Naked as a Jaybird and loving it
A true milestone in fine art publishing. Excerpt from the book by Dian Hanson
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"This was a case of a man owning the store, owning all the fixtures, owning the printing presses, owning the distribution company, and the trucks and the delivery people, owning the photographers and all the photographs, owning the property it's all on, owning the street, owning everything," said Bob Reitman, the psychologist. "He probably could have put up a gate and kept the traffic from going through." It was that Readers Digest article that convinced Reitman to shelve his career and join Luros's vast holdings.
While the majority of Luros's wealth came from his printing business and high quality girlie magazines, Sundial proved so lucrative he gave Lange his own building to develop new nudist titles. It's doubtful whether Sundial accomplished Lange's goal of easing nudist hang-ups, but it was very popular with men who fantasized that nudists were uninhibited sensualists. The fact is that most nudists were very happy with their prudery.
"You didn't display erotic emotions in the camps," Connie says. "If some poor man developed even the beginnings of an erection it was frowned on. I remember a man being thrown out of camp because he went in the bathroom to hide an erection and someone went in and saw it. I want to read something from Sir Kenneth Clark: 'No nude should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even though it be only the faintest shadow. If it does not do so it is bad art, and false morals.' We live in a society where people go berserk because someone doesn't have all their clothes on."
Lange tapped his liberated friend Connie to work with him on the new magazines. In 1964 they were joined by Stan Sohler, a Texas transplant with a charm similar to Lange's and a cultist's zeal for nudism. Together the friends reinforced The Vision. When hippies began cavorting nude on California beaches, Lange and company welcomed them and their philosophy into Sundial. Lange's influence continued to grow in the nudist community, but many criticized the sensual photos and hipster texts in his magazines. Old guard nudists feared where it might be leading. Rightly so, as Jaybird was already hatching in the mind of Milton Luros.
"I'm sorry," says Bob Reitman about keeping me on hold. "That was Marilyn Horne doing the big aria from Samson and Delilah." The opera still wails in the background. "In my old age I've decided to let everything finish before going on to the next thing." Bob was Jaybird editor between 1967 and 1971.
"Milt Luros thought up the Jaybird title," he says. "As far as I know he brought it up to Stan Sohler and that's one of the things they broke over, because that title meant it wasn't pure anymore."
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]
"This was a case of a man owning the store, owning all the fixtures, owning the printing presses, owning the distribution company, and the trucks and the delivery people, owning the photographers and all the photographs, owning the property it's all on, owning the street, owning everything," said Bob Reitman, the psychologist. "He probably could have put up a gate and kept the traffic from going through." It was that Readers Digest article that convinced Reitman to shelve his career and join Luros's vast holdings.
While the majority of Luros's wealth came from his printing business and high quality girlie magazines, Sundial proved so lucrative he gave Lange his own building to develop new nudist titles. It's doubtful whether Sundial accomplished Lange's goal of easing nudist hang-ups, but it was very popular with men who fantasized that nudists were uninhibited sensualists. The fact is that most nudists were very happy with their prudery.
"You didn't display erotic emotions in the camps," Connie says. "If some poor man developed even the beginnings of an erection it was frowned on. I remember a man being thrown out of camp because he went in the bathroom to hide an erection and someone went in and saw it. I want to read something from Sir Kenneth Clark: 'No nude should fail to arouse in the spectator some vestige of erotic feeling, even though it be only the faintest shadow. If it does not do so it is bad art, and false morals.' We live in a society where people go berserk because someone doesn't have all their clothes on."
Lange tapped his liberated friend Connie to work with him on the new magazines. In 1964 they were joined by Stan Sohler, a Texas transplant with a charm similar to Lange's and a cultist's zeal for nudism. Together the friends reinforced The Vision. When hippies began cavorting nude on California beaches, Lange and company welcomed them and their philosophy into Sundial. Lange's influence continued to grow in the nudist community, but many criticized the sensual photos and hipster texts in his magazines. Old guard nudists feared where it might be leading. Rightly so, as Jaybird was already hatching in the mind of Milton Luros.
"I'm sorry," says Bob Reitman about keeping me on hold. "That was Marilyn Horne doing the big aria from Samson and Delilah." The opera still wails in the background. "In my old age I've decided to let everything finish before going on to the next thing." Bob was Jaybird editor between 1967 and 1971.
"Milt Luros thought up the Jaybird title," he says. "As far as I know he brought it up to Stan Sohler and that's one of the things they broke over, because that title meant it wasn't pure anymore."
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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
