Thursday, September 24, 2009

John Kennedy's First Magazine Cover. My 100th Post!


I just noticed that I had made 99 posts since this blog began so I wanted to add another as soon as possible to cross the century mark. There's plenty more material to talk about among the 276 years of American popular culture residing in various niches of my abode.

Here's one item that's a lot of fun that I've never seen discussed.
Pic magazine was one of the more successsful picture magazines created following the tremendous success of LIFE in 1936. Others that made significant impacts were LOOK and Click, and I have at least two dozen others that were of lesser consequence.
The first newstand issue of LOOK,volume one number two (notice the dark blob over the left eye of Franklin Roosevelt, lots more about that in my upcoming book!) and the first issue of Click, featuring Dorothy Lamour.
The first issue of Pic has Joe DiMaggio on the cover (probably his first). I have one but its too large for my scanner. The issue of Pic that I find most intriguing is the one illustrated above- It is basically a campaign advertisement for the 1946 congressional campaign of John F. Kennedy, undoubtedly published through the influence of his father Joseph P. Kennedy (don't get me started on this anti-semitic, bootlegging, disgraced ambassador), who ordained John as a future president after the death of his oldest son, Joe, during an incredibly dangerous mission during WWII. Interestingly, JFK is not referred to within the magazine. He may have been seen in earlier publications but this his first cover appearance.
Just another of many great magazine covers and the start of quite an interesting political career.

1 comment:

darwination said...

Congratulations on 100 posts, you have a very interesting blog here. Keep it up!