Short-lived American 1960s music magazine
Cheetah Debut issue cover
Editor Lawrence Dietz[1] Former editors Jules Siegel Staff writers Robert Christgau , Ellen Willis Categories Lifestyle Frequency Monthly Format Magazine Publisher Matty Simmons Total circulation (1968) 250,000[2] Founded October 1967 (1967-10 ) Final issue May 1968 (1968-05 ) Company Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. Country U.S. Based in New York City Language English
Cheetah was an American rock music and counterculture magazine launched in October 1967.[3] [4] Although influential, its run was short-lived,[5] closing in May 1968.[4] The magazine's name was the result of a licensing deal with the popular Cheetah chain of nightclubs , which in 1967 had outlets in New York City , Los Angeles , Chicago , and Montreal .[2]
Cheetah aimed to fill "a vital gap that exist[ed] between teen- and teeny-bopper publications and such magazines as Playboy and Esquire ."[6] Published by Matty Simmons ,[2] a founder of Diners Club ,[1] and his partner Leonard Mogel, Cheetah was the first project of their Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. (later known as the publisher of National Lampoon ).[7]
Acting as Cheetah 's first editor was novelist-journalist Jules Siegel (briefly an associate of Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson ),[8] although he was soon replaced by Lawrence Dietz, assisted by Ellen Willis .[9] At the time, a girlfriend of fellow Cheetah writer and music critic Robert Christgau , Willis went on to become the first rock critic for The New Yorker [10] and later wrote for Rolling Stone , Village Voice , and other papers.[11]
See also
References
^ a b "Magazines: Grownups in Hippieland" . Time . TIME USA, LLC. Jan 5, 1968. Retrieved 27 October 2023 .
^ a b c Calta, Louis (January 18, 1968). "New Magazine Aims to Help the Overweight; Weight Watchers, a Journal for Obese, on Newstands" . The New York Times .
^ "CHEETAH MAGAZINE GOES ON SALE TODAY" . The New York Times . September 27, 1967. p. 42. Cheetah, a new magazine named after the nightclub organization to which it will pay royalties, goes on sale for the first time today with a press run of 300,000 copies.
^ a b "Cheetah articles, interviews and reviews" . Rock's Backpages . Retrieved October 2, 2023 .
^ Bennett, Andy; Waksman, Steve (2015). The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music . SAGE Publications. p. 444. ISBN 978-1-4739-1099-7 .
^ Dougherty, Philip H. (November 24, 1969). "National Laughs for Lampoon" . Advertising. The New York Times . p. 75.
^ Nashawaty, Chris. "Building Animal House" . Entertainment Weekly . Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2023 .
^ Siegel, Jules. "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" . Atavist . Automattic. Retrieved 27 October 2023 .
^ Christgau, Robert. "Fining A Hole (Or Wikipedia)" . And It Don't Stop . Substack. Retrieved 27 October 2023 .
^ Willis, Ellen (1 May 2011). Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music . Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-8166-7283-7 . Retrieved 27 October 2023 .
^ Lindberg, Ulf (2005). Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers, and Cool-headed Cruisers . Peter Lang. p. 186. ISBN 978-0-8204-7490-8 .