Old School Black Magazine Covers

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Actor Howard Rollins on the August 1982 cover of GQ at the height of his Ragtime fame.



Rashid Silvera on the April 1983 cover of GQ. His appearance would mark the last time a Black male model would appear on a GQ cover. Subsequent Black cover subjects have all been athletes and entertainers.



Charles Williamson and Sheila Johnson on the October 1981 cover of GQ.



Renauld White on the November 1979 cover of GQ. He was the first Black American model to appear on the cover of American GQ. In June 2010, he appeared on CNN with Beverly Johnson to discuss Black models.



Billy Dee Williams on the cover of GQ, October 1980.





Whitney Houston on the November 1981 cover of Seventeen magazine.



Diana Sands and Alan Alda on the February 1965 cover of @EBONYmag.



Fashion Shows Are Big Business for Models Like Cordie King - Jet Magazine, April 3, 1952 on Flickr.

[qnswmn]

Wow, Howard Rollins was soooooo fine!

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Mable Lee, “Queen of the Soundies” on the March 1947 cover of Ebony. Ms. Lee is 90 years old today and still performing! Via Vintage Black Glamour Facebook fan Cherisse Bradley.



Iman on Cosmoplitan France. Pretty.



Lois Towles, acclaimed concert pianist and sister of pioneering model Dorothea Towles.  A graduate of Wiley College (of “The Great Debaters” fame) she sang with Fisk University’s choir and later became a member of the school’s music faculty.



Model, actress, singer and writer Mauryne Brent. She appeared in the 1948 film Come On, Cowboy! with Mantan Moreland and was a cousin of jazz pianist and composer Billy Taylor.



Dorothy Dandridge’s groundbreaking Life magazine cover from November 1954.



Naomi Sims on the August 1973 cover of Cosmopolitan.



Daphne Maxwell (now Reid) on the October 1969 cover of Glamour. She was the first black model to appear on the cover.



Chatting about Sammy Davis Jr. on VBG’s Facebook page put me in a Sammy kind of mood tonight. Here he is on the September 1967 cover of GQ. He was the first Black man to appear on the cover.



Carol DiPasalegne on the November 18, 1965 cover of Jet. This was one of three covers that featured the 1960s Ebony Fashion Fair commentator, Playboy club singer and United Airlines flight attendant.

[Sigh]

Why did German women want negro husbands?
Loving these old covers.  Thanks, Ms. San!

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Hilda Simms, a popular actress best known for her starring role in the first all-black production of Anna Lucasta on Broadway in 1944, on the January 1954 issue of Hue.



Legendary dancer Carmen de Lavallade on the cover of the June 30, 1954 issue of Hue magazine, a Johnson publication.



Terri Springer, the “undisputed star of Ebony Fashion Fair from 1959-1964”, on the September 3, 1964 issue of Jet.



Actress Nina Mae McKinney on the March 1930 cover of The Crisis.



Theresa Harris on the September 11, 1952 cover of Jet. The article talks about how she had been typecast as a maid in her 20-year-movie career. Ms. Harris was hopeful about being tested with Billy Eckstine for the film Skirts Ahoy and was quoted as saying, “All I can do is keep on plugging and hoping.”



Lena Horne & Duke Ellington on the October 1949 cover of Ebony.



Diahann Carroll on the April 15, 1954 cover of Jet. Ms. Carroll has a special relationship with Ebony and Jet. She began her career as a model for Ebony in 1952 (pre-Ebony Fashion Fair which began in 1956), has appeared on numerous covers over the years and was once married to the Managing Editor for Jet, Robert DeLeon. Fifteen years her junior, he was killed in a car crash at age 26 in 1977.



Mary Elizabeth Vroman on the cover of Jet, October 13, 1952.  Her short story, “See How They Run” was published in the June 1952 issue of Ladies Home Journal and adapted into the 1953 film, “Bright Road” which starred Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte.



The Mysterious B-movie actress Acquanetta on the Feb. 14, 1952 cover of Jet. She was featured in a three-paged spread on her life and career - but was she black? Hint: Probably…



What Happens To Beauty Queens?  Jet, March 20, 1952.



Diana Ross on the July 1973 cover of Ebony with daughters Tracee and Rhonda.



Eartha Kitt on the cover of Tempo magazine, May 2, 1955.



Minnie Riperton with a fabulous afro. And eyelashes. #naturalhair

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Loving these old covers.  Thanks, Ms. San!

No problem...

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Urs Althaus on the cover of GQ, November 1977. The Swiss-Nigerian was the first Black model to appear on the cover of American GQ.



Pat Cleveland and Ted Dawson on the cover of GQ, Winter 1973.



Diahann Carroll on the July 1962 cover of Ebony.



The inaugural issue of Essence, May 1970. The model is Barbara Cheeseborough.



Bobbi Cote: The Actress Who Became Bald.



Why Hollywood Won’t Glamorize Negro Girls

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