Before Out, The Advocate, Genre, and Martha Stewart Living there was After Dark. Maybe the first sexually ambiguous "lifestyle magazine" of its kind, After Dark was first published in 1968 and featured cover stories about gay icons like Shirley Bassey, Bette Midler, and Mae West; it was also notorious for its homoerotic content, with photo spreads and articles featuring porn idols like Casey Donovan and Peter Berlin as well as celebs like Arnold Schwarzenegger (!). Dudetube points us towards a Yahoo! group devoted to the vintage magazine, with some really great scans of the pages. Right now the group is showcasing the June 1970 issue, which features a cover story on photographer Francesco Scavullo. With the sad state of magazine publishing these days, maybe we'd be better off reading thirty-five year old issues of a long-defunct but fondly remembered publication instead?
-DD
·After Dark Yahoo Group (groups.yahoo.com, via Dudetube)