Space City (newspaper)
Encyclopedia
Space City was an underground newspaper
published in Houston, Texas
from June 5, 1969 to August 3, 1972. The founders were SDS
veterans and former members of the staff of the Austin, Texas
underground newspaper, The Rag
, including Thorne Dreyer
, Victoria Smith, Cam and Sue Duncan, and Dennis and Judy Fitzgerald. Staffers included Bill Narum
as Art Director. The first twelve issues of the paper were published under the title Space City News, which starting with issue no. 13 (Jan. 17, 1970) was changed to Space City! (with the exclamation point as a graphical design flourish) when it was discovered that another publication was already using the name.
Initially biweekly, the paper went on hiatus for two months starting in Feb. 1971 and then, with $3000 in the bank which they had accumulated through a series of fund-raisers, they resumed publishing in April 1971 as a weekly. After the hiatus the paper changed its focus and became more mainstream, shifting its target audience from dope-smoking revolutionary youth to the older "liberal intelligentsia" who listened to the local Pacifica Radio
affiliate, KPFT
, where other Rag alumni were working. At this time Space City! began to pay more attention to local news and electoral politics, which it had previously disdained, and added such traditional newspaper appurtenances as beat reporters and a city desk.
Space City! was published by a theoretically leaderless leftist collective, and for the first 18 months of its existence it pushed an agitprop antiwar/radical political message, leavening the politics with lively graphics and countercultural arts coverage. Sales, which were mostly by casual street vendors, averaged around 10,000 copies, both before and after it went weekly in 1971.
In 1972 a staff split led to the departure of a group led by former business manager Bill McElrath which formed a rival publication, The Mockingbird, publishing its first issue in April 1972. The Mockingbird itself suffered a split when several staffers subsequently left to form a third alternative paper, Abraxas.
During the three years of its existence the office of Space City! was attacked several times in drive-by shootings and one pipe-bombing, in which no one, fortunately, was seriously injured. The perpetrators were never identified but were suspected by some to be the same vigilantes, possibly KKK members, who bombed radio station KPFT twice in 1970. Infighting among the collective, staff burnout, financial difficulties, and the general decline of the underground press which paralleled the winding down of the Vietnam War led to the paper's demise. The final issue was vol. 4, no. 9 (August 3, 1972).
Underground press
The underground press were the independently published and distributed underground papers associated with the counterculture of the late 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and other western nations....
published in Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
from June 5, 1969 to August 3, 1972. The founders were SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
veterans and former members of the staff of the Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
underground newspaper, The Rag
The Rag
The Rag was an underground paper published in Austin, Texas from 1966-1977. The sixth member of the Underground Press Syndicate, The Rag was one of the most influential of the early underground papers, known for its unique blend of radical politics, alternative culture and humor.- Early history...
, including Thorne Dreyer
Thorne Webb Dreyer
Thorne Webb Dreyer is an American writer, editor, publisher, and political activist who played a major role in the 1960s-1970s counterculture, New Left, and underground press movements...
, Victoria Smith, Cam and Sue Duncan, and Dennis and Judy Fitzgerald. Staffers included Bill Narum
Bill Narum
Bill Narum was an artist, illustrator, and Texas counter-culture icon known for his work in popular entertainment, and for being one of the few non-natives to have lived with the Tarahumara tribe of northern Mexico in Copper Canyon...
as Art Director. The first twelve issues of the paper were published under the title Space City News, which starting with issue no. 13 (Jan. 17, 1970) was changed to Space City! (with the exclamation point as a graphical design flourish) when it was discovered that another publication was already using the name.
Initially biweekly, the paper went on hiatus for two months starting in Feb. 1971 and then, with $3000 in the bank which they had accumulated through a series of fund-raisers, they resumed publishing in April 1971 as a weekly. After the hiatus the paper changed its focus and became more mainstream, shifting its target audience from dope-smoking revolutionary youth to the older "liberal intelligentsia" who listened to the local Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio
Pacifica Radio is the oldest public radio network in the United States. It is a group of five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations that is known for its progressive/liberal political orientation. It is also a program service supplying over 100 affiliated...
affiliate, KPFT
KPFT
KPFT is a listener-sponsored community radio station in Houston, Texas, which went on the air on March 1, 1970 as the fourth station in the Pacifica radio family. Larry Lee sold the idea to Pacifica to establish listener-supported radio in Houston as an alternative to main-stream broadcasting. The...
, where other Rag alumni were working. At this time Space City! began to pay more attention to local news and electoral politics, which it had previously disdained, and added such traditional newspaper appurtenances as beat reporters and a city desk.
Space City! was published by a theoretically leaderless leftist collective, and for the first 18 months of its existence it pushed an agitprop antiwar/radical political message, leavening the politics with lively graphics and countercultural arts coverage. Sales, which were mostly by casual street vendors, averaged around 10,000 copies, both before and after it went weekly in 1971.
In 1972 a staff split led to the departure of a group led by former business manager Bill McElrath which formed a rival publication, The Mockingbird, publishing its first issue in April 1972. The Mockingbird itself suffered a split when several staffers subsequently left to form a third alternative paper, Abraxas.
During the three years of its existence the office of Space City! was attacked several times in drive-by shootings and one pipe-bombing, in which no one, fortunately, was seriously injured. The perpetrators were never identified but were suspected by some to be the same vigilantes, possibly KKK members, who bombed radio station KPFT twice in 1970. Infighting among the collective, staff burnout, financial difficulties, and the general decline of the underground press which paralleled the winding down of the Vietnam War led to the paper's demise. The final issue was vol. 4, no. 9 (August 3, 1972).
External links
- Gallery of Space City! covers by Bill Narum, 1960s Texas Music.
- Mankad, Raj, "Underground in H-Town,", OffSite, May 21, 2010.
- Interview with Thorne Dreyer (July 15, 1976), Oral History Archives, Houston Public Library.
- Dreyer, Thorne, "The KKK in the News Again. And Back in Sixties Houston", The Rag Blog, Feb. 9, 2009.
- Dreyer, Thorne, "What Ever Happened to the New Generation?", Texas Monthly, November, 1976, pp. 54, 96, 99.
- David Paul Nord, Joan Shelley Rubin, Michael Schudson, ed, A History of the Book in America: Volume 5: The Enduring Book: Print Culture, University of North Carolina Press (2009), p. 274.
- Rossinow, Doug, The Politics of Authenticity: Liberalism, Christianity, and the New Left in America, Columbia University Press (1998), pp. 176, 393, 396, 406, 415, 431, 449, 455, 494.