d starring Marlon Brando, police were sent to close the place down but couldn\u2019t get in without a student I.D.\u00a0 Neither the projectionist nor Clifton Magazine<\/em> backed down, and a review of \u201cTango\u201d appeared in the next issue (\u201cMarlon Brando and the New Film Hero,\u201d Winter, 1972\/73).<\/p>\n

The magazine was in touch with the city.\u00a0 Clifton<\/em> foretold of the organizational problems at concert venues in a story about Riverfront Coliseum (\u201cThrough Trial and Error: Crowd Control at the Coliseum,\u201d Winter 1977\/78). \u00a0A year later, eleven people lost their lives at the coliseum during the Who concert on December 3, 1979.<\/p>\n

The irreverent style of Clifton<\/em>, according to the magazine\u2019s first editor, Lew Moores, was influenced by Esquire<\/em>, Rolling Stone<\/em>, and Village Voice<\/em>.\u00a0 At the time the \u201cNew Journalism\u201d popularized by writers like Tom Wolfe was narrative nonfiction.\u00a0 Moores quoted a piece written by Wolfe in the December 1972 issue of Esquire<\/em> that says \u201cYou\u2019ve got to ask the questions of your subject that you have no right to expect answers to.\u201d\u00a0 The style was practiced by the editors in stories about Union Terminal, student suicide and the incompetence of student government (\u201cUnion Terminal: End of the Line,\u201d Autumn 1972; \u201cIWISHIWEREDEAD,\u201d Spring 1973; and \u201cUC vs. Fingerman,\u201d Autumn 1972). \u201cThe sideways look, I think I kept that up.\u00a0 I don\u2019t need to see the who, what, when, where, why, I don\u2019t need to see all that in the first sentence.\u00a0 There are too many people who do that.\u00a0 Nobody says, now wait a minute, let\u2019s take a look.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA magazine will take on the personality of its editor,\u201d says Hughes.\u00a0 Radel, who now works as an editor at the Cincinnati Enquirer<\/em>, contributed pieces that were uniquely Cincinnatian.\u00a0 His love for Cincinnati is reflected in pieces such as \u201c\u2026The End of the Line,\u201d an interview with the lonely dispatchers at Union Terminal who bemoaned the emptiness and silence of the place following its ending of passenger train service in 1972.\u00a0 \u201cIt was sad when I stood in the connecting corridor and gazed at the empty rotunda\u2026I turned and looked down the darkened concourse whose 36,000 square feet of waiting room space was once jammed with travelers.\u00a0 Throughout the emptiness the omnipresent murals stared back at me, almost in disbelief and remorse.\u00a0 After talking with (the workers) I knew that over the years they had fallen in love with the place and I guess I had too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clifton<\/em>\u2019s signature interviews share a common thread from the early 1970s through the mid-90s.\u00a0 The editors never shied away from high profile subjects like Andy Warhol (\u201cPaul Warhola: Marking His Mark,\u201d Winter 1989\/90) or Jerry Springer, the city\u2019s mayor and councilman before he became a television celebrity.\u00a0 Springer was once found out to have paid a local prostitute with a check (\u201cJerry Springer, the Cincinnati Kid,\u201d Winter, 1974\/75).\u00a0 On another occasion, Moores and William Ruehlmann sought an interview with Matt Koehl, the head of the American Nazi Party for a feature in the autumn of 1973, when Radel was the editor.<\/p>\n

Regarding the art of interviewing, Radel says, \u201cWhen I was a music critic I interviewed George Harrison and I was the only one talking to him, the only guy talking with him for twenty minutes, and I\u2019m very shy.\u00a0 I had questions for him, so you talk to him. \u00a0Or, if you want to talk to the American Nazi guy, you give him a call, and the next thing you know, he\u2019s sitting in the room with you.\u201d\u00a0 (Jackboots and Boats: An Interview with Matt Koehl,\u201d Autumn 1973).<\/p>\n

Wolfe\u2019s narrative nonfiction technique was certainly lived up to when Moores wrote the story \u201cIWISHIWEREDEAD\u201d about UC student Wayne True, who jumped a few days after his birthday from the roof of Calhoun Hall in 1973.\u00a0 The story avoided the sensationalism one might expect from such a tragedy, but it was not lost on him that after maintenance staff had finished hosing brain matter from the pavement \u201cstudents, with whom our future is invested \u2026lit on the area like a pack of lame jackals, dragging their feet through the grass, looking and occasionally pointing.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is for articles like this and the generally innovative journalism that Clifton<\/em> was chosen \u201cBest All-Around Student Magazine\u201d in the country by the Society of Professional Journalists in 1978 and 1979. The contributions of UC students and faculty were a feather in Clifton<\/em>\u2019s cap, not only for brilliant photography, but for graphic design and illustrations as well.<\/p>\n

