Magazine Reveals Paneful World Of Window Washers

EL SOBRANTE, Calif. - There's Time. There's Newsweek. There's Fortune and Forbes and Playboy.

And then there's American Window Cleaner, the "Voice of the Professional Window Cleaner."

Huh?

That's a typical reaction, says magazine Publisher Richard Fabry. "Everybody consistently, no matter what their station in life, is surprised."

But if you think it's hard to fill six 40-page issues a year, he says, you're wrong.

Since 1986, Fabry and his intrepid contributors have been reporting on the window-washing industry, covering everything from tips on removing troublesome "screenburn" to climbing the ladder of successful high-rise work - without falling off.

In a recent issue, investigative reporters even pulled out that old journalistic standby, anonymous Washington sources, for an expose on the secrets of White House window cleaning.

Clearly, this is a magazine that's not afraid to come clean and tell the pane truth.

"For someone who wants to learn about this industry . . . it's the only place they can really go," says contributor Bob Williams of Cascade Window Cleaning in Portland.

American Window Cleaner founder Rod Woodward got the idea of a trade magazine whlie traveling to promote a swivel squeegee he had invented. The first issue was 5,000 sample copies of an eight-page newsletter.

The notion of providing a public forum for what had been a fragmented industry caught on quickly. The second issue doubled to

16 pages, and today the magazine has a circulation of 9,000, Fabry said.

Inspired by the magazine, Texas window cleaners Jim and Jacinda Willingham decided to hold annual workshops, eventually leading to the formation of the International Window Cleaning Association in 1989.

The association has since tackled such problems as safety regulations and is working on getting some lobbying clout. "Now we're beginning to feel our power," Fabry says.

Many of the magazine's articles deal with serious issues, such as safety, insurance and equipment. But there is also lighter fare: "Your Clogs and Dogs: Staying Warm & Dry" and "Zen and the Art of Window Cleaning."

The July-August issue featured a composite cover showing President Clinton, squeegee in hand, in front of the White House.

Inside, Williams reported that the "White House window cleaner pulls his squeegee straight across the window panes!" That's bad, because it apparently leaves a horizontal line visible to eagle-eyed peers. The article gave credit for a perfect job wiping off the mullions, slender vertical bars between the lights of windows.

Getting the information was no easy task, Williams reported. White House staffers would not go on record, so Williams relied on public documents and witness accounts.

Williams points out that the palace wasn't offering inside tours back then. But he notes that even from a distance, a window cleaner has an eye for grime.

All of which can only lead one to speculate that cleaning the windows at Buck House must, indeed, be a royal pane.