‘Nova Magazine 1965 – 1975: A History’ By Alice Beard A thesis submitted to the University of London in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Goldsmiths College, December 2013 Declaration I, Alice Beard, herby declare that the material contained within this thesis is my own work. 1 Nova 1965-1975: A History Abstract This thesis provides an original case history of Nova magazine from 1965-1975, and analyses the magazine’s construction, content and consumption through material culture. Nova made a distinct offering to the world of women’s magazines in the Sixties and Seventies and can be defined by its unique synthesis of editorial breadth and visual innovation. The study considers the correlation between a magazine’s intended, implied and realised meanings. In my analysis of Nova, intended meanings are revealed through an examination of the production process; implied meaning is found within the magazine as an object and text; and Nova’s realised meanings are those articulated through oral history by its readers. Interviews with staff cover the four key areas of Nova’s production; Caroline Baker, Fashion Editor 1967-1975; Gillian Cooke, Editor 1970-1975; David Hillman, Art Director 1969-1975; Maggy Meade-King, Features Writer, 1970- 1975. Analysis of these interviews and the design and content of Nova reveals the motivation and ambitions of individual production staff, and evaluates the crucial collaborative practice, creative conflicts and networks of production at the heart of Nova’s making. To better understand magazines, their histories and their futures, it is time that these individuals, working practices and creative networks are both acknowledged and critically evaluated. Recognising the nature and importance of the magazine as composite I adopt a holistic approach as a methodological model for Nova’s analysis. In this thesis I examine the magazine as a whole entity; I analyse its design and contents, alongside a narrative of the processes of its production from its staff and contributors, and consider the use and value of the magazine by its contemporary readers. The agenda for this work, is to plot the processes of production and consumption of Nova in order to reveal the various elements and practices that construct the identity and history of the magazine as a visual, textual and material object. 2 Acknowledgements This thesis would have not been completed without the support of so many people. I must express my deepest gratitude to Sally Alexander for her guidance and advice, matched with intellectual rigour and a sharp critical eye. Sally’s continued support and enthusiasm for this project has kept me going. I would like to thank all the Nova staff I interviewed; Caroline Baker, Gillian Eeley (nee Cooke), David Hillman and Maggy Meade-King - without your collaboration the production history of Nova could not have been told. Thank you also to Mike McInnerney and David Pocknell for the insights they provided about their commissioned illustrations for Nova. The readers I have interviewed have provided invaluable information in understanding and reconstructing the story of Nova’s consumption. I am immensely grateful to Jeannie Davidson, Susan Holder, Catherine Horwood, Deborah Jaffé, Suzanne Perkins, Liz Mason, John Maclachlan, Sue Teddern, Jane Thomas, June Thornton and Muriel Warner for taking the time to tell their stories. Thank you also to all the readers from the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand who competed the ‘Remembering Nova’ questionnaire, and to Robyn Daw and Michael Desmond for their correspondence. I am very grateful to The Women’s Library for their assistance in organizing and hosting the ‘Remembering Nova’ oral history project. Many thanks to Jarvis Cocker for allowing me to view and photograph his Nova collection and the unpublished launch material. I am indebted to Frank Cartledge, Carol Tulloch, Geraldine Biddle-Perry and Djurdja Bartlett for their constructive feedback on early drafts, and to Vivienne Richmond and Angela Phillips at Goldsmiths for their useful suggestions at my upgrade examination. Thank you to my colleagues in the School of Art and Design History for their support and encouragement, to Kingston University for financial support and research funding, and to Gloria Bassoli for her accurate transcriptions. 3 Finally I would like to offer my deepest thanks to my long-suffering family - for their belief in me, and their continued encouragement; May, Pauline, Sophie, Stuart, Greta, John, Wendy, Eliza, Louis, Nell, Mack, Sylvie, Lesley, Graham and Ellie. Thank to my sister for the many, many hours spent transcribing, editing and formatting, and to my mother for all her help and support. And thank you to my husband Louis for your undeterred confidence, interest, questions, ideas and patience. And finally a special thank you to my little daughter Sylvie who has been so patient and who will be so pleased I have finished! 