Phil Merrill and B-Mag

News of publisher Philip Merrill’s disappearance and presumed death recalls one of the most interesting chapters of my career.

Phil and his wife Ellie owned Baltimore Magazine for most of the time I worked there from 1987 to 1992. To many of us staffers, B-Mag always seemed to be the ugly stepchild of Merrill’s publishing empire. The venerable Maryland Gazette and Annapolis Capital, not to mention the Washingtonian have images that reflect their more prestigious regions. Think of Annapolis and you think sailboats, colonial architecture and politicians. Think of Washington and you think federal government, power and society. Baltimore, on the other hand, was always a bit more gritty – a bit more real. Nicknames like Mobtown or Pigtown have never helped. Back then, people used to think of Baltimore as only a place for crabs, beer, industry and sports.

One of the first Baltimore Magazine covers that I remember, from the 1970s, focused on Pigtown, that Southwest Baltimore neighborhood once known for slaughterhouses and rolling hogsheads filled with tobacco toward “Rolling” Road. That issue, as I recall, featured a pig’s face on the cover below a bright green “Baltimore” logo. But things were about to change. Phil Merrill and his team acquired the gritty but earnest magazine at a timely moment. It was, and still is, the oldest city magazine. And, just as old Baltimore was experiencing a revitalization in the mid-70s and into the 80s, so did its namesake magazine. This was celebrated in 1985 with a special issue “The Magnificent Decade.” By then, Phil had transformed it into a glossy city-regional magazine that catered to the suburban elite and, more importantly, the advertisers that courted them.

On occasion, Phil would have his driver venture to Baltimore and the B-Mag offices. Of course, I remember seeing more of his driver, as Phil would be behind doors with then editor Stan Heuisler. They had a long history. Rumor has it that they backpacked together in Afghanistan. Later, when B-Mag was sold, Stan still had a job with Phil, while the rest of us did not.

Nevertheless, my name is in the masthead of 60 issues, including the 80th anniversary issue, and several times Phil and Ellie had a direct effect on me… On one of his visits to our offices, he became so confused by the phone system that he wanted us to have the same system as in all of his other companies. Money was no problem for Phil, so B-Mag’s 30 employees got the benefits of AT&T’s System 75 and console, capable of handling 1,000 extensions, and I was one of the people required to take a two-day class to administer it… Then there are the t-shirts that an advertising director ordered, mainly for the office’s softball team, complete with the magazine’s logo, only to learn that Ellie especially didn’t like logo-covered t-shirts and trinkets. Most of the shirts stayed hidden in an office closet, but many of us got to take some home. I still have a few… I also happen to have a photocopy of what could be the only B-Mag cover that Phil virtually had pulled off the presses. Stan was away, so the art director had to fax the cover directly to Phil for approval. He did this a bit late in the process, and when Phil saw the model wearing a suit that a Baltimore Magazine reader “would never wear” there was a problem, and the picture from the on-location shoot was scrapped in favor of a stock photo of a plate of food… And of course, when Phil sold B-Mag, I eventually decided to quit because, well... let’s just say that incoming owner Susan Obrecht was no Phil Merrill. Her reign at B-Mag lasted very briefly before selling to current owner Steve Geppi.

I’d like to think Phil Merrill, as a former diplomat, is really on a covert mission to Afghanistan, looking for Bin Laden. However, as time passes and the reality of this news settles in, my sympathies go to Ellie, Stan, other former colleagues at the Washingtonian and Capital-Gazette Communications, and anyone else ever touched by this memorable head of Maryland’s second-largest, and most venerable publishing company.