Gentry magazine

Hype for the launch of a magazine: '"A new type of magazine will either elate the top 100,000 thinking men in this country, or be a miserable flop". This frank and frankly snobbish advertising heralded the advent of a new quarterly, Gentry, which appeared last week…' This story from Time magazine could have been written any time over the past fifty years but actually appeared on October 29, 1951 (read the whole thing here).

Same old hype, but what was Gentry? It was a beautifully designed magazine for men, visually in the style of better-known titles of the time like Show and Flair. Here are some spreads from issue one, featuring tip-ins of real material in fashion stories and (!?) a sachet of the herb marjoram.

The contents spread.

The image of an idealised, naked, man can be lifted to reveal…

…the blood system…

…and again for the skeleton.

A piece about Finnish steambaths includes a pul-out blueprint design.

A tipped-in piece of cloth.

So thats what marjoram looks like.

(thanks to Ben and Warren for the link)