Penthouse magazine, March 1975
Let's go back in time to March, 1975, where Spring is in the air, and the latest issue of Penthouse magazine is on the stands.
The 'Forum' showcases the usual deviants:
The height of fashion is owning a pair of Dingo boots........made with denim (?!) and leather:And, in those innocent days of 1975, you could mail-order counterfeit guns ! And, for a fee, a Real Artist could draw dirty pictures for you ! The Pictorials are very much all about the 'soft focus erotica' sensibility pioneered by David Hamilton.......... There's a pictorial featuring a supple young woman posing next to exercise equipment........?! The articles feature a humorous piece, by Henry Morgan, on the Irish (March has St. Patrick's Day, after all). The illustration is by Mercer Mayer, who was well-known for illustrating the 'Great Brain' books, by John D. Fitzgerald, that were popular in the 1970s. The Interview features writer and journalist Louis 'Studs' Terkel. Terkel, who carefully cultivated an image of himself as an ally of the Proletariat, has pretty much faded as a newsworthy personality, but back in '75, he was quite the social critic. There's a piece penned by a self-titled 'male hustler'. I'm sure everything he says is true ! And for the cartoons, we have a proto-Beavis saying crude things to a bewildered child........?! Along with a 'gay' cartoon that likely would not pass muster nowadays.And there you have it, vintage smut from 1975.
Don't hate me, don't judge me, but-- I actually had a pair of those blue suede and denim Dingo boots back in the day. (Hey, I was 19!)
ReplyDeleteAlso, "The Happy Hustler" was one of those literary hoax books, like "Naked Came the Stranger" and "I, Libertine." Writer Thom Racina decided to do a male spin on Xaviera Hollander's best-selling "The Happy Hooker," and created the fictional call boy "Grant Tracy Saxon."
A friend of Racina's, a struggling actor named Michael Kearns, agreed to pose for photos in the book as "Saxon" and even play the part for interviews and TV appearances (Phil Donahue and Tom Snyder), even though he actually had no part in writing the book.
(This stunt had previously been done for "Naked Came the Stranger," with a woman posing as its non-existent author "Penelope Ashe." The book was actually written by a committee of 24 journalists, each writing one chapter and trying to make it as badly-written and as smutty as possible.)
Kearns had actually appeared on one episode of "The Waltons" prior to the book, and later appeared in "The Kentucky Fried Movie" as the guy in the shower with mammoth-breasted Uschi Digard in the "Catholic High School Girls in Trouble" clip. An openly gay actor years before it was safe to go public, Kearns largely did stage work and even a gay porn film, but continued to do small roles in films and TV.
That soft-focus photography thing was pretty ubiquitous in skin mags at the time. I guess it looked just "arty" enough to give a touch of "socially redeeming value"-- plus, it helped hide blemishes, stretch marks and scars.
Love your blog! Keep up the great work!
hsc,
ReplyDeleteLove the Dingo boots......wear them with pride ! When paired with a fringed suede coat, like Jon Voight wears in 'Midnight Cowboy, there's no way you can lose.........
The backstory to 'The Happy Hustler' cracks me up.......looking through these old magazines, Uschi Digard emerges as a poster and photo favorite of the 'groovy' era. No such thing as implants back in '72, it was all 'natural' !
Glad you like the blog !
I'm pleased and tickled somebody else remembers the Great Brain books. But I must point out Mercer Mayer is probably best known now for the Little Critter books and There's A Nightmare In My Closet. He also did an amazing version of the classic fairytale East of the Sun, West of the Moon in watercolors, and illustrated his ex-wife Marianna Mercer's version of Beauty and the Beast in the same style. Seeing his work in Penthouse has a surreality akin to seeing Shel Silverstein in Playboy.
ReplyDelete