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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Westside Weekly (Goodyear, Ariz.) 1953-1955 Westside weekly and Westside enterprise / Westside

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About Westside Weekly (Goodyear, Ariz.) 1953-1955

The first issue of the weekly Tolleson Independent appeared on June 20, 1941, in Tolleson, Arizona, in Phoenix's growing West Valley. The title changed to Westside Enterprise in August 1941, and then to Westside Weekly in July 1953. From December 1953 to July 1955, the title changed back and forth between Westside Weekly and Westside Enterprise, at one point carrying both titles together before settling as Westside Enterprise in 1955.

The newspaper was filled with local news, recipes, sports, extensive movie advertisements, and a fashion column with photographs. As the West Valley grew, so did coverage of news in the paper, expanding from four pages to sixteen to twenty pages in the late 1950s, shrinking to six pages by 1963. The newspaper's slogan changed from "Devoted to Agriculture and Allied Interests of Arizona," to variations on "Devoted to the Interest of…" towns it covered in the West Valley, including Tolleson, Litchfield Park, Coldwater (later Avondale), and Goodyear. Sometimes it was simply: "Serving the Westside Since 1941." The publishing location moved from Tolleson in 1941, to Litchfield Park in September 1942, to Goodyear in July 1952.

Established when Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company purchased land to grow cotton for tires, the town of Goodyear was largely a company town, and the paper reflected this, reporting on the expansion of its operations for a contract with the Air Force and the resulting need for more housing for the expanding workforce. The paper frequently carried news about Luke Air Field (later Luke Air Force Base), a major pilot training location during World War II.

The paper also included extensive agricultural news, especially about cotton, such as "technological advances" that would bring "drip-dry and wrinkle-proof cottons" to the market (April 21, 1960). Articles about agricultural labor included reports of German prisoners of war picking cotton in Arizona, the hiring of agricultural workers from Mexico for the cotton harvest, and the possibility of using Japanese Americans imprisoned in internment camps in Arizona to pick cotton. The newspaper also reported on the Agua Fria Farm Workers Community, a migratory labor camp established in the area by the Farm Security Administration.

The newspaper was initially published by Valley Printers, with Maurice Zook as editor and manager starting in November 1941, followed by Ella McCarty in March 1942. Eugene Ely became managing editor in July 1942 and owner in November 1946. Ely's wife Emmi joined him as publisher in June 1952, with Eugene usually serving as editor. The Elys continued working at the paper until March 1962 under two other publishers: Warren Morrell who bought the Enterprise from the Elys in May 1960, and Burt Freireich who purchased it from Morrell in August 1961. Freireich regularly served as editor after the Elys' departure. In November 1963, Lucille Ross Buford became publisher but then sold the newspaper in July 1964 to the Apache Publishing Company. Westside Enterprise later merged in 1965 with Westside Citizen to become the Westsider, of which Eugene Ely was editor and later publisher.

Provided By: Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records; Phoenix, AZ

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Westside Weekly (Goodyear, Ariz.) 1953-1955

Other Title

  • Westside weekly and Westside enterprise
  • Westside

Dates of Publication

  • 1953-1955

Created / Published

  • Goodyear, Ariz. : Eugene and Emmi Ely, 1953-1955.

Headings

  • -  Goodyear (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Litchfield Park (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Tolleson (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Phoenix (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Maricopa County (Ariz.)--Newspapers
  • -  Arizona--Goodyear
  • -  Arizona--Litchfield Park
  • -  Arizona--Maricopa County
  • -  Arizona--Phoenix
  • -  Arizona--Tolleson
  • -  United States--Arizona--Maricopa--Goodyear

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Weekly
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 16, 1953)-v. 2, no. 52 (July 7, 1955).
  • -  Westside enterprise (Goodyear, Ariz.) (DLC)sn 94050657

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn94050656

OCLC Number

  • 31717930

Preceding Titles

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Westside Weekly Goodyear, Ariz. -1955. (Goodyear, AZ), Jan. 1 1953. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn94050656/.

APA citation style:

(1953, January 1) Westside Weekly Goodyear, Ariz. -1955. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/sn94050656/.

MLA citation style:

Westside Weekly Goodyear, Ariz. -1955. (Goodyear, AZ) 1 Jan. 1953. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/sn94050656/.