Linda tells us that my good friend Wally…. I’m sorry, Willow has provided the Just Jot It January Word o’ the Day, cosmopolitan. Willow’s essay was a good one, by the way.
Anyway, 2022 is the 50th anniversary of this!
Seems that in 1972, Helen Gurley Brown, publisher of Cosmopolitan magazine, decided to strike a blow for Women’s Lib against Hugh Hefner and the evil Playboy empire. Playboy became famous (or infamous) for publishing a picture of a naked woman in the centerfold of the magazine each month, and Helen decided, "well, two can play at that game!" She got Burt Reynolds to take off all his clothes, lie on a bearskin rug, cover his junk, and allow their photographer to take pictures of him, and then published the best one in the centerfold of Cosmopolitan. The above went to the subscribers and to the women buying the magazine wherever fine publications like Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Field & Stream, Reader’s Digest, and Modern Maturity were sold.
And the world saw it, and was not impressed.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
I remember this all too well! 😱
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Burt played it for laughs, which defeated the purpose. No doubt Helen Gurley Brown did the same thing. It certainly wasn’t an erotic picture…
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A teeny smidge before my time so until this moment had been completely oblivious… thanks, John, lol.
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You prbably could have done without seeing that…
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From one ” one hand typist to another” Thank you for the follow and not a thank you for the reminder of that image…Have a lovely day, John 🙂
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Not a problem! I wouldn’t have used the picture had there not been a historical significance attached to it. See you soon!
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I fully understand-smile-
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LOL I remember this. I read Cosmo when I was in my early twenties but not so much after I got married.
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Late in life, Reynolds said that he was sorry he did the centerfold. Better late than never…
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OMG, John, ( I got your name right 😜)..
What a brilliant post …what a ghastly photo 💜
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The picture was just awful, but it’s part of ’70’s lore. That was a bizarre decade, even more so than the ’60’s.
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Yes I agree 💕💕
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I remember and boy this will never disappear)
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One of those things you can’t unsee, no matter how hard you try…
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Thankfully at just 12 I escaped seeing that at the time lol
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Burt Reynolds and Loni Anderson(once a couple) have always creeped me out but amazingly they have a fan club
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I understand him, but why her? Or is it one of those personal things that you can’t put your finger on?
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They have always struck me as so smug. I know it is only an image thing. I have no idea what either one is really like. Her Jennifer Marlowe character always drove me up a wall
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From WKRP? That was a weird character. Bailey Quarters was the real heartthrob on that show, IMHO.
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I fogot all about that too. I will admit to seeing that photo though.
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I think everybody saw the picture, and no one was all that impressed by it.
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Agreed
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Good job on the prompt, John. I had forgotten about that issue. Thankfully, I might add.
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Yeah, it’s kind of like a recurring nightmare, isn’t it?
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