75 Years Ago Today… “The first truckload of PM’s. . . “

PM, June 19, 1940 (Photos by Peter Killian)

Your Rush for Vol. 1 No.1 Delighted PM
… We’re Sorry If You Couldn’t Get One

We went to press on time. The presses didn’t break down. We printed nearly 200,000 more papers than we had planned to for any day in the first few months of production. And still we failed to supply either newsdealers or subscribers all the copies they asked for.

In Times Square they had to call out the cops, but they arrived too late. An insistent crush of newsdealers ganged past a PM route man, divvied up his papers and ran before the cops could get there. At William and Wall, a route man gave 25 copies to a wrinkled old woman vendor. In three minutes she had disposed of every one, at prices that jumped from the original nickel to a half dollar for the last one. It made her cry a little “I never made so much money so fast,” she wept. Fifteen minutes after the first bundles were dropped elsewhere in the financial district, the newsstands had to stick up signs: “PM Sold Out.”

The most injured newsie in town was the fellow at Flatbush and Sixth avenues, about a block from the PM plant. At 2:30 he was still re-routing customers down the street to try their luck at PM’s own office.

We extend our apologies for not having made a better provision for this enormously encouraging interest in us. We are particularly unhappy for having missed delivery to some of those good people who encouraged us by subscribing in advance of publication, sight unseen.

If you are one of those, please write to us. We have saved copies for you.