1966-present]

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Vincent80

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Added: Feb 11, 2021 4:16 pm Subject: Mayfair [UK/English/1966-present]

Mayfair is a British adult magazine for men. Founded in 1966, it was designed as a response to US magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse, which had recently launched in the UK. For many years, it claimed the largest distribution of any men's magazine in the UK. It is a softcore magazine, and thus is available in newsagents, although some larger retailers require a modesty bag to hide the cover.

Mayfair was launched by Fisk Publishing Ltd in 1966 with an August cover date. The company was controlled by Brian Fisk. Its first editor was David Campbell, and its first deputy editor was Graham Masterton. Its second editor was Woman's Own veteran Kenneth Bound. As well as nudes, Mayfair featured short stories and serious articles on such "male" interests as classic cars, trains, and military history. In its early years, one regular contributor of fiction and nonfiction was American author William S. Burroughs (who became an associate of Masterton's; Masterton later gave Burroughs a posthumous co-author credit on his novel Rules of Duel).

A regular feature for many years was Quest, "the laboratory of human response", interviews purportedly with ordinary people (each issue featuring separate conversations with two women and one man, and occasionally couples) about sex matters, and graphic descriptions of sexual encounters. Graham Masterton initially wrote Quest as fiction, but later interviewed real people to inform the article. Another regular feature was a long-running cartoon strip featuring the misadventures of Carrie, a nubile blonde who lost her clothes in various embarrassing situations.

In 1968, Mayfair took over rival King, which had been launched in 1964, initially with backing from Paul Raymond.

The December issue of each year was usually double-sized, and featured a "review" of the models seen in previous issues. For many years, this was from the previous year, e.g. the review in Volume 16, Number 12 (December 1981) featured the models seen throughout Volume 15 (January to December 1980). In 1982, a separate and nominally annual Best of Mayfair supplement was introduced, reprinting the full photo sets and other items. This was followed in 1988 by a similar Girls of Summer supplement.

In August 1972, Mayfair featured the regular comic-strip adventures of "Carrie" with story and fully painted artwork by Don Lawrence. The strip ran for two pages a month for most issues over the next 17 years. Don Lawrence left at the end of 1975, and Mario Capaldi drew the strip from January 1976 to May 1977. In June 1977, Steve Kingston took over.

Most of the models featured were "girl next door" types whom the accompanying text claimed to be new to such work. Their pictures would be accompanied by descriptions of their everyday lives and jobs, including that of telephonists, secretaries, shopkeepers, etc. Page 3 girls were also regular features. Some of the early ones would appear full frontal (tabloid papers such as The Sun only featured topless images), but in the late 1980s most such as Samantha Fox and Maria Whittaker would only do topless appearances.

Occasionally couples, male and female models and sets of two or more girls together (though lesbianism was usually implied rather than made obvious) were featured.

In March 1982, Robert Maxwell reached an agreement to buy Mayfair from Yvonne Fisk (widow of founder Brian). However, Bound persuaded Maxwell to let him mount a management buyout, instead.

Many aspects of the magazine changed when, after 24 years as editor, Kenneth Bound agreed to sell the magazine to Paul Raymond Publications. The last issue from Bound/Fisk was Volume 26 Number 1 (January 1990), at which time the magazine had a net paid circulation of 295,646 according to the UK Audit Bureau of Circulations.