Stag Vol. 18 #2 - Atlas Magazines

Feb. 1967 - This post is for he-men only!

I saw this magazine on someone's Facebook page, and it reminded me I haven't checked out a "men's magazine" for the blog in a while, so after a quick (and relatively cheap) trip to eBay, here we are!

The cover (by Mort Kuntsler), while absurd, is actually quite well done, though I think its the "I Am A Small Town Call Girl" headline that really grabs your eye. Too bad they didn't choose that as the cover story.

I started to chuckle right after the table of contents, when I saw this ad:

Ah yes, investingating insurance accident claims inevitably leads to sex with busty, short-skirted women. My Dad worked in insurance his whole life, and he told me this happened two, three times tops.

After a page of Playboy-style jokes, here's why you paid your forty cents:

Some of the call girl's advice includes "City hustling is too risky. Many of my colleagues have run into the strangest kinds of johns, some even turning out to be real psychos." Whouda guessed?

Stag wasn't just about sleazy sex--no sir, it was also still beating the drum for the Vietnam War, with rah-rah articles all about gutsy, John Wayne-esque heroics against the Viet-Cong:

...any relation to actual events in Vietnam are purely coincidental. Nice art by Bruce Minney, though.

After an article about De Gaulle which I doubt anyone read, we're back to the sex with a nice, double-page spread (no pun intended), by someone named "Samson Pollen" (methinks a pseudonym for an illustrator who probably had lots of mainstream work and did stuff like this on the side):

There's some more nudie articles, the cover story titled "Nude Tribe Caper" (featuring a piece by Earl Norem!), a piece titled "America's Highway Robbery: Speed Traps and Roadside Justice", "The Great Mid-Ocean Snatch of U-Boat 505" (not as fun as you might think, despite that word), then this article on Italian film star Marilu Tolo:

There's more, much more: more jokes, "The Credit Gyp" (still kinda relevant today, I should send this magazine to Elizabeth Warren...on second hand, maybe not), then this:

...finally, an article I can use!

The rest of the mag is devoted to wrapping up all the articles started in the first half (a format some mags still use today that drives me nuts), and a ton of ads, including one for women's undergarments that I think only a man would ever consider purchasing:

I love the one with the tassels. Trying selling your girlfriend on that one, fellas.

All in all, Stag (or this issue, at least) is fairly tame, and is just your typical mix of war and boobs, maybe with some nicer artwork. By the way--the Atlas that published this is, in fact, the same company owned by Martin Goodman, whose company also owned Marvel Comics. Stag continued until 1971, until it was replaced on the schedule by The Rawhide Kid.

Swank Vol. 4 #1 - Male Publishing Corp.

Feb. 1957 - When I saw this in the box of b/w magazines for sale at a dealer's table at the Big Apple Con, I knew there was no way I could pass it up--just look at that cover!

The Swank magazine I was "familiar" with was/is a hardcore porn mag, so I assumed that this Esquire-ish-looking publication must have been some unrelated publication that just happened to have the same name. More on that in a moment.

Before I even got to the first page, I saw this priceless ad:

...they make it look so glamorous! And I love these testimonials:

Sadly, the rates have barely changed from the 1957-era quotes seen here. And I dig that second guy--I'd love to be a freelance artist that looks like Dashiell Hammett, too!

Anyway, one of the first things I was struck by in this magazine is the diversity of art styles found within. There's this Mr. Magoo-ish caricature of Frank Lloyd Wright:

...to this very colorful, almost abstract piece (accompanying a fiction piece called "Panic"):

...to your standard--but still very nice--gag art of the time:

...to gritty, black and white watercolor work like this (alongside a non-fiction piece called "The Harder They're Hit"):

As an artist, I weep for the era that was gone before I ever came around, when there were a thousand magazines like this, utilizing the talents of so many different kinds of illustrators.

