Penthouse December 1974

Penthouse

December, 1974

December, 1974. Taking a look at the Weekly Top 40 for the week ending December 14, we see Carl Douglas's 'King Fu Fighting' sits atop the chart. Also in the top 5 are some 1970s gems: 'I Can Help,' by Billy Swan, and 'Angie Baby,' by Helen Reddy. The Soul contingent is represented by The Three Degrees. Back in '74 I was unimpressed by Harry Chapin and 'Cat's in the Cradle,' and I still am now in 2025.

 

 

The December issue of Penthouse magazine is on the stands, with December Pet Cathy Green featured on the cover.  

 

These last days of 1974 are not the happy, self-indulgent, hedonistic times that modern-day observers might imagine they were. The American economy was still reeling from the 'energy crisis,' which had kicked off more than a year previously, in October 1973. There was a recession, widespread unemployment, low wages, and in the Rust Belt, where I was living at the time, young people were fleeing for the Sun Belt.  

 

The departure of Richard Nixon left Vice President Gerald Ford in charge of the presidency, a task Ford was ill-suited for. The lead nonfiction article in the December issue is 'Going Broke,' by Scottish-born writer Alexander Cockburn. 'Broke' paints a grim picture of a USA caught in financial entropy, with Cockburn referencing economists such as Keynes, Geoffrey Barraclough, and the Soviet Union's Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kondratiev, in predicting things would get worse, much worse, before they got better.

 

Interestingly, Cockburn married Leslie Corkill Redlich, the daughter of Christopher Redlich (1915-2000), a tycoon who was instrumental in the worldwide adoption of container shipping. The actress Olivia Wilde is the daughter of Cockburn and Redlich...........

 

Also in the December issue is 'Child Bride,' a comedic short story by William Kloman, about a hillbilly girl named Janey Tully who marries a young marine named David Bowers. Another character in the story is a Southern Boy named Pickles, who sells 'marry-wanna,' and has an anecdote to tell:

"I one time had to cut a bullet out of a man's shoulder - hunting in West Virginia," he said. "We poured half a quart of corn whiskey down him, and he didn't even squirm. It was pretty messy, though."

"Oh, my God," Janey said.

"My daddy said children should be seen and not heard," David said. "And the best way to keep a wife was barefoot and pregnant."

Pickle laughed stupidly, spilling beer down his shirt. 

 

The Penthouse Interview is conducted with the Who's Pete Townshend. Pete comes across as more than a little fucked up, distractedly alluding to his guru (at the time), the Parsee mystic Meher Baba (1894 - 1969). In the interview we learn that the Who song 'Baba O'riley' is a tribute of sorts to none other than Meher Baba ?!
 

Well, you've got your hard times and your economic despair, but cheer up, for the December issue does deliver Bob Guccione's contribution to Seventies escapism: lots of soft-focus nudies ! 

 

Ms. Green (or whoever it was on staff who handled the text blurbs for the portfolios), lets readers know that she's all about 'size', and I'm sure Penthouse readers absolutely had no qualms about their ability to meet Ms. Green's expectations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lest readers still were depressed after viewing the shapely Ms. Green's portfolio, well, Guccione presented a portfolio with yet another brunette, this one the sylph-like Terri Saunders:

 

 

 

 

 

That's how things were, in those strange days of 51 years ago........