Man to Man

Man-to-Man was one of the first men's pulps to turn to a more obviously softcore 'girlie magazine' format, featuring photographic covers and more adult orientated content.  For the months leading up to this switch, the magazine feature painted covers, but far more salacious and revealing than those that had preceded them.  This is one of the later examples, from January 1965, featuring more nudity than usual, but still falling short of being explicit.  During this transitional period, this style of cover was combined with the regular men's magazine content, as witnessed by the story titles featured on this issue.  The cover painting itself illustrates 'Cannibal Bride of Petty Officer Morey' which, judging by the attacking aircraft, is another tale of World War Two US sailor shipwrecked on a Pacific island full of beautiful naked but savage women.  Obviously, his red-blooded American virility tames the savage women and sets them against the Japanese.  The cover leaves us in no doubt as to exactly how he tames them.

In addition we have an expose: 'Sin on Wheels: America's New Trailer Park Tootsies'.  An early example, I assume, of the US media's obsession with 'trailer trash'.  The demonisation of those who live in non-permanent homes has an obvious analogy in the UK press' treatment of the travelling community: a blanket characterisation of anyone who lived in a trailer or caravan as thieves, fraudsters and violent thugs.  Last up, we have a 'book length' feature in the form of 'Gigantic Passions'.  Apparently, 'everything was big about wrestler Jody Clark - including her need for a man to match her, lust for lust'.  Although presented as a 'true story' (note the 'by Jody Clark, as told to con Sellers' byline), the story is, in fact, fiction.  There never was a real wrestler called Jody Clark and Con Sellers was a prolific author of 'sleaze' paperbacks and men's adventure stories.  'Gigantic Passions' clearly falls into the former category.

A couple of issues later Man to Man had adopted photographic covers, a new logo and had started its switch to more adult-orientated content.  In this format, the magazine survived to the early eighties, by which time its previous identity as a men's adventure magazine had long been forgotten.