• March 15, 1999

From the Editor

By Carol Wallace/Managing Editor

When I was growing up in Chicago, I couldn't wait for my favorite magazines to arrive. I'd sink onto the living room sofa and be transported to places I was unlikely ever to visit, and be introduced to people—celebrities and newsmakers—I was unlikely ever to meet. Ultimately, though, the articles that inspired me the most were the ones closest to my own backyard, the ones about ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things.

After 12 years in the newspaper business and 15 years at PEOPLE, I still find those are the stories that resonate most with me. Chester Szuber, the ailing Berkley, Mich., Christmas tree farmer who received his daughter's heart after she was fatally injured in a car accident. Ryan White, the Indiana teen who waged a valiant battle against AIDS. Ninety-year-old Oseola McCarty, the Mississippi washerwoman who donated $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi. These stories affected our 36 million readers too, as many of the 550,000 letters we've received during the past 25 years attest.

And so, when it came to planning our 25th-anniversary issue, we ventured far beyond the celebrity universe. "Our goal was to catch up with some of the people who had a defining moment in the spotlight," says senior editor Elizabeth Sporkin, who was in charge of this project. "Whether the address was Beverly Hills or Main Street, what we found was fascinating." Former New York City model Maria Hanson, for instance, confided to correspondent Elizabeth McNeil that she contemplated suicide after thugs hired by her landlord slashed her in 1986; L.A. riot victim Reginald Denny told our Lyndon Stambler that he still harbors no ill will toward his attackers; and Jim Jones Jr. told L.A. deputy bureau chief Meg Grant that he has forgiven his father after the 1978 mass suicide in Jonestown. The legendary stars we celebrate on the following pages provided some surprises too. Cher, for one, confessed to L.A. associate bureau chief Danelle Morton that she uses her Oscar as a doorstop.

When PEOPLE was introduced in 1974 with a staff of just 33, founding editor Richard B. Stolley wrote that our goal was "to reassess the old familiar faces. To welcome the new and eager. To peer into the lives of the hitherto undiscovered. And to do all of this with zest, sensitivity and good humor." This is still true today, though our staff now numbers 265 and our look has changed from black-and-white to color. We hope that as you look back with us on our history, and your own, you'll find this issue as satisfying as we have found our 25-year journey. Enjoy.