Blueboy was a gay men’s magazine with lifestyle and entertainment news, in addition to nude or semi-nude men. It was published monthly from 1974 to 2007.^[1] The Detroit Free Press described the publication as “a full-color, slick gay version of Playboy magazine.”^[2]

Blueboy was originally a small black and white journal purchased in 1974 by publisher Donald N. Embinder. The former advertising manager for the arts magazine After Dark rebranded Blueboy as “The National Magazine About Men,” which became the publication’s longstanding tagline. The debut issue’s cover parodied The Blue Boy by 18th-century painter Thomas Gainsborough.^[1]

Initially sold at adult bookstores and gay bars, the Miami-based magazine secured national distribution by its fourth issue. Regular features included lifestyle columns, celebrity interviews, film and music reviews, book excerpts and articles on politics, gay rights and gay popular culture.^[1] By 1978, monthly circulation reached 150,000 issues.^[2] Embinder characterized the readership as some of the “most sophisticated and affluent” people in the United States.^[3] Notable contributors and interviewees included Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, William S. Burroughs, Edmund White, John Rechy, Patricia Nell Warren, Christopher Isherwood and Randy Shilts.^[1]

The publication’s additional outreach included the gay pulp fiction series Blueboy Library. Blueboy Forum became the first weekly, live forum from a gay perspective since 25 October 1976,^[4] airing on WKID-TV in Hallandale, Florida and as a late-night talk show on New York City’s UHF Channel 68.^[1]

Beginning in the 1990s, however, with competition from such gay publications including Out, MetroSource and Genre, Blueboy focused much more on overt nude images, and jettisoned most of its non-pornographic content. The magazine’s final issue was published in December 2007.^[5]

Founded in 1974 by Donald N. Embinder, Blueboy quickly grew to become a prominent men’s monthly magazine. The glossy featured some of the LGBTQ community’s most prestigious writers and artists — among them Andy Warhol, Truman Capote, William S. Burroughs, Edmund White, John Rechy, Patricia Nell Warren, Christopher Isherwood, and Randy Shilts. It covered both lifestyle as well as vital political news related to Harvey Milk, Ed Koch, Anita Bryant, and the AIDS epidemic. It wasn’t bad to look at, either.