Notes of a Dirty Old Man

📒 More than a year ago John Bryan began his underground paper Open City in the front room of a small two story house that he rented. Then the paper moved to an apartment in front, then to a place in the business district of Melrose Ave. Yet a shadow hangs. A helluva big gloomy one. The circulation rises but the advertising is not coming in like it should. Across in the better part of town stands the L.A.Free Press which has become established. And runs the ads. Bryan created his own enemy by first working for the L.A.Free Press and bringing their circulation from 16000 to more than three times that. It's like building up the National Army and then joining the Revolutionaries. Of course, the battle isn't simply Open City vs. Free Press. If you've read Open City, you know that the battle is larger than that. Open City takes on the big boys, the biggest boys, and there are some big ones coming down the center of the street, now, and real ugly big shits they are, too. It's more fun and more dangerous working for Open City, perhaps the liveliest rag in the U.S. But fun and danger hardly put margarine on the toast or fed the cat. You give up toast and end up eating the cat.