JUNE IN MAY

Another serving of big Macumba Love here today. B-movie actress June Wilkinson showed up in a lot of men's magazines in her heyday. Here she is in RAGE (Vol. 1 No. 1, September 1960).

BONUS! Here are two more articles from the same magazine. The first is about the seedy past of New York's Times Square. While not mentioned in the story (since it happened some years later), the area was plagued by a serial killer in the 1970's. NETFLIX is streaming a documentary of these events from its Crime Scene series, "The Times Square Killer".

Following is a confessional by a woman (supposedly) who tells the tale of how women are lured into making "stag" films.

ATTACK OF THE YETI!

Stories about little-known creatures existing in the wild like Sasquatch have been around in the media since Nessie was first spotted and photographed in Loch Ness in 1934. Known collectively by science as "cryptids", they are animals which may exist somewhere in the wild but are not recognized by science for lack of substantial evidence.

The Abominable Snowman, called Yeti in Asia, is just one such creature that legends have sprung up around for decades. This story from the first issue of the men's adventure magazine, RAGE (September, 1960) tells the tale of an encounter with a Yeti in the Himalayas by a so-called "reliable". Sherpa. Whether real or not, it's still rather . . . adventurous.

Yeti or werewolf?

BONUS! What's a men's adventure mag without a pinup? The "Rage Girl" for this issue was the delightful Betty Brosmer, wife of famous bodybuilder, Joe Weider, who flooded comic book pages with his ads. Miss Brosmer was a bodybuilder herself (gee, I have a hard time telling!) and one of the most photographed models of her time.

THE DEVIL'S MUSIC HAS DESTROYED THE YOUTH OF AMERICA!

"Sure the kids love it. And why not? It's the only sexual outlet most of them have" -- A 1950's psychologist explaining the appeal of Rock 'n Roll

It seems like a world away, but at one time, music - in particular, jazz and rock 'n roll  music - was, to use a more modern vilification, demonized by the American Establishment. Moreover, it is interesting to note that in the same decade communism and comic books came under fire as well from these self-professed do-gooders. Although not quite in the same league as McCarthy, I can understand being a little wary of communism . . . but comic books?

According to the so-called "moral majority" of the times, juvenile delinquency ran wild in the streets back in the 50's and 60's, and the afterbirth from this horribly dysfunctional child would later grow up to become another of society's monsters -- political correctness. Dr. Benjamin Spock (d. 1998) wrote his medical manifesto, Baby and Child Care, for every helpless housewife in America. With over 13,000,000 copies sold , it was promoted as "The most widely recommended handbook for parents every published." That a boilerplate "how to" of child rearing could end up to be so popular is only testimony to a surprisingly ignorant and gullible public. When Spock's methods failed, there was always a trip to the psychiatrist, a therapeutic treatment system barely out of infancy and its own dirty diapers.

Time has proven that kids have always rebelled against their parents. Ever vigorous "intervention", more intense therapy, and the use of drugs like the over-prescribed Ritalin can't seem to stem the tide of teenage malcontentism.

But I digress. Music came under fire because it was said to cause in the young listener uninhibited and wanton behavior. That it illicited unwholesome acts like underage sex, while asserted, can nevertheless be disputed as a sole cause. After all, won't kids find any excuse to get into trouble anyway? Again, in the 60's, music was the foundation of the counterculture. The assertion then was that it encouraged drug use, and, again, uninhibited and wanton behavior. The pattern grows monotonous.

In the December, 1956 issue of the men's magazine, RAGE, appeared an article entitled, "Rock 'n Roll: The Sound of Sex", that tried to explain the phenomenon. A few years before the public had witnessed something similar when Frank Sinatra crooned to the ladies. Lead by whom the article describes as a "Kentucky hillbilly", this Elvis Presley was something entirely different: "Sixteen-year-old girls were gouging his name in their arms with pen knives". Even older women "screamed his name".

The article attempts to explain all this by describing rock 'n roll music as an analogue to the sex act itself, replete with suggestive lyrics urging on the frenzied listener to new acts of lust and debasement. While it was then meant to be serious, it can now only be looked at with at least mild amusement by even the most sympathetic of readers.

As if it were planned, the very next issue (RAGE, February 1957) contained what could only in context be called a rebuttle. Written by none other than the "Kentucky hillbilly" himself, Elvis Presley, "There's Nothing Bad About Rock 'N Roll!" was determined to set the record straight.

Oddly enough, there is not really much in the article to substantiate the title's claim. Instead, the humble hillbilly recounts his modest beginnings and sums up his singing of "country" and "rock 'n roll" music by stating, "I never tried to sing any special way. Except the way I wanted to sing. It's like it comes up out of me. I wouldn't try to do anything else than be myself."

Presley goes on to say, "It seems like about every ten years a new style comes along. People jump on it, and right away the critics are out swinging, trying to knock it down."

While a compelling argument is lacking that effectively counters the previous issue's assertions, the man who would be King softens the blow by providing the reader with the portrait of an unassuming country boy who just wants to sing songs for his fans, claiming that they "know what they like." If that is indeed the truth, then the Devil's music will be around for a long time.