From: paul krassner
Sent: 5/15/2019 12:17:32 AM
To: George Krassner i ick kazon i Vrisnan02 Rebecca Risman | Linda W. Grossman
Subject: rather long and a few typos
REMEMBERING CAVALIER MAGAZINE LAUNCHING A MAGAZINE
My friend Michael Simmons, who has been the editor of National Lampoon and High Times, observes that Cavalier hired fine scribes. A few examples: Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, William Saroyman, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon. Cavalier was launched by Fawcett
Publications in 1952.
Men’s magazine Cavalier (motto: “For the American Male”) was published the year before Playboy to whom it has often been compared, and back in the day tried to be seen as slightly hipper, more youthful and considered a bit more clever than its big name rival. Almost an anti-establishment Playboy. A slogan stated: “Your dad bought Playboy, you
bought Cavalier.” I BECAME A COLUMNIST
I was invited to write a column, named “The Naked Emperor,” for Cavalier, that was beginning to publish underground writers and artists. They paid me $1,000 a month. My first column was a report on an auction of two-inch squares from the hotel bedsheets slept on by the Beatles during
their first trip to America.
There were 300 screaming young girls, off on a fetishist’s holiday. Obviously, there wouldn’t be enough items to go around, but it was announced that the Beatles’ unwashed towels and bed linens were to be cut into two-inch squares and sold for $1 each. The price included a notarized
statement of authenticity.
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_031973