Michael Levy
Michael Levy was born in Dallas on May 17, 1946, at the old St. Paul's Hospital. His father was an immigrant from Poland who came to the United States at a very young age with his parents, brother, and sister, entering through New York and spending time in Detroit and Colorado before the family settled in Dallas, where his father graduated from Forest Avenue High School. His mother was born in Dallas to parents from Hungary. Levy credits his father with modeling a deep commitment to hard work and family, qualities he sees strongly in himself, describing his own drive as bordering on obsessive.
Levy attended Dallas public schools through eighth grade before entering St. Mark's School of Texas, which he considered the single most formative institutional influence of his life. He then studied at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, worked summers for United Press International in Dallas and part-time in its Philadelphia bureau, and briefly sold advertising for Philadelphia Magazine. After a spinal curvature ended his time in Marine Corps officer training at Quantico, he returned to Texas and entered the University of Texas School of Law in Austin as preparation for starting a magazine, graduating and taking the bar in early 1972. Among his most colorful early jobs was a summer spent as a jailer in the Dallas County Jail.
Levy founded Texas Monthly in Austin, building it into a publication with paid circulation near 280,000 and a total readership of more than a million, along with a small regional book publishing operation. Active in Austin civic life, he helped develop the city's emergency medical services and worked on the cable television refranchising process. He married an artist he met in Philadelphia while she attended the Moore College of Art, and they have three daughters, Rachel and twins Mara Elizabeth and Tobin Janelle. Raised at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas under the influence of Rabbi Levi Olan and Rabbi Gerald Klein, he remained connected to Jewish life, affiliating with a conservative congregation in Austin, and he attributes his standards of honesty and excellence to that heritage.
Full Transcript
Interview with Michael Levy by Dorothy Horowitz on October the 27th, 1983 at the AJC in New York. Mr. Levy, it is said that you were born with a briefcase in your hand. Is that an accurate symbol of your personality? No, not really because I don't use a briefcase. I have a little bag that's stuffed with magazines and papers I carry with me on airplanes and when I travel. But other than that, I rarely use a briefcase. I don't know who said that, whether they know me or have ever seen me in action. I don't think that is a fair description. Well, speaking about when you were born, when and where were you born?
Born in Dallas on May 17, 1946. The old St. Paul's Hospital has since been torn down. And can you tell us a bit about your parents, where they came from? My dad was an immigrant from Poland. His mother and father brought him at a very young age over from Poland along with his brother and sister. My mom was born in Dallas. Her parents are from Hungary. So it's Poland and Hungary backgrounds originally? That's correct. And at what age did your father come to this country? Young. I don't remember. He was very young. And I think they entered through New York and spent time in Detroit and Colorado.
Before the family moved to Dallas. My dad, I believe, graduated from Fort Neal Forest Avenue High School in Dallas. So he first immigrated to... I believe the family entered through New York, that's right. Through New York to Colorado? Through Detroit. They spent time in Detroit and time in Colorado. I'm not exactly clear on that background. And do you have any idea why his family left Poland? Was it at the time of the pogroms? I don't know. He didn't talk about it at all? We haven't talked about it to that extent, no. Because people are very root conscious and origin conscious now and are aware of what the circumstances were that sent them here Perhaps It not been a subject that my dad has chosen to go into in any great detail I wanted to ask you whether you were, how you felt about the old German proverb that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
do you see any resemblance to your father and his way of life? To a large extent, in terms of commitment to hard work and commitment to family. Absolutely. I think we're both rather introspective people that have always worked very hard throughout our lives. In other words, you like hard work? whether it's fair to say I like hard work, but I do work hard. I mean, I think it is, I have been described as an obsessive compulsive, somebody that stays busy, especially in my professional years as a magazine publisher. Since I started Texas Monthly 10 years, I have worked very, very hard and has not regretted it.
in most cases, but just understand the need to put in an honest day of living. Or more than that. More than that, certainly. It counts that way. Tell us a little bit about your education. I'm from Dallas originally. I was born and raised in Dallas. My first eight years were in the public school system in Dallas. Grades 1 through 4 at Preston Hall Elementary School, grades 5 through 7 at John J Pershing, grades 8 at Benjamin Franklin. That was the public school system. Public school system. My high school experience was an extraordinarily important one in my life. It was at St. Mark's School of Texas.
St. Mark is affiliated with the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas. The Episcopal Diocese? of the finest voice schools in the country and as I look back upon it this coming weekend is its 50th anniversary and I been asked by the press to describe the importance of the St Mark experience in my own life and would have to say that it was probably the most important experience that college presented in Climatic in terms of anything that I've been able to do with my life, where I am now. To a large extent, St. Mark's played a very important role in all of that in terms of giving me direction, giving me some focus in my life.
