The 1950s are sometimes referred to as the Golden Age. Color TV was invented, the polio vaccine was discovered, Disneyland opened in California, and Elvis Presley gyrated his hips on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The Cold War continued as the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union began.
The 1950s also saw segregation ruled illegal in the U.S. and the beginning of the civil rights movement.
Playboy magazine, founded in 1953, achieved great popularity and soon established the market for men’s and lifestyle magazines. Erotic photography soon became closely associated with it and gained increasing public attention.
Founded in 1965, Penthouse magazine went a step further than Playboy and was the first to clearly display genitals, initially covered with pubic hair. The models looked usually directly into the camera, as if they would enter into relationship with the mostly male viewers.
