In the Matter of the Petition By 	) March 19, 1957
					)
 ARNOLD MAGAZINES, INC., 		)
 					) H.E. Docket No. 4/211
 Publisher of CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHY 	)
 Magazine for Order to Show Cause 	)
 Why Application for Second-Class 	)
 Entry Should Not be Granted. 		)

 Goff, Abe McGregor

 POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON, D. C.

The Arnold Magazine, Inc., filed a petition requesting that the Post Office Department be required to show cause why the proposal by the Director, Division of Mail Classification, recommending denial of petitioner's application for admission to second-class mail privileges of its publication "Classic Photography", should not be reversed and a hearing held upon the issues raised. Pursuant thereto, the Chief Hearing Examiner issued an order to the Director, Division of Mail Classification, to show cause why the proposed denial should not be reversed.

The Respondent filed an answer to said petition and averred that the magazine in question is obscene, lewd and lascivious and therefore nonmailable as provided for in Title 18 U.S.C.A., Sect. 1461.

A stipulation was entered into between the petitioner and the Post Office Department to submit the case to the Hearing Examiner on the sole issue of whether petitioner's publication "Classic Photography, Autumn, 1956", is dominated by pictures of an obscene, lewd, lascivious and indecent character so as to render it nonmailable under the provisions of Section 1461 Title 18 U.S.C.

An amended stipulation was subsequently entered into to include another issue entitled "Classic Photography, Winter, 1956". Requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law were filed by the petitioner and the Respondent.

It appears from the record that the two issues of the magazine in question are the only issues involved and no other publications were offered for mailing under the present application by the petitioner.

The Examiner found that the two publications are obscene, lewd and lascivious and are therefore nonmailable under the provisions of Section 1461 and are not entitled to entry into the mails as second-class mailable matter, and recommended that petitioner's application for second-class entry be denied. Neither party filed exceptions to the Examiner's findings. The matter is now before the Post Office Department for final departmental decision.

Each of the two issues include several miscellaneous illustrated articles pertaining to photography and many pictures of young women in the nude or semi-nude, in a variety of sexually provocative poses. The title of the magazines namely "Classic Photography", in itself gives the impression that the magazines contain the results of an exceptional form of photography. Articles explaining the history and use of the camera in the text appear to give a reader the impression that the magazines are published to instruct how to more effectively use a camera. However, on further examination of the entire magazine, it is found that the photographs of nude women, provocatively posed, dominate the magazines and produce a lascivious and lustful stimulation for impure sex desires in the average male person, which outweigh the instructions and information about photography which the publisher alleges he desires to give the reader of these magazines. Considering each magazine in its entirety, it is evident that the primary intent of the publisher is to gainfully pander to the lewd and lascivious.

The two publications "Classic Photography", Autumn and Winter, are, therefore, obscene, lewd and lascivious in dominant effect and are nonmailable in accordance with the provisions of Section 1461 Title 18 U.S.C.A. and cannot be admitted for mailing under second-class privileges as mailable matter.

The findings of fact and conclusions of law made by the Examiner are hereby affirmed and his recommendations adopted.

The application of the Arnold Magazine, Inc., for admission of its publications as second-class mailable matter is hereby ordered denied.