The school consisted of a lot of faculty that uh not educationalist but uh a faculty of teachers that had an interest in their subject matter and their subjects and an interest in the development of young men and uh it was very important to me following saint mark's i was just going to stop you a second on that and ask you whether there were any particular teachers who had an impact on you well i'm if i look back on one teacher was an English teacher I had for three out of four years by the name of Levlow North was very important to me. The whole faculty was very very special but I guess if I look back on one teacher it was my English teacher Mr.
North. Following St. Mark's I went to the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and following uh interim military experience um followed by a work experience followed by entry into the university of tessas school of law in austin in the school of law law school oh you have a lawyer degree too i have a law degree also and following my law degree in and graduation in January of 72, took the bar, and began to work to start Texas Monthly, and, but then law school was into my formal education. From what I understand, you spent some time working in Philadelphia.
Well, yes I did. Beginning, I guess, in my summer between my freshman and sophomore year in college, and between my sophomore and junior in college, I worked for United Press International in their Dallas bureau, which was a regional hub, and that provided me with entree to the Philadelphia bureau, which I worked for during school, beginning of my sophomore year through graduation for three years the Philadelphia Bureau of United Press International What was the nature of your work In Dallas for the two summers I was essentially a copper boy, and in Philadelphia I worked part-time on a part-time basis covering local news. For a newspaper or a newspaper?
United Press International is a wire service. Wire service. Right. Following graduation from college, in June of 68, spent the summer of getting a private pilot's license, followed by an entree to... I entered Officer's Pet-Ed School at Quantico, Virginia. They found out after I began OCS training that I had a spinal curvature and received an animal discharge from the Marine Corps. After which I returned to Philadelphia and got a job selling advertising plates for Philadelphia Magazine, which at the time still is a very fine publication. stayed there for about nine months. During that period of time I thought there might be a future for me at Philadelphia Magazine, but felt there was more of a future for me in Texas.
I went back to Texas with the idea of starting a magazine, entered law school in September of 69, as a means of preparation for starting a magazine. Oh, in other words, you interrupted your magazine work to train in a legal background. Well, I don't know if interrupting is the correct word. I mean, I was selling advertising. I had one job in the magazine business, quit that job and went to work and entered law school. You know, me, quitting my education and preparing me to just try to start my own business. at least that was my thinking when I entered law school. How early on did you have the ambition to get involved in a journalistic field?
I would have to say that really I was intrigued by media during high school. I grew up in Dallas, as I said earlier, and I was extraordinarily I was impressed or impacted by a man who I have yet to meet in Gordon McClendon. Gordon McClendon invented Top 40 radio. You might be familiar with the old WABC format, news, weather, sports, and Top 40 music with heavy promotional emphasis. Back in the early 60s, late 50s and early 60s, this was a major change in radio programming with, it really got folks' attention, it got in mind. And I knew that I was getting very, very interested and intrigued with all media, certainly broadcasts.
And I worked for a radio station part-time when I was a kid in Dallas growing up, growing up which led me ultimately to working for UPI. Summers which led me to working for UPI in Philadelphia which led me to working for Philadelphia Magazine which led me to starting my own publication but I guess it began as a kid becoming aware of media having a perhaps a greater than normal or greater than usual awareness of the role of media in our lives. of the media in our lives. In other words you were rather directed all the way through in this field. You didn't wander off and try different things.
Well not exactly. I think one summer my last summer between my junior and senior year in college for a couple weeks immediately after I got home from college I drove a cab and then following that was a jailer in the Dallas County Jail. My mother was somewhat shocked and she had her son going to the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce at the University of Pennsylvania, one of the leading business schools in the country. While all her friends sons were working at the banks or insurance companies or had nice, safe, stable, and secure positions, summer jobs, her son was a jailer. What provoked you to do that?
It was an interesting life experience and I learned a lot. It taught me one great truth in life. because most people in jail really do belong there. Something some people don really have an understanding of And it was an interesting life experience but other than those two I guess I always how long were you at jail it was summer job it was for what three months or something like that did it require any kind of training or preparation it required ability to course people to do what you wanted them to do because you were wearing a badge. I was very large and I have some degree of self-confidence and went in and just did what I had to do.
They told me what to do and I did it. It's essentially, well, you know, a jailer, you know, puts people in sales and text people out of sales and make sure they stay there and I did that and handled the necessary paperwork. Did you have any experiences during that time that were worthy of mentioning? I had several experiences but I don't think people were worthy of mentioning. Needless to say a very interesting life experience for a kid who was from Dallas, Texas and grew up in a nice middle-class Jewish home. you know spend three months as a jailer. I don't know how many Jewish jailers are in American history.
