Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story of the Man Behind The National Enquirer Debuts On iTunes

Enquiring Minds: The Untold Story of the Man Behind The National Enquirer Debuts On iTunes

NEW YORK, Dec. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Steeplechase Films and American Media, Inc. (AMI) announced today that Enquiring Minds, The Untold Story of the Man Behind the National Enquirer is available for download in the Apple iTunes store. The film, now available for purchase ($11.99 HD, $10.99 SD) and rental ($4.99) is from acclaimed multiple Emmy-winning director Ric Burns who focuses his camera on The National Enquirer and its legendary founder and editor, Generoso Pope Jr., whose outsized personality and business savvy created an American media institution that still holds extraordinary influence today.

"The story of Gene Pope Jr., the man behind the National Enquirer, is one of those only-in-America sagas that leaves you shaking your head in wonder and disbelief," said Mr. Burns. "It's the whole American Century rolled into one: from the mean streets of Italian East Harlem in the early years of the 20(th) Century, through the rise of tabloid journalism and celebrity culture in five decades following World War Two. It's also a strange and riveting family drama of sometimes Shakespearean scale - a tale of power and loneliness - of sibling rivalry and family strife - of mass culture and mass yearnings - and of the bright and dark radiance of the American dream."

"The National Enquirer will celebrate its 70(th) anniversary in 2015 and who better to document its history than Ric Burns," said AMI Chairman, President and CEO David J. Pecker. "The Enquirer is an American icon and I am thrilled that through this film, and the power of iTunes, we have an extraordinary opportunity to introduce it to a new generation of future fans."

Enquiring Minds serves up a sensational expose in line with its juicy subject, legendary publisher Generoso Pope Jr., who purchased The National Enquirer in 1952 - allegedly with Mob financing - and leveraged the tricks of the trade learned from his father, an Italian newspaper editor, to transform what was a struggling broadsheet into the world's most read tabloid. Burns uncovers never-before-seen footage and interviews about The Enquirer's fascinating and incredible 80-year history from being a notorious tabloid to the corner stone of a huge media empire and a major breaking news source.

About Steeplechase Films
Since its founding in 1989 by Ric Burns, Steeplechase Films has produced over 30 hours of award-winning humanities programming for prime-time national broadcast on public television, including Coney Island, The Donner Party, The Way West, New York: a documentary film, Ansel Adams, Eugene O'Neill, Andy Warhol, We Shall Remain: Tecumseh's Vision, Into the Deep: America, Whaling and the World and Death and the Civil War. For these projects Steeplechase Films has garnered fourteen national Emmy nominations, five Emmy awards, three Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Journalism awards, two George Foster Peabody Awards, and the Erick Barnouw prize from the Organization of American Historians.

About American Media, Inc.
American Media, Inc. (AMI) owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and health & fitness media brands in the United States. AMI's titles include National Enquirer, Star, OK!, Globe, National Examiner, Soap Opera Digest, Shape, Fit Pregnancy, Natural Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Flex and Muscle & Fitness Hers. AMI also manages 17 different digital sites including RadarOnline.com, OKmagazine.com, Shape.com, FitPregnancy.com, MensFitness.com and MuscleandFitness.com. AMI's magazines have a combined total circulation of 5.9+ million and reach more than 53 million men and women each month. AMI's digital properties reach an average of 46+ million unique visitors and 342+ million page views monthly.

SOURCE American Media, Inc.

American Media, Inc.

CONTACT: Eric Klee, American Media, Inc. (917) 256-5483


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