Magazines as Time Capsules: A study in how (little) we have changed

Let no one say this blog does not have a lighter side. Today, with the sun brightly shining I thought I might discuss something that is close to my heart: magazines. I am a firm believer that the age of printed news is long gone, unless you live under a rock in some isolated pocket of wilderness somewhere, chances are you can get faster, fresher news on your mobile phone. But, magazines are a different story altogether, they are designed with content in mind and published to remain a valuable reference for years to come.

Rummaging in my attic recently I spied an old, well worn, cover-less copy of Playboy magazine, September 1974 issue. But before your mind wonders and your scroll button moves down the screen looking for racy images or details, this will not be a discussion of cheap American erotica. The magazine I found was a treasure trove of another kind, albeit, a treasure trove whichever way you look at it, and I’ve looked at it whichever way humanly possible.

It’s a time capsule, a look back at a kinder gentler ‘Americana’, or all things American, which we as Lebanese still idolize shamelessly. It was an age of polyester, extremely short shorts, and political incorrectness, a time when malt liquor, whisky, and cigarettes were advertised in full page color glory. The quality of the images and the ads may cause a modern day ad man to cringe at the thought that they evolved from ‘that’, like a creationist being faced with a distant long lost Ape-man cousin he would rather have remained lost.

“The more you know about Panasonic tape recorders, the harder it is to choose one,” read the ad. It’s simple, direct, if a bit fuzzy on the message, but the image of a man’s head seen swiveling from side to side and four tape recorder models, hammers the message home, in case you did not get it that is. That full page ad was now the torn and crinkled cover of the Playboy magazine, and it’s not even in color! Turning the page, you see an ad for ‘Puerto Rican Rums’, followed by an ad for Wrangler Sportswear in which a pissed off man tugging at a rope, attached to a steer probably, looks behind him to see another man kissing what looks to be either the pissed off man’s wife or girl friend, the message here: You can only wrangle one thing at a time, choose!

Camels, ah yes, we know them as the gentle towering quadrupeds of the desert, in Playboy circa 1974 they're a brand of cigarette, otherwise known as ‘cancer in a paper box.’ In this color ad, a pack of Camels rests gently on a rock, next to a fishing pole overlooking lush green vistas. Just what you want out in nature, the smell of tobacco and the sound of a hacking cough!

What puzzles me about the 70s is their warped fashion sense, everything is tight around the midsection and genitals and the fabric just goes crazy at the lapels, cuffs, and trouser bottoms. Bells anyone? Another thing that takes me back to the zygote stage are the cars, the MGs, the VW bugs in lime green and sunburst orange, and ‘The Fox by Audi’, seen in an ad in the magazine jumping over a crude fence. The cars are actually illustrated by hand. Imgine that!

One full page color ad from the magazine shows a black man, looks like the elderly gentlemen from ‘Sanford and Son’, smiling like he just won the lottery, holding up a can of ‘Colt 45’ malt liquor. So much has changed and yet so much stays the same. Malt liquor, a beer with high alcohol content, according to many claims is marketed at young African Americans and other impoverished communities in the US who continue to suffer from a high rate of alcohol abuse.

In the Playboy Forum’s newsfront section issues like freedom of speech and censorship are discussed. One news item tells us of a school principle who banned the publication of a school newspaper issue he labled ‘too pornographic’ for discussing abortion, pregnancy, contraception, and rape. The article compiled material from the school library and health classes and was later published by a local newspaper which found the stories “not objectionable at all and the content exceptional.” Another news item noted that the board of governors of the Illinois State Bar Association and more than a hundred law enforcement and correctional officers attending a professional seminar urged the decriminalization of marijuana.

One article I found ensconcing was titled ‘Bringing the war home’, in which the author, David M. Rorvik, talks about using technology developed during the Vietnam War to monitor and keep watch on domestic law breakers. The article starts: “We got out of Vietnam, right? So cops are using sensors that were field tested on the Ho Chi Minh trail and surveillance devices they can plant in your brain. Now, if they could just call an air strike at park and 56th.” Well I don’t know about devices planted in the brain, although many alien abductees have said they were implanted with tracking devices by aliens. Aliens and US Government bureaucrats have a lot in common I hear!

But the concerns expressed in the article are universal and still ring true to this day, although night vision equipment is not exactly classified any more, and attaching an electronic device to felons to track their movements is pretty standard in the US these days. Although no where near 25 million Americans have been forced to wear miniature tracking devices, as the article warned.

The author’s concern, understandable for 1974, was that electronic “conditioners” would seek to change and deter the dissident. It wasn’t home grown crime he was worried about, it was law enforcement poking its nose in where it doesn’t belong and limiting free citizen’s political rights to express dissent. The author makes repeated references to ‘Big Brother’ and George Orwell’s 1984. I wonder what he thinks of the Patriot Act?

The fact is, much of the issues expressed between the pages of this magazine, are issues we still struggle with all over the world. How little we have changed indeed.