Penthouse February 1976

Penthouse

February 1976

February, 1976. Atop the Weekly Top 40 listing is Paul Simon, with '50 Ways to Leave Your Lover,' while Donna Summer's disco-moan single 'Love to Love You Baby' sits in second place. Lots of classic rock, and memorable R & B tunes, in the top 40 this week !

The latest issue of Penthouse is on the stands. A lead article, 'Grandma Was A Junkie,' by Richard T. Griffin, reminds us that from the mid-19th century till the 1910s, many Americans were functioning drug addicts, due to their taking narcotics, such as opium, morphine, and cocaine, for medicinal purposes. 

 

According to Griffin, women in particular were heavy users of opiates, and sometime entire families would be 'hooked' on these drugs, which could be obtained without prescription: 'over the counter,' in modern parlance. The opiate epidemic only began to abate with the passage of the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914. Griffin's article certainly has some resonance to our 21st century, and the controversy over the 'opioid epidemic.' 

We've got some interesting cartoons..........

  

Rod Philip asks the question, 'Do teenage boys really get off on older women ?' and answers in the affirmative.......

The interview in this February issue is with Stevland Hardaway Judkins (b. 1950), who took the stage name 'Stevie Wonder.' Wonder had his first hit in 1963 with the single 'Fingertips,' and 1976 was to be one of his most commercially and critically successful years ever. His double LP Songs in the Key of Life would go to the top of the Billboard 200 list, and be certified as a 'diamond' by the Recording Industry Association of America. Boomers will remember the hit singles 'Sir Duke' and 'Isn't She Lovely.'

 

In the interview Wonder comes across as a thoughtful individual, with a message of optimism for the human family. He also imparts how he, as a blind man, can perceive colors: "Red, to me, is fire - something that is burning. Shimmering flames, sparkling, the hottest hot. Blue is very, very cool, distant...."

One of the portfolios in this February issue features the sylph-like 'Traffic Jammer' Amber Marie, who has some provocative things to say (or, at least, the Penthouse staff composing her 'remarks' have something provocative to say). Readers undoubtedly were excited by Amber's admission that "I like everything- especially oral sex !"

 

 

 

 

 

And that's what you got when you opened the pages of that issue of Penthouse, fifty years ago.....