THOSE NUDIST MAGAZINES

The importance of the nudist magazines  in getting members for all nudist clubs should never be underestimated. We smile when we read in other club bulletins, such naive remarks as “We don't want the kind of people who read these magazines.” What stupidity! We want people ...period. If they have a sincere interest in our way of life, or even if they haven't but they take one look at our warm sociable atmosphere and decide to conform to our mores, let them in, give them a chance to prove they can be good members. You can no more determine a person's suitability for membership by what he reads than by asking what he eats! And if you should ever try then you would need to have a wholesale housecleaning of those who are already members and happen to read the wrong magazines or eat the wrong diet. Back to the magazines... we know how expensive and time consuming it can be to find new members when you do NOT have nudist magazines. None were allowed into Canada prior to 1958, so we had to make all our publicity, pay for advertising (IF papers would accept), it as a rough go. Nudist clubs everywhere in California and near populated portions of the East have enjoyed phenomenal growth in recent years. Why? We think because all of a sudden so many nudist magazines have been competing for new outlets, reaching more open minds, finally bringing more enquiries to our gates. The only clubs which have stood still are those in remote areas where the magazines are NOT generally available. Now, we'll go out on a limb and predict that some of our nudists will soon be happy, for along with those which have already gone into the limbo we think a lot more of the nudist magazines will soon disappear from the stands. Too late then, or perhaps too blind even to understand why, many clubs will find their enquiries drying up, their memberships dwindling, and then the wiser ones will have to start scratching for members... the hard way.

Ray Connett

(Source: The Bulletin, Official Journal of the Members of the American Sunbathing Association, volume 17 Number 5, May, 1967, page 2; originally appeared in Glen Eden Sidelights)