Above is the cover of Jack Hanley’s New York Model, from the Designs Publishing Corporation, entry 37 in its Intimate Novels line, 1953. And indeed, his take on the fashion industry must have been intimate because it was banned in Australia. Hanley wrote other racy books such as Stag Stripper, Star Lust, and Very Private Secretary, but his crowing achievement might be 1937’s horndog instruction manual Let’s Make Mary, which is subtitled: Being A Gentleman’s Guide to Scientific Seduction in Eight Easy Lessons. Hanley died relatively young in 1963 at age fifty-eight. No info on whether an angry husband, boyfriend or father had anything to do with it.
1945—Hollywood Black Friday
A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.