Sometime in 1964 I conceived the name for a magazine — Beyond Baroque. I had moved to Venice, California, one of the scenes of the Beat literary “movement.” I wanted to write, and hoped to find other writers in Venice, but it was indeed the end of the Beat era. John Haag’s Venice West Café had just closed, and there was no “scene” I could find.

Despite having broken my right shoulder in an accident and living on state disability while undergoing six months of physical therapy to regain use of my paralyzed arm, I decided to go ahead with the magazine. Operating Out of my small share-the-bath half-cottage apartment at the rear of 1009 W. Washington (now Abbot Kinney) Blvd. in Venice, I announced the first issue of Beyond Baroque, set for “Winter 1964.” A cover, designed by Charles Arthur Turner, was printed and I placed small ads in Saturday Review and New York Review of Books soliciting manuscripts. I started a paste-up of that issue, using only my left hand, but I had no money to go to press.

1967

By 1967 I was married to Anne Liard Jennings (born Ene Silla in Tallinn, Estonia; now Dr. Anna Smith) and I was teaching French, Spanish and English as a Second Language at Santa Monica High School.

My mother and my grandmother died in late 1967, leaving me a small inheritance.

1968

In early 1968, at Anne’s urging, I decided to use the money I had inherited to re-start Beyond Baroque.

The first entry in the account book for Beyond Baroque Enterprises is April 13th, 1968 — $2.25 to the Venice Post Office, probably for a post office box. On May 3rd a rubber stamp was purchased for $3.20. Around May 13th, $22 went to the L.A. Daily Journal for a fictitious business name statement, and in late May $6.60 to the NY Review for an ad seeking manuscripts.

By June 2nd I had spent $193.61, including some printing and the first mailings. Receipts that week were $7 for two subscrip­tions. A hundred announcements had gone out to doctors in the area and another hundred to attor­neys. The first subscriber was the late Clair Martin Christensen, an attorney (who was later to draw up articles of incorporation for Beyond Baroque Foudnation when it was decided to become a nonprofit tax-exempt educational organization, incorporated in March 1972).

On June 5th I paid Harry Markowitz $35 to rent a one-room office on the second floor of 73 Market St. in Venice, above artist Tony Bill's studio. Joe Oliva, a Santa Monica High School senior, was the first employee, reading and han­dling manuscripts received as a result of ads in various publications. In June there were payments to NY Review, Village Voice, LA Free Press, et al. Oliva worked until September, when he resigned to continue his education.

In June 1968 I purchased — for back taxes — a gutted three-story building and house at 1639-41 W. Washington (now Abbot Kinney) Blvd., which Beyond Baroque occupied at the end of July.

Artist (Murray) Lee Balan was hired in mid-July. He received $80 a week, plus a tiny storefront apartment, and worked 32 to 40 hours a week.

By September 1968, I was spending “big money,” with a check for over $200 to NY Review, now to advertise for subscriptions.

The September 26th New York Review of Books had a quarter-page ad for Beyond Baroque 691 (one year, 4 issues, $2.50) “a slice of the esthetic here and now,” and the October 10th issue carried an eight inch ad.

Beyond Baroque joined COSMEP, the Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers.

Manuscripts were in hand for the first issue, and I paid Continental Graphics a $1,000 deposit on print­ing the first issue.

In November Continental Graphics was paid another $1,664.59, the balance due on 9,500 copies of the first issue.

A mailing went out announcing a November 23rd “reception and open house” for the first issue of Beyond Baroque in the Beyond Baroque Gallery (though the first art exhibition was not until early 1969).

1969

December 1968 was the actual publication date of Beyond Baroque. “69" was for the year 1969, and “1" was for the first issue of that year. This numbering system continued as long as the magazine Beyond Baroque was published, though in only one year were four issues published as promised.

The December 6th issue of Periodical Review, had a review of the magazine on page 10.

A mailing was done to bookstores along with a free copy of the magazine.

By the end of 1968, expenses totaled over $11,000, of which $2,664.59 for printing 9,500 copies of the 64 page first issue, $1,600 for salaries, $1,289 for postage and $2,545 for advertising. 

But that first issue was not a vast commercial success, as had been hoped.

