In 1970 the publication merged with British Harper's Bazaar to become Harper's & Queen. In 2006 the magazine dropped "& Queen" to become Harper's Bazaar UK.
Background
Queen was a British society magazine, the magazine was founded in 1861 by Samuel Beeton as The Queen, and as The Lady's Newspaper, The Queen & Court Chronicle from 1863 to 1863,[1]The Queen, The Lady's Newspaper & Court Chronicle from 1864 to 1922,[1] then as The Queen from 1923 to 1961 and finally as Queen from 1962 to 1970.
The magazine was published weekly and later fortnightly.
In the 1860s the magazine focused on the lives of the wealthy Victorian society, and had approval to use the name by Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria also corrected proofs of the magazine in its early years. During this time the magazine contained poetry and articles on society news, fashion and domestic subjects.[4]
The Lady's Newspaper and Pictorial Times (1848–1863) and the Court Chronicle (?–1863) merged with the magazine in 1863.[5]
In 1957, Jocelyn Stevens purchased the magazine and reinvigorated it, targeting a younger audience and embracing the Swinging Sixites.[6] Following his purchase of the magazine he approached Beatrix Miller (former editorial secretary and features writer) to leave Vogue in New York City and return to London to edit The Queen.[7]Mark Boxer was hired as art director.[7]
The January 1959 issue featured almost only pictures of China taken by Henri Cartier-Bresson.[8]
22 June 1966 cover
In 1962 the magazine was retitled to Queen.
The ideal reader of the new Queen was envisioned by editor Beatrix Miller was "Caroline", with a style guide given to every contributing writer so they knew who they would be writing for.[1] According to Clement Freud the fictional Caroline had fair long hair, left school at sixteen and was the "sort of person one ended up in bed with".[8]
In 1964 in an attempt to reverse the Pilkington Report, Stevens financed a pirate radio called RadioCaroline (named after Caroline, Queen's ideal reader). Initially the radio operated out of the Queen editorial offices on Fetter Lane.[9]
Miller left the magazine in 1964 to edit British Vogue, where she remained till 1984.[7]
After Radio Caroline was banned in 1967 Stevens began to lose interest in the magazine, with the publication "going nowhere" and readers beginning to loose interest.[10][8] In 1968 he sold the magazine to Michael Lewis of Oxley Industries.[8][10]Hugh Johnson was appointed as editor after an interview regarding a travel supplement.[8]
Johnson hired Ann Barr of The Weekend Telegraph as features editor.[8] Under Johnson it took on disdain for all that could be viewed as out of style, with the fashion editor refusing to see the Paris collections calling them "too boring".[8] The magazine included some of the last magazine shoots of Sharon Tate before her 1969 murder.[8] Clothing would be from "Courrèges and Ungaro. Or bits of plastic on chains like Paco Rabanne.'"[8]
Johnson left to edit The World Atlas of Wine and with falling circulation Michael Lewis put the magazine up for sale.[8]
In August 1970 it was announced that the magazine would merge with British Harper's Bazaar, with the first issue appearing in November 1970.[3] The aim of the merger was to use the best material from both magazines and increase circulation to over 500,000.[3] At the time the two publications were rivals and aimed at a similar audience.[11] The National Magazine Company (publisher of Harper's Bazaar) as it still had the aura of "it" compared to Harper's Bazaar which had fallen out of popularity.[8]
The Economist 2 May 1964. Commercial Radio: Dial 199 for Caroline. "... Mr. Joceyln Stevens built up a successful image in his previous venture (Queen magazine) round a mythical girl of the same name but higher-class associations." (p.508)
Grenada Television (UK), 12 May, 1964. The World in Action. Interview with Jocelyn Stevens and Ronan O'Rahilly at the offices of Queen magazine which initially served as the management and sales offices for Radio Caroline.
Independent, The, 14 September 2006. Quentin Crewe obituary. Quotes Crewe regarding Beatrix Miller's invention of the name 'Caroline' in Queen magazine.
No Time to Die by Tiberis, Liz. Avon, New York, 1998. A profile of editor Beatrix Miller and her penchant for naming things. (pp.76-78) 'Caroline' was introduced by Miller as the name of her style sheet to provide writers with a profile of The Queen magazines readership.
Time, February 1962. - Jocelyn Stevens and his use of a 'Caroline' theme in his magazine originally called 'The Queen'.
The Queen (Christmas edition 1961), p2. Subscription invitation to readers "for Caroline". The magazine's use of this name predates its radio use by several years. Jocelyn Stevens noted that he dropped the magazine prefix on 30 January 1962 (Coleridge, Nicholas and Stephen Quinn: The Sixties in Queen. Ebury Press, London, 1987,(p.6)
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