“My dad rolled out this program to put Highlights into doctors' and dentists' offices and that really is what made Highlights take off and sustain us so we could earn enough money that we could definitely grow and continue.” 2. “Instead, when he got there and he started looking into it, he decided that he could make it go,” Garry Jr.'s daughter Pat Mikelson, who is now Highlights’s historian and archivist, said in the documentary. Their son, Garry Jr.-then a 28-year-old aeronautical engineer-took a six-month leave from his job to help his parents wind the business down. About four years into the magazine's launch, the Myers were out of money. (Everyone from The Simpsons to Parks & Recreation has riffed on it.) But without the medical community, there would absolutely not be a Highlights today. It’s a pop culture joke at this point how ubiquitous Highlights is in doctor and dentist offices. MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS RESUSCITATED HIGHLIGHTS. The film is also chockablock with insight, trivia, and, at times, tragedy about what made-and makes -Highlights a force in the lives of kids, and culture generally, around the world. The scenes in the film of kids meeting editors or touring Highlights’s offices in Honesdale, Pennsylvania-and of adults engaging with the magazine years after they first read it-are touching and reaffirming. The magazine is a constant, steadying influence in the lives of children, and it holds an outsized place in their lives.
Originally intended for kids ages two to 12, it currently serves those ages six to 12 and grapples with the issues young people face every day-not only traditional ones, such as best friend conflicts, but new challenges like digital overload.
#HIGHLIGHTS MAGAZINE FULL#
Garry Cleveland and Caroline Myers, Highlights and its “Fun with a Purpose” tagline were created to give children a magazine full of encouragement and guidance. Founded in 1946 by husband-and-wife team Dr. There are certainly huge differences between those publications and Highlights, but the way the documentary conveys the experience of working for an outlet like this one-and the responsibilities that come with it-is accurate and honest and an important addition to the inside-media documentary canon.īut where the film soars is in its exploration of the magazine’s history and perpetual resonance. Full disclosure: I have worked in editorial roles at Scholastic News, Sports Illustrated Kids, and Time for Kids. It’s pretty standard stuff: how stories get picked, finding illustrators, staring down deadlines. After all, how much drama could there be in a colorful, inoffensive mag best known for its hidden picture puzzles, lesson-based comics like Goofus and Gallant and The Timbertoes, and its permanent residency in dentists' offices across America? A great deal, it turns out.ĭirector Tony Shaff’s 44 Pages -currently playing at New York City’s IFC Center, streaming on select networks, and playing on demand-is a 90-minute fly-on-the-wall account of the Highlights staff putting together their June 2016 issue, which marked the magazine’s 70th anniversary. Even still, there’s a certain cognitive dissonance in hearing that there’s a new film documenting the long-running kids' magazine Highlights for Children. The inside-look-at-a-venerable-publication is a burgeoning documentary subgenre thanks to hits like The September Issue (2009) and Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011).
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