Frontal Mail Exposure: The Sears Catalog Controversy of 1975

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The Sears catalog was a familiar household tome for decades, but the 1975 edition contained something extra, according to sharp-eyed sleuths. On the page displaying men's underwear, page 602, a suspicious shadow, or object, seemed to show a man's exposed private area. His package, unwrapped. His junk.

The world was, in a way, smaller then. Everyone had the same points of reference. The Sears catalog was everywhere -- if you spotted something in it (on, say, page 602) and called up your cousin halfway across the country, that cousin had the same Sears catalog and could look up the same image. And there would be laughing, at long-distance rates, which weren't cheap!