The Black Cat was an American fiction magazine launched in 1895 by Herman Umbstaetter, initially published in Boston, Massachusetts. It published only short stories, and had a reputation for originality and for encouraging new writers. Umbstaetter's editorial approach was unusual in several ways: the cover price was low, at five cents; he paid based on merit instead of story length; and he was willing to buy stories by new authors rather than insisting on well-known names. He frequently ran story contests to attract amateur writers. The magazine was immediately successful, and its circulation was boosted by the appearance in an early issue of "The Mysterious Card", by Cleveland Moffett, which was so popular that two print runs of the issue it appeared in sold out.
Many well-known writers appeared in its pages. Two of the best-known were Jack London, whose 1899 story "A Thousand Deaths" sold just as he was about to give up attempting to become a writer, and Henry Miller, whose first published work was several short fiction critiques published in The Black Cat in 1919. The magazine's icon, a black cat that appeared on almost every cover for many years, was drawn by Umbstaetter's wife, Nelly Littlehale Umbstaetter. Others who sold stories to The Black Cat included O. Henry, Rex Stout, and Clark Ashton Smith.
In 1912, Umbstaetter sold the magazine to Samuel Cassino, the publisher of Little Folks. Cassino, and later his son, Herman, published the magazine from Salem, Massachusetts, until 1919. Circulation, at about 50,000, was much lower than in Umbstaetter's day. In 1916, a deal was struck with Essanay Studios to make films of stories from The Black Cat. The magazine was sold to Fox Film in 1919 and survived only another year. It was revived in 1922 by William Kane, and in early 1923, with Kane estimating circulation down to only 15,000, it ceased publication permanently.
Publication history Umbstaetter The Black Cat was founded by Herman Umbstaetter, who had become wealthy in the advertising and publishing business in Baltimore by the late 1880s.Mott (1957), pp. 428–431.Bessom (1920), pp. 84–85.Anonymous (1898), pp. 99–103. In 1886, he attempted to start a magazine in Boston, proposing to price it at ten cents, but was unable to get funding. He worked in the United Kingdom for a while, but lost his fortune and returned to the US, spending some time in California before settling in Boston in about 1891. He again attempted to find capital to start a magazine and was again rebuffed. He finally launched The Black Cat in 1895, having saved enough money to start it on his own account.Umbstaetter planned to publish only short stories, and to acquire some of the stories through contests designed to attract amateur writers, rather than by paying well-established writers the market rate. His budget for fiction was about the same as it would have needed to be for a more conventional approach, but by publicizing the contests he hoped to attract more readers and get a wider variety of fiction. By the time he was able to put his plans into action, nearly ten years had passed since his original proposal to price it at ten cents and many other magazines had been launched at that price, so he decided to go "still further on the road of popular prices”, and set the price at five cents per issue. The price of paper had been dropping for some time, and he was not the first publisher to take advantage of it—the Ladies' Home Journal had been launched at 5 cents, and two fiction magazines, the Chap-Book and Bibelot, had recently been started at the same price. The Black Cat was launched in octavo format (about ), the same size as the dime novels of the day.
Umbstaetter was optimistic enough about the magazine's prospects to place orders for 100,000 printed copies of the cover lithograph with the Riverside Press, despite being told by the printer that the order was "suicidal".Umbstaetter (July 1900b), pp. v–vi. He announced in the December 1895 issue of The Black Cat that all 100,000 copies of the first issue, dated October 1895, had sold out in three weeks.Umbstaetter (December 1895), p. 59. The American News Company said in early 1896 that "no magazine ever published at any price has secured so large a sale in so short a time".Anonymous (February 20, 1896), p. 5 Umbstaetter claimed circulation figures of 186,000 for 1896, and 120,000 or more over the next three years. Starting in 1901, Umbstaetter sent affidavits to the newspaper annuals, showing circulation between 120,000 and just under 146,000 over the next seven years.
In the October 1896 issue, he announced that The Black Cat had paid out over $7,000 for stories during the magazine's first year,Umbstaetter (1896), p. 58. and launched a short story competition with a $1,000 first prize and another $1,100 available for the four next best stories. A condition of the competition was that all entries had to include a subscription to a year of The Black Cat, which cost 50 cents. The winners were announced the following summer, with the prize pool expanded to $2,600.Umbstaetter (July 1897), p. 62. The competition was repeated in 1897 and 1899, with prizes of over $4,000 each time.Umbstaetter (November 1897), p. 56.Umbstaetter (September 1899), p. xii.Umbstaetter (July 1900a), p. ii–iii. In 1901 non-cash prizes were added: the top prize was a trip around the world lasting 179 days, conducted by Raymond and Whitcomb, a travel company, and valued at $2,100. The second prize was a Surrey steam car, valued at $1,300, and other non-cash prizes included a piano, typewriters, and trips from Boston to San Francisco and from Boston to Cuba. There were cash prizes as well, the highest one worth $1,000.Umbstaetter (December 1901), pp. 43–47.
