Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The March 1998 issue of George Magazine featuring John Travolta and the confirmed feature "The 10 Most Corrupt Cities in America" is a primary document of one of the most distinctive and historically specific publications of the 1990s at a well-documented moment in both the magazine's trajectory and its cover subject's career. George had been founded by John F. Kennedy Jr. in September 1995 as a deliberate fusion of political journalism and celebrity culture — a concept that was both genuinely innovative and inherently precarious, dependent on Kennedy's unique ability to command attention across the cultural and political divide simultaneously. By March 1998, the magazine was in its third year of publication and navigating the specific challenge of sustaining that fusion at a moment when the Clinton impeachment proceedings were dominating American political attention and the boundary between celebrity culture and political life was being tested in ways that were directly relevant to George's editorial premise. A March 1998 issue documenting both a Hollywood star and the civic corruption of American cities captures the publication's characteristic editorial range — the simultaneous address of entertainment celebrity and substantive political accountability journalism. For collectors building archives of George Magazine, the mid-1998 issues represent the publication in the final phase of its existence before Kennedy's July 1999 death ended it.
John Travolta's cover presence in March 1998 situates the issue at a specific point in one of the most discussed career revivals in Hollywood history. Travolta's resurrection following the 1994 release of Pulp Fiction had been the dominant Hollywood comeback narrative of the mid-1990s, and by March 1998 he had sustained that revival through Get Shorty (1995), Phenomenon (1996), Michael (1996), and Face/Off (1997) — a run of commercially successful films that had made him one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. Primary Colors, in which Travolta played a thinly veiled Bill Clinton surrogate, was released in March 1998 — the same month as this issue — making the pairing of a Travolta cover with a feature on corrupt American cities in a political magazine a specific and editorially coherent juxtaposition: a Hollywood star playing a corrupt politician in a film released in the same month as the issue, featured in a magazine that existed to blur the line between celebrity culture and political accountability. Collectors building archives of John Travolta magazines will find the March 1998 George cover documenting him at the precise convergence of his career revival and his most explicitly political film role. The broader context of 1998 magazines reflects a year whose political landscape — the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, the impeachment proceedings — gave George's political-celebrity fusion editorial premise its most fully realized real-world test.
About the Publication
George Magazine was founded in September 1995 by John F. Kennedy Jr. and co-founder Michael Berman, published by Hachette Filipacchi Media, with Kennedy serving as editor-in-chief. Its founding concept positioned politics as a subject of popular culture engagement rather than purely civic duty — treating political figures and issues with the kind of celebrity-driven, visually sophisticated coverage that mainstream entertainment magazines applied to Hollywood and music. Its audience was the politically aware but culturally engaged American readership that Kennedy believed was underserved by both traditional political journalism and traditional celebrity coverage. The magazine ceased publication following Kennedy's death in a plane crash on July 16, 1999, making its complete four-year run a finite and specifically bounded archive.
Key Highlights Inside
- John Travolta cover — March 1998 — A confirmed cover featuring Travolta at the precise moment of Primary Colors's theatrical release, in which he played a Bill Clinton-based presidential candidate, creating a specific and editorially coherent connection between the cover subject and the publication's political focus.
- "The 10 Most Corrupt Cities in America" — confirmed feature — A substantive civic accountability journalism piece representing the political reporting dimension of George's editorial identity, published during the Clinton impeachment year when American political corruption was the dominant national political subject.
- March 1998 — Clinton impeachment proceedings context — Published during the year of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal and the subsequent impeachment proceedings, situating this issue within the specific political climate that gave George's political-celebrity fusion premise its most consequential real-world test.
- John F. Kennedy Jr. editorial era — third year of publication — Published sixteen months before Kennedy's July 1999 death would end the magazine, representing the publication in the mature phase of its existence with its editorial identity fully established.
Note: Specific additional interior features, interviews, and confirmed content beyond the cover subject and the corrupt cities feature have not been provided in the available listing. The highlights above reflect only what is verifiable from the listing and well-documented public record surrounding this issue and its historical moment.
Condition & Rarity
Good condition with minor wear typical for age and plastic protective covering represents a standard mid-grade assessment for a 27-year-old monthly magazine printed on coated stock. Good condition in a coated-stock publication of this vintage typically means cover color retention, page integrity without significant tanning or structural damage, and readable interior content throughout — characteristics consistent with a copy that has been stored with reasonable care across nearly three decades. The plastic protective covering indicates deliberate preservation. The listing does not specify label status; the photographs are the authoritative reference for whether a subscription label is present on the cover — a meaningful distinction given that the Travolta cover photography is a primary visual reason for collecting interest and label obstruction would affect its display integrity. George Magazine's complete run spans only four years — September 1995 through Kennedy's death in July 1999 — making every issue part of a finite and specifically bounded archive whose collecting significance has increased in the years since the publication's end.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
George Magazine issues from the final year before Kennedy's death — particularly those combining celebrity covers with substantive political features as this March 1998 issue does with Travolta and the corrupt cities piece — represent the publication's editorial identity at its most fully realized, and the specific Primary Colors release context gives this cover a historical specificity that most comparable celebrity-political pairings in the archive do not carry. The dedicated John Travolta magazine archive at OriginalMagazines.com is the most direct resource for collectors tracing his press coverage across his career revival years. The complete George Magazine collection spans the publication's full four-year run, and the full 1998 magazine collection covers the broader publishing landscape of the year whose political turbulence gave George's founding premise its most consequential test.