Passing Show

UK weekly paper of humour and short fiction which had two distinct incarnations, both published by Odhams Press, London. The first series ran for 918 issues from 20 March 1915 to 19 March 1932. It began life as a small tabloid-size magazine, initially printed on poor wartime quality paper it eventually graduated in size to become a standard tabloid from the beginning of 1924. The emphasis was on cartoons and brief humorous stories, but it occasionally ran to longer items. In 1932 the paper completely briefly reinvented itself as The New Passing Show but the title reverted after only eight issues. From October 1933 the magazine became heavily illustrated and although cartoons and anecdotes remained, along with celebrity news and gossip, the emphasis shifted to fiction, particularly adventure and mystery fiction and throughout the decade it was arguably the most regular source of science fiction. Eventually, fiction was phased out by the end of World War II but continued as an illustrated magazine until 4th October 1958, when it merged with John Bull. Contributors included Edgar Rice Burroughs, Fortunino Matania, Frank Newbould, Willian Hailstone, Arthur Ferrier, H. Mayo Bateman, Wood Starr, and Steven Spurrier to name but a few.

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