#303303 - GALA 8 4 1957

Gala, Volume 8, Number 4
Gala Magazine Corporation
New York, New York
1957

digital replica

The premise here flows from the cheerful conviction that women are wonderful and looking at barely dressed girls, especially those that smile, delights regular guys. In keeping with the nameplate, there's a lot to celebrate here — an abundance of pulchritude, professionally posed and photographed.

It's 1957 and the publisher's aware that above-the-counter newsstand standards don't permit display of female nipples. Limbs and costumes concealed most forbidden flesh. Where they didn't, darkroom techniques erase dangerous buds.

About half the settings look like beaches. There, models in bathing suits, many two-piece, expose lovely figures while reclining on the right side of propriety.

Indoor photo shoots benefit from lacy panties and other frilly lingerie. Hosiery consists of fishnets, tights and stockings, held in place by garters. But this isn't a fetish magazine, except as photographs objectify the alluring assets of pinup models. Heels don't exceed three inches.

A model may be presented on one or two pages. But many pages show two or three. Talent includes Wendy Wilde, Martha Roberts, Joyce Kyle, Meg Myles, and Celia Fields.

The text consists of nonsense, often expressed with puns involving names or places. Layouts pretend to discuss blonds, beaches and adult playgrounds.

Advertisements also have nostalgia value, with many product titles that include the word stag — Stag Stories for Men, Stag Package, Hollywood Stag Club, Intimate Stag Stories, and Stag Party Classics. Movies and photo sets offer images of Lynne O'Niell, Bettie Page, Sheree North, Lili St. Cyr, and Evelyn West.

Two ads promote Burmel Publishing Co. products. Many ads offer books, comics, booklets, magazines, movies, phonograph records, and photographs from both sides of the Atlantic. Others address problems of hair loss, physique and loneliness.

The digital replica includes all content of the 72-page magazine in the original page sequence. Some borders, margins, walls and floors were cropped out. Some page layout were revised.

Brightness, contrast and levels were adjusted, shadows reduced and many specks re-touched. Most pictures transposed to ebook format with clarity and smooth gradients.

All new scans.

One ebook, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.