Body Beautiful was published by Joe Weider, the entrepreneurial Canadian bodybuilder and founder of the Mr. and Ms. Olympia bodybuilding contests. Weider was a rare heterosexual among physique publishers.

Body Beautiful’s gay editorial staff consisted of the incredibly talented Lon Hanagan, who also created Adonis magazine for Weider and George Quiantance, who worked with Hanagan on the first covers of Bob Mizer’s Physique Pictorial. Adonis and Body Beautiful were sister publications.

Beefcake magazines of the 1950's and 60's allowed men to explore their interest in body building a fitness. The publication had a secondary purpose for men interested in men. This set of Body Beautiful magazines from the late-50's and early-60's are filled with strapping young men moving their bodies.

Their unstated primary purpose was erotic imagery, primarily created by and for gay men at a time when homosexuality was the subject of cultural taboos and government censorship.