Cash teen tyler

Secrets and lies of '16 Magazine.'

The year was 1957. Elvis was king. And three middle-aged men hoped to milk the swivel-hipped cash cow by recycling old photos and stories about Presley and other young, male stars. Thus was born 16 Magazine, the first teen fanzine.

Still a hit with preteen girls, the magazine follows a simple formula: pictures of cute boys, preferably shirtless. "Girls between 9 and 14 are not going to curl up with Henry James for leisure reading," notes former editor Danny Fields. He and Randi Reisfeld look back at 16's history--complete with old articles on pulpy paper--in Who's Your Fave Rave? (Boulevard Books, $14).

While "win a date with . . ." contests were real, much else in 16 was heavily spun. The mag wrote monthly columns for a young LaToya Jackson, who was too shy to gush about her brothers. And while 16 was preserving his boy-next-door image, David Cassidy was, he now admits, "banging every girl I could." No journalistic paragon, 16 sought to promote the illusion that dreamboats were accessible to fans. Reisfeld says, "The perennial question is 'Would he like me?' "

The surprisingly candid book notes 16's lapses in judgment. Leonard Nimoy as teen idol? A trout recipe from Aerosmith's Steven Tyler? It also unmasks dim hunks. Asked his favorite color, a member of the Bay City Rollers, a '70s pop group, missed the point. "I am not," he replied, "a racialist."