Top Flight [Vol. I, No. 17 (Oct 29 1949)]

Published by N.P., New York City, 1949

About this Item

10 7/8" x 8½". Bifolium, printed all four sides. Pp. 4. Very good minus: moderately creased at old folds; a bit toned. This is an issue of a seemingly forgotten periodical that was created by and for high school- and college-aged African Americans in New York City, Top Flight. The issue covers two young men who went on to notable careers, one in business and one in music, Walter Branford and Andrew Frierson. The paper's editor and business manager, respectively, were brothers Arthur and Richard Hardie. We found brief mentions of the brothers in the "Teen Age" column of a few 1949 New York Age issues online, learning that Arthur had recently graduated from Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx and that Richard was due to that year. Top Flight's tagline was "News of the younger set" and this issue posited that "as young people many of us often forget that we owe something to our community, for it is our community that gives us our means of living, our safety and protection." The leading article shared that the paper's staff had been invited to a press conference at Mt. Morris, "the only interracial voluntary hospital in the U.S.A." and a photographic image showed a few "of our many young people who are participating in the fund raising campaign to fight Polio." A "Who's Who" column focused on Delores Hall, "dramatic soprano singer," student at Brooklyn College and the recipient of a scholarship to study under Lucille Stevenson, a "famous concert artist and the former singing star of the Pet Milk Show." Great photographic images revealed "Miss Top Flight," Barbara Fair (a student at Franklin Lane High School), and identified the members of "Club Kopaynes," an African American social youth group. There was also a feature, with two photographic images, on a dance attended by pledges of the local chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the oldest historically African American fraternity. The paper reported that "the place was just filled with young people from all over the city and beyond" and that the pledges "themselves looked like something out of Esquire." It noted that "Walter Branford is the only pledge coming from the N.Y. State Maritime College. Walt represents one-half of the Negro population of the school . . ." Branford went on to be president and CEO of Double Eagle Lines, Inc., the first Black-owned steamship company in the United States. A rare and fantastic publication created by young African Americans doing great things. Not located in OCLC or in Danky Hady.

Seller Inventory # 7894

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Top Flight [Vol. I, No. 17 (Oct 29 1949)]
• Publisher: N.P., New York City
• Publication Date: 1949
• Condition: Very good -
• Seller catalogs:
  • New York
  • Music
  • Periodicals
  • African Americana