Darwination Scans: Playgirl v01n04 1956 / Walter Hale's Burlesque Magazines

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Get the full hi-res scan here.

An interruption, today, from continuing with the birth of the girlie pulp with a newly-scanned magazine of a more recent vintage, one of a group of magazines from the mid-50s I find quite fun, Walter Hale's burlesque mags. I've got so many magazines lined up to post for the birth of the girlie pulps, I'll be interspersing some other topics now and then to break up the task.

I'm sure that fans and historians of burlesque know much more about Hale than I do. A quick internet search links to a couple of mentions in Billboard magazine from the 40s and 50s in the "Burlesque Notes" feature as well as to sites with burlesque video footage from the era. From what I can tell, Hale's magazines seem largely a promotion for his stage show and the girls within. Much of the charm of this line of magazines which includes Playgirl, Hollywood Confidential, San Francisco Confidential, and probably other titles as well (Dazzle?) is the amateurish (I mean this as a compliment, mind you) production values. Hale fills the magazine with writings from himself as well as from the girls, and the typesetting and layout have a DIY feel. I think it gives the magazines and intimate feel, and, really, the photos (some of which are the girls' publicity photos) are printed very well with some nice dashes of color and colored tones here and there. There's plenty of humor in these magazines as well as some cute crusading against prudishness not to mention some lovely ladies.

My web search for information on the magazine also turns up an interesting court case. Apparently Hugh Hefner felt the need to sue Mr. Hale over trademark infringement because of the title. Check it out:

HMH PUBL. CO. v. HALE

Perhaps Mr. Hefner had intentions even back then to publish the magazine for women that would eventually appear in 1973. Hefner says he started Playboy because all of the magazines of the day featured only strippers. Which the public did not seem to mind too much, as Burlesque was very popular at the time, and Robert Harrison's magazines as well as others like Showgirls or Cavalcade of Burlesque sold many copies. Perhaps the mere association of a magazine with his "tasteful" magazine irked him, but the lawsuit seems frivolous to me. I'm not sure how the case turned out, only that I've seen only a handful of issues of Playgirl. Usually a magazine hit by such a suit will change title or cease publication simply because of the hassle of the suit. By this time Playboy was probably selling half a million copies (don't quote me on that), so I don't really see the threat Hugh saw in this little mag. Hale shows up again as editor of Scandolls, and the second issue of Wolf Bait seems very similar to these magazines, though it might have been wholly the work of Zee Zee Martine. I have an incomplete (otherwise I'd have scanned it by now, I like the other one I did so much) first issue of Wolf Bait from 1952 somewhere in my boxes of magazines but couldn't find it to identify the publisher.

But on to some samples of the magazine.

The indicia page, no need for a table of contents, but the girls within are listed and Hale promises every story complete...

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The magazine begins with an article in celebration of nudity from Evelyn West. She makes a good case - I'll go ahead and print the whole article. I love the cowgirl photo.

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Mr. Hale gives Evelyn extra encouragement with a page devoted to encouraging her authorial debut:

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Here, Evelyn West appears with the late Bernarr MacFadden, fallen titan of publishing. Invigorator treatment?! Bernarr, you old hounddog, you.