Rare tabloids! Brevities

I finished digitizing five of the (currently) eleven Brevities in my collection.

For those who are not familiar with Brevities, this New York tabloid began as Broadway Brevities before shortening its name by the 1930s. It was known for its scandalous and salacious articles, often covering subjects related to sex work, murder, celebrity gossip, and/or the queer community. It wasn't necessarily a queer tabloid paper, but that was a topic of interest and it was one of the few papers one could read about it in such a direct fashion. On nearly every page there is a cartoon illustration, often centered on a sexual joke or other blue humor. It is incredibly difficult to find full editions of these tabloids online, and very few archives carry the tabloids for viewing. In fact, it appears that private collectors are more likely to own these materials despite the tabloids’ importance as both a historical and queer document. 

As a disclaimer, these tabloids include racist imagery and language, discussion of sex including sex work, mention of drugs, homophobic language, and much more.

While the majority of my Brevities are in a readable state, a few were in a more fragile condition and became quite brittle. These were so delicate they would frequently rip and fall apart during the scanning process. This means for select tabloids, the scans do have some text missing and noticeable rips and tears. Fortunately, of what I have in my collection, these specific tabloids are in the worst condition, so after these five, the quality will improve.

Due to the rarity and content of these tabloids, they can be quite pricey to acquire. My Patreon helps ensure I can buy additional copies when I come across them. I intend to post the uploads on Internet Archive either at the end of 2025 or in 2026, so I am requesting that the link is not circulated at this time. But please feel free to shout out the availability of these tabloids so others may know.

You can read the Brevities H E R E

I am also providing some additional resources for those curious about the history and ways to explore more of these Brevities:

• JD Doyle's Brevities image collection on his website Queer Music History (this website is also a fantastic resource if you are a fan of queer music and queer performers)

• Kaz Rowe's video on Brevities

• Will Straw, a researcher whose focus includes tabloid magazines. He's written several articles about the subject, and I recommend these two articles: “Remembering The Creator Of Modern Gossip Journalism” and “Constructing the Canadian Lowbrow Magazine: The Periodical as Media Object in the 1930s and 1940s”

If I come across any additional resources, I'll make a masterpost combining all additional information rather than having it scattered in multiple posts. For right now, though, the above links are a good start.