Here’s a site devoted to presenting the covers of classic men’s magazines from the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s. I like it on a meta level because it’s tantalizing — we’ll never get to see what’s inside the magazines — in the same way that they must have been tantalizing on the shelf.
As cultural artifacts, I find them really interesting. They’re remarkably restrained compared to the pornography that saturates our culture these days, but there’s also a heavy emphasis on war and adventure that no longer seems to be relevant, even though there’s, you know, a war going on.
As the site’s FAQ notes, there is a vein of racism and misogyny that runs through some of these covers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate them (just as I can like Mayan and Aztec iconography, but don’t have to condone human sacrifice).
I remember reading in several author’s notes by Stephen King that his first publications were in men’s magazines like Adam, which is featured here, but I can’t find his name on any of the covers that I looked at. If anyone spots it, let me know in the comments!
Grant Hamilton
3 Responses to “Cover scans of vintage men’s magazines”
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Actually, there’s more like 30 wars going on (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ongoing_wars). But that’s neither here nor there.
That just makes it weirder, doesn’t it? I think it all stems from the Dubya comment that the best way to defeat the terrorists was to go shopping. I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if the U.S. had embarked on an all-out total war (they had the popular will for it, directly after 9/11) instead of trying to subdue Afghanistan and Iraq on the cheap.
Perhaps then we would have had war-as-cultural-influence and that would have seeped into the men’s mags.
That’s exactly why these stories were in the magazines. Popular media was full of war stories from WWII during the 50s. Skip ahead to the 80s and a lot of TV and movies action stars supposedly had a Vietnam background (ex. Magnum P.I.)
There’s less romance to the idea of winning a war by shopping.