As the cover suggests, there's also lots of mild T&A in the magazine, like in this photo spread for an article called "How To Be A Damned Fool At A Convention"(?):

There are some "profiles" of comely young lasses, but this is about as explicit as it gets:

...no wonder Hugh Hefner made a fortune.

Buried in the middle of the mag, there's this piece about an up-and-coming actress named...Julie Newmar!

...awesome! This was worth the $2 I spent all by itself.

The magazine has other fiction pieces, gag cartoons, joke pages, etc. Overall, a solid package of men's entertainment.

Sure, the nudie content is pretty nonexistent, despite the winking cover, but I guess that's what other magazines were for:

...now I gotta go find an issue of this!

Related to what I mentioned above, I assumed that this Swank was not related to the still-ongoing hardcore Swank. But one look at the mag's wiki page tells me that, yes, this is still essentially the same magazine!

This was one of the magazines that was owned by the legendary Martin Goodman and then was bought by someone else, and, over time, the T&A content of the mag got bigger and bigger, eventually pushing everything else out of the magazine. Oh, how the mighty have fallen!

One final note: I love the name of Swank's publisher--the absurdly macho "Male Publishing Corp." I bet the offices were just like they are on Mad Men.



Today's Angelique Trouvere glossy up for grabs:

True Magazine - Fawcett

Aug. 1969 - Time for another trip down "Men's Magazines" lane, this time with True--how could I turn down a magazine with this cover? (I particularly love the stern wife photo on the desk)

Before we get into the issue, let's take a look at the address label still attached, all these years later:

...this guy has this sent to his work address! Make of that what you will.

Actually, once I got a look inside, its obvious that True is not nearly as salacious as its cover suggests.

In fact, its mostly just a boring series of articles about the usual "men's interests"--war, golf, the stock market, and, of course, cars:

"The Ford Murena: The Car That Thinks It's a House."

Some of the articles are unusual, like one about the environment, and this one, about the apparently-huge-in-1969 bear problem:

...maybe this issue was read by a young Steven Colbert.

Anyway, we finally get to the main article, the thing that made me fork over a whole dollar to some eBay seller:

...yes, mini-skirted secretaries are "adding to the career problems of American businessmen." Damn women! How are American men supposed to concentrate on their work when there are women around??

Unfortunately, as I said, the titillating cover is not matched by anything on the inside. Here's the graphic we get instead:

...what a rip-off!

The one article dealing with What Men Really Want is one on bikinis, featuring fairly generic pictures of bikini-clad babes. (Compared to models nowadays, these girls are positively chubby)

There is this one picture, well-intentioned but creepy nonetheless:

"...You can't kill me!!"

There are some more articles, and some cartoons, again nothing too memorable to make True really stand out.

The ads are fairly dull, too, though I wonder who thought the readers of True were interested in this:

True was published by Fawcett (so they were forced to do this to make money, now that they didn't have Captain Marvel money? Thanks, DC) from 1937(!) to 1974, so it had a good run.

I'm guessing Fawcett didn't want to get too dirty with True, so to your average "men's magazines" man, True looked pretty blah compared to Playboy.

Bluebook - Q.M.G. Magazine Corp.

Dec. 1968 - My post three weeks ago on our first "men's magazine" ended up being the single most popular post I've ever had on the blog, and I got requests for more! Luckily, a lot of these magazines are found on eBay very cheaply, so here we are with--Bluebook!

Bluebook ran, under one title or another, from 1905 to 1975(!), published by different houses, featuring material relevant to the time.

As we'll see, Bluebook in 1968 had two things on its mind: war and sex, and not necessarily in that order.

First up is the letter's page, titled "Bluebook's Bull Session." The answers are fairly non-descript, but the questions are a trifle unsettling:

Fun Fact: That second letter mixing sex and suicide was written by the Zodiac Killer.

Anyway, the first article is one-page feature called "Men At Arms."

Pause.

