Page:1954 Juvenile Delinquency Testimony.pdf/243

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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
231

Mr. Beaser. That is the one you are not going to publish any more?

Mr. Coampernain. That is the one that is being changed editorially.

Mr. Beaser. To meet your new standards?

Mr. CHamperusry. Correct,

Mr. Beaser. Has it happened in the pasi, as far as the United States is concerned in the distribntion, that you have conditioned the sale of Superman comics on conditions that the wholesaler take a certain specilicd number of the comics that you also distribute?

Mr, Crrammpertar. Absolutely not.

Mr. Beaser. You have never tied in Superman with the other comics?

Aly, Coampernarn, Phat is not known in our industry, believe me.

Mr. Beaser. Have you wholesalers who take just the Superman and do not take the other comics!

Mr. Crramper.atx, We do not have wholesnlers that take just one. We have many wholesalers that do not handle our complete Hine. They select what they want, but the wholesaler could not stay in bnsiness handling one comic,

Mr. Beaser. I meant the Superman line.

Mr, Chasurr.atn, Yes, we do have some wholesalers that handle the Superman Ime,

Mr. Beaser. They still get as many as they want of the Superman book?

Mr. CraMnrrnary, Yes, sin.

Mr. Beaser. I have no further questions.

The Chairman. The Chair has no questions, but on behalf of the committee, I want to thank you for your appearance here this morning.

Ir. Cuasmercat~. Might make one sintement, sir,

The Chairman. You may.

Afr, Crzamprriatx. Uhere has been a great deal of talk at this hearing this morning about tie-in sales from a wholesaler level to a denler level. FE want to very definitely speak out our pari in that picture.

Theve is no such thing as tie-in sales, I would like to demonstrate it to yon gentlemen in a very few moments, by a trip to any one af the ngeneres in the New York area, where we ean show you that the retailer does not maintain all of the magazines that might be slipped to him by his wholesaler.

ican show you that there are £00 oy 500 comic magazines distributed in the United States today. There are, I believe, that many titles and you can verity that.

The Chairman. Are they distributed monthly; is that correct?

Mr. Crrasenercars, No, sir; there are 500 active titles, but there are approximately, I believe, 250 distributed a month. The average newsstian] in the United States carries about 65 comie titles, and that is a national survey that we continne day in and day out, so that the average dealer could not possibly be forced to hold and display and try to scll the 500 comics that are distributed, no less be forced to try to sell the thousands of magazines and books that he receives during the course of a month.

We had an experience just yesterday where our wholesaler in Cleveland, Ohio, called me to tell me that, because of the adverse publicity