From Wikipedia: "Down Beat (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the "downbeat" in music, also called "beat one", or the first beat of a musical measure."
I have come upon a collection of Down Beat from the late 40s to the late 50s. The large majority are in VERY GOOD CONDITION, solidly bound with no interior marks. There are some with some small markings on the outside. The magazines had two formats: one is the standard magazine with spine staples flipping the pages like a regular magazine - this was the format for the later magazines, and the second is more like a newspaper folded, where the cover image is on one half of a page folded - the whole magazine is folded and this has resulted in some crease-related wear and some tears.
This listing is for 9 issues in 1955. These are the standard magazine format:
May 4, Chris Connor cover
May 18, Liberace cover
June 1, Benny Goodman cover, 6-page Leblanc music instrument ad section
June 15, Bob Hope and Les Brown cover, small tears in a few interior pages
June 29, Music in Chicago
July 13, The Four Lads, 8-page Leblanc music instrument ad section
Aug 10, Pete Kelly and Ella Fitzgerald cover, light moisture stain right fore-edges throughout magazine
Aug 24, Jazz Critics name 4 artists, very light moisture stain right fore-edges throughout magazine
EPH3