MISS RIPE AND MR. WRONG

Asking for it? How is calling you a big smelly sub-mental mutant who has manners like a badger asking for it?

1955’s The Ripening is a novel in the vein of Steinbeck by Eugene Wyble about oppressed southern tomato pickers (we were thinking those were apples, but no) subsisting according to the whims of a cruel cannery operator. It was poorly reviewed and soon forgotten, but we appreciate the cover art, especially the shadow on the girl’s thigh (her name is Teenie, as befits the mandatory nubile farmer’s daughter you often find in this genre of fiction). Notice how the shadow of the hand—it could be his or hers, but we’re thinking it’s his—becomes a sort of beastly claw grasping her leg, yet is kept in balance with the male figure so it’s an extension of him and a signifier of his violence and lust. That’s clever. Unfortunately, the artist was not clever enough to get credit for his/her work. You may notice the Ace logo says “double” but this not one of their celebrated double-sided novels, with two front covers and the second book printed upside down relative to the first. It’s a double-size novel. So you get only one book and one cover here.

Ace Books, Eugene Wyble, cover art, literature

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

May 14

1939—Five-Year Old Girl Gives Birth

In Peru, five-year old Lina Medina becomes the world’s youngest confirmed mother at the age of five when she gives birth to a boy via a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis. Six weeks earlier, Medina had been brought to the hospital because her parents were concerned about her increasing abdominal size. Doctors originally thought she had a tumor, but soon determined she was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Her son is born underweight but healthy, however the identity of the father and the circumstances of Medina’s impregnation never become public.

May 14

1987—Rita Hayworth Dies

American film actress and dancer Margarita Carmen Cansino, aka Rita Hayworth, who became her era’s greatest sex symbol and appeared in sixty-one films, including the iconic Gilda, dies of Alzheimer’s disease in her Manhattan apartment. Naturally shy, Hayworth was the antithesis of the characters she played. She married five times, but none lasted. In the end, she lived alone, cared for by her daughter who lived next door.

May 13

1960—Gary Cooper Dies

American film actor Gary Cooper, who harnessed an understated, often stoic style in numerous adventure films and westerns, including Sergeant York, For Whom the Bell Tolls, High Noon, and Alias Jesse James, dies of prostate, intestinal, lung and bone cancer. For his contributions to American cinema Cooper received a plaque on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is considered one of top movie stars of all time.

May 12

1957—Von Stroheim Dies

German film director and actor Erich von Stroheim, who as an actor was noted for his arrogant Teutonic character parts which led him to become a renowned cinematic villain with the nickname “The Man You Love to Hate”, dies in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.

May 11

1960—Adolf Eichmann Is Captured

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, four Israeli Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who had been living under the assumed name and working for Mercedes-Benz. Eichman is taken to Israel to face trial on 15 criminal charges, including crimes against humanity and war crimes. He is found guilty and executed by hanging in 1962, and is the only person to have been executed in Israel on conviction by a civilian court.

May 11

2010—Last Ziegfeld Follies Girl Dies

Doris Eaton Travis, who was the last surviving Ziegfeld Follies chorus girl, dies at age 106. The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. Inspired by the Folies Bergères of Paris, they enjoyed a successful run on Broadway, became a radio program in 1932 and 1936, and were adapted into a musical motion picture in 1946 starring Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Lucille Ball, and Lena Horne.