Mechanix Illustrated
Encyclopedia
Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics is an American magazine first published January 11, 1902 by H. H. Windsor, and has been owned since 1958 by the Hearst Corporation...
. Billed as "The How-To-Do Magazine," Mechanix Illustrated (MI) aimed to guide readers through various projects from home improvements and advice on repairs to "build-your-own (sports car, telescope, helicopter, etc)." From its debut in 1928, it went through a number of permutations over the years, being called at various points in its life, Home Mechanix, Modern Mechanics and Inventions, Modern Mechanix and Inventions, Modern Mechanix and finally Mechanix Illustrated.
Although it featured many how-to articles, the most eagerly awaited and read features were Tom McCahill
Tom McCahill
Thomas Jay McCahill III was an automotive journalist, born the grandson of a wealthy attorney in Larchmont, New York. McCahill graduated from Yale University with a degree in fine arts....
's monthly automobile tests which ran from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. McCahill's feisty opinions were delivered in a prose laced with similes that are still quoted today among car enthusiasts: "As anyone brighter than a rusty spike must know..."; flooring the accelerator pedal on a certain car is "...like stepping on a wet sponge"; the clock/tachometer combination on another car is "...about as useful as feathers on a moose." McCahill died in 1974, and three years later CBS bought Fawcett Publications
Fawcett Publications
Fawcett Publications was an American publishing company founded in 1919 in Robbinsdale, Minnesota by Wilford Hamilton "Captain Billy" Fawcett . At the age of 16, Fawcett ran away from home to join the Army, and the Spanish-American War took him to the Philippines. Back in Minnesota, he became a...
, the company which published MI, and continued publishing the magazine, renaming it Home Mechanix in 1984. In August, 1996, it was again renamed as "Today's Homeowner" and ceased publication with the March/April issue in 2001.
In the 1980s, the magazine featured more and more home repair, remodel and woodworking projects while featuring fewer articles on general technology and automotive projects. In an ironic twist, the first issue of Home Mechanix in 1984 had a cover feature article on customizing the new Chrysler Minivan.
A long-running feature of Mechanix Illustrated was "Mimi," a shapely young woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and white vertical stripes; and, in the early sixties, a matching railroad engineer's cap (later discontinued). She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, laying on or just in the picture with a new product each month. Each "Mimi" held the job for a year. Their names were never given except for the announcement of a new "Mimi" in the January issue. One Mimi did, however, hold the job for a few years in the sixties. An actress from Southern California, she left to live in Hawaii, and a readers' poll was conducted to choose a replacement from a short list. The readers' choice only lasted a short while, and was replaced by one of the runners-up. "Mimi" was discontinued with the change to "Home Mechanix".
Roy Doty
Roy Doty
Roy Doty is an American cartoonist, artist, and illustrator from Columbus, Ohio. Doty served in World War II as a cartoonist and, shortly after, in 1946 began his career as a freelance cartoonist in New York City....
's "Wordless Workshop" is currently appearing in "The Family Handyman
The Family Handyman
The Family Handyman is an American home-improvement magazine, owned by the Reader's Digest Association.The magazine was founded in 1951 by Universal Publishing & Distributing. UPD sold the magazine to Webb Publishing in 1977 to pay down debts that would ultimately finish off the company...
" magazine.
External links
- Online archive of the covers from Mechanix Illustrated under its various titles (with other magazines in the same genre)