Cheetah (magazine)

Short-lived American 1960s music magazine

Cheetah

Debut issue cover

Editor| Lawrence Dietz[1]
Former editors| Jules Siegel
Staff writers| Robert Christgau, Ellen Willis
Categories| Lifestyle
Frequency| Monthly
Format| Magazine
Publisher| Matty Simmons
Total circulation
(1968)| 250,000[2]
Founded| October 1967 (1967-10)
Final issue| May 1968 (1968-05)
Company| Twenty First Century Communications, Inc.
Country| U.S.
Based in| New York City
Language| English

Cheetah was an American rock music and counterculture magazine launched in October 1967.[3][4] Although influential, its run was short-lived,[5] closing in May 1968.[4] The magazine's name was the result of a licensing deal with the popular Cheetah chain of nightclubs, which in 1967 had outlets in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Montreal.[2]

Cheetah aimed to fill "a vital gap that exist[ed] between teen- and teeny-bopper publications and such magazines as Playboy and Esquire."[6] Published by Matty Simmons,[2] a founder of Diners Club,[1] and his partner Leonard Mogel, Cheetah was the first project of their Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. (later known as the publisher of National Lampoon).[7]

Acting as Cheetah's first editor was novelist-journalist Jules Siegel (briefly an associate of Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson),[8] although he was soon replaced by Lawrence Dietz, assisted by Ellen Willis.[9] At the time, a girlfriend of fellow Cheetah writer and music critic Robert Christgau, Willis went on to become the first rock critic for The New Yorker[10] and later wrote for Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and other papers.[11]

## See also

[edit]

* "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" — notable article in Cheetah about Brian Wilson written by Julus Siegel.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b "Magazines: Grownups in Hippieland". Time. TIME USA, LLC. Jan 5, 1968. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
2. ^ a b c Calta, Louis (January 18, 1968). "New Magazine Aims to Help the Overweight; Weight Watchers, a Journal for Obese, on Newstands". The New York Times.
3. ^ "CHEETAH MAGAZINE GOES ON SALE TODAY". The New York Times. September 27, 1967. p. 42\. "Cheetah, a new magazine named after the nightclub organization to which it will pay royalties, goes on sale for the first time today with a press run of 300,000 copies."
4. ^ a b "Cheetah articles, interviews and reviews". Rock's Backpages. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
5. ^ Bennett, Andy; Waksman, Steve (2015). The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music. SAGE Publications. p. 444\. ISBN 978-1-4739-1099-7.
6. ^ Dougherty, Philip H. (November 24, 1969). "National Laughs for Lampoon". Advertising. The New York Times. p. 75.
7. ^ Nashawaty, Chris. "Building Animal House". Entertainment Weekly. Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on 8 February 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
8. ^ Siegel, Jules. "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!". Atavist. Automattic. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
9. ^ Christgau, Robert. "Fining A Hole (Or Wikipedia)". And It Don't Stop. Substack. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
10. ^ Willis, Ellen (1 May 2011). Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music. Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. p. 272\. ISBN 978-0-8166-7283-7. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
11. ^ Lindberg, Ulf (2005). Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers, and Cool-headed Cruisers. Peter Lang. p. 186\. ISBN 978-0-8204-7490-8.

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States

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