We recently scored a stack of thirty vintage men’s magazines, and here’s the first of that group we’re posting—Rugged Men from this month in 1958. Inside is art from Walter Popp, Ed Franklin, Russ Huban, and Irv Doktor, and the cover of a man taking a tumble after his unfortunate mount gets shot is by Ted Lewin. Probably the most notable aspect of the issue is a story on how members of the Croatan tribe broke up a Ku Klux Klan rally and sent its hooded denizens scattering in terror. The incident is written of with admiration for the tribe’s efforts, and this during an era when Klan rallies were common and open racism was not only acceptable, but actually encoded in federal law. But then, deep admiration for a people that were virtually wiped out by violence is one of many quirks of the American psyche. We're sure a sociologist would have something illuminating to say about it. Seventeen scans below. 

 

Above, the cover for Robert O. Saber’s, aka Milton K. Ozaki’s Chicago-based tale of crooked cops and robbers A Time for Murder, 1956. The artist here is Walter Popp. 

Above is the cover of Jack Hanley’s New York Model, from the Designs Publishing Corporation, entry 37 in its Intimate Novels line, 1953. And indeed, his take on the fashion industry must have been intimate because it was banned in Australia. Hanley wrote other racy books such as Stag Stripper, Star Lust, and Very Private Secretary, but his crowing achievement might be 1937’s hound dog instruction manual Let’s Make Mary, which is subtitled Being A Gentleman’s Guide to Scientific Seduction in Eight Easy Lessons. Hanley died relatively young in 1963 at age fifty-eight. No info on whether an angry husband, boyfriend or father had anything to do with it.

Below, a few scans from Stag of April 1963, with cover art by Mort Kunstler illustrating Emile C. Shurmacher’s story “90 Nazis and 8 Redheads of Radar Island,” and interior spreads from Charles Copeland, Samson Pollen and Walter Popp. See two more issues of Stag here and here.

Mort Kunstler nicely captures the chaos of a storm hitting the beaches of northern France on this D-Day-themed cover of Stag from November 1964. Kunstler was a master at this sort of sprawling composition, and Stag in particular published many similar pieces of his. Today Kunstler bills himself as America’s Artist and paints U.S. Civil War scenes that sell as limited editions. To say that his reputation as an artist is assured is an understatement. He has had countless exhibitions, been added to the permanent collections of numerous museums, and been profiled in the New York Times.

Below are some interior scans from Stag, including more Kunstler, as well as a spread from Walter Popp. Kunstler’s illustration for George Raffey’s “House of the Pleasure Dolls” is a brilliant bit of adolescent sexual fantasy, with its naked girl holding off a group of armed men. That probably never happened in the entire history of the world (despite the “True Book Bonus” label on the story), but it’s just another day in the pages of a vintage men’s magazine. Also in this issue you get a few photos of 1961 Miss Universe semi-finalist, Scottish model Susan Jones. More Kunstler here.