© 2015
After Hours CGC Magazines
In the 1950s Jim Warren worked in advertising as an artist and writer. Fascinated by the publishing efforts of Hugh Marston Hefner, he launched his own magazine "After Hours", which lasted only four issues and landed him in jail. Warren was arrested on charges of obscenity and pornography for featuring bare bosoms on the inside and Bettie Page on the cover. The Philadelphia Enquirer headline read "PORNOGRAPHER ARRESTED", with a photo of him in handcuffs during his arrest; subsequently he was booked. Thus terminated his girlie magazine publishing career, but this period of his life was not without benefits, as during the course of publishing the short-lived magazine, he hooked up with one of his After Hours contributing writers, Forrest J Ackerman. Noting that the 27-year-old Hugh Hefner could create a revolution on the newsstands with a totally new concept, and inspired by a French movie magazine (Cinema 57) which had devoted one of its issues almost entirely to monsters, he channelled his own enthusiasm for the idea into the theory that monsters in a magazine plus kids at the newsstand could be lucrative. Jim Warren on the Arrest: At the time, we had a District Attorney who was running for office. The story goes that he had heard about another District Attorney (also running for office) who was behind in the polls and had no chance of winning, but went out and made an arrest of a guy who was publishing a Playboy imitation. The local newspapers came out with a big headline: "Pornographer Arrested by Crusading D.A.!" And he won that election with the help of all that publicity. Our man in Philadelphia decided to do the same thing. "How can I get my name in the papers for a full month, every day? I'm going to arrest and indict all the publishers from Playboy on down—anything that was distributed in Philadelphia." Hefner was indicted and guess who the D.A. really zeroed in on because he didn't have to go out of state to extradite? There was only one guy publishing a Playboy imitation in Philadelphia. Guess who that was? "We're going to rid the city of pornography! We'll start by arresting the publisher of After Hours." "I asked the police, "On what basis am I under arrest?" One of the cops pointed to Bettie Page, bare-breasted in the centerfold. I said, "But that's not obscene! The Venus de Milo is bare-breasted and she's on display in an art museum!" He said, "I know obscenity when I see it." And I was indicted for pornography. The next morning the Philadelphia Inquirer, in giant headline type, announced the arrest of the editor/publisher of After Hours magazine. My name was up there." A month or so later I appeared in front of a judge on the first day of the proceedings. The judge looks at the magazines (there must have been 25 different ones on the table). All the lawyers were there with their clients. "What's this?" the judge asks. "This is the pornography." The judge sees Bettie Page with the bare breasts and said, "Case dismissed!" But it was too late; the D.A. had already won the election. Every single case was thrown out; it was all over. It appeared in the newspaper the next day on the bottom of page 27 and nobody saw it—but I learned about the power of the press and the power of the police state and the power of unscrupulous men.
© 2015
After Hours CGC Magazines
In the 1950s Jim Warren worked in advertising as an artist and writer. Fascinated by the publishing efforts of Hugh Marston Hefner, he launched his own magazine "After Hours", which lasted only four issues and landed him in jail. Warren was arrested on charges of obscenity and pornography for featuring bare bosoms on the inside and Bettie Page on the cover. The Philadelphia Enquirer headline read "PORNOGRAPHER ARRESTED", with a photo of him in handcuffs during his arrest; subsequently he was booked. Thus terminated his girlie magazine publishing career, but this period of his life was not without benefits, as during the course of publishing the short-lived magazine, he hooked up with one of his After Hours contributing writers, Forrest J Ackerman. Noting that the 27-year-old Hugh Hefner could create a revolution on the newsstands with a totally new concept, and inspired by a French movie magazine (Cinema 57) which had devoted one of its issues almost entirely to monsters, he channelled his own enthusiasm for the idea into the theory that monsters in a magazine plus kids at the newsstand could be lucrative. Jim Warren on the Arrest: At the time, we had a District Attorney who was running for office. The story goes that he had heard about another District Attorney (also running for office) who was behind in the polls and had no chance of winning, but went out and made an arrest of a guy who was publishing a Playboy imitation. The local newspapers came out with a big headline: "Pornographer Arrested by Crusading D.A.!" And he won that election with the help of all that publicity. Our man in Philadelphia decided to do the same thing. "How can I get my name in the papers for a full month, every day? I'm going to arrest and indict all the publishers from Playboy on down—anything that was distributed in Philadelphia." Hefner was indicted and guess who the D.A. really zeroed in on because he didn't have to go out of state to extradite? There was only one guy publishing a Playboy imitation in Philadelphia. Guess who that was? "We're going to rid the city of pornography! We'll start by arresting the publisher of After Hours." "I asked the police, "On what basis am I under arrest?" One of the cops pointed to Bettie Page, bare-breasted in the centerfold. I said, "But that's not obscene! The Venus de Milo is bare-breasted and she's on display in an art museum!" He said, "I know obscenity when I see it." And I was indicted for pornography. The next morning the Philadelphia Inquirer, in giant headline type, announced the arrest of the editor/publisher of After Hours magazine. My name was up there." A month or so later I appeared in front of a judge on the first day of the proceedings. The judge looks at the magazines (there must have been 25 different ones on the table). All the lawyers were there with their clients. "What's this?" the judge asks. "This is the pornography." The judge sees Bettie Page with the bare breasts and said, "Case dismissed!" But it was too late; the D.A. had already won the election. Every single case was thrown out; it was all over. It appeared in the newspaper the next day on the bottom of page 27 and nobody saw it—but I learned about the power of the press and the power of the police state and the power of unscrupulous men.
