REMEMBERING CAVALIER MAGAZINE LAUNCHING A MAGAZINE My friend Michael Simmons, who has been the editor of National Lampoon, recalls that Cavalier hired fine scribes. A few examples: Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, William Saroyan, Isaac Asimov, Theodore Sturgeon. Characters show up from Andy Warhol to Timothy Leary. And the photos of models weren’t even soft porn, merely tits and ass. Cavalier was launched by Fawcett Publications in 1952. Men’s magazine Cavalier (motto: “For the American Male”) was published the year before Playboy, to whom it has often been compared. Back in the day, Cavalier tried to be seen as slightly hipper, more youthful, and considered a bit more clever than its big name rival. Almost an anti-establishment in Playboy. A slogan stated: “Your dad bought Playboy; you bought Cavalier.” I BECAME A COLUMNIST I was invited to write a column, named “The Naked Emperor,” for Cavalier, that was beginning to publish underground writers and artists. They paid me $1,000 a month. My first column, in 1964, was a report on an auction of two-inch squares from the hotel bedsheets slept on by the Beatles during their first trip to America. There were 300 screaming young girls, off on a fetishist’s holiday. Obviously, there wouldn’t be enough items to go around, but it was announced that the Beatles’ unwashed towels and bed linens were to be cut into two-inch squares and sold for $1 each. The price included a notarized statement of authenticity. My second column was about Lenny Bruce—titled “Lenny the Lawyer,” since he defended himself in trials He was arrested for obscene performances only because there were no blasphemy laws, and he ridiculed religious leaders. I went to the bank and deposited my check, withdrawing half of it in cash, a $500 bill. Lenny was alone in his funky hotel room on Christmas Day when I presented it to him. And, with a large safety pin, Lenny attached the $500 bill to the outside breast pocket