OZ Spots: Covers & Autos

Cleo - The magazine, sex and women

In March 2016, a mighty explosion took place in Australian magazine-land! The controversial magazine Cleo was shutting up shop.

The magazine, which for 44 years, had hunted down everything related with bachelors, sex and centrefolds to become one of the best read journal’s in Australia by women.
At Cleo, they described the magazine as “Australia’s paper giant.”

When Cleo arrived in 1972, it created excitement and pizazz in Australia. I remember the issue that contained the ‘seductive’ Jack Thompson centrefold was truly a knockout. 

Of all the centrefolds published over the years, none have ‘caused a stir’ like Jack’s.

“My centrefold was part of the liberating of women and I’m happy to be a part of that sense of freedom,” said Jack. 
 

The first and last issue of Cleo.
 

Cleo was caught up in Helen Reddy’s emphatic declaration “I am woman, hear me roar”, a statement the Australian women responded to “in droves”.

“By the early 90s, Cleo was the highest selling women’s lifestyle magazine, per capita, in the world,” the magazine said.

As a young mother, Ita Buttrose, was never considered “the most of likely of people to head up a controversial new women’s magazine” like Cleo. There were thousands upon thousands of young women who had a yearning for the “new sexual revolution.”

In her editorial, she wrote:  “Like us, certain aspects of women’s lib appeal to you but you’re not aggressive about it.”

The model, Jesinta Campbell, did the first cover. She said: “It was the first cover I ever shot for any publication in Australia”. And then again. “Then I shot the final issue, which was an absolute honour.”

Launched in 1972: 200,000 copies. Final issue: Over 54,000 copies.

Creating Cleo was one of the bravest decisions ever made in publishing in Australia.

ITA Magazine failed for various reasons

In her published autobiography, A Passionate Life, Ita Buttrose goes to great pains in defending her decision to  name a magazine after herself. Buttrose, unsurprisingly, said she could not understand to fuss.

She was not the first in this country to do so; the list of eponymous publications is impressive.
At the time many critics and industry commentators thought that her decision was “extreme folly” and “a bit irrelevant”.
 

ITA magazine, 1993.  Nearing the end of its sojourn.
 

ITA magazine, “For the woman who wasn’t born yesterday", was given birth in 1989, with great fanfare and, purportedly, a big future ahead of it. It ran out of stream in July 1994.

The magazine failed for various reasons … but there is no doubt that it will be last meaningful, self-titled publication launched in Australia produced by an Australian editor.

Autos we loved!

Hydrogen, a fuel to run our engines on clean air. Some experts called it ‘the fuel of the future.’
 

“HYDROGEN IS A FUEL OF OUR FUTURE”, SAID THE 1972 SATURDAY EVENING POST. “IT IS A GOOD FUTURE, PERHAPS EVEN BETTER THAN OUR PRESENT”. THE ENGINES, WHICH WE NOW USE FOR TRANSPORTATION, ARE THE PRINCIPAL AND MOST UNMANAGEABLE SOURCES OF AIR POLLUTION. WHETHER THE ENGINES BURN GASOLINE, DIESEL FUEL, OR KEROSENE, THEY ALL POLLUTE. BUT SOMETHING VERY WONDERFUL HAPPENS: HYDROGEN. IT’S SUBSTITUTED FOR THE PETROLEUM FUELS, THE INTERNAL-COMBUSTION ENGINE STOPS POLLUTING! MAYBE, SUBSTITUTING HYDROGEN FOR THE PETROLEUM FUELS, IS ONE OF THE ANSWERS. (IN 2014, WRITE THE AUTHOR, HYDROGEN ARE BUILDING FUEL DEPORTS NOW IN AUSTRALIAN.) – FM.

Fast Forward: ITA Magazine