Description
By the late 1950s, Playboy had cracked open a market that publishers rushed to fill: men’s magazines blending risqué photography with humor, short fiction, and tongue-in-cheek social commentary. Outfits like Rogue, Gent, Nugget, and Cavalcade emerged almost overnight, each angling for readers looking for something a little more daring than Esquire, — but not as underground as the early “Tijuana bibles”. Cloud 9 was one of the short-lived players in this space, published out of Studio City California. Glossy pin-ups, double-entendre article titles, and pulp illustrations made these titles both of-the-moment and highly collectible today, since many only lasted a handful of issues before vanishing.
What makes this copy truly unusual—and the reason it stood out to me—is the black-and-white amateur snapshot stapled to the front cover. The photo shows a woman asleep on a sofa, her face and hairstyle strongly resembling the cover model herself. Sure enough. That’s the cover girl! Since Cloud 9 didn’t identify their models, her name remains a mystery. (Unless you know?) More mystery to add to this cool piece: was this stapled on by a proud (or heartbroken) boyfriend who once dated her? Is that him snoozing with her, too? Could it have been an inside-joke at the newsstand? Or was it an artifact of someone’s private scrapbook, later finding its way back into “circulation” at the flea market where I found it? The mystery is all the fun! Either way, the combination of professional studio glamour and off-guard snapshot transforms this issue from just another men’s magazine into a one-of-a-kind collector’s curiosity.
A scarce mid-century men’s magazine that’s already collectible on its own—made by the mysterious snapshot attached to the cover. A conversation piece for any vintage men’s magazine collection.
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