EARLY PRINTING AND TYPESETTING TECHNOLOGY

My small inheritance was pretty well gone by early 1969 and I decided to buy printing equipment. Since I wanted to be able to print color, I purchased a British Roneo mimeo-type stencil printing set-up. The drums that held the ink were interchangeable, so you could have as many colors of ink as you had drums. 

The stencils for the Roneo were prepared with Roneotronic electronic scanner device. What was to be copied onto the stencil was wrapped around one end of a stainless-steel drum, and a plastic stencil was wrapped around the other end. The drum spun at a rapid rate as a photoelectric sensor moved across what was to be copied. What the sensor picked up was converted to an electric current, which went to a stylus that cut the image of type and graphics into the stencil.  

It could scan photos and do color separations, which is how we achieved the color graphics in the early magazines, though most of the yellow ink we printed was still not dry a generation later. 

The stencil was then affixed to the ink-filled drum, and the ink seeped through the stencil onto the paper as the drum turned. We could print up to 150 pages a minute, but it was still a very tedious process to produce a magazine, and the stencils wouldn’t hold up for much more than 500 pages and had to be re-cut. In the case of color separations, there was a different stencil for each color, and a page would have to be run through four times for black, cyan blue, cadmium yellow, magenta and black.

As printing proceeded, the stencils heated up and stretched, which meant that the printed image was longer at the end of a run than at the beginning, so when you started to print the second color, the pages with the most expanded image were on top as you started to print with what was still a cool, unexpanded stencil that would gradually increase in length. As the printing proceeded down a pile, each subsequent page you were printing on had a slightly less stretched image (from the previous) printing on it, while the stencil you were printing from grew a little longer with each revolution, due to rapid turning of the drum and heat build-up. Anything even remotely approaching accurate “registration” of the colors meant very short runs, indeed. 

To keep the ink from transferring from one page to the next, each page was sprayed with a fine powder as it came out of the press. When the back of the page was printed, or it was run through for a second, third and fourth color, the powder transferred to the new stencil and clogged the fine areas the ink was supposed to come through. You can view some of the early color covers by clicking on the PDF link in "Beyond Baroque: the early years."

After all the over 30,000 pages (more for some issues of NeWLetterS) were printed, they had to be collated. This was done by hand. The most faithful “collator” was Jim Krusoe, but dozens of other helped through the early years.

In the case of NeWLetterS, we mailed out as many as 4,500 copies. Hand-typed Xeroxed address labels had to be stuck to each  magazine to be mailed, and they were then sorted and bundled according to US Postal Service bulk mail requirements. Later we used some sort of spirit duplicator (“Ditto”) sortable cards to do the labeling. Most were mailed at the nonprofit organization bulk postage rate, and I believe the extensive mailings we were able to do because of this very low rate contributed greatly to the widespread recognition and survival of Beyond Baroque Foundation. 

How we managed to print a thousand or so of copies of a 64-page beyond baroque or 2,500 of a 32-page NeWLetterS, I’ll never know.

I could write a book about this and bizarre typesetting machines we used.

IBM came with their “Selectric Composer” typesetting machine around 1967 (another bizarre contraption) and Beyond Baroque leased one for $170 a month payment for a the first two issues.

The IBM "Selectric" Composer was the first desktop typesetting machine. It was based on the successful "Selectric" technology. In case you're not familiar with that, the IBM Selectric typewriter is the one that has a small ball with all the letters on it. If you’re interested in this machine, go to  this site, from which I have extracted some of what follows:

The basic task of the IBM Composer was to produce justified camera ready copy using proportional fonts. It has the capability of using a variety of font sizes and styles.

The first IBM Composer was the IBM "Selectric" Composer announced in 1966. It was a hybrid "Selectric" typewriter that was modified to have proportional spaced fonts. It is 100% mechanical and has no digital electronics. Since it has no memory, the user was required to type everything twice. While typing the text the first time, the machine would measure the length of the line and count the number of spaces.

When the user finished typing a line of text, they would read a number from a dial, set a different dial, tab over into the right margin of the paper, and retype the line. If the second typing of a line was identical in all respects to the first, the machine would insert the right amount of space between words, and all of the retyped lines would be the same length, producing “right justified” copy.

When we could no longer make the payments, IBM came to get its “Composer,” and we used a standard IBM Selectric typewriter with three or four different type styles, and sometimes even attempted to “justify” the copy.

