Western Publishing facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Publishing |
| Genre | Children's |
| Fate | Folded into Golden Books Family Entertainment |
| Successors | Random House (book publishing rights/characters and entertainment catalog) DreamWorks Classics (characters and entertainment catalog) |
| Founded | 1907 in Racine, Wisconsin, United States |
| Founders |
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| Defunct | August 16, 2001 |
| Headquarters | 1220 Mound Avenue,
,
United States
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Number of locations
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3 (New York City, Los Angeles, Poughkeepsie, New York) |
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Area served
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United States |
| Brands | Little Golden Books |
| Subsidiaries |
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Western Publishing was a famous company from Racine, Wisconsin. It was also known as Western Printing and Lithographing Company. This company was well-known for publishing the popular Little Golden Books. They also created many other children's books and family entertainment products. Western Publishing later changed its name to Golden Books Family Entertainment from 1996 to 2008. Today, the Little Golden Books are still published by Penguin Random House.
Contents
Western Publishing's Creative Divisions
Comic Books and Characters
Western Publishing created many comic books. They had special agreements to use characters from companies like Walt Disney Productions, Warner Bros., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. They also made comics with their own original characters.
From 1938 to 1962, Western worked with Dell Comics. Dell helped publish and distribute the comics. In 1962, Western decided to publish comics on its own. They started their own brand, called Gold Key Comics. This allowed Western to explore the comic book market more freely.
Gold Key Comics continued until the late 1970s. After that, comics were sold more in toy stores under the "Whitman Comics" name. The company stopped publishing comics in 1984. Many of their old comic stories are now reprinted by other publishers.
Before 1962, Western also published some comics directly. These included free comics like March of Comics. They also made an annual kite safety comic for power companies. These comics were printed in huge numbers.
In the 1990s, characters like Magnus, Turok, and Dr. Solar were licensed to Valiant Comics. Valiant made new versions of these characters. Later, in 2004, Dark Horse Comics began reprinting some of Western's original comic books.
Popular Children's Books
Starting in the 1920s and 1930s, Western published many kinds of children's books. These included puzzle books, coloring books, and Big Little Books. The Little Golden Books series became very famous.
Lucille Ogle helped create the idea for these low-priced books. They had simple stories and were among the first children's books with full-color pictures. The first Little Golden Book came out in 1942. Western also published classic stories like Little Women and Black Beauty under the "Golden Press" name.
In the late 1960s, Golden Books were also made with strong covers for schools and libraries. These special books were very popular with schools.
Books for Older Kids
From the 1940s to the 1980s, Western published books for older children and young teenagers. These were often part of their Whitman line. They had mystery series for girls, like Trixie Belden and Ginny Gordon. For boys, there were series like the Power Boys and Brains Benton.
They also published books based on popular movies and TV shows. These included Lassie and The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. They even published some early The Adventures of Tintin books in English.
Magazines for Young Readers
In 1937, Western started producing the Mickey Mouse Magazine. This magazine later became the comic book Walt Disney's Comics and Stories in 1940.
In 1955, Western launched Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club Magazine. This magazine helped promote The Mickey Mouse Club TV show. Its name later changed to Walt Disney's Magazine. It focused on Disney movies and TV shows. During the 1960s, Western also published The Golden Magazine for Boys and Girls.
Other Cool Products
For many years, Golden Press published Betty Crocker cookbooks. These often came in a special binder. This allowed people to easily remove recipe pages while cooking.
Western also produced popular games like Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary. They sold this part of their business to Hasbro in 1994. The company also published science books for kids. These included The World of Science and The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments. They also made Golden Guide nature guides.
Slogans and Catchphrases
- I grew up with Golden Books! (1980s)
- Silence isn't Golden. Reading to your child is. (1997)
Trademarks and Brands
Western Publishing Company Inc. owned many trademarks over the years. These were names or symbols that identified their products. Here are some examples of their trademarks:
- FIRST FUN - Children's Workbooks
- MIRROR MANIA - Board Games
- A GOLDEN BLOCK BOOK - Small Children's Books
- POP-UP GAME - Board Games
- V.I.P. - Jigsaw Puzzles
- IMAGE - Coloring Books, Juvenile Books, Jigsaw Puzzles
- GOLDEN - Coloring Books, Jigsaw Puzzles, Crayons, Games, Juvenile Books
- GOLDEN PRESS SHOPPER'S SERVICE - Mail Order for Books
- DRIVE AWAY - Children's Books
- PICTURE PARADE - Illustrated Books for Children
- DOODLE BUG - Children's Books
- PAINT WITH WATER - Children's Paint Books
- A GOLDEN MELODY BOOK - Children's Books that Play Music
- MAGIC SLATE - Toy for Temporary Writing
- WHITMAN CLASSIC – Coin Holders
- A GOLDEN SUPER ADVENTURE BOOK – Children's Books
- A GOLDEN THINKABOUT BOOK – Children's Books
- The Westerner Western Publishing House organ, #194 (Jan. 1966) Golden Anniversary Issue; v.3 #2 (Winter 1982), Commemorative Issue [1]
