Vogue mag and the Primitives - Question

[falconwhit]

According to Tony Conrad in Uptight, p.18, there was a photo of the Primitives in Vogue.
Has anyone ever seen this?

[iaredatsun]

I'm sure that member Sheila Klein, when asked, told me quite recently that they could not locate it. In which case, I speculated whether it might have been in a non-USA copy of Vogue? Otherwise I think the existence of the photo/mention seems to be mythological. Hope it shows up though.

[mangue]

I have gone through all issues of Vogue from 1964.Nov untill 1965.Feb [tot.6 issues] and didn't find any picture which could be showing the Primitives.
Actually going through those Vogues, I couldn't understand why there would be a photo from them... a snoby fashion and lifestyle magazine presenting The Primitives, come on, gotta be joking.
Conrad's quote probably comes from the picture from Vogue as shown by Phil Milstein [Sheila Klein] in his article about The Primitives [2022.Aug, Ugly Things #60].

What might have inspired Lou to write the song could be this:


"The Vote This Year Is Ostrich" fashion column by Eugenia Sheppard
1964.November.03, Hartford Courant, page 15
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/371 ... ms=ostrich

This column ran in many papers nation wide, so surely also in NY papers [though I don't know about the Herald Tribune as claimed by Reed himself]

[falconwhit]

I figured it was an hallucination since it has never surfaced, but Tony Conrad seemed like a fairly reliable source, aside from having been in the Primitives himself, hence my asking.
Wonder if maybe something about them was published in another magazine, just not Vogue.

[Sheila Klein]

I tried:

[falconwhit]

Thank you. I never doubted that you (and other VU hounds) had searched for it, and I understood that, since we haven't seen it, it didn't exist.
However, Tony Conrad doesn't appear to me to be the kind of person to make things up, so I wonder if he got confused, but a feature or interview did indeed appear in some other publication. So my question is - has anything about the Primitives ever appeared anywhere in print?
(also: not only am I impressed that you wrote to them, but that you've kept their response).

[Sheila Klein]

I believe this is the only one I've found:

[mangue]

I have also something from Cash Box

Pickwick Forms 2 Singles Labels
1965 January 23, Cashbox, page 58, news item

"New York - Cy Leslie, president of Pickwick International, Inc., a leader in the economy priced album business, has announced the launching of two new singles labels, Pickwick City Records and Showcase International Records.
First release on Pickwick City, according to Bobby Ragona, national promo manager for both diskeries, is "The Ostrich" by The Primitives. The tune, which was produced by Lee Harridan Productions, has had a special dance created for it and is the subject of a deejay and publicity campaign.
Showcase International is making its debut with "I Want You Back Again," sung by Tommy Maris. The tune was written and produced by Bill Borrelli who discovered Al Martino and wrote "Here In MyHeart".
Leslie stated that both singles lines will concentrate their efforts on "quality rather than quantity." "We will be extremely painstaking," Leslie said, "in our release pattern. We intend to be selective about the singles we put out...""

link to full issue: https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-A ... -01-23.pdf

PS1: There might be something in Record World [from NY!], but in https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archi ... _World.htm are missing the 1965.Jan.16 and 23 issues

PS2: Does somebody [Phil / Sheila] know who, where and when Vogue was mentioned first time in relation to The Primitives with The Ostrich?
Note: I know of RIchard Williams article about Reed in the 1972.Jan.22 Melody Maker, but there are pretty inaccurate statements [mainly from Lou...]

[falconwhit]

This is not the first mention, but Tony Conrad is quoted in Uptight, page 18: "there was even a flutter of interest including a photo in Vogue".

[bleach]

I have been looking into this for some time the only link I can find with early-ish VU and Vogue is Jack Robinson, a photographer who was working for the magazine from 1965. He photographed them at the Paraphernalia opening in March 66, that’s the earliest connection I can make between Vogue and the VU. Obviously this is 66 and not 65 but could he have photographed them earlier??...