Screw (magazine)
"Screw" is a pornographic online magazine published in the United States aimed at heterosexual men; originally published as a weekly tabloid newspaper with a statement on the cover offering, "Jerk-Off Entertainment for Men". It was first published in-print in November 1968 by Al Goldstein and Jim Buckley (who edited the short-lived "sister" tabloid Gay), and was printed weekly in tabloid form. At its peak, Screw sold 140,000 copies a week. Founder Al Goldstein won a series of nationally significant court cases addressing obscenity and First Amendment rights.
On May 2, 1969, Screw published the first reference in print to J. Edgar Hoover's sexuality, entitled "Is J. Edgar Hoover a Fag?"
The Eulenspiegel Society (the first BDSM organization founded in the United States) was founded in 1971 in New York City by Pat Bond (he was a music teacher) and Fran Nowve, as an informal association and support group for masochists; sadists joined shortly after in that same year. Bond placed an ad in Screw in December 1970, reading:
- Masochist? Happy? Is it curable? Does psychiatry help? Is a satisfactory life-style possible? There's women's lib, black lib, gay lib, etc. Isn't it time we put something together?"
Screw's most successful issue, published in 1973, contained unauthorized photos of Jacqueline Kennedy nude.
Stripper and erotic performance artist Honeysuckle Divine wrote a column, "Diary of a Dirty Broad", for Screw for several years. According to Goldstein, her act "was unbelievably disgusting, so naturally, we made her our symbol." She also appeared in Goldstein's movie, SOS: Screw on the Screen.
In 1974, Goldstein and Buckley were charged with 12 counts of obscenity in a federal court in Kansas. The case dragged on for three years through two trials and was finally settled when Goldstein agreed to pay a $30,000 fine.
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.
The magazine suspended publication in October 2003. A New Screw Review was briefly restarted by former employees in 2005.
In 2019, Screw returned as an adult, subscription-based television channel ("SCREW TV") on Roku developed and produced by long-time Goldstein friend and associate Phil Autelitano.
On November 4, 2020, the 52nd anniversary of its initial launch, Screw resumed publishing in digital-only format, published by SCREW TV producer Phil Autelitano (as "Phil Italiano") and Autelitano Media Group of Miami, FL.
SCREW MAGAZINE - “The World’s Greatest Newspaper" - was founded in 1968 by Al Goldstein. Begun as a response to a burgeoning sexual revolution and to the air-brushed soft-pedaled sexuality in magazines such as Playboy, Screw set out to be the most outrageous magazine of its type. Printed weekly in tabloid form, the magazine quickly succeeded, reaching a circulation of 500,000, and making armies of enemies among conservatives and the “moral hypocrites" in government that Screw had vowed to fight.
Screw is best known for its alarmingly frank representation of sex, in both lurid photographs and prose that has continually pushed close to the edges of protected speech. Founder Al Goldstein has won a series of obscenity cases.
In 1974, Al Goldstein told Playboy magazine, “We lead the league in tastelessness. Our photographs are filthier and our stories more disgusting. We make no effort to be artistic."
Screw’s embrace of the film Deep Throat guaranteed the film’s success and simulataneously ensured Screw’s place in publishing and as an innovator and trend-setter.
Over the years Screw has become known for its vicious attacks on celebrities, politicians, and pretty much anyone who has crossed Goldstein, from car rentals to local restaurants.
Screw is also legendary for its covers, which have featured a Who’s Who of American underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, Vaughn Bodé, Wally Wood, and Danny Hellman.
In 1982, Goldstein was sued by the Pillsbury Company after their “doughboy" logotype was spoofed in Screw. Goldstein won that case and the right to parody corporate logos is now firmly entrenched as protected speech.
In the 1990s, as business began to slip due to new competition from free adult weeklies and the internet, Goldstein became weighed down in a feud with his son Jordan and began filling the magazine with personal attacks against his “ex-son" and his ex-wife. Many observers noted that as Goldstein’s famous hate rants became more heated, the magazine lost focus and drifted from its editorial goals.
In 2003, after suffering through several well-publicized harassment trials, ill health, reckless spending and mismanagement, Screw declared bankruptcy. Goldstein, never responding adequately to an adult market now dominated by the internet, said at the time "we are an anachronism; we are dinosaurs; we are elephants going to the bone cemetery to die.... The delivery system has changed, and we have to change with it if we want to survive."
Later that year Screw was purchased and re-launched by DJK Productions, a consortium of former employees. Former High Times publisher Mike Edison, himself a former Screw freelancer, was named as editor-in-chief. He is only the second person to hold that position in thirty-five years.
Screw is now published bi-weekly with a circulation of 20,000.
In almost forty years of continuous publication, there have been almost 2,000 issues of Screw, making it one of the most durable and long-lasting publications in American history.
The first Screw movie, produced by Joe Gallant and Kenny Law, will be released in 2007.
SCREW ORIGINAL MISSION STATEMENT (From issue No. 1, 1968)
WHAT WE STAND FOR: Screw welcomes you to the first issue of the most exciting new publication in the history of the West,. You are on the virgin trip of the first magazine-newspaper that gives sex a break and makes no bones about it. People f*** and do other things to each to other - whatever it is, we won’t knock it. In the ear or up the nostril - it’s your bag and it’s your business. We promise never to ink out a pubic hair or chalk out an organ. We apologize for nothing. We will uncover the entire world of sex. We’ll be the Consumer Reports of sex. We will lay it on the line, and on the bed, floor, the beachheads of the world and then lay it on the line until the whole world gets the message - SEX IS FUN.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Screw_(magazine) ]
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