I was one of them. It was a certainly interesting experience. It sounds more like a whim than a... No, it was a job. It paid good money. It paid 500... it was 1967. It paid $526 a month, plus two meals a day. And did you live in the jail? Now, but that was one of the problems because I had never done shift work before. My first, the first month, I'd go on at 11 o'clock, go on at 10.30 at night and come home at 7 in the morning. And you go and leave your bed and you get up about 3 and turn my life around.
My mother wasn't thrilled with it either. Then the next month was going in at 3.30 in the afternoon and getting off at 11 o'clock at night. 2.30 in the afternoon and getting off at 11 o'clock at night. And I never knew which way was up because my internal clock was always turned around. Interestingly, my mother, who's a fantastic cook, I think was somewhat upset because I loved jailhouse cooking. Sheriff Decker who was a legend in his own time had some of the finest chefs in Dallas in jail on charges like Pubhash and Worcester checks or D And he put them to work? He would put them to work cooking the government's commodities that he would get involved in and making rather good food out of it.
And quite frankly, I loved it. Two years a day there, and the camaraderie of other jailers and knowledge that there are a lot of folks out there in the world who you don't want out there in the world. You want them behind bars. It was an arresting experience. Was the jail what you would call a progressive one? Well, you know, it kept out the rain, if that's what you mean. It was... I mean, did it... Constructive things, but... No, it was not... There's basically a difference between a jail and a prison. A prison, I think, in many cases, affords more opportunity for so-called rehabilitation education.
A jail is a jail. Essentially, lots of people are up. It's a detention. Those are the detention facility and in many cases there have been people there for quite some time either waiting for trial or waiting on appeal. Not a fairly pleasant place. I think that I'm inherently a good person after that experience and let me tell you I'm a much better person. The last thing I ever want to do is spend time in jail. Perhaps there are a lot of people who went to. I think it's great. I think every kid will have to spend a night in jail. Did you ever have any frightening experiences there?
Yeah, but not worth talking about. By the very nature of the job, it was not exactly... A relaxing kind of... It was not, from the standpoint of personal safety and security, there was quite a bit of difference between my job and the job of my mother's friends and sons who were working in banks and insurance companies. so but it was interesting did that give you a sense of satisfaction? I guess it was a sense of satisfaction of having a life experience in which I think I learned something that I would not have otherwise been able to learn that really a satisfaction I hadn expected to find that little vein of activity That was unusual It not on my resume No I cannot Now tell me with this kind of single purpose life that you have with the exception of this little digression in jail so to speak Did you have time for any hobbies?
Or do you have any hobbies? No. I mean, I've never had hobbies as such. I mean, in the last, since 1976, I felt a response, an obligation or a commitment to try to give something back to the community at large where we live. We live in a town that's rather special, Austin, Texas. I think the New York Times, Sydney Magazine, did an article about five or six years ago when they called the Entrepreneurs of America, Idealic Places to Live, Not Too Big, Not Too Small, Pretty State Capitol State University. And you get listed, Boulder, Madison, Ann Arbor, and Austin. And it's been my feeling that one of the reasons my magazines enjoy the success it's enjoyed over the years is because we're Austin as opposed to Dallas or Houston and I felt a responsibility to try to get something back in the community and there's civic involvement.
I've been on the committee that oversees the emergency medical system. Tell us a little bit about that. I understand you did something very interesting with the emergency room. Well it was with the, not the emergency room, but with what's known as pre-hospital care, the mobile intensive care units are released. Mobile intensive care units. They call it, well, our aid on system. If you're going to have a heart attack in the end of the day, you want to do it in one of three cities, Dallas, Seattle, or Austin. I mean, Austin is just a very quiet city in terms of what happens to the sick and injured in order to be able to give them an opportunity for long-term survival.
The emergency system, emergency medical system in Austin is involved in the one that very monies in the country and I think that it was because of my involvement and involvement of a couple of local physicians, one in particular, that we got essentially very aggressively involved and said we want the best and didn't necessarily work politically and The community to make sure the community was willing to put funds, that the political structure was willing to fund and support a system in a highest order. So that's taken some time. I got involved in the cable system, the re-franchising process in Austin, which took some degree of time.
Cable TV? Yeah, to make sure that Austin had a good cable system and re-franchising process. I just read an interesting article in your Texas Monthly on the clinics which seem to have popped up like mushrooms in Texas. Yeah, right. What they call minor emergency clinics, and those are essentially freestanding doctor's offices. Those really aren't emergency facilities. They use the word emergency, which is a misnomer, somewhat in my opinion, deceptive. that what they are pre-standing doctor's clinics for folks who don't have their own primary care physicians, personal or family physicians, and when they're sick they have the flu or something like that they can go to a doctor's office and be able to get in.
It seems somewhat of a commercial venture, is that amazing? Well, one would say that the practice of medicine today generally is a commercial venture and this is an extension of that. That's the nature of the world today, though, apparently. Yep. To a large extent. Yep. But what you did in terms of medical... This was part of the public sector. It was set up. We set it up as a third public service, public safety service, police, fire, and EMS. And, uh... What is EMS? Emergency and medical services. Mm. Do you use paramedics in any of these? Yes, that's right. Because they're using them here very successfully.
