The Derivation of Bulldog Edition by Kas Kasparian
I’ve often wondered why certain symbols and name are used to represent something else.
It was 1983, I was working for the New York Post as the ‘Country Representative.” Country to New Yorkers’ is anywhere outside the City of New York. At the time, I covered the Mid Atlantic States. There happen to be a number of wholesalers that I called on which were owned by old previous circulation directors. Many of these old CD’s worked for New York City journal, some were from other major cities as well.
Calling on these wholesaler, I of course was in my car traveling all the time. During one of my trips, I was listening to the radio. A man was being interview about his new book that he had written on the subject of “Sayings, Expressions, & Phrases” as part of our American lexicon and the origin of these words.
However, he said that there were two words for which he was unable to find their derivation. One was Bulldog as it refures to the first edition of a newspaper. The other was not important to me.
He requested that if anyone knew the answer, would they please get in contact with him.
This was right down my alley. I called on old circulation people and knew I would find this information from among these many newspaper wholesales who had been C.D’s. of major New York dailies.
The very first person I contacted was a man name Bill Welkowitz. He, along with his sons owned the Lancaster, Penna. news agency, County News. He was the Circulation Director of the New York Daily News from the early 1950’s to1962. The paper was at that time, the largest selling newspaper in America with circulation numbers of 1.8 to2 million daily and 2.2 to 2.4 million on Sundays on average but with one Sunday, he told me, of one edition of 5000 short of 5 million circulation.
At this point I ask him why they didn’t put out the extra 5M to just get to the magic number of 5 million. He said that Chicago, (The Chicago Tribune owned to New York Daily News,) didn’t want to waste any paper.
I then ask Welkowitz the source of the term Bulldog. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulder and said he didn’t know. To say I was disappointed must have shown on my face as shock. I believed that of all the people in the world, Welkowitz would surely know.
Welkowitz did said that when he was a young man and working in the circulation department of the New York Daily News, he had asked this same question of a man named Max Annenburg. (Annenburg was the uncle of Walter Annenburg, who owner and publisher the Philadelphia Inquirer and was made Ambassador to the Court of St. James during the Nixon Administration.) He was at the time, the C.D. in the 1920’s and 30’s. Max Annenburg came from the Detroit Mirror and was now C.D. at the New York Daily News. He said he had no idea where the term came from. (The story of Max Annenburg at the New York Daily News is another story in itself.)
I next ask and man by the name of Adam Shanks about the Bulldog name. Shanks, was at one time, C.D. of the New York Herald Tribune * and was now the G.M of the Trenton, NJ newspaper/magazine agency; Brauninger News Co. He said he believes it may have started in New York. He told me that he remembered when he was a kid, an old man told him that when he was a youngster himself back in the 1880’s, that during that time, the first edition of the day was called the Pup. The old man told Shanks that he was around during the blizzard of 1888 in New York City. Then Shanks said the old man told him that around the beginning of the 1920’s the term Bulldog was starting to be used. I didn’t pay much attention to the 1920’s date that Shank mention. This bit of information would later fall into place.
Shanks said that he believes the term was transformed from the Pup Edition into Bulldog because the newspapers’ wanted to get the “bit on the customer.” This didn’t sound right, and I didn’t buy it.
The search went on for another two years. Asking just about every one of my accounts who had been New York C.D’s, about Bulldog. None know or had a plausible answer for me.
I was, by this time just about to give up on finding the answer. The Circulation Directors’ job is to get the papers out, get new locations & subscribers, etc., but they had no information, nothing, zip, zero about this word Bulldog as I would learn.
This was tougher that I thought. I was beginning to believe that the man was correct by saying nobody knew the derivation of “Bulldog Edition.”
It was 3 years later, when I was calling on the Philadelphia newspaper wholesaler, know then as United News Co. I had called on this wholesaler for many years but never asked the newspaper manager about Bulldog. The newspaper manager was a man by the name of Eddie McHugh. On this particular day, I had spent a good part of the morning in his office. As I was about to leave, I turned around to ask the same question I had for these past years, but decided what could he have know. He was the same age as myself and anyway, he never worked directly for a newspaper. Half way out the door, something said go back and ask anyway.
When I asked McHugh this question, “Where did the term Bulldog come from?” McHugh slapped his desk hard with his open hand and said to me “Its funny you should ask this question today.” He said that just this morning, he was cleaning out an old forgotten closet at the agency and found old stacks of retailer receipt with all of the old out-of-town newspapers listed, more then three quarters no longer in business, all listed with the lettering BG after the papers name, standing for Bulldog. He showed me some samples. On it was a long list of New York news- papers: N.Y. Times, NY Daily News, NY Mirror, NY Post, NY Tribune, NY Herald, NY Telegram, NY World, NY Sun, NY American, Brooklyn Eagle, L.I. Press and others.
As a young boy, McHugh said he started to work at the agency in 1950. He worked for a man by the name of Rappaport. McHugh ask the same question of Rappaport when he first started there.
