Physique Pictorial

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Physique Pictorial
OCLC
643902464

Physique Pictorial is an American magazine, one of the leading

beefcake magazines of the mid-20th century.[1][2] During its run from 1951 to 1990 as a quarterly publication, it exemplified the use of bodybuilding culture and classical art figure posing, as a cover for homoerotic male images, and to evade charges of obscenity
.

The pages of Physique Pictorial primarily featured the photography of

Bill Schmeling (Torro, The Hun),[4][5][6] and was a predecessor to later overtly gay publications.[7][8]

Physique Pictorial was published in Los Angeles by Mizer's Athletic Model Guild, an ersatz modeling agency that provided cover for the publishing of the magazine, and the sale of photographs and film strips through the magazine.[9]

Background

Bob Mizer began his work as a

obscenity through the mail, and sentenced to a year on a prison farm. Subsequently, the US Postal Service pressured Strength & Health to cease running advertisements for physique photographs, threatening to revoke its second-class mailing permit.[11]
This led Mizer to the idea of founding his own magazine, devoted to physique photography designed for a gay audience.

History

The first issue of Mizer's magazine was published in May 1951 under the title Physique Photo News.[11] Six months later, the magazine was rebranded Physique Pictorial. Mizer contended that this title was more apt since, in addition to physique photography, the magazine also included artwork by artists such as George Quaintance. While the first issue was a free eight page booklet,[11] subsequent issues increased in size, with additional full-page photographic prints, and in 1952 the price was increased first to fifteen cents, then to twenty-five.[12]

There was a gap in the magazine's run covering most of the year 1968. Author Jeffrey Escoffier speculates that this was because Mizer served time in prison that year on charges of running a prostitution operation.[13]

Physique publications rapidly fell out of popularity in the late 1960s as new legal precedent allowed magazines to print full-frontal nudity. Starting in 1969, Physique Pictorial ceased to operate as a physique magazine, and instead switched to fully nude photographs.[14] Scholar Christopher Nealon described the magazine as having become "more of a catalog for wrestling and bondage videos" by the 1980s.[15]

The magazine finished its original run in 1990. In 2017, it was relaunched by the Bob Mizer Foundation featuring a mix of legacy Mizer photographs and contemporary photographers' work.[16]

Editorial content

Mizer was known to use the editorial section of Physique Pictorial to advocate for political causes. Mizer was especially strident in his opposition to government censorship, and used the magazine to highlight the cases of those who had been convicted of obscenity-related charges. Editorials were also written in support of the American Civil Liberties Union, and in opposition to capital punishment.[17]

Mizer also used photo captions to expound on political topics, sometimes comprising multiple paragraphs.[18]

In popular culture

Issues of Physique Pictorial are shown among other physique magazines as examples of publications allegedly intended to 'entice' children into identifying as gay in Perversion for Profit, a 1965 anti-gay propaganda film.[19]

The 1998 docudrama film Beefcake tells the story of Bob Mizer, Physique Pictorial, and models featured in the magazine.

Copyright status

Mizer did not include copyright notices in issues published between 1951 and the late 1970s, likely because the contents would have been deemed obscene by the

U.S. Copyright Office.[20] Because of this, issues published before 1978 that lacked copyright notices as required by U.S. copyright law at the time, immediately entered the public domain when published.[21]

Notes

  1. ^ "A Look Back at the Glorious Beefcake Magazine That Inspired David Hockney". W Magazine | Women's Fashion & Celebrity News. 13 January 2018. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  2. ^ "A (Long) History of Physique Magazines". QNotes. 2019-11-01. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  3. OCLC 52819577.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link
    )
  4. ISBN 978-1-317-95757-7
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-313-33599-0
    .
  6. ^ Daniels, Champ (2022-05-12). ""AllTogether" | Sultan, The Hun and Victor Arimondi". Tom of Finland Foundation. Retrieved 2023-12-31.
  7. ^ "Physique mags helped usher in the gay market". The Bay Area Reporter / B.A.R. Inc. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  8. ^ "How Bob Mizer's 'Physique Pictorial' Pioneered Modern Gay Erotica". www.out.com. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2020-02-18.
  9. OCLC 1035441993.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  10. ^ Krauss 2015, p. 213.
  11. ^ a b c Krauss 2015, p. 214.
  12. ^ Krauss 2015, p. 216.
  13. ISBN 978-0786747535
    .
  14. ^ Krauss 2015, p. 217.
  15. ^ Nealon 2001, p. 136.
  16. ^ "Bob Mizer's Physique Pictorial has returned". Bob Mizer Foundation. 2017-05-12. Archived from the original on 2019-08-08. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  17. ^ Cooper 2007, p. 102.
  18. ^ Nealon 2001, p. 102.
  19. ^ "Category:Perversion for Profit - Wikimedia Commons". commons.wikimedia.org. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  20. ISBN 3822881864
    .
  21. ^ "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". Copyright Information Center.

References

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