These are some of the greatest colorized pictures of boxing legends that you will find. The oldest one that I have is July 1948, Joe Louis. They did not publish them consistently until March 1950, John L. Sullivan. From that point they ran one every month until June 1959, Jack Dempsey. Then they ran sporatically until mid-year 1960. They published one final picture in February 1961, John L. Sullivan versus Jake Kilrain. The subjects included the all-time greats as well as current stars like Rocky Marciano and Sugar Ray Robinson.
In 1963 they ran some black and white boxer pictures (yawn) and in 1964 some black and pink.
I have compiled a near complete checklist that I will gladly share with other collectors or interested parties. My checklist includes:
- month and year of issue
- person(s) featured on cover
- boxer's name
- Date of the Month pin up subject
Date of the Month was full page color photo in the style of the 1950's classic pin ups. I figured I might as well collect those, too. Subjects include Marilyn Monroe (Nov '53), Jean Peters, Vera Miles, Betty Page, Evelyn West, Gina Lollobridgetta, Anita Ekberg, and Ester Williams.
1955 was a particularly interesting year for the boxers. On 9 of 12 months they included a smaller b & w current or later in life photo of the old timers with their regular full page color picture.
The pictures are roughly 10"x13", depending how they are trimmed. I cut mine out of the magazines and keep them in 50 pocket artist's portfolios. That was the main problem, how to collect them? You could keep the magazine whole. You could frame them, but it wouldn't take many to fill the wall. Once I got past that and put them in the portfolios, I have really enjoyed them.
As I said, I''ll be happy to send anyone a copy of the checklist, but it will take a couple days to key it in from my hard copy.
The Police Gazette magazines that I still need are:
Oct '48
Aug '49
Feb '50
July '57
Oct '57
July '58
July '60
Aug '60.
Any help would be appreciated.