Men Only was founded in 1935[2] by C. Arthur Pearson Ltd (at that point an imprint of George Newnes Ltd) as a pocket magazine (4½" x 6½"; 115×165 mm).

"[1] Humour was at the heart of the title, though from the start it carried fiction (including by P. G. Wodehouse),[3] wide-ranging articles, and plates of "art" nudes.

Cartoons were by illustrators such as Belsky, Antonia Yeoman, Carl Giles, Frank Hoar, Keith Waite,[5] and Bernard Hollowood.

When Pearson closed The Strand Magazine in 1950, it was castigated by The Economist for concentrating its resources on London Opinion and Men Only.

In 1971, Paul Raymond, who ran nightclubs in London's Soho district, acquired Men Only [8] and relaunched it as the start of a top-shelf publishing empire,[1] increasing its circulation to 400,000 copies a month.

Over the years, models featured in Men Only have also appeared in different photoshoots in Paul Raymond's Club International (a title bought from IPC Magazines).