Scholastic Magazine & DS (Junior High)

[Philippe Cordier]

Does anyone remember the Scholastic magazines that used to be in junior high resource centers in the early 1970s? They frequently had features on supernatural themes, and I remember an article in one of these magazines on Dark Shadows. I specifically remember that this particular article opened with a behind-the-scenes description of the "Dark Shadows" set, which nonchalantly mentioned "a woman leaning over a coffin memorizing her lines for the next day" and then came back with: "A woman leaning over a coffin?" I believe the "woman" in question was Grayson Hall. I've been able to ascertain that there were three similar sorts of publications, Scholastic Read ("the magazine of reading and English"), Scholastic Scope, and Scholastic Voice. There was also "Jr. Scholastic," but that was mostly social-studies oriented. All of these publications, which came out either weekly or bi-weekly, were small, digest-sized, with non-glossy paper.

What I'm confused about is that I remember these publications from Junior High, which I entered as a 7th grader in the Fall of 1972 (true confession time!) Yet -- DS was off the air by then! I don't know how to explain the discrepancy as I really don't remember a magazine like this in elementary school, but maybe my memory isn't clear.

I'm also trying to track down which of these magazines had a fictional story about Edgar Allan Poe at this time, which I think must have been in 1972, 1973, or 1974.

Does anyone remember these magazines and which one might have had the DS and Poe features?
 

[Uncle Roger]

Golden Magazine, a clone of Jack and Jill magazine for a slightly older audience, did an article in 1970 about kids visiting the DS studio. There is a picture of Grayson Hall leaning over a casket memorizing her lines, just as you described. The article appeared some time before the Scholastic article that you mentioned but it's not inconceivable that the same article appeared in different publications.

[Philippe Cordier]

I am utterly amazed that someone figured this out and so quickly - thank you, Uncle Roger! Although Golden Magazine doesn't ring a bell with me, that had to be it. Using your information, I found a scan of the original article at the Collinsport Historical Society webpage! It was a strange feeling to re-read something I had read 51 years ago. Even the photos had a vaguely familiar look and the article setup was as I had remembered. The clincher was when I came to the following: "an actress was leaning against a coffin, learning her lines for the next day's performance. Leaning on a coffin?" And I had somehow retained a memory of the photo of Grayson Hall leaning on the coffin studying her lines! So we must have had the magazine in my elementary school. I'm sure the article wouldn't have been reprinted later in one of the Scholastic magazines a year or two after the series had ended. So that part of my memory was incorrect.

Now, you don't happen to know the story about Edgar Allan Poe I'm thinking of, would you? It was definitely a couple of years later (probably 1972 or 1973) and the publication was for a slightly older audience. I came up with the three different magazines from Scholastic that I mentioned - they fit the format, distribution in schools, subject matter, etc.

The story in question is written in the first person and purports to be a diary discovered of the last days in the life of Edgar Allan Poe descending into madness. It ended with a concluding comment which I couldn't be sure was fictional or true - something like "Miss So-and-so said she could find no other pages to the diary."

I've searched for years for this story to no avail. I remember trying to find information for years about this diary because I must have been uncertain whether it existed or not.