You’ll Find Kingsport In The Rotogravure

If you know the word “rotogravure,” you either worked at Kingsport Press (or a relative did) or you remember the Irving Berlin song “Easter Parade” with the lyric:

“On the avenue, Fifth Avenue, the photographers will snap us,

“And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure.”

Today few know what that lyric means. The rotogravure?

It was the Sunday magazine or photo section, printed on high quality paper using a special printing press called the rotogravure.

And in 1930, after four years of promising, the Kingsport Times published a special 20-page rotogravure section in the Sunday paper.

Even on microfilm the quality of the printing stands out.

The first page highlights Kingsport industries – naturally, since Kingsport was calling itself “The City of Industry.”

The usual suspects are in the gallery – Eastman, Mead, Borden Mills, the Press – but so are several long-forgotten companies including King-Tan Extract, Kingsport Silk Mills, Fisher & Beck Hosiery.

Of note on another page: J. Fred’s was still in its Shelby Street building where it had started out as The Big Store.

(Click on page to enlarge. Click a second time to expand the image even more.)