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Exposed!: The Golden Age of the Gentlemen's Magazine
Exposed The Golden Age of the Gentlemen's Magazine Author:Tim Pilcher The Gentleman's Magazine is an intriguing study of the history of men's magazines from 1900 to the present day, but paying particular attention to the 'Golden Age' around the 1950s. It was a time of risque material that, with hindsight, had a real innocence about it. That innocence was later shattered with the rise of an organised pornography in... more »dustry but that is not for discussion here. Instead, the book revels in the naivete of it all. It was a time when men asked "What's wrong with being a lush?" and they could discover that "Harry had to choose between a flesh and blood redhead and a blonde robot"! A time where women were "Sex Mad Killers" who "Served sex on the rocks"! Arranged chronologically, Chapter One focuses on the birth of the men's magazine including Tijuana Bibles, the rise of the pin up, and the growth in demand for men's magazines from the armed forces. Chapters Two and Three deal with the Golden Age of the men's mag in the 1940s and 1950s. How the demands of readers changed the face of the industry; the wide range of subjects and specialist areas covered such as adventure and crime; and the sheer prodigious output of the period - at one stage there were 150 men's mags on the market! Chapter Four takes an affectionate look at men's literature around the world - Spick and Span in Britain, Australia's 'Barbershop magazines', and as far afield as Europe and Japan. Chapter Five examines the role of workers in the industry - the owners, writers, photographers and artists who made it such a vibrant period in popular culture. The final chapter focuses on the small ads that were such as feature of the magazines - 'Exciting Facts About the Adventures of a Park Ranger' and FBI recruitment advert courting trainee fingerprint experts!« less