Monday, February 10, 2014

Newsstand Manfulness, for August 1964 (with a bit of womanity thrown in)


There was this new image of what young men, at least, might aspire to on US newsstands, on the date of my birth, but the following were more typical of the press aimed squarely at the male reader, with their issues dated on my birth-month (and most of them probably still on the stands till just before the beginning of August, at least)...(verges, at least, on NSFW by the end...)

And before we get to the manly titles, a brief look at what a few the more interesting women's magazines were up to in the same cover date:


For example, the fiction contents of this Redbook, officially tagging itself the "magazine for young adults" (courtesy the FictionMags Index):
Redbook [v123 #4, August 1964]



Meanwhile, like Rogue below, The Ladies Home Journal was offering Saroyan fiction, and, like Mlle., young Bergen on the cover, along with a memoir of literary Paris from Katherine Anne Porter.

Ladies’ Home Journal [v81 # 7, August 1964] (35¢)


Student cover model: Candice Bergen
One of the student editors for this issue: Betsey Johnson

This one usually good for fiction, too.


Thomas B. Dewey's  novel excerpted? "Condensed"?

























John Le Carre's fiction more True than not..and concentrated!


An Arthur C. Clarke scuba memoir is the "book bonus"...
















































Most images courtesy of Galactic Central

10 comments:

mybillcrider said...

I miss the old days.

Todd Mason said...

Some aspects more missable than others, though, clearly...

Walker Martin said...

I really feel old now. At one point or another in my life, I've read or collected all these magazines except for GQ.

Todd Mason said...

And Walker, you commented just before I added the three women's magazines, though I suspect I'm going to need that issue of Redbook, at least, since I can't find evidence the JDMc "novel" has been reprinted, so far. Wouldn't mind reading the Grau piece, either.

Todd Mason said...

Make that four women's magazines...Coward, Hazzard, Porter and Saroyan in LHJ...I suspect I'd be hard-pressed to find too much of genuine interest in an issue of Lucky today, but perhaps I assume too much.

J F Norris said...

Was this post inspired by the list of magazines where Shirley Jackson had her fiction published? Hmm... I have to say I'm surprised that Redbook was such an eclectic market for fiction. I always thought of it as a housewife's magazine. My mother bought it habitually along with Family Circle and LHJ. Maybe by the 1970s it had changed it's scope and target audience.

Todd Mason said...

Actually, John, even though it was a woman's magazine that leaned into ever more domestic matters in the 1970s, Redbook was a real diehard when it came to publishing rather interesting fiction, throughout the '70s into the '80s (an early FFB for me was a review of excellent and unreprinted novellas, a Donald Westlake from a 1978 Redbook and a Jody Scott from the men's the skin magazine Escapade, during the brief period in '68 when Barry Malzberg was editing the latter. Much more consistent in this than, say, Esquire. And, no, I've had a variety of little explorations like this, particularly among magazines featuring fiction, throughout the history of the blog, here...

Todd Mason said...

And, sadly, as far as I know LHJ gave up on fiction in the early '80s, at latest (and, perhaps, interesting fiction before that).

Kelly Robinson said...

Great collection!

Todd Mason said...

Thanks! There were certainly more downmarket Men's Sweat and a few more skin magazines I could've added, but they didn't seem to add too much to the range of promise (and invitation of criticism) indicated by these...