Скрю: История американского порножурнала

American pornographic magazine

Screw is a pornographic online magazine published in the United States aimed at heterosexual men; it was originally published as a weekly tabloid newspaper. The publication, which was described as "raunchy, obnoxious, usually disgusting, and sometimes political", was a pioneer in bringing hardcore pornography into the American mainstream during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Founder Al Goldstein won a series of nationally significant court cases addressing obscenity. At its peak, Screw sold 140,000 copies a week.

In November 1968 in New York, Al Goldstein and his partner Jim Buckley, investing $175 each, founded Screw as a weekly underground newspaper. Beginning in 1969, Screw co founder Jim Buckley founded Screw's "sister" tabloid Gay, edited by Screw columnists Jack Nichols and Lige Clarke. Contributors to Gay included Dick Leitsch, Randy Wicker, Lilli Vincenz, Peter Fisher, John Paul Hudson, Arthur Bell, Vito Russo, and George Weinberg. Gay reached "a broad audience and went on to become the most profitable LGBT newspaper in the U. S.;" it continued until early 1974. In 1973, Screw published nude photos of former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which led to scandal — and issue sales of more than a half million copies. (Nude photos of Onassis had previously appeared in the Italian softcore magazine Playmen and later were published by the American hardcore magazine Hustler.) Goldstein tried, unsuccessfully, to expand Screw's reach beyond New York City. In 1976–1977 National Screw was published, only lasting nine issues. The June 1977 issue of the magazine contained, according to its cover, a new story by William Burroughs and an interview with Allen Ginsberg. Other issues contained original adult comic strip work from cartooning legends Wally Wood and Will Eisner. In 1979–1980, Goldstein's company, Milky Way Productions, published Screw West out of an office in Hollywood, California. According to an advertisement, it was intended to answer such questions as, "Where can I get laid in San Francisco? What's the best swinger's club in Los Angeles? How do I find all those out of the way Pacific Coast nude beaches? And what are those bawdy brothels outside Las Vegas really like?" Screw West is known to have published 54 issues. One of Goldstein's best friends was Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine, founded seven years after Screw. Goldstein claimed that Hustler stole its format from Screw, but that he was not angry. According to Goldstein, Flynt succeeded in creating a national publication, at which he had failed. Screw folded in 2003, unable to make payroll; only 600 copies were sold of the last issue.

In 2004 the Screw periodical was restarted by former employees led by Kevin Hein, with writer Mike Edison coming onboard as the new editor. (Edison had started writing as a freelancer for Screw almost two decades earlier years before.) In late 2006 Edison announced that he was leaving the editor in chief position. Soon after, in 2007, Screw ceased physical publication as the title neared, but did not reach, its 2,000th issue. Original founder Al Goldstein died in 2013. On November 4, 2020, the 52nd anniversary of its initial launch, Screw resumed publishing in digital only format, published by Autelitano (as "Phil Italiano") and Autelitano Media Group of Miami, Florida.

In 1974, publishers Goldstein and Buckley were charged with 12 counts of obscenity in a federal court in Kansas. (Goldstein believed that the case began as a result of Screw May 1969 article, "Is J. Edgar Hoover a Fag?") In 1977, Alabama governor George Wallace sued Screw for $5 million for publishing the claim that he had learned to perform sexual acts from reading the magazine. The two parties settled for $12,500, and Screw agreed to print an apology. In 1978, Screw set in motion a precedent setting case that established fair use protections for publication of registered trademarks in sexually explicit parodies in the United States. Known as Pillsbury Co. v. Milky Way Productions, the case stemmed from an illustration in Screw depicting a figure resembling the Pillsbury Dough Boy in various lewd sexual acts, including fellatio and sexual intercourse. The parody also featured Pillsbury's barrelhead trademark and two lines from the refrain of a two stanza song entitled "The Pillsbury Baking Song". The illustration was published in the February 20, 1978, issue of Screw. The Pillsbury Company filed an initial complaint several weeks after the original publication of the cartoon, contending that the manner in which the magazine presented the picture implied that Pillsbury placed it in the magazine as an advertisement. Pillsbury alleged several counts of copyright infringement, federal statutory, common law trademark infringement, violations of the Georgia Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act and of the Georgia "anti dilution" statute, and several counts of tortious tarnishment of its marks, trade characters, and jingle. The judge presiding in the case issued a temporary injunction against Screw on April 21, 1978, which the defendant disobeyed. Ultimately, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia held that the pictures were editorial or social commentary and, thus, protected under fair use.

Larry Brill and Les Waldstein were the original designers for Screw, having earlier designed Famous Monsters of Filmland and other Jim Warren publications in the late 1960s. Brill and Waldstein later went on to become the publishers of The Monster Times. Steven Heller later served as the paper's art director, before moving on to The New York Times. Artist René Moncada became a major contributor to Screw beginning in the late 1960s, which provided an outlet for the artist's early erotic illustrations, and a forum for his later anti censorship diatribes. A number of underground and alternative cartoonists got their start doing illustrations and comics for Screw, including Bill Griffith, Milton Knight, Leslie Cabarga, Drew Friedman, Tony Millionaire, Eric Drooker, Kaz, Danny Hellman, Glenn Head, Bob Fingerman, Michael Kupperman, and Molly Crabapple. Spain Rodriguez contributed cover art to more than a dozen issues of Screw from 1976 to 1998. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Paul Kirchner did several dozen covers for the publication. "Good girl" artist Bill Ward also did a number of covers for Screw. Writer Josh Alan Friedman's first published work was for Screw in the late 1970s. He continued to write for the magazine for several years, eventually holding the position of Senior Editor through 1982. He covered the Times Square beat for Screw during a perilous time when few, if any writers, ventured there. He also worked as a producer on Screw's cable television show, Midnight Blue. David Aaron Clark edited Screw for five years in the early 1990s.

In 1973, "Screw Magazine present[ed]" It Happened in Hollywood, a pornographic movie produced by Jim Buckley. At the Second Annual New York Erotic Film Festival it won awards for Best Picture, Best Female Performance, and Best Supporting Actor. In 1974 Goldstein began Screw Magazine of the Air, soon renamed Midnight Blue, a thrice weekly hour long adult oriented public access television program that ran for nearly 30 years on Manhattan Cable's Channel J. Selling dildos brought one of Goldstein's many arrests.