[flv:http://blog.unzipped.net/video/Mavetytest%20-%20Computer.m4v 650 320]
(The above video is NSFW, as it shows porn magazines.)
Aside from the irony of a gay porn magazine company that’s shrinking its own offerings reporting on another gay porn magazine company that went bust, we rather liked Unzipped‘s vignette about Mavety Media Group, which closed up shop in May and shuttered Mandate, Torso, Honcho, Inches, and Playguy.
Founder George Mavety, who was straight, also published rags like Juggs. But he went into the gay market for two reasons: 1) To make some sweet, sweet cash; and 2) Because he felt the gays deserved their own quality porn rag, like Playboy. Now how honorable is that?
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
drewbrown
very nice tribute to this straight ally. i was especially moved by the part about the height of the aids epidemic, when they kept all of the staff employed even if they became ill and could no longer work.
JohnMCoxJr
Always nice to see something by a self righteous individual who wasn’t there in the bad old days and knows nothing of history.
Yes, George did what he did for moola and he made tons. He was horrible to the folks who worked for him.
None the less what he did took the Gay press out of porn shops and put them on newsstands and paved the way for the national Gay Press.
Bad people sometimes do good things without intending to. It was done to increase sales but it made us mainstream and respectable so Gay men didn’t need to sneak into porn stores.
I’m always by these same righteous individuals who look down on nude images just like the right wings hate mongers who revile us. Mandate at the beginning covered the arts and had nudes and was out, unlike the self hating homosexuals at After Dark.
Mandate was never a rag. It was the first openly Gay magazine the homophobic record labels acknowledged. I was getting over a hundred LPs a month from being on the comp list.
We always had to depend on heterosexuals to move forward back then as the Gay people in the establishment were closeted. Donald Embinder was a Gay crook who screwed over everyone and then went into hiding. In Touch’s Frank Roedel was just as bad if not worse than George.
It’s a good idea to know history before you shoot your mouth off.
drewbrown
@JohnMCoxJr: ew, venom much?
JohnMCoxJr
Go read if you know how to:
http://championstudios.net/crypt/modernhomo/
Michael vdB
We all have our deamons in our closets but that doesn’t mean that defines us as our life in every perspective. I am 33 and still find it facinating the stories and the area and the fights for freedoms we take for granted. It is through stories like this that people can understand where we have come from…the good and the bad. It is still apart of our history.
Michael vdB
Sorry…”facinating the stories and the era…”
Norm Wilson
Who the hell are you JohnMCoxJr? I was there almost from the beginning of Modernismo and In Touch. The gay community had no better friends than George Mavety and Frank Roedell. The fact that they were businessmen and had to do what was necessary to survive in the 1970’s when the attitude of America was decidedly anti gay does not you give you the right to nitpick about whether they were nice guys or not.They did more than most people living or dead for human rights in the world. You should be ashamed. You’re a punk.
Chris
@JohnMCoxJr:
I was there with Donald through the 80s with Casey and Michael Romanello, during the University Man days and I think you could not be any further off base…I am a straight guy who worked for Donald and he treated me and those around me very well
Michael Romanello
Indeed, who is the JohnMCox?
Michael Romanello
Indeed, who is this JohnMCox?