Town Magazine | Romek Marber

Dennis Bailey used Romek as one of the models for Town’s ‘News of the World’ cover article in the September 1966 edition (far left in pinstripe suit).

Thank you letter from Managing Director Clive Labovitch for Romek’s assistance as a model for the ‘News of the World’ cover article in the September 1966 edition of Town.

Town August 1964 article ‘Clash of Colours’ about the launch of Sunday colour supplements by The Observer, The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times, featuring Marber in his role as launch art director of The Observer magazine, 1964-65.

Town MagazineEditor2021-06-15T19:55:27+01:00

Town Magazine

Town was an important British men’s magazine of the 1950s and 60s. Press Gazette called it the “progenitor of all today’s men’s style magazines”. It was the customer offshoot of the well-established weekly trade magazine for tailors, The Tailor & Cutter. In 1960, the magazine was bought by publishers Clive Labovitch and future Conservative MP Michael Heseltine and launched as a glossy style magazine. The title was then changed from Man About Town to About Town and, in 1962, to just Town. Tom Wolsey’s art direction from 1960-63 spearheaded a new dynamic and an influential new typography. Like society magazine, Queen, Town was responding to the cultural shift, adopting a contemporary editorial and innovative design centred on photography, with dramatic illustration and layouts. The modern look of the new magazine continued with Dennis Bailey taking on the role of art director from 1964-66, with bold typography and strong photography. Marber’s uncompromising illustration for the opening page of a precis of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s novel, The Family Moskat, a tribute to the millions of Jewish families in Poland who perished in the Holocaust, or were scattered by it, had a particular resonance for Marber: “Having done the picture, I was uneasy, I thought the picture might be too grim to be published. On opening the envelope, Dennis Bailey, the art director of Town, had an unexpected surprise”.

Town magazine illustration, The Family Moskat, 1965. Dennis Bailey was the art director of the influential London magazine from 1964-66