Well, not successfully, but they're trying to use them. It's not a very good program in New York. Not as good as Texas? Not by a long shot. I have heard of some good work that they do. Now, I know that you are married. Right. And your wife is an artist? She is an artist, and she's currently opening a gallery, a crafts gallery. She was trained in art education The first few months of our marriage she taught art in the Philadelphia Public Schools before we moved back to Texas You met her in Philadelphia I met her in Philadelphia She was going to the Moore College of Art Moore School Moore College of Art And I was going to the University of Pennsylvania I first caught her up for football weekend and for a party and on a Saturday evening.
And that Saturday morning was, I believe, either in Kipur or Russia shut us. I said, well, as long as we're going out that night, we want to go to services. our first date was actually services. Well that was rather an interesting one. Right. Is it true that the first issue of your magazine and your wife's first issue were born on the same day? No it's not. However our second issue of the magazine was delivered from the printer while she was in the labor and delivery or she was in the labor room so there was in a sense a kind of interesting combination there right of two issues on the same day the second issue of your magazine is that right uh-huh how many children do you have we have three the girls and Rachel is 10 and Mara Elizabeth and Tobin Janelle are each eight the twins I didn't get their names Mara Elizabeth M-A-R-A Elizabeth and Tobin Janelle J-A-N-E-L that's an unusual name what's the origin of it well the primary origin is that they wouldn't let us take them home until until we came up with some names.
My dad's mother's name was Toby, and that's Tobin. And I don't remember what I was, but I really don't. We were pretty names, and I knew that they were sons. I was going to call them one Travis and one Austin. We live in Austin, Texas, which is the county of Travis named after two heroes in Texas history, Travis and Austin. My wife was well with that notion, so I think she too was relieved when we wound up with a couple girls. There a wonderful story that I heard about you in a Houston hurricane No Getting into water holding onto your briefcase No Actually the story is, is that, I know that story.
I was, in the early years of the magazine, I, early months, when I got out of the law school, I spent six months looking for an editor, and I interviewed about 300 people. In one interview, it was about 6 o'clock in the evening during the monsoon season in Houston, it rained quite nearly that day. And I had an appointment in the Houston apartment complex, which is shaped as a quadrangle around a swimming pool. It entered about 6, it was still daylight. and went from the car which was on the outside of one side of the quadrangle into the quadrangle to an apartment on the opposite side having to walk past the swimming pool.
Finished the interview at 10 and walked back out with my heavy, very heavy briefcase full of magnets and it wasn't actually not a briefcase, it was a pilot's case and proceeded to try to traipse my way to the pool. It rained quite heavy, it preceeded in four hours. And the drainage around the pool area was not very good. The water level was about three or four inches above the decking. I had my heavy shoes and my pinstripe suit and tie and a bag full of magazines that must have weighed a hundred pounds. and I'm sloshing along and the next thing I know I'm standing at the bottom of the ten foot level of the swimming pool I'd walk straight in the swimming pool and I would have hit right on it had it not been, you know, for this bag that I was playing I did not say my God my life, I said my God my magazines and came up with some degree of herculean strength to get myself and the magazines out of the swimming pool I could have died.
How did you manage it? I just did it. It's something, I don't recall reading the history of Henry's loose reading stories like that but in the development of time that he didn't tell them he didn't reveal them that's possible well he wasn't a single purpose if you are maybe uh how did you ever get the paper's drawings well one of the things i found out the next morning is that magazines can't be dried because they're coated stock they stick together i tried drawing them out and none of it wasn very successful Were they all Stuck together Oh Flying from the big city That's not usual around here.
No. That's from the big state of Texas. Tell me what does your magazine empire consist of? Well, it consists of Texas Monthly. We have a small book publishing operation. It's essentially a regional press. service has promotional value. But ultimately it's one magazine called Texas Monthly that my peers in the magazine business in New York says one of the four or five very best editorial products in the country. We put out a very good magazine. Paid circulation is about 280,000 copies a month right now. Total readership because each copy of the magazine is seen seen by oh, about five people on average. In other words, you can't count it by the numbers you sell.
No, because of what we call pass-along leadership. We reach over a million readers each month in Texas. We now have more readers in Texas than any other Texas publication, including the Dallas and Houston Daily newspapers. You know, we're keeping in mind that Texas only has 14 million people, which a big chunk does not have English as a primary language. I have a million readers. described today as the seemingly most influential publication of the state we've been able to do in about 10 years. What kinds of books do you use? Well primarily original, original books. What do you mean by that? Well it's a diverse list and it's difficult to come in with a single description, everything from a history, a photo history of a collection photos from the 40s on America in the 40s, books called out of the 40s too, some original fiction and so forth.
