CALENDARS MAKE TIMELY PRESENTS BUT MARILYN IS DATED, VROOM IN VOGUE
A calendar used to be something that came with Christmas greetings from the fuel-oil distributor and was hung inside the kitchen utility closet. We all know what has happened to the oil business, and one might say that calendars are booming, too.
Because sports lend themselves to vivid and graceful photography, they make handsome subjects for today's glossy calendars. Ice-Axe and Ski (Editions Novos S.A., Lausanne, $4.95) is so invigorating that it could drive an office-bound climber to hammering pitons into a wall. For the Sunday sailor Regatta 75 (Gottschalk Kalendar, Berlin, $9.95) captures the toughness of ocean racing and its exuberance. Sailing 75 (Universe, New York City, $7.95) conveys more of the beauty and glamour of the big boats. Universe has also produced The Bicycle Poster calendar ($6.95), a curious collection of arty advertisements from the past century that includes languid earth goddesses peddling—though rarely pedaling—high-wheelers. Motosport '75 (Elco Graphica, Los Angeles, $5.95) is a repetitious chronicle of motorcycle racing, as is Moto-Fan 75 (Gottschalk, $9.95). If you are thrilled by a motorbike plunging through flaming hay, or wallowing in mire, these are the ones to choose. For purists there is Grand Prix 1975 (Elco Graphica, $5.95), which features various cars on the circuit. Grand Prix (Universe, $7.95) does not limit itself to Formula I racing, showing cars and courses throughout the world. And to please the zealot of motor sports there is Speed 75 (Gottschalk, $9.95), a blur of color and hurtling wheels.
By far the most captivating of the year's lot is The Sports Fan's Calendar (Universe, $2.95). It has few pretensions, using black and white pictures of newspaper quality, but the illustrations are beside the point. Rather, buy the calendar to become the day-today trivia expert of the neighborhood. There is a one-liner for almost every date, some as predictable as Henry Aaron's record-breaking home run on April 8, and others that strike one as facetious, i.e., Virne (Jackie) Mitchell signed as the first woman on the all-male Chattanooga, Tenn. baseball team on April 1, 1931. Are we being fooled?
Maybe all you are after is a Christmas gift for Uncle George, but whatever the motive, the local bookstore or gift shop probably can supply—in the way of calendars—the sporting fuel for your fire. In case the oil man fails to come through.