Tuesday, September 16, 2003 5:11 PM
The Press Club barely had time to breathe after our 45th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards gala, held June 21, because we moved our offices down the block to a new sweet suite at 6464 Sunset Boulevard in late August. The heavy lifting was handled by Executive Director Diana Ljungaeus, Treasurer Alicia Flanary, fel- low boardmember Benoit Clair and a couple of Benoit’s gracious French pals
who now live in Los Angeles.
This is a club that knows how to put on a great gig even with the hubbub of the gala and relocation. Proof positive was the August 14 happening to celebrate the launch of club member Adam Parfrey’s
dazzling and wacky new book “It’s a Man’s World: Men’s Adventure Magazines, the Postwar Pulps.”
This nearly 300-page tome explores the wild and oft-times twisted genre of “men’s” magazines that enjoyed great popularity following World War II but eventually faded due to competition from Playboy and other magazines.
Some of my fave mag covers, photographed and reprinted in outstanding quality, include “Rugged Men,” “Sir!” and a memorable “Men In Conflict” cover that features a Nazi brunette beauty ready to skin a hapless American hero in order to make him into a lampshade.
If this seems like strong (albeit erotic, offensive
and violent) stuff, it wasn’t too odious to scare off the
Los Angeles Times. The July 27 cover of the paper’s
Book Review supplement featured Gary Indiana’s
review of the book, entitled “Cold War Babylon,”
which reprinted an illustration, on its cover, of a
blonde woman being flailed by a Fidel Castro look-
alike. Indiana notes that the “feverishly vivid illustra-
tions Parfrey has assembled, (are) readily linked to notions of mas- culinity that seemed firmly in place throughout World War II and embattled ever after.”
Heavy stuff, indeed, for the Times to publish – especially consid- ering the art. Adam was pleasantly surprised. “It was amazing. I
wasn’t expecting that. (Times Book Review Editor) Steve Wasserman had some guts to do that – that’s for sure.”
The affair was organized by Amy Alkon, Emmanuelle Richard, and Cathy Seipp and began with a viewing of this remarkable work at La Luz de Jesus in east Hollywood. Adam gave a Q&A on the illustrators before adjourning to Michael’s Room, a hip restaurant on Vermont Avenue. Accompanying Adam was Jonathan Parfrey, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. These gents are brothers and the sons of character actor Woodrow Parfrey, who played Dr. Maximus in the original “Planet of the Apes,” and numerous roles in Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” flicks.
Amy, the “Advice Goddess,” looked amazing in a coral-orange hat that accented her fabulous face. Cathy, who has known Adam since their UCLA days, was ever the gracious host and a real hoot. I
almost forgot that my girlfriend Sharon McKenna, former editor of the Ventura County Reporter, and now my writing partner, would have clocked me since I almost fell in love with the hap- pily married Emmanuelle. Sharon is the reason that I won first place for best Investigative/ Series for papers under 100,000 circulation for our “Rocketdyne Ranch” slew of articles at the Club’s June Awards ceremony. Sharon and I know how to bring it on. And we ain’t done—as evi- denced by our recent work in a bunch of local alternative week- lies.
Other hot names in journalism I saw at the event included the L.A. Weekly’s Christine Pelisek
and my former “Offbeat” L.A. Weekly editor, Gale Holland who guid- ed me in rocking the rails regarding Rocketdyne. This fine woman now works for the Los Angeles Daily Journal.
All in all, it was a fantastic event. See you all at the next one or I’ll have to come looking for you!
