Begun in 1956[1] by Excellent Publications, Inc. as The Gent, it was one of a number of "skin magazine" startups at the time aimed at male readers in imitation of Playboy and hoping for similar success.
Skin magazines in general and Gent specifically proved to be a fiction market for popular writers like Harlan Ellison, one that was more open because it was "a little less constrained by fiction market formulas.
"[5] It was prosecuted again in Arkansas, where a jury convicted it, but the United States Supreme Court agreed to review the case,[6] bundling it in Redrup v. New York.
[10] In later years, it was owned by the Princeton Media Group, publisher of other similar magazines such as Oui[11] at which time it was derided by some as a "working-class Playboy wannabe", and overshadowed by the publicity surrounding Hustler publisher Larry Flynt.
Targeted at local fans of Western adult films, it was unrelated to the American publication and had a glossier look.