Ritz Newspaper

Infobox Magazine
title = Ritz Newspaper

| image_size = 200px | image_caption =
image_caption = Ritz Newspaper Masthead
company = Bailey Litchfield Productions Ltd
publisher = David Bailey, David Litchfield
frequency = monthly
paid_circulation =
unpaid_circulation =
total_circulation =
circulation_year =
language = English
category = fashion, gossip and celebrity
editor = David Bailey, David Litchfield
editor_title = Co-editor
publisher_title = Publisher
firstdate = 1976
founded = 1976
country = flag|United Kingdom
issn = 0144-7416 [Listed on [http://www.copac.ac.uk/wzgw?form=A%2FT&id=080104eaf3946d0b7c1ba315bd17a7c24152ba&au=&ti=&pub=&isn=0144-7416&sub=&any=&fs=Search&date=&plp= www.copac.ac.uk] ]

Ritz Newspaper, colloquially Ritz Magazine, sometimes simply Ritz, was a British magazine focusing on gossip, celebrity and fashion.Puttin' on the Ritz again, Andrew Lycett, Media & Marketing, "The Times", London, May 31, 1989] It was launched in 1976 by David Bailey and David Litchfield, who acted as co-editors. Published on newsprint and described by Litchfield as "the Lou Reed of publishing", it sold 25,000 copies a month at its peak in 1981. It ran for fifteen years, though at the beginning of the 1990s it lost readership to glossy titles such as "Tatler". It closed temporarily in October 1988. Redesigned in A4 format on matt art stock paper by Art Director Tony Judge, it relaunched early in 1989 with funding from the property developer Neville Roberts, finally closing in the early 1990s.

Gossip

The founder gossip columnists covering the London social scene were Nicholas Haslam, [cite news |first=Barrow |last=Andrew |work=Profiles |title=Nicky Haslam: Party monster |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article65537.ece |publisher=The Independent |date=2004-03-21 |accessdate=2007-12-09 |quote=In the 1970s he was Paul Parsons in Ritz and Sam Hopper in Vogue. Today, his playful, punning, name- and place-dropping pieces appear in a variety of newspapers and magazines; he also files erudite book reviews for the The Literary Review and The Spectator, in which he often also writes the diary. Wherever possible, these informative bits of journalism are accompanied by a winking, leering, picture of Haslam himself.] Frances Lynn,cite web |url=http://afka.net/Mags/Ritz.htm |title=Ritz Newspaper, UK, "British monthly 80's fashion magazine with good long interviews" |publisher=afka.net |accessdate=2007-12-07 |year=1983 |month=January] [cite news |first=Barry |last=Fantoni |title=Ritzy Lynne |publisher=Evening News |accessdate=2007-12-03 |quote=Francis Lynne (Franny to the few friends she has left) wins my accolade as the bitchiest gossip writer in town. As high-priestess of the single-entendre, she has assassinated everybody who is anybody in her two-page column in the bi-monthly magazine, Ritz. Her list of victims includes people like Elkie brooks, Roman Polanski, Diana Rigg, Yves St. Laurent, Elton John and The Eagles. I would like to give some examples of her killing technique - but I can't in case I get into trouble. Asked if she had, in fact, received any writs lately she replied demurely: "Of course not. In a more familiar vein, she added: 'If I had, I wouldn't tell you, dahling."] Stephen Lavers and Amanda Lear.

Haslam, an Old Etonian society decorator, wrote about his British aristocratic and Hollywood movie star friends under the pen name "Paul Parsons". Lynn wrote the 'Bitch' gossip column about café society. Lavers, who moonlighted as Head of Films at A&M Records was the Music and Media columnist. Lear gossiped about the international glitterati. Lavers [cite news |first=Lavers |last=Stephen |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 15 |title=Amanda Lear and Stephen Lavers |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |date=1978- | accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=Perhaps you should be killed in a car crash soon . ] and Lear [cite news |first=Lear |last=Amanda |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 015 |title=Amanda Lear and Stephen Lavers |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |date=1978- | accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=When I wrote for Ritz I knew exactly what they wanted. People want to read a lot of gossip that is as evil as you dare print it about famous or infamous, or slightly notorious people around London. ] even interviewed each other. Richard Young cite web |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/style/article848006.ece |title=Feature: The changing face of celebrity |publisher=Times Online |date=2004-05-09 |accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=When Young sold his first celebrity photograph (of Paul Getty Jr) in 1974, newspapers didn’t want celebrity photographers, because they didn’t think their readers wanted celebrities. Wild rock’n’roll parties held by the Beatles and the Stones mostly went unrecorded. "It’s a crying shame," says Young now, “because there’d have been great stuff to shoot then. Those parties were wild.” It took the photographer David Bailey and his writer friend David Litchfield, founders of the magazine Ritz, to invent celebrity publishing. The magazine was full of society figures, of parties and launches, and Young was their "social photographer" from the mid-1970s up until 1983. The celebrity world as we know it now was beginning. And Young had a front-row position. |work=Style] [cite news |first=Deedes|last=Henry |work=Profiles
title=Andrew Leeman: The man who put Mayfair on the menu
url=http://news.independent.co.uk/people/profiles/article2874125.ece |publisher=The Independent |date=2007-08-21 |accessdate=2007-12-08 |quote=It was a crazy time," says Young. "I was working for David Bailey's magazine Ritz back then, which led the way on coverage of the London social scene. David was using the bar there like an office so I was always in there. Everyone used to come in. And I'm talking about proper celebrities. People like Sinatra, Brando, Robert De Niro. I even photographed Princess Grace coming out of there once in The Independent.] was initially hired as Lynn's photographer, but eventually took photographs for all the columns. The four gossip columnists sometimes attended the same parties and wrote about each other. Haslam invited Lynn to all the parties he organised for his celebrity friends like Andy Warhol, [cite web |first=Charlotte |last=Eager |title= Factory Girls |url=http://www.templeofsaintnick.com/articles/EveningStandard_042106.htm |publisher=The Evening Standard |page=19 |date=2006-04-21 |accessdate=2007-12-11 |quote=I gave a lunch for him at the Ritz, for 40 people. Everybody signed it. I gave a dinner for him, in the Casserole, [a defunct King's Road restaurant] . I gave a ball for him, when Regine's opened in London... ] so that she could report about them in her column.

