Eros Magazine / issue 1 / spring 1962



One of the cheeky mailers that
got Ginzburg into trouble

A quarterly magazine on love and sex…in America…in 1962? Not a chance. Publisher Ralph Ginzburg got off to a flying start by sending out three million mailers to Americans of higher income and intelligence describing the contents of his new venture which more or less guaranteed it would get noticed. He probably got more than he bargained for because the postal authorities swung into action and accused him of sending filth through the mail.

    Looking back the first issue seems pretty tame stuff but issue two had sixteen pages of replies to his mailers confirming, of course, that America was a deeply conservative nation and had no need for this particular publication.

    Eros only ran for four issues and with Ginzburg facing criminal charges that was that. But what great issues they were thanks to Art Director Herb Lubalin. First off the size was impressive: thirteen inches deep by ten wide; stiff board covers (the first issue had a playing card stuck on the front) and several different papers inside; glossy for photos using 133, 150 and 175 screens for the letterpress and litho printing; text was on two kinds of matt art.

    One of the striking things about the issue was no advertising (what company would want to be included anyway) and this certainly makes it seem like a lavishly produced book, though it does create some design problems for Mr Lubalin.  Only printing 75,000 copies. Here’s the first issue and as Ralph Ginzburg kept on pointing out in the mailers: “Eros is already on its way to becoming a collector’s item”.

Issue 2 is in the March 2012 archive, 3 is in November 2012 and 4 in April 2013.





Eros issue two is in the March 2012 archive



Union Camp historical personality folders

Four clever paper samples from Union Camp (now part of International Paper) which solved the problem of having a selection of papers and how to bind them.  Each of the folders open out to four pages and the various printed items are stuck into the folder.

   On the front there is separately printed name card inserted into tabs. Inside different papers have been used relevant to what was required for the item. Mata Hari’s Passport is printed, litho and silkscreen, on a thick stock, a letter she wrote in 1915 is printed two color on a light bond paper.  The credits say with a perfumed in, too

   The cardboard LP record (remember those!) in the Florence Ziegfeld folder was four-color printed, cut to size, embossed on special record pressing equipment. In the Harry Houdini one there is a seventeen page flip-book. The Manolete folder has First Aid inset with a simulated sticking plaster inside.

    It’s an interesting choice of personalities which allows for a nice selection of historical facsimile material. There are no design credits or dates but I think they were published in the Seventies.