Alan Ladd plays white knight in India.
Above: a really nice paperback cover featuring U.S. actor Alan Ladd, made for the novelization of his 1946 film noir Calcutta. If a Hollywood movie is set in any warm foreign land you can count on the white suit making an appearance. Ladd certainly looks nice in his. Sadly, with only the front cover scanned, no author listed, and the internet absolutely packed with Calcutta references, there's no chance to find out who wrote this unless we were to recognize the publisher's logo—which we don't. We generally don't share covers without complete information, but this cool item? We made an exception. Eventually someone will sell a copy of it and we'll update this post with author and publisher info. Until then, if you're interested in our musings about the film Calcutta, you can find those here.
Update: Well, we are amazed and pleased. Thirty minutes? That's the fastest ever, thanks to Rhea. She even found it on Ebay for us. The author here is Alex Morrison, the publisher is London based Hollywood Publications Limited (what is that WFP logo on the cover?—no idea), and it came out in 1947. The movie premiered in England in 1946, and novelizations usually coincide, but because the premiere was 20 December, the book can carry a 1947 copyright and still have been more or less simultaneously relesased with the film. Should we buy it? We're very tempted.
Let that serve as notice. I'm Splay-Footed Jack and I'm gonna shoot every pigeon-toed son-of-a-bitch in the county.
A high percentage of western paperback covers are unintentionally absurd, and this one by an unknown artist for the obscure 1959 novel Sierra Slayer fits the bill. This was written by Anthony G. Murphy, and he had us baffled for a while. Then we disscovered he was actually a Spanish writer named Antonino González Morales, who was both a journalist and novelist, using multiple pseudonyms, including Ambler Ketchum, Ana María Luján, A. G. Morales, A. G. Murphy, Alex Mor, Inglis Carter, Gordon C. McGuire, and possibly others. The name Anthony G. Murphy was generally reserved for his westerns, and Sierra Slayer, which was put out by George Turton Publishers in Britain, would, then, have to be a translation from Spanish. All of which brings us back to the art. Since Turton was not a major publisher, it possibly reused the Spanish art, and since Morales/Murphy wrote his westerns for Madrid's Editorial Rollán, and many of those were illustrated by Prieto Muriana, this could be Muriana's work. Then again, it easily could not.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Holiday Records Strange Fruit
American blues and jazz singer Billie Holiday records "Strange Fruit", which is considered to be the first civil rights song. It began as a poem written by Abel Meeropol, which he later set to music and performed live with his wife Laura Duncan. The song became a Holiday standard immediately after she recorded it, and it remains one of the most highly regarded pieces of music in American history. 1927—Mae West Sentenced to Jail
American actress and playwright Mae West is sentenced to ten days in jail for obscenity for the content of her play Sex. The trial occurred even though the play had run for a year and had been seen by 325,000 people. However West's considerable popularity, already based on her risque image, only increased due to the controversy. 1971—Manson Sentenced to Death
In the U.S, cult leader Charles Manson is sentenced to death for inciting the murders of Sharon Tate and several other people. Three accomplices, who had actually done the killing, were also sentenced to death, but the state of California abolished capital punishment in 1972 and neither they nor Manson were ever actually executed. 1923—Yankee Stadium Opens
In New York City, Yankee Stadium, home of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees, opens with the Yankees beating their eternal rivals the Boston Red Sox 4 to 1. The stadium, which is nicknamed The House that Ruth Built, sees the Yankees become the most successful franchise in baseball history. It is eventually replaced by a new Yankee Stadium and closes in September 2008.
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