Curio: Viola and "Firsts" on Vanity Fair Covers
Saturday, July 18, 2020 at 5:00PM For this week's Curio let's talk the history of magazine covers rather than fan art.
Isn't the new Vanity Fair cover a beauty?! Viola Davis's profile has gotten a lot of attention but so has the fact that this is the first cover in VF's history to be shot by a black photographer. The name of that very talented man is Dario Calmese and he's previously shot George MacKay and Billy Porter for the magazine.
There's a lot of outrage online: how can this be the first after 100 years? Because we grew up as magazine junkies (before the internet *gasp*) this factoid is interesting and indeed outrageous but also a bit misleading. We'll talk about that in a hot second but first let's focus on the beauty and power of VIOLA DAVIS who we're so proud to have been stanning right here since 2002 when we gave her a gold medal in our annual awards six years before the world at large caught on. Our awards were only celebrating their 3rd birthday then.
How time flies. Now she's a superstar and who is more deserving? No one...
You must read the profile, if you haven't yet, which is beautifully written by Sonia Saraiya. Up next for Viola is the film adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and as her two Tony Awards and one Oscar can attest, she was born to deliver August Wilson's dialogue.
Here's the magazine cover trivia for the obsessives amongst you.
Yes, it did take way too long for Vanity Fair to diversify. Everyone remembers the frequent complaints that they put the actresses of color in the foldout of their famous elongated group "Hollywood" covers? But what most articles and tweets about this new cover don't get into is that Vanity Fair is not really a 100 years old. It's only now approaching it's late 30s. Still 37 years is a long time to wait for "firsts".
Yes, Vanity Fair did exist as early as 1913 but it was a much different type of magazine and those covers were always illustrations (the norm back then for magazines). That magazine ceased publication in the mid 1930s. And then the magazine was gone for a half century! It had a test reboot in January 1982 for some reason but didn't start up again as a monthly magazine until March 1983. For the first year and a half, as it tried to find its new voice, the covers were a mix of conceptual photography, portraits of writers, and traditional illustrations. Though there'd been a couple of showbiz covers before then, the showbiz photoshoot as the only type of cover didn't take hold until the summer of 1984.
So let's look at "firsts" and one last in regards to Vanity Fair covers for fun.
• September 1913 the first issue ever.
• the first "celebrity" cover was this illustration of Greta Garbo by the controversial Mexican artist called Covarrubias for the June 1932 issue.
• February 1936 - This cover was called "Bali Beauty", also by Covarrubias, and depicts an Indonesian woman. It's the first instance of a woman of color as solo subject for VF.
• January 1982 - The first issue of the relaunch had a collage-like look. It was Mikhail Baryshnikov and shot by the legendary Richard Avedon.
• February and March 1984 - These were the very last illustrated covers. One was by the late openly gay icon Keith Haring and the other from Blair Drawson.
• May 1985 - Shari Belafonte, the model/actress/singer daughter of Harry Belafonte was the first black woman to get a Vanity Fair cover. She was Shari Belafonte-Harper at the time and was one of the series regulars on the nighttime soap Hotel (1983-1988).
• December 1986 - Madonna gets her first cover and eventually becomes the most frequent solo cover subject. She'll return in (deep breath now) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2008. Nine covers in all and she only shared one of them (with then co-star Rupert Everett in 2000).
• January 1987 and March 1987 - Mikhail Baryshnikov and Diane Keaton became the first two cover stars (photographed that is) to get an encore. They'd previously been on the cover in 1982 and 1985 respectively. Baryshnikov went on to become the first person to get three covers as well in November 1989.
• January 1988 and July 1988 - Jesse Jackson and Eddie Murphy were the first black men to get their own covers. Murphy has returned to the cover twice more (shared covers)
• August 1991 - Demi Moore is the first pregnant woman and the first fully nude woman on the cover. It created quite a stir. She'll return, fully nude again (with body paint this time), in 1992. And in 1993 and 2007 (clothed)
• August 1993 - K.D. Lang becomes the first openly gay cover star. With Cindy Crawford as her arm candy.
• November 1993 - Sylvester Stallone is the first nude man as cover subject. (It was then his third cover and to date his last)
• September 1994 - Warren Beatty and Annette Bening became the first couple who had previously each had solo covers to share one together. And they did it again in 2000.
• February 1995 - Brad Pitt gets his first cover. He's tied for most frequent coverboy (7 times) with Tom Cruise. George Clooney is in third with 6 covers.
• April 1995 - This was the first issue of what became their annual "Hollywood" event with foldout covers. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Uma Thurman, and Nicole Kidman got the cover and Patricia Arquette, Linda Fiorentino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Angela Bassett, and Sandra Bullock the foldout (Gwyneth would become a frequent covergirl). Five of the ten have since won Oscars.
