OG Collection
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Exploring the most significant and hidden stories of the 20th century through iconic magazines and the titan of publishing behind them.
Stories (39)
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Viva’s People You Should Know. Top Story - July 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
Launched by Penthouse magazine founder Bob Guccione in the 1970s, Viva magazine was a breaking barriers. It sought to bridge the worlds of fashion, politics, and culture, specifically with a focus on women. Penthouse pushed boundaries in sexual expression, but Viva magazine took a more sophisticated approach. Viva's audience was the progressive and independent women of the era. The magazine’s “People You Should Know” section became a hallmark, introducing readers to political changemakers, fashion icons, and cultural disruptors, while situating these figures within the broader cultural movements of the 1970s. Through these profiles, Viva created a valuable archive for historians, offering a snapshot of the influential personalities who shaped the era’s social landscape.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in History
The Mysterious Life of Teresa Ann Savoy. Top Story - June 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
It is undeniable that the women who graced the covers and pages of magazines including Penthouse and Playboy brought to their publishers the lavish incomes that made figures like Hugh Hefner household names. Despite this impact many of these women do not have substantial biographies that are publicly available, a lack of celebrity that is striking when compared to the prevalence of their image in the public sphere. This lack of fame was purposeful for some, as many women chose to use aliases when published, or disappointing to others who were promised careers as actors or models following their pictorial.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in History
Tina Turner: Contextualizing Visionaries. Top Story - May 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
Vintage magazines from the catalog of General Media reveal that while our understanding of Tina Turner’s style and eventual impact deepened over her lifetime, her greatness was evident and influential immediately. While looking back we might assume there were infinite write ups about the splash made by Turner in the 1970s, instead her ubiquitous persona was referenced as an influence on other artists and pop culture itself.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Beat
Rock and Technology: Tracking Rock History through Omni Magazine. Top Story - May 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame unveiled their 2023 inductees yesterday, renewing conversations around the history and evolution of rock music. Each year of inductees attracts critiques from both ends of the spectrum, with some arguing that inductees stray from the definition of “rock,” and others arguing for further inclusion of the musicians who both inspired the genre and made it relevant each decade.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Beat
From Lou Reed to M*A*S*H: The Status of Bootlegs in 1980. Top Story - April 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
The current era of bootleg media includes illegal recordings of Broadway shows shared through Google Drive, feature films leaked while in theaters due to early streaming dates, and a seemingly impossible amount of times Lana Del Rey has had her laptop stolen. There is a thoroughline from these stories into the past, as fans have secretly shared prized recordings throughout many iterations of media.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Beat
Creating a Portal to the Past - Databasing the OG Collection. Top Story - April 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
Archivists work to make unpublished materials accessible. Through the archival process records become available for research, handwritten notes can be used as tools for learning, and concept sketches lead to artistic inspiration. Large organizations are able to pair these never-before-seen materials with their library catalog, using finding aids with search terms that allow users to discover collections alongside relevant titles, searching by keywords, year, and author.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Viva
Women in the Media, Then and Now. Top Story - March 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
No matter the cutting-edge journalism and pop cultural coverage, Penthouse will always be best known for pictorials of nude women. Likewise, Guccione first and foremost was a purveyor of such images, and it is important to remember in his crusade against censorship he was ultimately fighting to keep up his own magazine sales.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Viva
Valentine’s Day Lessons From Iconic Celebrity Couples. Top Story - February 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
Valentine’s Day conjures up messages for love notes and candy grams for some, plans of movie marathons with good friends for others, and for the pop-culture obsessed images of celebrity love stories might come to mind. These iconic partnerships still provide inspiration in the realms of fashion, artistic production, and activism, from the very 1960s-style wedding of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, to the music inspired by David Bowie’s marriage to Iman, and the philanthropic work of Elton John and David Furnish.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Marriage
Omni Magazine: Pseudoscience Then and Now. Top Story - February 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
For every science-fiction fan who remembers Omni magazine as the first place they encountered the work of Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, or George R. R. Martin, there is another former reader who remembers the increasing number of pages dedicated to UFOs, non-peer reviewed medical recommendations, and paranormal discoveries.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Futurism
M3GAN and OMNI-scient AI Predictions. Top Story - January 2023. Created with: OG Collection.
Over the weekend a film starring a blonde, impeccably dressed, out-for-blood robot swept the box office. “M3GAN” grossed over $30 million domestically opening weekend, behind only James Cameron’s highly anticipated “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Futurism
The OG "Nepo Babies". Created with: OG Collection.
On December 19 Vulture published a collection of stories about “The Year of the Nepo Baby.” The very on-the-internet term has been used to discuss the current rise of celebrities’ children in the entertainment industry, where an actor who emerges from obscurity seems to be the exception and not the rule.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in FYI
Imagining the Curtailed Future of Minx Through Viva. Top Story - December 2022. Created with: OG Collection.
One of the latest casualties of an overhaul of HBO Max done by Warner Bros. Discovery was Minx, a comedy centered on a semi-fictional erotic magazine for women published in 1970s Los Angeles. Despite a strong critical response to the first season, which premiered on March 17, 2022 and holds a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, new leadership at the streamer pulled the series even after a previous renewal and days ahead of production wrapping on the second season. Co-executive producer and star Jake Johnson has since said that filming will wrap and that the Minx team is hoping for a new home for the show.
By OG Collection 3 years ago in Geeks