The response to Clifton<\/em>\u2019s style wasn\u2019t always positive, however.\u00a0 Polk Laffoon, a columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer<\/em>, wrote in a 1974 article, \u201cClifton<\/em> Looks at Cincinnati,\u201d noted with some sarcasm, \u201c\u2026how seriously these kids take themselves.\u201d\u00a0 Cliff Radel\u2019s response to this quote is: \u201cWhy not take ourselves seriously?\u00a0 We may have been confident, because we were doing a good job, but we were not arrogant.\u201d\u00a0 Serious students, though, can be irreverent jokesters, and Clifton<\/em> provided a forum for their views. The substantial, thought-provoking stories were often found within a page or two of a bogus interview such as \u201cA Candid Conversation with the Bashful Billionaire,\u201d (August 1972), or a plea for the best porn story.\u00a0 There were also \u201coffice elves\u201d and a \u201cguardian angel\u201d listed on the masthead.<\/p>\n

Lew Moores once remarked, \u201cI\u2019m not so much interested in what will<\/em> sell as what should<\/em> sell if it were marketed correctly.\u201d\u00a0 This view was taken by Moores\u2019 successors as well, and in the magazine\u2019s run of 23 years, it often conflicted with soliciting advertising dollars.\u00a0 Cliff Radel\u2019s complaint about the difficulty of finding good literature and reading matter in \u201cBookstore Blues\u201d criticized Lance\u2019s Bookstore, located on Calhoun Avenue just south of campus.\u00a0 It is a lament still heard today as serious readers debate the quality of bookstores.\u00a0\u00a0 The management of Lance\u2019s took offense, however, and removed its ad from the magazine, reducing Clifton<\/em>\u2019s revenue.<\/p>\n

Another example of this kind of fearless journalism practiced in Clifton<\/em> was the article \u201cHis Kiss is the Beginning\u201d (Spring 1973) a commentary about the lack of a gay scene in Cincinnati by a homosexual who struggled with coming out.\u00a0 A story like this may be somewhat ordinary today, but it was considerably controversial in \u201973 and certainly would not have helped to fetch advertising dollars.<\/p>\n

As Clifton<\/em>\u2019s advisor, Jon Hughes had to go to bat for the magazine a few times.\u00a0 The bookstore issue was one thing.\u00a0 Another issue was a discussion about the cover.\u00a0 He had to \u201cpersuade\u201d the editors that they couldn\u2019t put a picture of a man dressed like a priest with a nude woman on his lap on the cover (Winter, 1972\/73). \u00a0\u201cI didn\u2019t want to go to jail\u201d he recalls.\u00a0 But those issues were only discussed occasionally.\u00a0 The last time his \u2018guardian angel\u2019 services were tested, however, he lost.\u00a0 When advertising revenue continued to sink in the mid-1970s, Hughes appealed to UC president Warren Bennis for budget assistance, but he declined.\u00a0 By 1993, the finances had been in a precarious state for two decades, and the lack of revenue became critical.\u00a0 After 24 years, Clifton<\/em> finally lost this battle and the last issue, printed on grainy newsprint, came out in May 1994. \u00a0 That ‘letter to the editor’ was not a joke, remembers Radel.\u00a0 “We didn’t have to make up letters to the editor.”\u00a0 Through 70 issues the magazine kept up with the changing cultural landscape ot its readers’ lifestyles, their world views, and their adopted neighborhood – Clifton.<\/p>\n

Selected Sources<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Enquirer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cUC\u2019s Clifton Magazine<\/em> Takes Regional Award,\u201d April 12, 1976.<\/p>\n

The Cincinnati Post<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cClifton<\/em> Looks at Cincinnati,\u201d January 1, 1974.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cClifton<\/em> Wins Award,\u201d October 12, 1978.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMaking Ends Meet at Clifton<\/em>,\u201d April 14, 1980.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBig 10 for Clifton<\/em>,\u201d January 30, 1982.<\/p>\n

Hughes, Jon<\/strong>.\u00a0 Interview, April 3, 2008.<\/p>\n

Moores, Lew<\/strong>.\u00a0 Interview, April 8, 2008.<\/p>\n

Radel, Cliff<\/strong>.\u00a0 Interview, May 1, 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Editor\u2019s note: This article was written in April 2008 and first published on the University of Cincinnati website. Lissa wrote the article for a research project that included indexing the magazine’s content and posting online the cover images for all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":398,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/400"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/melissakramerscincinnati.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}