Rappaport said that in the late 1918-19, he worked for a paper called the Philadelphia Public Ledger. (It went out of business in 1938.) At that time, the mailroom people would direct the papers to go on their horse and wagons, or their new fleet of trucks for delivery. These delivery trucks were made in Allentown, Penna. about 60 miles North of Philadelphia. (It must be remembered, that this is before 1919. Mechanization was just getting under way.) The mailroom men needed to get the downtown Philadelphia areas served first to all of the newsboys and kiosk located at just about every street corner by saying, “Put these on the Bulldog.” Meaning the trucks for the downtown Philadelphia run. They needed to get their papers out fast and first.
It was the mailroom people at the Philadelphia Public Ledger that started to use the term Bulldog meaning the truck, not yet the paper. It was later picked by the newsboys waiting for their first deliver of papers to arriving via truck with a very big, chrome Bulldog on its hood, again meaning the truck, not the paper. Later, the Philadelphia Public Ledger adopted the first edition of the day as their Bulldog Edition because of their mailroom people.
This tied in with what Adam Shanks told me about the old man and the 1920’s date as the time he first remembers hearing the term bulldog for the paper. The old man and Shanks were both New Yorkers. The old man was there and relayed the story to the young Adam Shanks.
The truck of course, was the Mack Truck and it had a new trademark on its front hood. It was a very large, shinny bulldog emblem. Other papers in Philadelphia later used Bulldog to designate their first edition of the day.
Here is where it gets a little complicated. There may have been as many as 12 newspapers in New York City at the time. Not all of them were coming into Philadelphia, of course. It was the Philadelphia newspaper wholesaler, according to McHugh, that would call the New York papers with their new draw orders and would ask for X number of the Bulldog Edition.
According to McHugh’s account of what Rappaport told him that at first, the New York circulation clerks would ask what the heck are you talking about. Bulldog??? Not having the foggiest idea of what this wholesale was talking about. It took a while for the N.Y papers to pick up on the new lexicon for their first edition. But by the early to mid 1920’s just about all these newspapers were using the new term.
THE MACK TRUCKMASCOT
Here’s how the truck got its name. It was during World War I. A new American truck was used in France. At the time, it did not have any Logo trademark. But the English soldlers were so impressed by the way the truck preformed that they gave it the nickname “Bulldog” because it was very reliable on all kinds of roads & conditions and it got through where other trucks were unable. The name stuck. The Mack Truck Company created the Bulldog Logo and mascot.
The term “Bulldog” originated in France, given it by English soldlers, for the truck made in Allentown, Penna. to the Philadelphia Public Ledger’s mailroom. This is the etymology of Bulldog Edition.
According to McHugh, this information is on file at Philadelphia’s Main Public Library. It’s located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, at 19th Street.
From France to England, to Allentown, Penna. to Philadelphia, the name Bulldog would be the new name for the first edition of the day and was an old standby for over 89 years by the Forth Estate. It’s still used today, but mostly for the Sunday edition found in supermarkets on Saturdays. For years, it had a wonderful daily run by the many newspapers all over the country. Philadelphia was its birthplace. Its children were born every night after the dinner hour and served all of America’s needs for the latest news.
It’s interesting to note that just recently, a Philadelphia Inquirer article dated August 15, 2008, in the financial section had a short story about the Mack Truck Company planning to relocate their headquarters to Greensboro, NC from Allentown, Penna.
A BRIEF SYNOPSIS
1) Only 2 CD’s that I talk to from New York had any strong information in how the term Bulldog originated.
2) The 1920’s date was verified by 2 New York newspaper men; Shanks & the Old Man.
3) The Mack Truck Company started to use the Bulldog Mascot after World War I.
4) Rappaport was directly involved at the time with the Bulldog lexicon at the Philadelphia Public Ledger that adopted the name coming from, and because of, their mailroom workers.
5) New York circulation departments had no idea what bulldog meant when first approached by the Philadelphia Wholesaler for their new daily draws of the New York dailies coming into Philadelphia with the term “Bulldog Editions,” according to McHugh.
6) The Philadelphia Public Ledger before 1917 had horse and wagons only for delivery.
7) The name came from the mailroom newspaper employees, because of the new mascot on their new fleet of Mack Trucks. At that time, the Bulldog mascot was as big as a pineapple. It was massive as mascots go. It was the first thing that caught your eye.
8) According to McHugh, there is verification of this information at Philadelphians’ Main Public Library. I did not check it out.
9) Claims from some N.Y. circulation people that have told me that N.Y used Bulldog before Philadelphia. Art Welkowicz* told me that there were 3 papers competing for the readers and the fight between them was like a bulldog. And thus the name. I met only one person, Rick Knox who worked for the NY Daily News in the 1980’s who said it was from the Mack Truck Logo.
And that’s the story of the Bulldog Edition as I know it. And that’s no bull.
Kas Kasparian
* According to Arthur Welkowitz, oldest son of Bill Welkowitz, Shank was the CD of the New York Daily Mirror and may have later been the CD of the New York Herald Tribune.