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In the first part of ‘Dian Hanson, Chronicles,’ Dian spoke of her upbringing in the northwest United States, an often shocking family life with a difficult and frightening father – who just happened to be the supreme grand master of a sex-magic cult. It was a difficult childhood that included bullying, sexual assault, and running away from home, culminating in an unhappy marriage to a transvestite which ended after her troubled and abusive husband forced them to put their daughter up for adoption.
One of the few highlights and true interests from her teen years was Dian’s discovery of sexuality and pornography – thanks in part to the work of the psychologist Krafft-Ebbing and the growing permissiveness in the country, as exemplified by the publication of the strangely titillating Illustrated Presidential Report of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.
In the second episode of our series, we heard how Dian got divorced and moved on with her life by finding work as a nurse in Pennsylvania – despite lacking any formal training – before starting a hardcore magazine, Puritan, with a boyfriend – despite not having had any experience in publishing. Dian liked the sex magazine work much more than she liked her boyfriend, so she ditched him and went on to partner with Peter Wolff, an eccentric veteran of the New York sex publication scene. Together they helmed popular titles such as Partner, Adult Cinema Review, and Oui, and though the pair were alternately and repeatedly feted and then fired, they developed a template for a new type of publication: a men’s magazine that would be guided by the desires of the readers.
Episode 3 is about the 1980s and 1990s – and how Dian’s career continued in the ever-expanding and competitive world of sex publications.
You can listen to the Episode 1 here and Episode 2 here.
This podcast is 51 minutes long.
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Standing on Fakir Musafar, Partner magazine, 1982
Dian Hanson, 1982
Dian with George Mavety, c. 1988
Dian, with Rick Savage, c.1992
Leg Show column photo, c. 1994
With Juggs managing editor Matthew Licht, 1995
Leg Show column photo, c. 1997
In Yoxford, England, c. 1997
With Rose Bailey, Leg Show
Leg Show, 1999
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And the best podcast series continues….. Simply tremendous!
I have been glued to this since the first episode. Hearing about Dian’s partnership with Peter Wolff in the last episode was very interesting and completely new to me.
Thanks Dian….. and Ashley!
Very happy to see this drop. And hoping for many more episodes to follow!!!
There’s a book in this.
I Like Dian Hanson Was So Sexy From The 70s 80s And Early 90s Pinup Magazine In My Opinion
Saving these for a marathon on my birthday in a couple days…Look – since I deleted my Twitter I have kind of lost touch with you guys one-on-one, but I want to let y’all know, every chance I get, I love to spread the word about your brave & detailed work, and the light you have shone on these incredible lives and worlds. Human culture needs a ‘the Rialto Report,’ although I suspect it still doesn’t quite know what to do with it. Your research is ahead of its time, but proves itself pioneeringly indispensable. In other words, it’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it. And I’m so glad you guys have the vision and commitment to be the medium, the steward, for this grand document. Thank you.
I talk up The Rialto Report every chance I get. It’s the official chronicle of the porn industry for me.
Great podcast. Ashley you have great interviewing and editing skills . Dian is fascinating. Im glad she was will to do
long interview. I have looked forward to the weekly installments. Hopefully she will discus Robert Crumb , In part 4.
Thank you once again Dian and Ashley for a riveting podcast.
Dian, I hope you consider writing an autobiography. I think many would be interested in hearing a complete and expanded telling of your story.
I would say this is the best interview on here. Dian’s storytelling is wonderful and weaving it all together is majic. One of my ex girlfriends was in leg show and I remember she never got paid for the photo shoot by the photographer. Fun times in NYC.
I’m really enjoying this long-form interview. A fourth episode with her coming up, amazing!
Dian is a great interview subject: funny, breezy, intelligent, and unapologetic. To speak nothing of incredibly strong, I don’t know I could have survived her upbringing the way she did. I admire her.
I will confess I wondered if she had ever posed for her own magazines, and I guess I have my answer.
I’m younger than she, but to think, I shared a Quakertown address the same time she did.
What a great series, I remember the artist Michael Kupperman commenting on twitter years ago that he knew a Taschen editor who used to edit Juggs magazine – now the full story is revealed in all it’s glory.
Part 3 makes me wonder if there aren’t some more great stories to be told about other erotic illustrators like Eric Stanton and Bill Ward and others.
I’ve noticed that the majority of classic era pornstars that the Rialto report interviewed all happened around 2013 and that most of those focused on the film era and the New York scene for the most part. Since there are fewer and fewer of them still with us and the New York scene having been thoroughly covered, has there been any thought of going into more interviews with the 80’s and early 90’s video era stars and focusing on the California scene? There are so many more stars from that era who are still alive and would have interesting stories, and it would be cool to hear some of the LA stories.
My God!
Dian Hanson must have the best pair of legs I have ever seen 😀