You mean of writers of Texas? Yeah, I mean the focus of all the books primarily the south, the south Texas and the southwest. I noticed when I read your magazine that you really cover a quite wide scope. I read about banks, political problems, medicine. We try to cover, we try to write in an intelligent manner about life in our state, the people in our state. And our state is rich in history and Cultural unique tradition and we write about what makes a place like Texas work. It's an extraordinarily diverse and exciting place. We're intrigued with the state ourselves. We're constantly discovering and rediscovering the state.
And our writers are essentially taking our leaders along with them in the discovery process. in other words you have a growing by leaps and bounds kind of atmosphere which you are well it's not so much the growth of the state as the diversity and the excitement of the state it is described as the last frontier in America it's not a perfect place by any but it's certainly for us an important place, a good place, and one in which we are proud of being a part of, an important part of. You did publish a magazine on California for that? Yeah, we owned a magazine in California for three years and it was not enjoying the success we wanted, or did it meet our own personal or corporate needs.
We sold it a few months ago. Are you going into politics or will you remain a media mogul? Are you interested? Well, I'm not a media mogul. Is that a bad description? Well, I'm a magazine publisher, and I publish a magazine on Texas. That sounds very modest for a Texan. Well, that's all I did. I'm a magazine publisher. And all sorts of rumors had spread. At one point, there was a rumor that I was going to be running for the United States Senate, or this, or that. And all of these rumors are false. Ninety percent of the time, I had the very best job in the state of Texas.
Ten percent of the time, give me a quarter and I'm just a magazine publisher. but generally I have a job that challenges me, that I enjoy immensely. I do not believe that I have the personality to become a political animal, that I think that what I do as a magazine publisher and the impact of my magazine is far more important than the contribution I make to the state by continuing to publish a magazine in the highest order possible It far more valuable to the state it would be far more valuable it far more valuable than anything I could ever hope to contribute to the political process But in a sense you do contribute to the political process in terms of providing information...
I think so, through honest reporting and incisely reporting through good journalism, through a commitment of journalistic excellence. I think we do that. What gives you the most satisfaction in your work? In my work? Putting out a magazine that has an enormous impact on the state we live in. We have been told that Texas is a far better place because of the magazine called Texas Monthly over the last 10 years. We've had an impact on the political, social, and economic factors of the state. As an example, we were the first to rate the local legislators, our so-called 10 best, 10 worst, has been described as one of the two or three key elements that have changed the legislative process in Texas in the last decade.
The other key element, I guess, being urbanization, the change of the legislative mix from being essentially a rural legislature to an urban legislature where being a Democrat or Republican is less important than whether you're from from the city or from outside the city in terms of who you are in the legislature, but having our magazine with its statewide coverage and statewide leadership, taking good guys like Max Sherman, a conservative Democrat from West Texas, and putting him on a pedestal and saying, this guy's a great guy and here's why, or taking other folks who are not to be admired and putting a spotlight on them and saying, these are bad guys and here's why, had a remarkable improvement on the legislative process cleaning it up.
I think the legislators, individual legislators, are far more responsible and far more concerned about coming to Austin and doing a good job rather than coming to Austin, having the time or coming to Austin and being vulnerable to the pressures, the lobby or special interest. What is it like being a is there any difference in being a Jewish publisher in Texas I imagine that there is, I don't think about it. I mean, I make a major effort to assume, I mean, I know that there are folks out there that identify me as a Jewish publisher as opposed to a publisher, that sense that things that we do we would not do if I were not Jewish, all of which is not true.
Our standards are the standards of excellence and the standards of honesty. But I realize that there is anti-Semitism out there, and I run my life on the assumption that there's nothing I can do about it and proceed to publish the magazine in the most honest way possible without worrying about how people perceive me or what they think my motivations are. I try to run my staff and set our standards as high as possible. I think obviously one reason that I've enjoyed the success I've enjoyed in the world, and my magazine is as good as it is, is because I have a certain ethical standard and a ethical commitment that perhaps I wouldn't have otherwise were not for my own personal background and heritage.
I don't care to go into specifics other than to say that I was raised in Dallas. I was, my family was and still is a member of Temple Emanuel. And I grew up in the days of Rabbi Levi Olin, who to me was a prophet. How do you spell his last name? Levi Olin, O-L-A-N. And Levi Olin was... Is that a hyphenated name? Levi, first name, older and last name. Rabbi Olin to me was a prophet, he was an extraordinary preacher who chose to preach not on religious triviality but on a higher level, on questions of great questions of ethics of our time. and he is in retirement now and I miss him but I know in terms of motivating forces having grown up been confirmed and gone to services in his synagogue and listening to him preach he had a most definite impact on me as a young man.
