Tiger Beat Founder Charles Laufer Dies

Charles Laufer, the founder of legendary teen mag Tiger Beat among other fanzines and publications has died.

Laufer, who co-founded Tiger Beat with his brother Ira in 1965, died of natural causes at Northridge Hospital Medical Center on April 5th, according to a family member who notified the L.A. Times. He was 87.

Tiger Beat sold hundreds of thousands of copies each month at its peak, catering to a demographic of mostly-female teens and tweens, featuring, as Laufer explained in this 1992 interview: "guys in their 20s singing La La songs to 13-year-old girls"

The New York Times obituary describes how Tiger Beat stood apart:

Exclamation points, sometimes as many as 50 a page, added emphasis. Pix, as pictures were known, were glossy, glamorous and frequently poster-size. Fax, as facts were known, often included “101 things you never knew about (fill in star’s name)”: he uses a blue toothbrush!

Titles were catchy, oddly innocent by later standards: “Shaun: A Junk Food Junkie?,” “Leif’s Sad Childhood,” “Bobby’s Favorite Type of Girls” and “Marie: Fighting With Donny?”

If the latest cover featuring Justin Bieber is any indication ("Justin and Selena Go on a Beach Date!), Laufer's legacy lives on.