6 Lip Service
10 Homebody Strut-Your-Stuff Sweepstakes
14 The Erotic Awards
18 Taylor Evans' X Ratings
20 Indiana's Bump-er Crop Farm Fatales
29 The Cheri Orchard
34 Sin Signs
36 Nudes-A-Poppin' '81
56 Faith (Centerfold)
66 Breast Bets: Eve's Apples
74 Holiday Cleaning: Isabelle
80 'tis the Season to be Holly (Covergirl)
86 New Year's Disillusion
90 Jo Gets Her Jollies
98 Oh Tannenbun: Mary Jane
106 And the Band Splayed On: Lizzie
113 Party Painters: Carol & Marie
Features in This Issue
Covergirl Holly Decks Out Inside
Centerfold Faith Makes It Hard to Believe
Indiana's Home-Groan Farm Girls These Vixens Raise More Than Crops
Yuletide Peeping For Sneaky Santas You'll Flip Your Stack
Miss Nude Galaxy: Orgasmic Orbiting To Blast You Off
About Cheri Canada
The adult magazine, Cheri started publishing in 1976.
Peter Wolff was the brains behind Cheri magazine. God knows, he had the experience and the track record. By 1976, he had already worked on magazines such as Rogue, Topper, Bachelor, Ace, Follies, Frolic, Gala, Tab, Vue, Jaguar, Duke, Stud, Escapade, Daily Girl, Caper, and Gallery, to name but a few. He’d even been the editor of rival magazine High Society.
As indicated in Taschen’s History of Men’s Magazines, “Publishers would hire Peter to start a magazine, and while his magazine would be incredibly innovative and profitable, he’d be partying and obviously having way too much fun. As part of his deal with any publisher, he always insisted on a tab at a convenient bar, with his own table. He was a compulsive gambler and four-pack-a-day smoker. His office was littered with betting stubs, cigarette butts, take-out food, random slides, and manuscripts. His t-shirts and jeans were stained, and his long gray hair was often unwashed: he was fat and not particularly handsome. And yet he managed to have sex with most of the models, through his immense charm and intelligence. He never believed a publisher could fire him, but eventually the drinking, the arrogance, plus spending tons and tons of money, would always be too much for them. So they’d dump him… and get his great ideas.”
But to view Wolff as purely an adult magazine veteran is to underestimate and undervalue him. His first experience as an editor was on a student newspaper at Queens College, when he was active in the Women’s Liberation and Civil Rights Movements, even risking his life in black voter registration drives in the South. He became involved in the world of counter-cultural publications in the late 1960s, before becoming involved in erotic magazines. But Wolff differed from the vision of porn magnates like Hugh Hefner and Bob Guccione in that he had little time for the fantasy world of the beautiful people. He was fascinated in the sexual interests of common men – and their wives. He wanted to democratize the content and involve the readers directly in the magazines he produced.
In early 1976, Carl Ruderman needed a figurehead to divert attention from his position as publisher. He hired Peter Wolff – but Wolff suggested he appoint a nominal female 'publisher' instead. And not just any female – he wanted a glamorous woman already associated with the New York sex scene. Wolff suggested adult film actress Bree Anthony, star of porno hits Oriental Blue, The Vixens of Kung Fu, Highway Hookers, and others. Appointing Bree Anthony proved a smart idea – and selecting her eventual successor, adult film actress Gloria Leonard, an even smarter one.
Wolff was fired by Ruderman after the first two issues, May and June 1976, but soon found a home at Cheri, the magazine that would prove to be his most lasting success.
About the Publisher, Cheri
Magna Publishing Group, Inc. is an American publishing company headquartered in Paramus, New Jersey. Founded in 1975, the company publishes a number of magazine titles and is one of the largest publishers of pornographic magazines in the United States with titles such as Cheri, Club, Swank, Genesis, Gallery, Gent, as well as "nearly 60 total adult titles". The company has only 1 to 10 employees. On December 22, 2015, Magna Publishing Group was purchased by 1-800-PHONESEX for an undisclosed amount.