Next I bought a used VariTyper. This was a contraption that had evolved from an early attempt at making a typewriter. Our model was probably made in the 1930s. For a description and photo of this very bizarre machine, go to this site. I quote from that site: 

The Varityper uses an interchangeable type shuttle, and uses a spring-driven hammer behind the paper to hit the paper against the ribbon and shuttle. The keyboard is a three-bank, double-shift QWERTY arrangement, as on the Universal models of the Hammond.... the paper is held between two rollers and feeds down into a basket.

The earliest VariTyper [...] soon went through some important transformations. The biggest step in the modernization [...] was electrification (introduced 1927), which operated in a very simple way: after every 13 keystrokes, an electric motor in the rear of the typewriter would rewind the spring which hit the hammer against the paper and drove the carriage forward. All other operations were manual. (If you ever type on one of these VariTyper, you'll see that the operation is very quiet until you reach the 13th stroke, when there's a startling noise as the spring is rewound.)

Eventually David Asper Johnson, editor and publisher of The Argonaut newspaper in Marina del Rey allowed Beyond Baroque to use his Compugraphic CompuWriter I, said to be the first stand-alone phototypesetting machine, and eventually a Compugraphic EditWriter machine, until Beyond Baroque set up NewComp Graphics Center and purchased a Merganthaler phototypesetter, and eventually an EditWriter.

EARLY PROGRAMMING

In early 1969 the first poetry readings and music recitals were presented, the art gallery continued, and Joseph Hansen (died 2004) and John Harris moved their poetry workshop from The Bridge (a Melrose Avenue coffee house that had closed) to Beyond Baroque, and it became the Venice Poetry Workshop, which has continued more or less uninterrupted every Wednesday evening since.

Early programs included:

• Air-Raid Presentations (the last Friday of the month, “the day the [air-raid] siren blows”), usually poetry readings, but sometimes music.
• weekly Happenstance (Lee Balan’s production), sometimes sort of “rap sessions” (in the ‘60s connotation of “rap”), sometimes other events, such a painting a mural on the gallery wall, performance art, painting, etc., usually organized by Lee Balan. 
• music recitals (classical chamber music, as well as avant-garde)
• art gallery exhibitions
• Venice Poetry Workshop
• the free Newsletter (which later became NeWLetterS, and eventually the free NEW Magazine, devoted to “cismontane” writing), while Beyond Baroque remained the avant-garde publication for “experimental” w0riting.

Jack Conroy (considered the “Grand Old Man of exper­imental literature”) wrote in the Kansas City Star (February 16th, 1969, page 1-E):

Then there is Beyond Baroque, ‘a quarterly anthology reflect­ing nascent literary trends,’ zooming off to a rip-snorting start with its first issue, Winter 1968-69. Its ingenious makeup includes ancient woodcuts and holograph poems. A fine antiseptic quality pervades O.W. van Petten's ‘Tom Wolf’s Revolu­tionary Cult.’ That bodarious [sic] kandy-colored-tangerine has had such a comeuppance coming to him for too long. A similar pertinacy [sic] charac­terizes Robert E. Sagehorn's “Science, Pragma­tism, and Psychedelia.”

In March 1969, Lee Balan resigned, and Virginia Cook was hired at the end of March. She learned to use the IBM Selectric Composer and the Roneo equipment, but resigned in mid-June.

The April 4th, 1969, Westart mentions Beyond Baroque Gallery.

David A. Scheffler was hired at the end of August 1969. He received $50 per week, plus use of a two bedroom apartment on the third floor. The building, which had been hippy homes and totally gutted when I bought them, had by now been pretty well renovated by the late Gene Hieatt.

1970

I had a very difficult year in 1970 and separated from my wife, but all Beyond Baroque activities continued and New Venice Poets was published.

By now, Jim Krusoe was a mainstay, and without his work and encouragement, Beyond Baroque would surely never have survived.

1971

I resigned as a Santa Monica Unified School District (Santa Monica High School) language teacher in January and went into the printing business to try to make a living and support the magazine. My Bayr­ock Press used the Roneo mimeo equipment to try to compete with the then-just-starting instant printing shops.

It was a difficult year. The printing business grossed from $400 to $800 a month (and paper cost about half that). One of my secrets of sur­vival was not paying the paper supplier for a year or two. (I did eventually pay off the debt.)

