GOLDEN STATE NEWS/CLASSIC PUBLICATIONS
According to writer, historian and antiquarian bookdealer Stephen J. Gertz, Classic Publications was owned by "Jules Griffon" (a pseudonym of Edward S. Sullivan) and their mags were distributed by Joel Warner's Golden State News (GSN). Classic Publications seems to have started in late 1968 when they picked up all of the sexploitation titles from other publishers who were also distributed by GSN, publishers such as Orbit, Utopia, New Link, Spectrum, Cine-Arts, and others sharing the same addresses at overlapping, and different, times.
Classic Publications was an illustrious and prolific publisher of some truly classic adult slicks, as well as the vast majority of the sexploitation film mags from 1969 on. On occasion they tended to lapse into unbridled sexual psychedelia and just plain layout wackiness and they usually utilized cartoony line artwork on the covers around the photos.
Trippy poetry and stories were also included in a lot of their many titles from 1969 and ‘70 and they seemed to be trying to emulate the underground hippie sex tabloids that sprung up in 1969. Ed Wood had worked for GSN in the late ‘60s with Bernie Bloom and went with him when Bloom started to package mags for Michael Thevis's Pendulum. Some of the short stories in these Classic Publication mags, which for the most part went uncredited or were pseudonymous, could have been Wood. Whether or not they were Wood’s writing though is almost a moot point as they were strange in-and-of themselves no matter who wrote them.
The Classic Publications ad for their free brochure of “Groovy movie, girlie, nudist books & magazines” that appeared in many of their titles used an illustration from Alice In Wonderland with a word balloon over the Queen’s head, who asked Alice “Do You Know: You are reading a Classic publication?”
Classic Publications/GSN titles included: Torrid Film Reviews, Cinema Scorchers, The Erotic Cinema, Adult Movies Illustrated, Daring Films, Film Inferno, Cinema Close-Up, Wild Screen Reviews, Wildest Films, Eve, Gallery, Fantasy, High Jack, Lure, Captain, Cream & Sugar, String Bean, Turn On, Astral Ape, Man’s Favorite Pastime, Bait, Tease, Handsome Devil, Nude Leaf, Diamond Stud, Eye Full, Groovie, Vision, Nude Lure, Nude Skin, Nudist Bible, Nude Circle, Nude Rise, Pink Silk, Cougar, Rapture, Nude Mood, Open To You, Empress, Sunsation, Foxie, Any Ol’ Nitetime, Undie, Pussycat, Cinerotic, etc.
Orgy - #1 1971 published by Rob-San and distributed by GSN. The brunette model on the left had a scene in Ed Wood's Take It Out In Trade (1970) and the guy in the middle had a part in Wood's The Only House In Town (1971). Both the brunette and goateed male were also in the short subject 8mm film Blast Off! that featured Malta and a young John Holmes.
