Art by Richard Amsel, Jack Davis, Al Hirschfeld, Bob Peak, Bernie Fuchs, Robert Heindel.

Jerry Alten started as Art Director of TV Guide in 1967, and for almost 50 years he engaged the world s greatest illustrators to provide the artwork for the pages of the widest circulated magazine in the world. Unlike entertainment magazines today, the digest-sized magazine relied almost solely on illustration, and in many cases, it helped to support the careers of many of the illustrators. Artists ranged from Norman Rockwell to Charles Addams, Edward Gorey to Andy Warhol. Jerry Alten provides a view behind-the-scenes of a magazine that featured some of America s greatest celebrities, the artist who painted them, and the interesting, highly entertaining, and sometimes outrageous interactions between subject, artist, and art director. The book is also a nostalgic look at the people who helped make the medium what it is today.

Jerry Alten: Prior to my joining TV Guide as art director in 1968, the magazine used photography almost exclusively as illustration, on the covers and inside articles. I felt that great illustrations would be at least as effective and add a graphic interest and poster-like strength on the covers as well. This book covers the use of the greatest artists and photographers of those years, 1968 to 1997. There are fifty artists, over two hundred examples, such as Salvador Dali, Norman Rockwell, Ronald Searle, Bernard Fuchs, Andy Warhol, etc., and my dealings with the artists and TV celebrities of those years.

At one time, TV Guide sold as many as twenty million copies a week. Illustration, sadly to me, is not used nearly as much today.