Oui (magazine)
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Oui is a men's hardcore pornographic magazine published in the USA and featuring explicit nude photographs of models, with full page pin-ups, centerfolds, interviews and other articles, and cartoons.
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[edit] Playboy years
Oui was originally published in France under the name Lui by Daniel Filipacchi, (first French issue January 1964), as a French equivalent of Playboy. In 1972, Playboy Enterprises purchased the rights for a U.S. edition, changing the name to Oui, and the first issue was published in October of that year. Jon Carroll, formerly assistant editor at Rolling Stone magazine and editor of Rags and later editor of The Village Voice, was selected as the first editor. Arthur Kretchmer, the editor of Playboy, however, had a role in assuring that editorial choices would be in line with Hugh Hefner's vision [1] [2].
The intention was to differentiate the audience in mass-market men's magazines, in an attempt to answer the challenge brought by Penthouse, with its more explicit photography, and therefore compete on multiple fronts. At first Playboy considered a direct response by following Penthouse in a nudity escalation (Pubic Wars), but Playboy management was hesitant to alter the magazine's philosophy, based on a more 'mature' and 'sophisticate' audience (one-third of Playboy's readership at that time was estimated to be over 35 [3]). Instead a separate publication, Oui was introduced in order to pursue a younger readership, offering a combination of "rambunctious editorial slant with uninhibited nudes pictured in the Penthouse mood." [4]
[edit] Article content
In the late seventies, Oui published some interesting articles, including "Is this the man who ate Michael Rockefeller?" (April 1977) by Lorne Blair (lately famous for the Ring of Fire documentaries), beginning with a photograph of a grinning New Guinea native, told by the intrepid anthropologist/reporter who journeyed to New Guinea, interviewed people who had known Michael Rockefeller, then ventured into the jungle and talked to members of the tribe from whom Rockefeller had bought native art artifacts, including totem poles. In the end, he found a man who claimed he had eaten the unfortunate collector.
Oui also hosted several reportages about Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) activity, like the article "CIA vs. USA - The Agency's Plot to Take Over America" by Philip Agee, about an alleged Operation PBPrime, whose leaders were the top four men in the Central Intelligence Agency and whose target was the control of the U.S. government.
In a more humorous vein, Oui also published the essay "The 3 Most Important Things in Life" [1] by Harlan Ellison in its November 1978 issue. The three things in question were sex, violence and labor relations, each illustrated by anecdotes from Ellison's life. The sex anecdote involved a less-than-successful assignation with a young woman; the violence anecdote was about witnessing a murder in a movie theater during a screening of Save the Tiger; and the labor relations anecdote was Ellison's version of the story of his being fired after only one morning at The Walt Disney Company for jokingly suggesting making a pornographic cartoon using the primary Disney characters. The piece has since been republished in Ellison's Stalking the Nightmare and Edgeworks 1.
Oui published short fiction, including a story called "Rock Wars", which is arguably a precursor to the rock band in "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", by Douglas Adams.
A 1977 interview in the magazine of the then 29 year-old emerging actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on issues like sex, drugs, bodybuilding and homosexuality produced some embarrassment twenty five years later to candidate Schwarzenegger in the 2003 California gubernatorial campaign.[5]
[edit] Post Playboy years
In June 1981 Playboy Enterprises ended the Oui experiment. The magazine was sold to Laurant Publishing Ltd. in New York. The new president and chief operating officer was Irwin E. Billman, former executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Penthouse Group[6].
Initially, Laurant Publishing Ltd. featured celebrity nudity, peaking in 1982 with pictorials of Linda Blair, Demi Moore and Pia Zadora. The magazine has since experienced a significant decline in circulation.
The magazine went hardcore, along with many of its competitors, in the early 2000s, featuring couples photosets with penetration.
[edit] Notes and References
- ^ Carroll, Jon: Windy City legend hangs up his cleats San Francisco Chronicle, September 16, 2002
- ^ Carroll, Jon: Arthur Kretchmer tried to warn me San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 2002
- ^ Hefner's Grandchild Time, August 28, 1972
- ^ Adventures in the Skin Trade, Time, Jul. 30, 1973
- ^ Schwarzenegger has 'no memory' of lewd 1977 interview - Candidate says he never lived 'to be a politician' Thursday, August 28, 2003 CNN
- ^ Dougherty, Philip H. New York Times, June 12, 1981
