Retro Raunch Revisit

This month marks the 60th anniversary of the publication debut of DUKE magazine (1967). The final print issue was Jul 1978 followed by 2 'Best Of' Annuals (Aug, Oct) that same year to finish the complete title run.
The 1967 debut is not to be confused with the short-lived DUKE that premiered a decade earlier in Jun 1957. That same-named publication was the first African American adult magazine (modeled after PLAYBOY but with no nudity) that featured a faceless male mannequin (often wearing a beret) as its mascot. The all-black DUKE had only an entire 6-issue run (ending in Nov 1957) while its editor had also worked at Ebony and its sister magazine, Jet. The ethnic DUKE took its sophiscated name from famed jazz legend Duke Ellington who also appeared on the cover of the last issue.

APRIL 1967 ON THE WORLD STAGE The Soviet Union has announced the shocking failure of its latest space mission, with the crash of Soyuz 1 and the death of 40yr old cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov on board. He is the first known victim of a space flight and was an experienced cosmonaut on just his second flight, having completed all his experiments successfully before returning to Earth. But within seconds of landing, just after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, the strings of the parachute intended to slow his descent apparently became tangled. The spaceship hurtled to the ground from 4 miles up and it is likely that Col. Komarov was killed instantly on impact. A message of condolence from the Communist Party in Moscow described him as "a loyal son of our motherland and a courageous explorer of space" and he has been decorated posthumously with a second Gold Star for heroism. His ashes will be buried at the Kremlin wall -- one of the highest honours accorded to a Soviet citizen. News of Komarov's death was greeted with regret & concern in the United States, and the head of the American space programme, James Webb, called for greater cooperation in space exploration. The team of 47 American astronauts working at Houston in Texas sent a telegram of sympathy to their Russian rivals. The catastrophic accident follows the disaster of the Apollo 1 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida back in January when a flash fire swept through the command module during a routine pre-flight launch pad test, killing US astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White, and Roger B. Chaffee. An investigation determined the trio had died as a result of smoke inhalation from toxic gases due to a spark from damaged electrical wiring that ignited the highly flammable pure oxygen atmosphere that filled the sealed cabin causing asphyxiation before even succumbing to horrific extensive burning. The Apollo 1 devastation forced NASA to halt its space operations that saw sweeping changes such as engineers overhauling spacecraft design, removing all combustible materials, implementing stricter fire-safety protocols, and introducing quicker emergency escape hatches. The announcement from Moscow gave few details surrounding events leading up to the fatality, and there remain a number of mysteries surrounding the last moments of the doomed flight. The Soyuz 1 is known to be a new & heavier type of spacecraft, built as part of the Russian attempt to land a man on the Moon, and Komarov was thought to be testing it when the tragedy happened. Media correspondents in Moscow had suspicious indications that all was not well with the flight from as early as the day before, when initial reports on Moscow Radio suddenly stopped and there was no mention of the space flight for nearly 13hrs afterwards. Experts have questioned why Col. Komarov did not use an ejection system to get out of the spacecraft, and have commented that the cosmonaut was also known to have suffered from heart problems. It is now thought that the Soyuz 1 space flight had been dogged by problems from the beginning, and that the craft was not ready for manned flight. But objections from the technicians were apparently overruled by political pressures for a series of propagandic space feats to mark the 97th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's birthday.