Naked as a Jaybird and loving it
A true milestone in fine art publishing. Excerpt from the book by Dian Hanson
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Sex In Marriage alone made millions and was quickly followed by an Academy Press magazine of the same title. This magazine and its imitators used explicit photos accompanied by psychobabble text. The industry term was marriage manuals. "We even had a psychologist on staff who would look over the publications and make sure everything was up to standard", says Steve Goldenberg. "He was a nice elderly gentleman." And the photos? "Yeah, I saw Jaybird photos in the marriage manuals," says Johnny Castano, "cause when you signed a release for Milt Luros you were gone!"
"We never wasted anything," says Reitman. The marriage manuals were short lived. Once Stanley Fleishman-- who in Milt's absence made many of the company's creative decisions-established they could market explicit images, American Art went straight to what the photographers called "full commercial," hardcore photos with no sophisticated pretense. Other companies quickly followed their lead.
In response the US government passed legislation in 1972 that was to be the end of Jaybird. Magazines with explicit imagery, which included the blatant display of pubic hair, could be sold only in special stores created for this purpose. The adult bookstore was born, and in a reversal of the 1958 law nudist magazines were judged to be sexual and were shut away with the pornography. There in the dim cinderblock bookstores, deprived of sun, sand and laughter, Jaybird withered and died. The passing of Jaybird marked the end of nudist publishing in America. The final issue was released in late1973, and was nothing more than recycled random photographs with the title 315 Jaygirl Photos. The gimmicks, the humor, The Jaybird Vision were gone.
Today one can find the occasional small nudist magazine on an American newsstand; tame little digests from England or Australia showing nude volleyball, nude barbeques, nude beauty pageants. If not for eBay, the Internet auction site where Jaybirds bring up to $75 each, few would remember there'd ever been another kind of nudist magazine. No one was more surprised than Connie to hear that collectors are scrabbling for Jaybird's chimp calendars and Frankenstein covers, its happy hippies and exuberant appreciation of all things pubic. "I'll be darned", she laughed, "maybe we changed the world a little bit after all." And if not, does it really matter? As Connie says, the important thing was to show everyone having fun, and as you'll see here, in that Jaybird was supremely successful.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Sex In Marriage alone made millions and was quickly followed by an Academy Press magazine of the same title. This magazine and its imitators used explicit photos accompanied by psychobabble text. The industry term was marriage manuals. "We even had a psychologist on staff who would look over the publications and make sure everything was up to standard", says Steve Goldenberg. "He was a nice elderly gentleman." And the photos? "Yeah, I saw Jaybird photos in the marriage manuals," says Johnny Castano, "cause when you signed a release for Milt Luros you were gone!"
"We never wasted anything," says Reitman. The marriage manuals were short lived. Once Stanley Fleishman-- who in Milt's absence made many of the company's creative decisions-established they could market explicit images, American Art went straight to what the photographers called "full commercial," hardcore photos with no sophisticated pretense. Other companies quickly followed their lead.
In response the US government passed legislation in 1972 that was to be the end of Jaybird. Magazines with explicit imagery, which included the blatant display of pubic hair, could be sold only in special stores created for this purpose. The adult bookstore was born, and in a reversal of the 1958 law nudist magazines were judged to be sexual and were shut away with the pornography. There in the dim cinderblock bookstores, deprived of sun, sand and laughter, Jaybird withered and died. The passing of Jaybird marked the end of nudist publishing in America. The final issue was released in late1973, and was nothing more than recycled random photographs with the title 315 Jaygirl Photos. The gimmicks, the humor, The Jaybird Vision were gone.
Today one can find the occasional small nudist magazine on an American newsstand; tame little digests from England or Australia showing nude volleyball, nude barbeques, nude beauty pageants. If not for eBay, the Internet auction site where Jaybirds bring up to $75 each, few would remember there'd ever been another kind of nudist magazine. No one was more surprised than Connie to hear that collectors are scrabbling for Jaybird's chimp calendars and Frankenstein covers, its happy hippies and exuberant appreciation of all things pubic. "I'll be darned", she laughed, "maybe we changed the world a little bit after all." And if not, does it really matter? As Connie says, the important thing was to show everyone having fun, and as you'll see here, in that Jaybird was supremely successful.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Naked as a Jaybird
Hardcover, 20.5 x 25 cm (8.1 x 9.8 in.), 264 pages
$ 39.99
$ 39.99
Technicolor testaments to a bygone era of free love and pubic pride
