ONE FREEWHEELING '70s ADULT MAGAZINE TOOK SEX TO A MORE STYLISH LEVEL. OUI MAGAZINE MADE SAYING YES FEEL RIGHT
The 1970s brought America one of the classiest magazines ever to let its boobs hang out. It was called Oui. The year was 1972; renegade, pube-baring Penthouse was nipping at Playboy’s heels. To compete, Hugh Hefner adapted the wild-and-woolly French magazine Lui for his horny U.S. audience, subtitling it “for the man of the world.” Freed from the constraints of the bunny hutch, Oui’s models were sleeker, more exotic, and a bit more casual with the crotch shots. They were also seemingly a lot more fun—think Bond girls instead of Midwest farmers’ daughters. The vibe was pure ’70s decadence: soft lighting, pearls, and satin sheets were never in short supply.
You can say that again. Oui’s ’70s-era models frolicked, sunnily and soft-core, on boats and beaches and in the tropics; bronzed and beautiful and natural, sometimes alone, sometimes with equally bronzed and beautiful male friends. Fun! Edgy! The articles, likewise, had to be seen to be believed.
Hugh Hefner sold Oui in 1981, and the magazine peaked in notoriety the next year, when Demi Moore and Linda Blair did take it all off on its pages. Oui has since undergone a dozen re-launches to recapture the heat of its glory days, but it’s like catching lightning in a perfume bottle.
Michael Martin
