Hustler, 1976.
I’ve never quite bought into the idea that red is always a color of sex and desire. Not that I give a fuck or have any scientific evidence to back up my uninformed opinion other than the anecdotal prejudice that if red was a color of arousal then we’d all cop off at stop signals and dear old Santa Claus would be a sex god.
Maybe he is.
And maybe this explains why porn mags get into spreading some Christmas cheer every December by getting a little festive with their covers.
Such naive and dot-to-dot thinking led me to browse (ahem—for research purposes…of course!) through a fine selection of vintage, glamor mag covers just to get the inside skinny on how they once celebrated the Holiday Season. For if there is one thing I do know, thanks to analytics, is that our dear readers like stuff that says “NSFW” with a hint of the naughty, the naked, and the red.
So maybe red does mean sex?
I mean just look at the amount of red splashed out on the following selection of covers—it’s enough to give one hypertension. And note too how it was once seemly for megastars like Jayne Mansfield, Burt Reynolds, and Joan Collins to appear on the cover or even naked in the centerfold of such glossy, adult entertainment mags.
And last but certainly not least, these covers offer a potted history of porn mags. From when once adult magazines were about artful erotic photographs and great writing (by the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, George V. Higgins, Norman Mailer, Gore Vidal, interviews with writers like William (Lord of the Flies) Golding, and articles on the threat of the impending devastating weather changes and corruption in politics) the adult mag soon became just a selection of close-up hardcore pix which might not have looked out of place in a medical textbook (Gynecology 101?) and very little readable content. It was, I guess you could say, rather prescient of how our world has moved from text to pictograph and hieroglyph (emoji) via technology.
But, anyway, this is all a by-the-way to sneak in a few saucy vintage covers for your seasonal entertainment.
Joan Collins on the cover of Playboy, Xmas 1983.
Don’t be fooled by technical side of Practical Photography, 1965.
Jayne Mansfield on the cover of Variedades, 1956.
Playboy, 1972, and Swank, 1978.
Burt Reynolds flashing his cigar on the cover of Playgirl, 1974.
Cavalier, 1963.
Escort, 1969.
Cheri, 1984.
El Papus, 1974.
Rogue, 1968.
Men Only, 1966, and Esquire, 1964.
Gallery, 1977.
Whitehouse, 1970.
Eros, 1984.
Via Flashbak.
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
That time in 1978 when Dolly Parton posed for Playboy with a super pervy-looking bunny
That time Jeanne Moreau posed for Playboy
Woody Allen gets into a pillow fight with a six-foot brunette in the pages of Playboy, 1969
William Burroughs: Scans of his porn mag articles
Playboy Playmates recreate their iconic covers 30 years on