Plans were made to incorporate as a nonprofit tax-exempt educational organization and the first meeting of a “board of trustees” was held.

1972

On March 12th, Beyond Baroque Foundation was incorporated with federal and state tax exemptions, and the first National Endowment for the Arts grant was applied for.

1973

I had met Alexandra Garrett (died December 31st, 1991, at the age of 65) at a COSMEP (Committee of Small Magazine Editors and Publishers) conference in San Diego, and she started as a volunteer in charge of Beyond Baroque Library of Independent Press Literary Publications, which we billed as the only such library open to the general public in the country at that time. This was made up of magazine and books of other small press literary published that had been received in exchange for magazine we sent them. These exchanges were unsolicited, and part of the small press publishing culture of the time.

There was standing-room-only for most events, and a public address was installed so people on the street could hear the readings and other performances.

Beyond Baroque Foundation received its fist National Endowment for the Arts Expansion Arts Program grant of $17,500.

1974

Events included:

• First summer arts festival in “Pavilion Courtyard”
• Teenage poetry workshop
• Fiction workshop 

1975

A major physical expansion was undertaken. The former office in back of the storefront area  became a library/performance room, with the front storefront used for audience overflow and the art gallery. The “Orange Pagoda” on the rear of the lot (a former Pacific Electric station that had been moved there much earlier from Venice Boulevard) was taken over for offices. New programs included:

• Autobiographical Fiction workshop and other workshops started.
• NewComp Graphics Center opens (“typeset­ting services for non-commercial literary publish­ers and arts organizations, funded by NEA”). A Merganthaler phototypesetting machine was used (yet another difficult contraption, which did not adapt well to the cool, damp ocean air). NewComp eventuall took over a second-floor apartment above the art gallery.

1976

New programs:

• Beyond Baroque was host for Poetry in the Schools program for Southern California, funded by NEA and the California Arts Council (CAC), directed by Krusoe.
• Summer and fall arts festivals were inaugurated
• NeWLetterS became NEW Magazine: Arts & Letters — free distribution reached 16,000.
• Three NewBooks were published with grant from NEA. There was a national competition for full-length experimental works. Copies were free to the Beyond Baroque mailing list and the author got  copies he/she could sell.

1977

• NEW Magazine distribution reached 25,000 peak free distribution (for a Poetry in the Schools issue).
• Beyond Baroque Foundation named conduit site for CAC-funded Cultural News Service.
• New workshops included : Performing Poetry, Experi­mental Writing, Script Writing.  
• Library reached 10,000 volumes, generally recognized (or at least promoted) as the “largest independent library of small press literary publications” in the world.
• Received a Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines grant for the library
• Received the first NEA grant for the library
• 2nd grant for NewBooks; three more published
• Two small press seminars for librarians held
• 4th NEA grant for NewComp Graphics Center
• Four issues of Beyond Baroque published with average press run of 8,500
• NEA Visual Arts Project grant for a photo history of Venice —- Fantasy by the Sea, by Tom Moran and Tom Sewell.
• Other grants: L.A. Municipal Arts, California Arts Council, CLM, NEA.

1978

Beyond Baroque attempted to save the 1908-era Westmin­ster Auditorium at 1010 W. Washington Blvd., to be a community cultural center and future home of Beyond Baroque.

Beyond Baroque received and NEA Architecture Program grant for a Westminster Auditorium Rehabilitation Study (later used for Old Venice City Hall).

NEA, CAC and city grants continued.

1979

LA City Council approved lease of Old Venice City Hall to Beyond Baroque (LA Times, 4-19-79, Westside page 2)

May  — first readings were held at City Hall, 681 Venice Blvd. 

KCRW records and broadcasts portions of readings.

September 30 - George Drury Smith resigned as president and chairman of the board of trustees, named chairman emeritus of the board of trus­tees, continued as editor of Beyond Baroque. Jim Krusoe resigned as vice president, but remained on board of trustees.

October 1 “Manazar” (Manuel H. Gamboa, died at 66 in December 2000) named president; Alexandra Garrett vice president.

Friday, October 26 — Grand Opening at Venice City Hall

1980

Library director Jocelyn Fisher succeeded Manazar.