Rolling Stone. It’s been around forever. It’s neither named for the band nor the Bob Dylan song, but at the same time it kind of is. That’s kind of all there is to it. What is there to say? It’s such … Continue reading Let’s Read Rolling Stone, February 10, 1994!

Sassy, commonly known by generation X girls as The Greatest Teen Girl Magazine of All Time, ran from 1988 to 1994. Founded by unstoppable force Jane Pratt and staffed by a handful of indie music enthusiasts, Sassy reached out to the crowd who … Continue reading Let’s Read Sassy, December 1988!

Hey friends, I’ll be back with Sassy in a week! In the meantime, check out Zoot Koomie’s excellent scans of Soviet Russia Today from 1935! It features some amazing art, classic 1930s art deco graphic design, crazy propaganda, wacky political cartoons, fanatical hatred of William … Continue reading Let’s Do Something Else Because Old Magazines Is On Vacation!

Backpacker Magazine was founded in 1973 by William Kemsley, a seasoned hiker and naturalist who saw the rise of hiking and backpacking culture that was revived from the 1910s and 20s after the creation of the National Trails System Act … Continue reading Let’s Read Backpacker Magazine, June 1979!

Better Homes and Gardens was founded in 1922 as Fruit, Garden, and Home by Woodrow Wilson’s former Secretary of Agriculture, magazine mogul Edwin Thomas Meredith. The first editor was the author Chesla C. Sherlock, who guided the magazine through the transition … Continue reading Let’s Read Better Homes and Gardens, February 1929!

If you missed my update last week, I decided for ethical reasons not to do Outdoor Life because after looking through it the magazine was more like Outdoor Murder. It’s been a rough enough couple of weeks without my having to write … Continue reading Let’s Read Life Magazine, January 4, 1937!

Cavalier was launched in 1952 and is…technically still running, or maybe it just has a really enthusiastic Facebook page dedicated to promoting both its history and the ongoing coverage of nearly naked women in Florida (don’t open that at work). … Continue reading Let’s Read Cavalier, April 1965! (Work Safe)

Young and Modern, or YM, was one of the longest running magazines in the teenage girl market. It definitley lacked the polished All American Girl appeal of Seventeen, and as it focused heavily on subjects like dating and dieting, it knew … Continue reading Let’s Read YM, April 1997!

So you’re a person who has decided between the price of buying a decent used car or buying your own computer in 1993. You weigh your options and decide that you’re cool with still taking the bus for a while. … Continue reading Let’s Read Wired, September 1993!

We looked at a Seventeen from the 90s a little while ago, and it was a lot of fun – so let’s take a look at Seventeen from a far less female-empowered, far more pink-tinted and soft-focused world and see how things … Continue reading Let’s Read Seventeen, November 1962!

Ebony Magazine was launched in 1945 by John H. Johnson, with help from his wife Eunice Johnson. While it was not the first magazine published specifically for the African-American audience, it was the most successful and has run in print … Continue reading Let’s Read Ebony, October 1975!

Mad Magazine started out in 1952 as one of many new and radical titles pumped out of a floundering educational comic book company, tossed suddenly into the lap of the late founder’s son who never intended to be part of his … Continue reading Let’s Read Mad Magazine, October 1976!

Spin Magazine was founded in 1985 by Bob Guccione Jr., the son of the founder of Penthouse, and ran in print until 2012. The magazine was ostensibly created to keep up with the music scene, particularly the college rock, alternative, and … Continue reading Let’s Read Spin, May 1991!

Finding historical background on Western Family was harder than I thought it would be. For a magazine that boasts a circulation of over a million on the cover, there’s not much information out there on it.  It’s certainly a very conservative … Continue reading Let’s Read Western Family, May 1957!

Let’s check in and see how the wide wide world of sports journalism has developed since the last time we looked at Sports Illustrated. So what’s changed in a few years between 1960 and 1967? The presence of major league sports, … Continue reading Let’s Read Sports Illustrated, September 1967!

Circus began in 1969 as a pop music magazine, trending to whatever was hot on the scene at the time. After struggling for a few years, the magazine found its core audience in teenage metalhead boys in the late 70s and … Continue reading Let’s Read Circus, October 1984!