Here's A Look At The First Issues Of Various Famous Magazines

Mental Floss posted this great article that gives us a look into how the first issues of magazines such as Time, People, Wired, Playboy, ESPN, and more looked like. It even gives a brief summary as to what each issue was about. 

Some of them started in our time and some of them way before. It gives us a sharp contrast to what they are like today and how they've changed along the way. With the times changing, it will be fascinating to see how they take a turn in the years to come.

Here are a few of them posted below. To check out the full article, head on over to Mental Floss.

Time Magazine

Date: March 3, 1923

The cover was a portrait of House Speaker Joseph G. Cannon. Content consisted of short news bulletins, an ad for All America Cables ("when time is short and minutes count use the direct cable facilities to Central America, South America, Cuba, Porto Rico other West Indies") and, strangely, imaginary interviews with Jack Dempsey, the boy Emperor of China, John D. Rockefeller, and Princess Yolanda of Italy.

PEOPLE

Date: Match 4, 1974

The cover nods to Mia Farrow's role in The Great Gatsby and William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist ("a sermon nobody sleeps through"). Inside, the story of a female bail bondsman and a particularly insensitive item from the Medics column called "Two Fatties get a new kind of lock jaw" about two overweight women who had their mouths cemented shut in order to lose weight.

NEW YORK MAGAZINE

Date: April 8, 1968

On the cover, "Tom Wolfe Tells if You're a Honk or a Wonk," and inside, ads for Chut-Nut (an "exotic colonial chutney") and Canada's plot to conquer the U.S. with their refreshing Red Rose Tea.

PLAYBOY

Date: December 1953

Hugh Hefner and his friend, Eldon Sellers, sold 53,991 copies of the first Playboy from a makeshift office in Hef's kitchen. The magazine, which was undated because no one knew if there would be a second, was enormously popular... thanks in no small part to Marilyn Monroe, who graced both the cover and the centerfold. And the articles, too, which everyone read.

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED

Date: August 16, 1954

The cover was a photo titled "Night Baseball in Milwaukee," showing slugger Eddie Matthews mid-swing. "Duel of the Four Minute Men: Bannister surges to victory in the heart-stirring Vancouver mile" was the big story, but the best feature was an ad for A. Harris Company Velvet Jeans: "With rhinestones flashing, our famous jeans salute the Wonderful World of Sport." Available in Italian twill-back velveteen with black, red, royal, peacock blue, or tangerine(!) stitching for only $17.95.

To check out the full article, head on over to Mental Floss.

[Via Mental Floss]