Are you still religious? Are you still synagogue-going? Yes, but I think that, again, areas that I am, personal areas that I am not comfortable talking about in terms of, yes I am, but not to hire any services and so forth. and we were at services last Friday evening. We were affiliated with a conservative synagogue in Dallas. In Austin, my wife was a pastor of the Sisterhood, and it was a special evening for our eighth graders who were entering the three-year process of religious school inutention now. in the three days a week of process and it was a special evening for him. I am not a weekly synagogue lawyer, so that's what you're asking.
Well, you're a synagogue associate. Of course, absolutely. You had been bondage with? I was bondage with and confirmed. and I'll practice to spend one higher and holy day in Dallas with my family at Temple Emanuel and one higher and holy day in Austin at the congregation of Yudasaka where we're at University. And to what extent are you active with the American Jewish Committee? I'm not active with any, again this gets back to my concern about a proper role for somebody that owns media, whether it's a broadcast, anything that I am essentially not participating in any organization outside the magazine. believe that somebody in my role should remain as neutral possible on all issues.
When we write about something, it's my feeling that there should be the ultimate degree of neutrality and the maximum degree of credibility in the product. and even though AJC deals primarily with issues outside of the Texas realm, my approach and the approach of my editor has been to be non-joiners of institutions and organizations. We belong to a professional-paid organization, if you do us correctly, with Texas Methley. board directors and executive committee. I was just elected secretary of the Magazine Public Association. And I'm on a couple university advisory committees. The University of Texas is one of the Florida Visitors at the Squirrel Ball. And then the College of Little Arts Advisory Foundation Advisory Council.
And on the Advisory Council for the College of Communications. That's it. I mean, in terms of looking, I think you got a copy of my resume. That said it. It's very brief, but it's for a reason. Because I think it's in the best interest of my publication and the responsibility that we have to both my readers and the state that we live in, the state that we try to serve, for us not to be seen as having allegiances to, I don't know if the other allegiance is correct, but alliances outside of the historic process. A big chunk of that is our concern that there be maximum credibility in the minds of our readers and what we're writing about.
It's one reason, for instance, that we do not endorse political candidates. We believe that that would compromise the credibility of the reader and the co-author on the list of the rest of the publication. Go ahead. Obviously, my wife, in the development of my company, in the area of the country, it's going to be fine, it will work out, everything will work out just fine. you can do it It important But from an institutional standpoint obviously being a member of a large congregation with a very strong and powerful rabbi like Levi Owen At the same time with his colleague Rabbi Klein Rabbi Gerald Klein two very important men, very distinguished ministers who, in my opinion, and helped to set an ethical tone in my own career direction.
But St. Mark's was more of an institutional influence than one individual teacher. It was the influence of the institution, both its faculty, its administration, and then my fellow students. That I think had an impact on me. You asked me earlier to signal out one teacher, and I said, I'll ignore it. But, I guess it's unfair to the people and teachers when it was really institution as a whole, it was very important. It would be the institutional influence of law school. I think if I had to look at my educational experience in terms of order of importance, I'd have to run for St. Mark's, followed by law school, followed by the University of Pennsylvania.
In terms of work experience, I think that working at United Press International, in Philadelphia Bureau especially, which is a very runny-nest kind of environment, and in some degree, I've very much influenced my life as opposed to any one individual. individual. I think the institution as a composite as a whole is important in my own development. I get an impression, and tell me whether I'm right or not, that the state of Texas also has a very definite influence. I'm very proud of being a Texan, but I think that what intrigues me about Texas is everything that it stands for, with its unique culture, history, tradition, lifestyle, the commitment to the land.
You know in many respects there is, there are, Texas and Israel have much in common. They're both volunteers, the land is very important, the tradition of the land is very important The people with their heritage with their traditions in their life now is very important Different of course unique but very important Um the um Would you have been the same person had you lived in another state, do you think? I doubt if Mike Levy had grown up to Des Moines, Iowa, he would have been the same person. But if you're going up to Texas, you're something. You're going to hear something. I think everybody who grows up to Texas, because any of your transplants are proud of becoming Texans.
Somebody who was born and raised Texan, I think my daughters who were all born in Texas make note of the fact that my wife is the only man Texan in the family. I mean, the ages of, you know, eight, eight, and ten, they know that they're special because they're Texans and my wife isn't. Wasn't born in Texas. So there is a very strong kind of patriotism which is attached to Texas, which is... Absolutely. I mean we New Yorkers are rather proud of New York intermingled with our concern for what it is becoming. Of course, but yeah, I understand. But it's actually not quite a state apart it would seem.
