![]() Edward Day (1962) The cover of the first issue of VIM following Womack's relaunch of the title in 1963. In his biography of Samuel Steward, Justin Spring characterizes Womack's hospitalization instead as a move "to avoid his creditors". Describing the experience in a later interview, he said: "It was very pleasant. Womack continued to operate his business while confined to St. At the time, homosexuality was still viewed as a mental illness, and Womack, who had a degree in psychology, was able to manipulate the doctors who interviewed him to ensure an appropriate diagnosis. Womack managed to avoid jail time by contriving to serve his sentence at a federal psychiatric hospital, St. Womack took a plea deal in the second set of charges, adding an additional four to fourteen months of prison time. As a result of these new charges, the judge who oversaw Womack's earlier case revoked his bond, sending him to prison to serve out his one to three-year sentence. He was brought up on a second set of charges for conspiracy to send obscene materials through the mail. In November 1960, Womack's printing plant was raided by the Morals Division of the Washington Police Department. The same year, Guild Press magazines were seized in Virginia, being deemed unmailable by the US Post Office. ![]() The charges carried a sentence between one and three years, but Womack was allowed his freedom pending an appeal. In March, he was convicted on multiple counts of obscenity. Rodney Crowther, charged with sending obscene materials through the mail. In January 1960, Womack was arrested, alongside photographers Anthony Guyther and G. Obscenity charges and confinement (1960–1962) īy 1960, Guild Press became a profitable publishing enterprise under Womack's leadership as publisher and sole proprietor and was printing art and physique magazines and providing a national mail-order business. Rodney Crowther, who would supply many of the photographs for his magazines. He also formed close relationships with physique photographers, particularly Anthony Guyther and G. Womack found success in the physique magazine business by establishing relationships with distributors to ensure his magazines would be widely sold at newsstands, a common difficulty for physique publications at the time. By 1960, he had also acquired Grecian Guild Pictorial, MANual (a Chicago physique art publication), and Fizeek. He acquired the magazine TRIM from Randolph Benson, after reading an advertisement for the sale of the publication in the November 1957 issue of another Benson magazine, Grecian Guild Pictorial. Womack initially focused on physique magazines, being an avid reader of them himself. With this printing press, he developed MANual Enterprises, an earlier incarnation of the Guild Press. Womack's 1957 investment scheme allowed him to acquire a small printing plant in Washington, D.C. Publishing career 1957 cover of TRIM, the first of several physique magazines that Womack would acquire or found. He made half a million dollars from the scheme, which would serve as initial capital for Guild Press and allow him to leave academia. The fraud was ultimately detected by the SEC, but Womack escaped prosecution, as investigators judged that he was merely a "naive academic" who had been roped in by co-conspirators. Through a holding company, Womack invested in a Maryland start-up, Polytronics Research, whose stock price subsequently soared when it was falsely claimed that it had secured a lucrative government contract. In 1957, Womack became involved in a fraudulent investment scheme. Īfter he was dismissed from his position at George Washington University, he gained an appointment at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, but found it unsatisfying. After completing his Ph.D., he became an adjunct professor of Philosophy at the George Washington University. program in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, receiving his doctorate in 1955. After the closing of the Howell Academy, Womack enrolled in a Ph.D. This coincided with the collapse of one of his business ventures, the Howell Academy, a private boarding school at which Womack reportedly was rarely present. īy 1946, Womack came to terms with his homosexuality and ended his marriage to his second wife. ![]() Womack began school at the University of Mississippi, but transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to complete his degree and to pursue graduate studies. His father was an alcoholic who was incarcerated for murdering his best friend. Womack was born in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in 1923 to tenant farmers. ![]() Herman Lynn Womack (1923–1985) was an American publisher, and the founder of Guild Press, a Washington, D.C., publishing house that catered almost exclusively to a gay male audience and played a major role in expanding the legal protections for gay publications against obscenity laws in the United States.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |