This isn’t your average Friday Flashback because it’s not about radio or TV at all. In fact, I’m not even sure where these came from. But I suspect my older sister must have bought them, because I can attest I never would have. How they ended up with me is a mystery I may never unravel, but in a long forgotten box, I found them – old teen magazines from 1963 and 1964.
 
Now ordinarily, that wouldn’t mean much. But what’s interesting to me as I thumbed through them for the first time ever was the distinctive dividing line. The stuff from 1963 and early January 1964 was all about names like Elvis, Paul Petersen (of Donna Reed Show fame) Paul Anka, and for some reason, Haley Mills, George Maharis and Richard Chamberlain.
 




 
After February 1964, while those names weren’t forgotten, everything was replaced by the Beatles and the British invasion. It’s almost like someone crossed an invisible date line and the world of teenage-dom had forever changed.
 

 
Here’s a look at some of the more bizarre stories from back then.
 
May The “Fab Fours” Be With You
 
You didn’t have to be a teenage girl to realize the Beatles were something special. Here are a few samples from the publications (including 16 Magazine) that couldn’t get enough of the Lads from Liverpool.
 





 
These items were cheap – two bucks at best – and a lot of kids bought them. I can only imagine (and I don’t mean the famous John Lennon tune) what their value might be today on the collector’s market. If only we knew then what we know now!
 

 
But while the Beatles were on the top of both the music and admiration charts, other groups didn’t get the same love. Check out this “letter to the editor.”
 

 
What He Didn’t Teach Your Children
 
Even after the Beatles landed on these shores, teenage girls still seemed to have an endless fascination with Richard Chamberlain, who played the handsome school teacher Mr. Novak on a weekly NBC series. The irony of the article depicted below can’t be lost on anyone. While Chamberlain was endlessly portrayed as the object of a feminine fantasy, the truth was that he was gay and leading a very hidden life he later said he feared would destroy his career.
 

 
Other articles in the same issue featured Lesley Gore coming out (you should pardon the expression) with dating advice. She, too, would not admit she was a lesbian until decades later. Thankfully, times seemed to have changed for the better. But in the swinging 60s, it was still important you weren’t swinging too far the other way.
 
The Definite Articles
 
There was one magazine I’ve never heard of before or since that had titles so hilarious, I had to include them here – because otherwise you’d think some satirist had made them up. “Intimate Magazine” from October 1964 featured the following stories:
 

 
And who could forget this gripping tale:
 

 
Other must read titles include “The Boys Crashed Our Slumber Party,” “I Wish I Wasn’t Married,” “Ashamed Of My Baby,” “She Used To Be His Wife and Now She Was Back in Town,” and the classic “I’m Bearing Another Man’s Child!” All this for only 30 cents.
 
It’s In The Bag
 
Some of the ads in these things were simply unbelievable and – especially those claiming to clear your pimple-filled face - probably wouldn’t stand up to scrutiny today. But here’s one of my favourites, a product that threatened to be all the rage in the beatnik era, until it wasn’t.
 

 
You could always play your Bongo Bag while going – and listening to – surfing songs by a new group called “The Beach Boys.”
 

 
Other ads touted the latest flick. Like this one. And forget about spoiling the ending. They didn’t want you to tell anyone about the middle of this movie, as the ad’s last line warns.
 

 
And then there’s this campaign, featuring a busy hairstylist. It came out in 1963. By 1969, the woman was no longer working on hair but walking on air. Because Ali McGraw made a huge splash in the movie “Love Story.”
 
         
 
Leave It To Beaver’s Brother
 
I got a kick out of this piece. It came out after the classic “Leave It To Beaver” was cancelled. And it asks the question, “Is It All Over For Tony Dow?” Turns out, it mostly was, although he did surface in some bit parts and turned up as a director on a number of shows in the later decades.
 
Among the programs he guested on: The Love Boat. His character’s name? Wally Cleaver.
 

 
A Change of Address for Bandstand
 
It’s amazing what was considered a “big” story back then. Consider: When Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” left Philadelphia and a daily show for Los Angeles and a weekend only broadcast, many fans were angry. They had become so invested in the young high school-aged dancers on the show that those kids became celebrities and household names – well, depending on your household.
 
But you have to admit this could never happen today – publishing the home addresses of Bandstand’s movers and shakers in a public magazine. But that’s just what they did, likely to the delight of would-be stalkers everywhere.
 

 
If It Has Fans, It’s For Sale
 
It’s really amazing the marketing forces that were unleashed when young people took hold of a trend and made it come alive. (Which was also the slogan for the Pepsi Generation…)
 
When Soupy Sales hit it big in 1966, he had his daily TV show, made appearances on talk and games shows, did personal appearances, recorded a few albums and, oh yeah, got his own comic book from the people who put out Archie Comics. Here’s a sample page:
 

 
Fortunately, the show was a lot funnier. And you didn’t even have to still be on the air to make the grade. The Honeymooners had been off TV for decades when this book was put out.
 

 
This sample page shows this thing might not have been perceived as politically correct today. (Although a character threatening to send his wife to the moon with a “Bang Zoom,” might not stand scrutiny, either.)
 
 
 
But if you weren’t good for a comic book, you could always come out with your own magazine. It’s enough to make you cry uncle. Or, at least, U.N.C.L.E.
 

 
And finally, that might not have been a laughing matter. But an NBC show from 1969 was certainly a “Laugh-In” matter. And so, a magazine was sure to follow. Which it did.
 

 
Tune In Next Week, Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel
 
If you DID tune in next week, you might have seen if your idea won the create-your-own Batman villain contest. The winner received a phone call from the Caped Crusader himself, although there’s no word if it was Adam West from the ABC TV show in 1966. (The loser received two phone calls!)  
 
Still, they’d have to go some to beat the likes of The Joker and The Riddler. But who the hell is Zelda The Great?
 

 
Next week, our final Friday Flashback features some odds and ends you haven’t seen before.