User:Sockton/sandbox

Artist

 * photographer
 * holmes
 * longest editor
 * Joseph Nazel

Writers

 * wanda coleman
 * iceberg slim (Robert Black)
 * Donald Gaines

Models

 * Players Magazine's definition of a woman suitable to be featured often fluctuated. Where initially "Morriss and Weinstock had only three requirements for women to be featured in the magazine: the models had to look like they were eighteen years old, they had to have European features, and they had to have large breasts"  Emory Holmes returned to the Players staff as editor for a second stint, first in 1975 and later in 1981, where Holmes made changes to the magazine to refocus on "soldiers" and "prisoners". The early Morriss and Weinstock version of Players magazine turned many investors away as it was considered "so low-minded, low-rent, vulgar, and unconscionable." But Holmes reached out to gain support from these investors in his second appearance as editor in an attempt to change the image of Players magazine. "[Homes] started putting girls in the magazine that [he] would want to date, Sometimes they did have big tits. Sometimes they just had golden eyes, or a luscious smile, or an intense gaze, or something else that was just indefinable, ineffable." Holmes indicates a shift in the magazine's selection and portrayal of models, with an increased focus around class signifiers, in terms of clothing, subject matter, or the women's bodies/features themselves, all in hopes of ditching Players' low-tier reputation and reframing it as a high class magazine.

Ajita Wilson
Often featured in Players Magazine, Ajita Wilson is an international model and Trans-woman who was considered "Holloway House's ideal black woman."


 * must look 18
 * have european features (link to other group)
 * boobs



Distribution/Buisiness

 * tagline
 * "for he who is"
 * tarety audience
 * black, working class, prisons
 * created to address "identity crisis"
 * politoal themes
 * Bosses
 * Ralph Weinstock
 * Joe Nazel

Fluctuation in Content
The creative direction that Players Magazine reached for in their content oftentimes changed. Whereas "by the mid-1970s, Holloway House and Players Magazine had developed an effective formula for publishing black material. Morriss and Weinstock created specific rules, dictating the kind of texts that could be published in Players. Stories about African American history, black politics, international black issues, or African American arts such as sculpture or painting were prohibited. In the minds of Morriss and Weinstock, the only marketable black material was 'authentic' ghetto literature" " Players' formula grew so strict that it included explicit rules surrounding acceptable, publishable content. "[Players] could never publish any story about blacks in history...No stories about the slave trade. No stories about emancipation. No stories about blacks in history at all... no stories about Jamaica's Trenchtown, or South Africa, or apartheid...You can do stories about music, but not about these arts that no one is interested in. Paintings, sculpture, and classical jazz...No stories about politics" This strict policy on content later fell as Emory Holmes gained access to content as editor of Players Magazine where the direction focused on relevant content.

Works Cited (Other)
LAVELLE, KATHERINE L. “A Critical Discourse Analysis of Black Masculinity in NBA Game Commentary.” The Howard Journal of Communications2010, 294–314.