4 Table of Contents Declaration 1 Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3-4 Table of Contents 5-6 List of Illustrations 7-20 Introduction: Photo Essay 21-24 Introduction 25-60 Analysing Women’s Magazines Reading Women’s Magazines The ‘New Woman’ Audience The Reader: Real & Imagined Remembering Nova: Reader Interviews Material Memories Production Studies Production Staff Interviews Design History and Magazine Design Fashion Photography Structure Chapter One: Photo Essay 61-92 Chapter One: Production History: ‘A New Kind of Magazine for the New Kind of Woman’ 93-143 A New Concept: The Dummy Issue, Advertisers and Trade Issue One: March 1965 Rivals Designing the Magazine: Content and Image Developing Readers Troubles 5 Chapter Two: Photo Essay 144-177 Chapter Two: ‘All Dressed and Made Up’: Fashion in Nova 178-226 Introduction Fashion Pages to ‘Make you Think about Colour’: Molly Parkin, Fashion Editor 1965-67 Rethinking Fashion: Caroline Baker, Fashion Editor 1967-1975 Anti-Fashion: A Fashion Statement Collage, Cut Ups and Pull-Outs: Designing Fashion Editorial ‘All Dressed and Made Up’: Narrating Fashion Editorial ‘Adding up The Look’: Fashion as a Mannerism Dressed Overall: Fashion, Function and Reform Conclusion Chapter Three: Photo Essay 227-277 Chapter Three: ‘Making Raids on the Real World’: Editorial Content and Design 278-332 Introduction Nova World Editorial Focus: Driving Change ‘Women’s Affairs’, Sex and the Body Designing Editorial: Image and Text Conclusion Conclusion A ‘New Kind of Magazine for the New Kind of Woman’? 333-350 Editorial Contribution Controversy and Conflict Designing Nova Rethinking Fashion Editorial Failure? Nova’s Legacy Production Networks and Collaborative Practice A Community of Readers Bibliography 351-371 Appendix 6 Introduction List of Illustrations Figure 1 Evidence of a reader ‘cutting along the seams’ of Nova’s graphic design. ‘Daring Duds of May’ by Caroline Baker, photographs by Peter Knapp. Nova, May 1970. Figure 2 Photograph of my parent’s living room showing a cork-board collage containing pages cut out from Nova. 1968. Figure 3 Photograph of Suzanne Perkins in her office space at ‘Yost’s Department Store’ in Wisconsin. Her pin board is decorated with pages torn out of Nova. 1967 Figure 4 ‘The Cardigan Is Borrowed but the Shoes Are Mine ...’, by Brigid Keenan, photographs by Steve Hiett, Nova, September 1967 7 Chapter One: Production History: ‘A New Kind of Magazine for the New Kind of Woman’ List of Illustrations Figure 1 Nova Dummy Issue Folder, 1964 Figure 2 Nova Dummy Issue Front Cover, 1964 Figure 3 Statement of Editorial Intent, Nova Dummy Issue 1964 Figure 4 Nova Dummy Issue, Inside Cover Figure 5 Nova Dummy Issue, ‘A New Advertising Medium’, 1964 Figure 6 Nova Dummy Issue, ‘The AA Woman’, 1964 Figure 7 Nova Dummy Issue, Advertising Rates, 1964 Figure 8 Nova Advertisement ‘For the Woman who isn’t Afraid of Virginia Woolf’, Observer, Sunday, March 07, 1965 Figure 9 Advertisements for Dereta Dandycoats and Austin Cars, Nova March 1965 Figure 10 Advertisement for Reaffirm by Dorothy Gray, Nova March 1965 Figure 11 Advertisement for Poly hair colourant, Nova March 1965 Figure 12 Advertisement for Ceylon New Nylon by Courtaulds , Nova March 1965 Figure 13 Advertisement for Orlon Air India, Nova March 1965 Figure 14 Cover, Nova Issue 1, March 1965 Figure 15 Cover, Vogue 15th March 1965 8 Figure 16 ‘Blondes’, Vogue 15th March 1965 Figure 17 Selection of covers from Queen, 1963-1965 Figures 18-19 ‘One woman in her day’, by Jill Butterfield. Nova March 1965, Figure 20 ‘Stars of the subtitle circuit’, by Christopher Booker. Nova March1965 Figure 21 ‘British Painting in the 1930s’, by Frank Whitford, Nova March 1965, Figure 22 ‘The Reading Revolution for Tots,’ by Anne Scott-James, Nova March 1965 Figure 23 ‘Doctors and Adultery, and the Muddle of Medical Ethics Today’, by Brian Inglis, Nova March 1965 Figure 24 ‘Marriage Roundabout, One Couple’s Experience of Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage: A Documentary’, by Alma Birk MP, Nova March 1965 Figure 25 ‘Isometric exercises’, by Jill Butterfield, photographs by Peter Rand, Nova March 1965 Figure 26 ‘Happy Families 1965,’, by Angela Ince, Illustrations by Robin Ince, Nova March 1965 Figure 27 ‘Do Your Legs Give you Away?’ by Jill Butterfield, photographs by Roy Cuthbert, Nova March 1965 Figure 28 Cover, WM 13th November 1965 Figure 29 Cover, WM 18th October 1965 Figure 30 Cover, Nova January 1966 Figure 31 ‘Looking-Glass War’, by Elizabeth Williamson, Nova, January 1966, 9 Figure 32 ‘Frigidity’ by a Doctor, Nova January 1966, pp., 56-57 Figure 33 Molly Parkin