That cover was also Nicole Kidman's first. She has the most Vanity Fair covers of ANYONE (ten) though not all of them are solo covers.
• April 1998 - Djimon Hounsou, who will land two Oscar nominations after this cover, is the first black actor to make the front cover of one of those Hollywood issue foldouts (in the fourth year of the tradition). He shares the cover with Natalie Portman (who later gets more covers) Joaquin Phoenix (who gets one solo cover) and Vince Vaughn. On the inside fold Cate Blanchett is pictured (she'll also eventually get a solo cover).
• Feb 2001 - Keanu Reeves becomes the first multiracial Asian to get a cover. (Here's a good article on the long and complicated history of Keanu's relationship to his Asian heritage and Native Hawaiian concepts of tribes.)
• June 2001 Jennifer Lopez becomes the first Latina covergirl (she'll get more covers later)
• April and May 2002 - Kirsten Dunst becomes the first person to have two consecutive covers. She was just 19 years old.
• Dec 2003 - Carson Kressley becomes the first openly gay man on the cover... though he has to share it with one then-closeted gay actor (Sean Hayes) and straight actors even though the subject is "TV's Gay Heatwave". Hollywood is STILL mostly casting gay projects this way as we see in recent years with Love Simon, Love Vincent, Call Me By Your Name, Carol, Moonlight, and many more. It's pretty rare to get gay leads of gay films so Adele Haenel, we thank you again for Portrait of a Lady on Fire!
• January 2007 - This Dreamgirls cover was the first all-black group cover
• July 2015 - The first trans woman to make the cover, Caitlyn Jenner
• Summer 2016 - Viola Davis gets her first cover, it's the Hollywood issue and she shares it with Jane Fonda, Jennifer Lawrence, and Cate Blanchett (who'd all previously had solo covers). On the inside and back folds were former or future solo cover stars: Charlotte Rampling, Brie Larson, Lupita Nyong'o, Alicia Vikander, and Diane Keaton. Plus Saoirse Ronan, Helen Mirren, and Rachel Weisz.
• Holiday Issue 2019/2020 - RuPaul gets the first drag queen cover. It's also the first solo cover ever for an openly gay man... and it was just a half year ago!!!
Which brings us to the now.
Vanity Fair, like any long-running showbiz institution, still has several firsts to get to. No gay couple has ever shared the cover. No openly gay male, not in drag, has ever had a solo cover. No Asian women have ever made the cover though Lucy Liu and Zhang Ziyi have both been featured on the inside or back fold of a Hollywood issue. There are always more firsts to come.
Reader Comments (18)
Nat: It's definitely not 100, but I'd also hesitate to call it 37. 60 sounds most accurate.
Loving the retro covers.
Viola is totally rocking that fro.
No, there is still no first transgender on the cover because Bruce Jenner is still a piece of shit who only became a woman just to avoid the fact that he killed someone while driving his car. Plus, he never did anything for the trans community as he's just a guy dressed up like a woman.
Shitting on The Help doesn't seem the smartest move.
Thevoid99- sis....this ain't it. She may be an obnoxious and awful person, but there is no reason for comments erasing her identity like that.
Sorry my earlier comment was made in anger and revealed some residual transphobia from my upbringing.
Caitlyn Jenner is still a piece of shit who killed someone while driving her car. Plus, she never did anything for the trans community.
That Madonna cover is gorgeous but she did share it in 2000 with Rupert Everett. She was also on the cover in 2007 which she shared with Djimon Hounsou and Maya Angelou (there were multiple versions of the covers that month). I love Vanity Fair. Have been buying if for over 20 years. Shame her last cover was in 2008 and she never worked with them again. I always thought it was because that last profile was not very flattering.
The Mikhail Baryshnikov 1987 shot is fantastic.
Alicia Vikander has had a solo cover (September 2016)
Very cool retrospective. I love Vanity Fair and their covers are usually great.
Demi talks a lot about her famous VF cover in her recent memoir. She says it was only planned to be a personal shot for her and Bruce but turned out so well that they ended up using it for the cover. The whole book is a good read if any of you are interested.
Marek -- oh i wasnt looking at alternate covers (too confusing) so i missed that one.
@Tate. The Help is a problematic movie and Davis clearly has regrets about appearing in it and by extension supporting certain messages at the movie's core. I applaud her for being honest.
Vanity Fair used to be a great magazine
She campaigned like crazy with that movie! If she hate it so much, where's the honesty in that?
Demi Moore cover is a all time vanity fair.
How the heck Sean Hayes can ever be closeted? Lmao
Fadhil -- it's true though. he never confirmed he was gay until after the original series went off the air.
Stoked for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.