It's more than a state. It's a land and it's like another country. I wanted to ask you another question, and that is, of all your experiences in connection with Texas and your magazine, are there any particular ones that bob to the surface that are significant. I know it's hard to dig them out of us. I've had a very rich and full life and say I have not been bored is an understatement. A lot of bombardment over the years especially the last ten years of the sensory apparatus And as a result, and as this is good, nothing pops to mind. I no longer impressed by a celebrity or by you know regardless of whether it a senator or a movie star to me they just folks Um nothing uh very little impresses me I think that um the people that continue to press captain, now capture my attention, are the folks that most people don't get to know or even know about.
For instance? Oh, um, a guy that, when I was developing the, um, When I was developing the emergency medical system in Austin, I became friendly with the fire chief in Dallas, a chief by the name of Bill Roberts, who was driving force in the development of the Dallas EMS program. And to me, I mean, if you have to name five people in the last ten years that Mike Levy has met as magazine publisher, that have really knocked him out of his socks, so to speak. Bill Roberts is one of them, but he was an assistant chief in the fire department. but to me he represents everything that's good in the way of a local bureaucrat because he was committed to getting the maximum buying of the resources available to him.
He was committed to excellence for its own sight. He would not make any more money. He would not... it was just what made him run. And thinking, gee, if all public servants were as good and as committed and as smart and as dedicated as Bill Roberts, what a great place we would all live in. It's not like that. To me, you represented a model. It's interesting that I was very critical of the fire chief in Austin, who eventually resigned under pressure, and I was appointed to the committee, the assessment team, interviewing candidates for the chief position, the fire chief position in Austin. And our new fire chief is in Austin, Texas, and he's got named Bill Roberts, which I'm very proud of, because he's making a big difference.
People don't think of what makes a community work. What I'm always yambling about to my staff is that What's going to affect our readers the most over the next decade? Most of my readers live in the cities. My primary constituency is in urban leadership. What's going to affect my readers' lives the most over the next decade is not what the Feds can do for them, or what the state people can do for them, but how well does local government work? How well does a community deliver what I call basic services? Basic services being police, fire, EMS, water, wastewater, an urban environment, parks, a certain area of basic service, planning, transportation.
And that really makes a difference in the quality of your life. If you think about it, how well does local government deliver, local government, the government is set up for, to deliver basic services. back to Benjamin Franklin absolutely absolutely everything else is thrills and in most cases distractions or diversion of resources I use Chief Roberts as a model in my mind of how well local government can work the potential of local government and again I guess to get back to role and responsibility of the mass media and my magazine is certainly part of that in Texas worrying about issues such as about quality of people's lives and how the how government will how well local government works and how efficiently how effectively how impacts the lives of folks like me have you any interest in getting involved in radio or television no i do but i mean it's fair but it's not the kind of distraction away from me.
It would not be unrealistic to think that 10 years we don't have to make those sessions, but it would be investments. It would not be the kind of operational energy that I currently committed to. You mentioned your fire chief as an example of several people whom you have found. Four or five. There are others. I'm friendly with the president of the New Yorker, the name George Green. Up here in New York? Yeah, who runs a magazine, but essentially a publishing institution, and his philosophy certainly had an impact on me. It's good for him, but he's certainly been an important influence in my life. So you've been a New Yorker reader.
How about New York? I like New York magazines, it's good presentation. Have you patterned your magazines against, Jenny? No. It's uniquely yours. You got it. And I need to say that I haven my staff has you know and the publisher of the magazine is always the mark of the author that you find good people and you leave them alone My job is to nag to whine to moan and to burn and say you really want to do this, why are you doing this? But you hire the folks, you trust them. You let them make their own mistakes and learn from those mistakes. I have never vetoed as a puppet head, I've never told somebody, no, you can't do this.
I guess I would say no to the decision that ever thought the survival of the institution was at stake. That's never the case. I learned a long time ago that there are a bunch of ways of doing something right that Mike Levy's ways are only one of those ways. I guess my strength is being able to attract and keep the extraordinarily good people. I guess we have a staff of around 120 people. And I'm very, very proud of being associated with district people. They're uniquely talented, they're very attractive, they're young, they're energetic, they're smart, they're nice. Are they all young? No older ones? Well, no, that's not totally true.
I guess they're a couple folks over 40, but the average age, I guess, is mid-30. Uh huh. You had a wonderful editor who's gone on to Newsweek. Newsweek, that's right. That's quite a triumph. Well, it's a loss. It's a loss. Everything happens in its own time and it's good. I'm proud of the fact that in interviewing 300 people 10 years ago, 11 years ago, if you had a television editor for a monthly, I picked Bill in Newsweek, who had no journalist experience whatsoever. so I was trusting my instincts and my intuitive instincts. Which is essentially what your role as publisher is, is that correct? Yes.
