After Dark May 1968

Here it is! The very first issue of After Dark magazine. Featured on the cover is a photo of Pzazz! '68, the Donn Arden show at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. The photo by Zoran Veljkovic shows dance star Shirley Kirkes.

You can tell by this first issue that the publishers and editors were still trying to get their format down and it would be a few issues before they reached their stride, but this first issue did have some high points. In addition to the feature on Las Vegas, they also spotlighted the work of Spencer Tracy who passed away the year before and was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor posthumously a couple of months before this issue was released for his role in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.



His impressive body of work included:
Man's Castle with Marjorie Rambeau and Loretta Young;

Captains Courageous with Lionel Barrymore and Freddie Bartholomew;

Boy's Town with Bobs Watson;

Northwest Passage;

Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo;

Cass Timberlane with Lana Turner;

State of the Union with Angela Lansbury and Adolphe Menjou;

Adam's Rib with Judy Holiday, Katharine Hepburn and Eve March;

Father's Little Dividend;

Pat and Mike with Katharine Hepburn;

Bad Day at Black Rock with Ernest Borgnine;

The Desk Set with Katharine Hepburn;

The Old Man and the Sea;

Inherit the Wind with Frederic March;

The Last Hurrah with Edward Brophy, Pat O'Brien, James Gleason and Ricardo Cortez;

and Judgment at Nuremburg.


This issue did have a small (and I mean small) fashion layout. Usually, at least one of the photos would be full page, but the whole fashion layout fit on one page with very small photos:





Artists Yayoi Kusama and Robert Indiana were also spotlighted with their work.


I had never heard of the musical version of Othello called Catch My Soul, until I was looking at the work done by Susan Tyrrell. The cast album featured her singing "Tickle His Fancy", but I've never seen photos from it until this issue arrived in my mailbox.


More on this issue later.

After Dark January 1978

Part One: This issue is going to have to broken down into three parts. It's one of the better issue with so many photos to feature and things to talk about.

The cover, featuring Patrick Branch, is a lead-in to the Key West features in this issue, but I've decided to wait until part three to post those photos.

A short piece on the silver-screen couture by Allen Florio led into a photographic essay on the ladies we've all come to adore.

Louise Brooks in a black silk dress designed by Howard Greer.

Greta Garbo in the 1932 film Mata Hari was wearing Adrian.

Adrian also designed this costume for Hedy Lamarr in Ziegfeld Girl.

In Gilda, Rita Hayworth was wearing costumes like this one designed by Jean Louis.

Travis Banton created the "Paramount look" of the 30's and his greatest inspiration was Marlene Dietrich.

One of the most famous names in costume design in the movies was Edith Head, who designed this number for Ginger Rogers.

Cobra Lady star Maria Montez in a Vera West design.

When Judy Garland transitioned from ingenue to glamour gal, Howard Shoup designed her dress.

Scarlett O'Hara wouldn't be the same without the costumes of Walter Plunkett who designed the barbarcue dress for Vivien Leigh.

Helen Rose designed this white chiffon trimmed in black lace for Lana Turner.

Barbara Stanwyck looking every bit the part of the Lady of Burlesque was wearing another Edith Head design.

Known as one of the best dressed women, Lucille Ball in Lover Come Back was wearing a wool suit by Travis Banton.

Finally, The Little Foxes featured Bette Davis wearing Orry-Kelly's costumes.

With the release of their album Beauty on a Back Street, Hall and Oates took some time out to speak to Chris Huizenga about their history and their future. Daryl Hall and John Oates were shifting gears from being the Average White Band that Atlantic Records wanted them to be--to the rockers they wanted to be.



Punk rocker Patti Smith in a photo from 1972 featuring her former boyfriend Sam Shepard was recording another album for Arista Records.

Lotte Lenya, known for her film roles in From Russia With Love and The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone not to mention making her mark as the original Jenny in Threepenny Opera, made a cameo in Burt Reynold's film Semi-Tough.

That's it for part one. Part two will feature a couple of films and a couple of dancers.