Five Words that Saved True West

October 18, 2024

   Kathy and I flew from Phoenix to Fort Worth yesterday to attend the Will Rogers Memorial Awards Show tonight where I am receiving the Golden Lariat Award. Here is one of the stories I intend to tell them tonight. And, by the way, today is actually the day—October 18, 1999—Bob McCubbin and I flew to Tulsa, rented a card and drove to Stillwater, Oklahoma to officially buy True West magazine.

A Smattering of True West magazines

(on our watch)

   Twenty-five years ago today I was seized by a strong desire to save a history magazine I respected and admired. I thought everyone would love me for it, but they did not. In fact many loyal readers attacked me for desecrating what they viewed as a holy shrine. “Joe Small is spinning in his grave!” is how almost every letter addressed to me began. My crime? Changing the paper from pulp to slick stock. And, to make matters worse, my partners agreed with them! So my hands were tied for making the bigger changes I felt the magazine needed, but I knew one thing, if we didn't change, we were going out of business, fast.

Five words saved the magazine.

    By 2002 we were losing $30,000 a month and we were stuck in a terrifying free fall. Out of the blue I got a call from a Texas subscriber who asked me if I wanted to interview Elizabeth Small, the wife of our founder, the late great Joe Small. She was, at that time, in assisted living in Austin, Texas. I readily agreed, got the number of the facility and called her. She was very feisty and clear spoken and I loved her immediately. After some small talk about old times, I finally asked her the burning question: "Elizabeth, True West used to sell 250,000 issues on the newsstand and now it's down to 6,000. What happened?" Her simple and direct answer stunned me.

“The footnote crowd took over.”

—Elizabeth Small

   Five simple words that spoke volumes. After the call I got up off the floor, collected myself and went into the library and pulled down the earliest issues of True West magazine going back to 1953. What I saw shocked me. Joe covered rodeo, he talked about movies, but mostly he specialized in dramatic stories told well. The magazine was a Popular History magazine that had been hijacked by the footnote crowd, i.e. serious historians who were hell bent on improving the magazine—to finally have it be taken seriously as they probably saw it, but in the process they almost killed it. This was a lesson I never forgot. Which brings me to my real epiphany: the universe is trying to help you, so pay attention!

   Also, if you want a new idea, read an old book. Or in this case, an old magazine.

   This goes for everything. The answer to your current problem is probably sitting in plain sight, right behind you. As the Old Vaqueros are so fond of saying, “Study the past so you can see what the idiots are going to do next.” Or, better yet, let's end by quoting a good friend of mine:

"If you want to make money, stay away from serious historians."

—The Distinguished Professor of History at The University of New Mexico