Cheetah (magazine)

Cheetah was an American rock music and counterculture magazine launched in October 1967.^[3][4] Although influential, its run was short-lived,^[5] closing in May 1968.^[4] The magazine's name was the result of a licensing deal with the popular Cheetah chain of nightclubs, which in 1967 had outlets in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Montreal.^[2]

Cheetah

Debut issue cover
Editor	Lawrence Dietz[1]
Former editors	Jules Siegel
Staff writers	Robert Christgau, Ellen Willis
Categories	Lifestyle
Frequency	Monthly
Format	Magazine
Publisher	Matty Simmons
Total circulation (1968)	250,000[2]
Founded	October 1967 (1967-10)
Final issue	May 1968 (1968-05)
Company	Twenty First Century Communications, Inc.
Country	U.S.
Based in	New York City
Language	English

Cheetah aimed to fill "a vital gap that exist[ed] between teen- and teeny-bopper publications and such magazines as Playboy and Esquire."^[6] Published by Matty Simmons,^[2] a founder of Diners Club,^[1] and his partner Leonard Mogel, Cheetah was the first project of their Twenty First Century Communications, Inc. (later known as the publisher of National Lampoon).^[7]

Acting as Cheetah's first editor was novelist-journalist Jules Siegel (briefly an associate of Beach Boys songwriter Brian Wilson),^[8] although he was soon replaced by Lawrence Dietz, assisted by Ellen Willis.^[9] At the time, a girlfriend of fellow Cheetah writer and music critic Robert Christgau, Willis went on to become the first rock critic for The New Yorker^[10] and later wrote for Rolling Stone, Village Voice, and other papers.^[11]

See also

• "Goodbye Surfing, Hello God!" — notable article in Cheetah about Brian Wilson written by Julus Siegel.