March 1, 1948: A Fortunate Time

AT AGE 49, Henry Luce commanded a media empire that reached some 8 million people. He had founded it 25 years earlier when he published the first issue of Time and had since expanded it to include Life, Fortune and Architectural Forum. Time alone sold more than 1.5 million copies a week, and the combined company, Time Inc., brought in $8 million in annual profit (roughly $80 million today). Luce, though, had detractors, who variously labeled him a “Wall Street mouthpiece” and an imperialist. While Forbes described his success as “Lively, Timely and Lavishly Fortunate,” we couldn’t resist one shot at our rival: “Although it has been charged that many people buy Fortune for living room décor, it’s safe to assume that each copy is read in part by several people.”