Bikini Girl Pinups
IN 2021, MAGNUM will celebrate its 45th anniversary. It all started in May 1976, and if you were old enough then to spend 50c on a magazine, one of the new choices on the shop shelves was SA MAN.
The blurb under the masthead read: the new magazine for men of action .It was an era when political correctness was not topping any priority lists and the cover photo depicted a female model wearing a yellow bikini and a single-action revolver in a leather holster. The centre-spread showed a lady wearing only a brown bikini, a Stetson, cowboy boots and the aforementioned single-action six-shooter.
Interestingly, the ‘bikini’ or scantily clad ladies graced the covers of only the first three editions (May, June, July 1976). The August edition had a Colt Government Mk IV in .45 ACP on the cover, setting the trend for the future. ‘Handguns for Defence’, ‘How to Load Your Own Ammo’, and ‘Shooters’ Clinic’ (Answers to your toughest questions) featured as cover lines. Today these words are still used in hunting and shooting magazines. This is testament to the fact that the recipe used by the then editor, Theo Martins, is still relevant today and probably the reason
Magnum is still around after 45 years, catering for ‘men (and women) of action’. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. To further reinforce this point, in the first edition Bob Barker wrote, “Let me devote part of the first Gun Talk column to the spectacle of women who deign to tell us what to do with our guns. That is something that riles me, particularly when it comes in the form of such feminine folly as was fed to us recently by a woman reporter of a Sunday newspaper. She did not like the ease, according to her, with which firearm licences are obtained.” The rest of the piece makes for interesting reading, defending the right to possess firearms. Publishing it today might draw criticism from female readers due to its tone, but the point is that since the inception of SA MAN, the written debate on whether private citizens should have the right to possess arms was on. During my tenure I have not put much emphasis on this issue as I do not want to ‘preach to the converted’, and yes, I have a woman who all too often tells me not to buy more firearms.
The first SA MAN also included a Wheels section and the Chevy Nomad was the first to feature. Bill Holland described it as a surprising vehicle which is “the answer to our prayers”. “It will do almost everything an active man could reasonably ask for… the Nomad is a car, a jeep and a tractor rolled into one.” Well, I saw several Nomads as a kid, and although popular in certain circles, I think Bill’s description was a bit over optimistic. However, thinking back had me realizing how lucky we are with all the outdoor and leisure vehicle options we currently have. Of course, the local introduction of the double-cab changed our lives significantly, enabling us to own a car and bakkie all-in-one.
Some of the first adverts were for cigarettes (Senior Service) and alcohol (100 Pipers Scotch and Bols Brandy), and of course, the Nomad. In June 1977, you could go hunting in the Ellisras district, forking out R150 for a kudu, R50 per impala and a warthog would set you back R30. Town & Farmers Supply in Kempton Park had 9mmp ammo available at R7.20 per box of 50 and Kempton City Sports could supply you with a 9mmp Star BKM for R290, while a ‘LDP parabellum pistol’ (Kommando semi-auto carbine) with a 25-round magazine and weighing ‘approximately’ 3kg, could be ordered for a rather stiff R425. Comparatively, a Brno hunting rifle cost only R385, and to own a Beretta Musgrave Veld semiauto shotgun required a deposit of R76.46 and nine monthly payments of R33.06.
However, what about 2021, 45 years later? As you are well-aware by now, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced us to change from a monthly magazine to eight editions per year. We were hoping for an improvement during the new year but with a ‘second wave’ sweeping the world, it is difficult to predict what comes next. Any stricter lock-downs adversely affect us, especially with the distribution of the magazine. However, we plan to stick to our schedule with combined editions for January/february, then also for March/april 2021. For May, June, July and August we’ll produce monthly editions, after which we will (for now) revert back to the bi-monthly/monthly cycle.
Under the ever-changing conditions we are trying to adapt as best we can and with fewer editions we have to consider our selection of articles even more carefully than usual to ensure the right mix. Now, more than ever, we need to know what you prefer to read, so that we can keep on ‘hitting the spot’. Visit our website (www.manmagnum.com) or send an email to mail@manmagnum.co.za to express your views. Here’s to another 45 years of Magnum.