Weldon Kees as 'Zinester

Kees was a DIY publisher!



The young Kees considered cinema actors more interesting and more important than the aviators and baseball players who towered in the lives of most boys during the 1920s. He wrote and typed the copy of his own mimeographed movie magazines, with names like the Screenland Spy, Silver Screenings, and Camera Magazine. In them he listed the stars' birthdays and their addresses so that other children could write their favorite actors or send them a card. He had his own column, "Reviews of Current Pictures," in which he rated The American Venus with Gloria Swanson "fine," and The New Commandments as "terrible." As a special feature, he wrote a Hollywood murder mystery that ran over several isses. It had a leading man for its hero who was a real detective in his offscreen life.



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He was often seen after school in the factory office, where his father let him type stories and rhymes and "publish" his movie magazines on the secretary's typewriter.



Reading Vanished Act by Reidel.