Trusting your instincts to select the right people? Well, trusting one's instincts on all major issues. I mean, I do a lot of public speaking, and speaking to kids in the business field, and all one of the quantifiable reasons why I did something, why I hired somebody or why I made a decision and I always say, tell me you told me to you've got to learn to trust in business your instincts your gut feelings are what you're telling you yeah, your gut instinctive and true visual instincts you know told skills business and professor shame they don teach courses called Tummy 1 and Tummy 2 as opposed to Statistics 1 and Statistics 2 Ah that a good point What else are your roles as publishers?
Well, my job is to serve as a conductor of the orchestra, much like any other chief executive officer of any other company. It has several component parts. The line functions, editorial circulation, advertising, sales, staff functions, typesetting, controller accounting, data processing, promotion, production, marketing. Make sure they all work toward a unified goal, and they work well together. When you come up to New York like this? Setting a standard to make sure that everything is done, not just the editorial part, but the entire magazine works with a high standard of excellence, whether it's lower. When you come up to New York like this, what do you have to do?
Well, a lot of things. We have a large office in New York, a sales office from the advertising space. I like making sales calls representing the magazine as a publisher. I also, last night I had dinner with an advertiser this morning. I had breakfast with an editor of a trade publication that covers the magazine industry. And in this meeting, I'll fix the 1245 flight and go back. I'm going to be counting the industry on the 5 o'clock and I'll go back from the 1245, but I'll do that here sometimes and not sometimes. Do you ever suffer from fatigue? Uh, yeah. I mean, am I a mortal soul?
Yes, ma'am. I sure am. Uh-huh. It doesn't look as if you take time out to be. No, no, no. When you speak with a smile about your family, I know that that's... I get a lot of joy on my kids. They're really special. I don't spend enough time working when I'm trying to talk about more time for them. You really never drone so fast and you're going in the instant. You're a very young man, and I'm allowed to say that. What would you consider the highlights of your life thus far? Well I think you know starting imagining and having a joy simply a success has been important Seeing three kids born is what it really is I just seen them grow I refer to the magazine as my fourth daughter.
I've got four little girls, but I only have four kids and I watch. That's a curious choice of sex. What made you call it your door head? The light for the road and it's more light for the boys. Always have, always will. What do you project for the future of your life? How do you see yourself moving? I don't. You don't take time, you're too busy with the present. No, me too. Take care of itself. Just spend time worrying about that. You're going to do what you do right now well, and everyone else take care of yourself, I think. I'd like to continue publishing a magazine that is one that is respected by all of its deficiencies.
I enjoy my personal life and performance, but I think to be specific about the future, to me it's... Oh, I just wondered as you look ahead what you... I don't know. Don't think about it. Is Texas Monthly, I know it's available here in New York. On a very limited basis. It primarily matters to be by Texans, for Texans in Texas. And yet I read it, and although it did indeed talk about activities in Texas, I found it extremely interesting. Well, that's interesting to say that because one of the marks of any good special interest, special audience, special market publication is its ability to attract people outside of its target audience, a target group.
I use as my own personal example Sports Illustrator. I'm not a spectator, but I love Sports Illustrator because it's so well written and so well graphic. Justice Murphy received a letter over the transom a few years ago from a guy in New York by the name of Pete Axel with the kind that's a sports editor of Newsweek. He wrote it and said, I really like your magazine. It's one of my favorites. I look forward to it coming every month. And he said, quote, and I try to paraphrase him. It's one thing to enjoy reading about politicians in a state you don't live in, comma, but you know you're really hooked when you wind up reading restaurant reviews for cities you wouldn't earn out of debt, period, in frustration.
And that's what we try to do, is put out a really great magazine that's written about Texas. It doesn't matter where you live, you're going to enjoy it, because it's so well written and so well graphic. That's the key to our success. It's a magazine in the highest order, high journalism standard. And I think it's the proof that if you do something really well, you talk up to people rather than down to people. You assume that people are intelligent, inquisitive, aware and curious about the world around them, rather than be cynical and shoot for the lowest possible denominator and shoot for the highest, you'll be successful.
Well, does it go into all states or is it just in New York? No, we do go into all states. I have never aggressively solicited circulation outside of Texas. When we woke up one day to find a significant number of subscriptions going out of state, once in a while, did a little bit of research to find out that a chunk of people subscribing to the Magigiana State were this place Texans and their heart was still in state. and Texas Monthly was a good way to stay in touch. Another group of folks on Washington, Wall Street, Madison Avenue reading Texas Monthly's ones that weren't their way at keeping their fingers on the calls were an increasingly important state and the social and political fabric of the country.
The biggest group were folks who had been exposed to Texas Monthly and liked it, like yourself. I mean, really enjoyed reading it. People who come to Texas on business for pleasure and think of the 90s on a newspaper and say, Wow, great magazine. I really enjoy it. Yeah, there are very few good magazines left in this country, and Orange is one of them. I quite agree with you. That's it. Well, here's to the future success, and well, continued success of Texas Monthly. Right.