The Most Beautiful Women in Michigan (With A Calendar of Fabulous Men)
Detroit, MI: Villarod Publishers, 1974. Small quarto. 180 pp. (with 14 pp. supplement). Reflective gold paper over boards, about VG+ (with creasing, crack, and chips to spine, with bumps at edges; internally clean). No jacket (most likely as issued).
INSCRIBED by Cunningham on ffep: "June 21, 1975 / For Shearer, ‘A lovely, competent newspaper man imbued with a vast amount of altruism.’ George Cunningham Jr. King George."
Cunningham’s “overblown prose” (see Ze’ev Chafets, Devil’s Night and Other True Tales of Detroit, p. 210) matches his own grandiose sense of self (calling himself “King” and claiming he is a “movie star” because he appears as a reporter in Arthur Marks movie Motown 9000). However, his aims in relation to equality and combating discrimination are admirable, stating that the black women and men he presents in the volume “are highlighted for the purpose of motivating youngsters, helping them to create models for their own growth and development. Hopefully, this effort will also improve the appreciation of Black women by men of all races.” Cunningham planned another edition of The Most Beautiful Women of Michigan the following year as well as other volumes for Illinois, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Although these do not seem to have been published, Cunningham was nonetheless prolific in the late 1960s to the early 1970s, publishing such titles as Lily-Skin Lover, The Poor Black People, and Detroit, the Mayor, and the City Government.
Entries typically include a photograph and a glowing biographical entry of numerous Michigan women followed by a “calendar” of black Detroit men and their civic successes.
Six copies in OCLC (the State Library of Michigan, Wayne State, Detroit Public Library, Atlanta University Center, Atlanta-Fulton Public Library, Coppin State). A fascinating and scarce snapshot of African American communities in and around Detroit in the early 1970s. Item #674
Price: $400.00