Film producer Cat Villiers [cite web |url=http://saving-grace-movie.com/crew_static.html |title= Crew |quote=Villiers began her career in magazine journalism, serving as assistant editor at Ritz Newspaper... |accessdate=2007-12-12 |publisher=MMV New Line Productions, Inc.] (then known as Catkin Villiers) began her career on the staff of the periodical.

Although Ritz Newspaper's policy was to avoid paying their contributing editors, established writers like Clive James [cite news |first=James |last=Clive |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 44 |title=Anna Ford |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |date=1980-08-| accessdate=2007-12-12 |quote=Anna Ford no longer gives interviews if she can help it. ] and Peter York [cite news |first=York|last=Peter |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 16 |title=Dusty Springfield Talks To Peter York who appears by kind permission of Harpers & Queen |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=9 |date=1978-| accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=Oh well the last interview I had he was a Linda Ronstadt fan-we're going up in the world ...] contributed to the magazine.

Fashion

Ritz Newspaper was a showcase for fashion photography. David Bailey took the pictures. His wife, Marie Helvin,cite news | last =Frith Powell | first =Helena | title =The Autobiography by Marie Helvin | publisher =The Sunday Times | date =2007-09-23 | url =http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/biography/article2500243.ece | accessdate =2007-09-23 ] and other celebrity fashion models modelled, and Patrick Lichfield [cite news |first=Litchfield |last=David |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 33 |title=Lichfield talks to Litchfield |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=8 |date=1984-9 | accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=Now, let's get this straight. Why don't I get paid when I work for you?] and other top photographers, worked for Ritz.

Celebrity

The majority of the Celebrity interviews were in Question and Answer format, and included Sammy Davis, Jr. [cite news |first=Lynn |last=Frances |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 4 |title=Frances Lynn Talks With Sammy Davis, Jr. |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=8 |date=1977-| accessdate=2007-12-12 |quote=Actually, I make more money in two weeks than the President does in a year...] , Gore Vidal [cite news |first=Litchfield |last=David |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 95 |title=Gore Vidal Talks with Litchfield |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=18 |date=1984 | accessdate=2007-12-12 |quote=When did I start writing? Oh, at the age of about eight or nine. And by the time I was nineteen I had started four novels and nearly finished one, and then it must have been my fifth novel, I did finish when I was nineteen ] , Paul McCartney [cite news |first=Litchfield |last=David |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 31 |title=Paul McCartney |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=9 |date=1979-| accessdate=2007-12-12 |quote=For a start when I sign my name it's a very personal thing. That mark is me, it's part of me and I don't want to give it away. ] and Frank Zappa.

Advertising

Ritz Newspaper specialised in celebrity advertising campaigns. Olympus Cameras, [cite news |first=Bailey |last=David |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 50 |title=Mrs David Bailey And Her Olympus Camera |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=1 |date=1981-2 | accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=Mrs David Bailey And Her Olympus Camera.] Leonard [cite news |first=Swannell |last=John |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 13 |title=Leonard does my hair because he's the best-who else can perform magic for me? |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=7 |date=1977- | accessdate=2007-12-13 |quote=Leonard does my hair because he's the best-who else can perform magic for me?,] the society hairdresser, and Manolo Blahnik [cite news |first=Blahnik |last=Manolo |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 15 |title=Detail The Knot - 78 |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=1 |date=1981-2 | accessdate=2007-12-16 |quote=Detail The Knot - 78.] all took out regular campaigns. Schumi [cite news |first=Cox |last=Robert |work=Ritz Newspaper No. 50 |title=The Year For Vertical Hair |url= |publisher=Bailey & Litchfield |page=4 |date=1981-2 | accessdate=2007-12-16 |quote=The Year For Vertical Hair.] advertised in every issue of Ritz, except for the first issue.

References