Ok, is the Post Office looking the other way now, satisfied Bluebook has fulfilled the requirements of a First Class Mailing permit? Good! Now let's get to the main event: an article called "Super Sex: The Return of Prostitution's Golden Era" featuring behind-the-scenes info from prostitutes themselves, featuring photos like this one:

...this photo makes me sad.

Next is another war-related piece, but with the sex worked right in:

...I can't speak for author Hal D. Steward, but I think if I worked hard writing a several page article about the Enduring Commie Menace, I'd feel a bit let down by the photo they chose to ran to open it.

Next is a war-only article, "The Glory Trail of Marvin Shields--The Navy's Fightingest Seabee", which seems to be a pretty serious piece, and features some serious photos of strife in Vietnam (btw, Blogger Spell Check does not recognize the word "Fightingest").

"I Invaded The World's Wildest Sex Market" is next, featuring lots of little black bars, then another fightin' men piece, "The Fantastic 92-Day Escape Ordeal of Capt. Lawrence Fowler", and then "Night of the Long Knife" which re-uses the nice cover painting.

Next is "The Never-Ending Orgy", about the swinging lifestyle, featuring photos like this:

...I think that caption quote needs to be repeated, bigger:

You said it, bro.

There are some more articles, like "The Ghost Ship That Sailed to Hell", plus a centerfold featuring a cutie named Fran Purdy. She's credited as being a TV actress, but I can't find any listing for her on imdb. Make of that what you will.

Like the previous men's magazine we talked about, the most intriguing thing to me about these mags are the ads. They sell all kinds of bizarre stuff, like this:

...and this:

A man-girdle and fake head hair? For a magazine so obsessed with getting laid, they tried to sell you stuff guaranteeing that would never happen.

These two top-to-bottom ads also caught my eye:

Men's nigh-invisible underpants?....the hell?

As for the second ad...I honestly don't even understand what it is they're selling. I guess its some sort of illustrated porno book. It is written by "A master of description", so there's that.

Man's Illustrated Vol.2 #3 - Sterling

Dec. 1956 - A while back, a commenter here asked if I was ever going to tackle those "men's magazines" that weren't comics, but were still a lot of fun.

I said that had never occurred to me, but it sounded cool, so when I saw this on eBay for around $1.00 I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

I don't have much familiarity with these magazines, and perusing this issue was an eye-opening experience. I think you can see what audience they were aiming at with this ad, right on page six:

...I can just hear James Naughton narrarating this ad, can't you?

Anyway, the first article is a piece called "Jump For Me--After I Kill!", about some tough-guy hunting down "Reds."

Next is this article, which seems like more like an unpublished piece from Weird Tales:

...the painting is credited to Walter Popp, who did some neat sleazy paperback covers. Nice job, Popp.

Next is another war-related piece, "Fury at 40 Knots", and then we get to what I think was the mag's bread and butter--strippers!:

...I particularly love this caption on the bottom right:

Aw, "the boss" is just so sweet. I heard Jack Ruby was the same way.

There are some more articles about various subjects, like death-defying survival ("I Follow Six Hounds to Hell"), a tragic fire at a dance club ("Slaughter in Paradise"), marriage advice ("Will 'Time-Table Sex' Doom Your Marriage?"), even extreme fighting ("Bad Brawl in Bangkok").

But the stuff here that interested me more were the voluminous amount of weird ads throughout the issue:

This one also caught my eye:

First of all, I assume that piece of stock art is labeled "Perv, Profile Right."

Second, I like how they cover their bases on the order form, having you request "Adult", "Family", or "Children's" films. Why do I think they sold a lot of the first, and none of the last two?

Two final notes before we go: the nifty cover painting is uncredited, so we can't give credit where it's due (it did its job, making this magazine look like a Respectable Publication, after all). Also, on the letter page, not a single letter writer gives anything more than their initials. Read into that what you will.


Would like to see more of these "men's magazines" here on All in Black & White? Let me know!