After the next competition, which ended in July 1905 with an announcement that the planned prize amount of $10,600 would be expanded to $12,500,Umbstaetter (June 1904), pp. xviii–xix.Umbstaetter (January 1905), pp. 39–42. The Journalist published an article about Umbstaetter's methods.Bessom (1920), p. 88. Stanley Johnson, the author of the article, had visited Umbstaetter's home in Back Bay, Boston multiple times during the second half of 1904, while the contest manuscripts were arriving. According to Johnson, Umbstaetter personally read nearly 8,000 of the manuscripts, and paid rewards to his manuscript readers if they found a publishable story that had been rejected by another of the readers. The next contest, the last to be run under Umbstaetter's editorship, was launched in April 1908, offering a smaller prize pool than the previous two competitions: $6,950 for ten stories.Umbstaetter (April 1908a), p. ii. With the following issue Umbstaetter doubled the cover price to ten cents, citing increased production costs.Umbstaetter (April 1908b), p. ix.
Samuel and Herman Cassino Issue data for The Black CatJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec18951/11/21/318961/41/51/61/71/81/91/101/111/122/132/142/1518972/162/172/182/192/202/212/222/232/243/253/263/2718983/283/293/303/313/323/333/343/353/364/374/384/3918994/404/414/424/434/444/454/464/474/485/495/505/5119005/525/535/545/555/565/575/585/595/606/616/626/6319016/646/656/666/676/686/696/706/716/727/737/747/7519027/47/57/67/77/87/97/107/117/128/18/28/319038/48/58/68/78/88/98/108/118/129/19/29/319049/49/59/69/79/89/99/109/119/1210/110/210/3190510/410/510/610/710/810/910/1010/1110/1211/111/211/3190611/411/511/611/711/811/911/1011/1111/1212/112/212/3190712/412/512/612/712/812/912/1012/1112/1213/113/213/3190813/413/513/613/713/813/913/1013/1113/1214/114/214/3190914/414/514/614/714/814/914/1014/1114/1215/115/215/3191015/415/515/615/715/815/915/1015/1115/1216/116/216/3191116/416/516/616/716/816/916/1016/1116/1217/117/217/3191217/417/517/617/717/817/917/1017/1117/1218/118/218/3191318/418/518/618/718/818/918/1018/1118/1219/119/219/3191419/4 19/619/719/819/919/1019/1119/1220/120/220/3191520/420/520/620/720/820/920/1020/1120/1221/121/221/3191621/421/521/621/721/821/921/1021/1121/1222/122/222/3191722/422/522/622/722/822/922/1022/1122/1223/123/223/3191823/423/523/623/723/823/923/1023/1123/1224/124/224/3191924/424/524/624/724/824/924/1024/1124/1225/125/225/3192025/425/525/625/725/825/925/1025/1125/12192226/1, 26/226/3, 26/426/5, 26/626/7, 26/826/9, 26/1026/11, 26/1227/127/227/327/4?192328/2?Issues of The Black Cat, showing volume and issue number, with two designations per month for the period when the magazine was published twice per month. See the bibliographic details section for information about some of the uncertainties in the issue numbering and changes of editor. The colors identify the editors for each issue:
Umbstaetter began to have health problems in 1912, and early that year he sold The Black Cat to Samuel Cassino, the publisher of Little Folks.Anonymous (May 1912), pp. 79–80. Cassino moved the publishing offices to Salem, Massachusetts, and hired Theresa Dyer, who had been Umbstaetter's chief assistant, as editor.Bessom (1920), pp. 90–91. The September 1913 issue changed from octavo to pulp format (about ), though it did not yet switch to the cheaper pulp paper. Circulation suffered after the move to Salem; when an estimate was next reported, for 1916, circulation had dropped to 50,000.Ayers (1917), p. 409.
Dyer only edited for a year or two. At about the time she left, the circulation manager of Metropolitan Magazine, T. H. Kelly, began negotiating with Cassino to purchase The Black Cat. The management of the Metropolitan refused to allow Kelly to own a magazine while working for them, but Kelly took over as editor for a while. Harold Bessom was hired as a reader while Kelly was editor, forwarding manuscripts to New York for Kelly to make the final selection. In 1915, Cassino sold the magazine to his son, Herman Cassino, who took over starting with the September issue; Herman was editor as well as owner, and fired Kelly and Bessom, intending to do all the editorial work himself. He soon found the business side of running the magazine took up too much of his time, and brought Bessom back as a reader, and eventually as the editor. At about this time, the magazine changed to using pulp paper instead of the more expensive coated stock. Neither Samuel nor Herman Cassino had continued the contests with large cash prizes that had been inaugurated by Umbstaetter, but in 1916 Herman Cassino formed a "Black Cat Club", with small cash prizes for reader submissions of their favorite stories, and a prize of $25 for the most popular story in each issue.Cassino, H. E. (November 1916), pages preceding p. 1.
In 1916, Essanay Studios arranged a deal with William Kane, who later become the publisher and editor of The Black Cat, to acquire a hundred stories from the magazine to turn into "Black Cat" films, each about half-an-hour long.Anonymous (July 28, 1917), p. 31.Luckett (2014), p. 55.Anonymous (November 25, 1916), p. 1161. The plan was to release one picture a week, starting on December 5, 1916, with "The Egg", a comedy starring Richard Travers and Marguerite Clayton.Anonymous (December 9, 1916), p. 1301. Kane loaned Essanay a set of The Black Cat issues, complete from the first issue through May 1915, and received $1,250 from Essanay for the one hundred stories they selected. Essanay failed to return the magazines to Kane, who sued them for $20,000 compensation for the loss of the magazines, eventually winning his case in the US Supreme Court.Anonymous (April 10, 1922), p. 1.
Fox Film and Kane