![ALL THAT JAZZ](/images/headline/6985.png) Mid-century paperback artists were in tune with the times. ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_01.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_25.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_14.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_07.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_03.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_26.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_04.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_22.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_05.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_06.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_08.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_09.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_10.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_11.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_21.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_30.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_12.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_13.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_15.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_16.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_28.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_17.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_18.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_19.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_24.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_20.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/all_that_jazz_23.jpg)
There are numerous jazz themed mid-century paperback covers. The jazz milieu—with its smoky clubs, passionate personalities, and idiosyncratic ways—fascinated readers. Above you see a small collection of fronts that visually reference the uniquely American (black American) art of jazz. We've also added a couple of the many torch singer and crooner covers out there that seem jazzy enough to fit. The artists are Barye Phillips, Stanley Zuckerberg, Harry Barton, Mitchell Hooks, Julian Paul, and others. We've previously posted quite a few jazz covers, and we have a few jazz themed books still to read, so in both cases you won't see those pieces here. We don't keyword for jazz, which means a search for those we've already posted would bring up a welter of books, movies, tabloids, and album covers. Therefore, in order to save you the trouble of wading through all that, here are some links. We'll limit ourselves to ten: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
![BAD DREAMS](/images/headline/6550.png) Ever wake up but feel like you're still having a nightmare? ![](/images/postimg/bad_dreams.jpg)
In vintage crime fiction getting the hero laid—or at least having the opportunity arise—is almost a mandatory requirement. The main character of Evan Hunter's, aka Ed McBain's, 1952 novel The Evil Sleep is a heroin addict who, at a certain point, has had cold and hot sweats all day long, hasn't showered, shaved, or brushed his teeth, yet manages to get laid by a clean, beautiful woman. This was a dead giveaway that she was shady, and dead giveaways in mysteries are something authors should avoid. Even so, The Evil Sleep is an interesting book. It's about a junkie who wakes up with a corpse, and must dodge the police, find the real murderer, and get a fix, or somehow keep his shit together without one. It was later published as So Nude, So Dead. The cover you see here, which is unattributed, came from an auction site. Our copy, which came cheap as part of a lot, is basically coverless. By which we mean the femme fatale was cut completely out, probably to end up as part of some high-school art student's collage that has long since gone to a landfill. Very naughty. If you want to buy this in good condition the price might run $400. That's even naughtier.
![PUBIC OPINION](/images/headline/4838.png) Yeah, wow, nice. I've never seen one without hair. It's slick as a— Wait, did you say you tore it out with hot wax? ![](/images/postimg/a_shift_in_pubic_opinion.jpg)
Above, the cover of Orgy Man by Dean Hudson, a Greenleaf Classics house pseudonym used in this case by veteran sleaze author Evan Hunter, writing for Greenleaf's Idle Hours imprint, with cover art by Robert Bonfils, copyright 1964. Hah. We did that all in one sentence.
![SCOUT'S DISHONOR](/images/headline/4763.png) I don't understand your reluctance to do me in the privacy of my office. Your résumé says you did this guy Chekhov in the park. ![](/images/postimg/scout's_dishonor.jpg)
Before we do anything else here are five book covers of women shooting men. And here's a book cover of a woman whipping a man. And here's one of a woman about to stick a gun in a man's mouth. This is just paperback art, which is not to be taken too seriously, but we felt we needed to de-Weinstein things a bit anyway. So what's going on with this book? A sleazy casting agent named Stirling Steele catches wind of a beautiful singer and goes to Nashville to promise her anything she wants as long as she ends up naked on her back. Instead he gets arrested for trying to corrupt her morals and finds himself in jail with a friend of his, also a shady agent who'd heard about the singer and shown up in Nashville for the same reason. The jail is run by a hot matron, and there's also a beautiful— Wait. Let's stop. This is silly. The plot doesn't matter at all. Orgy Scouts is so stupid and badly written it isn't even worth summarizing. Why do we torture ourselves with these books, you're wondering? Because we buy them in lots, and others in the group promise to be better. We'll see. This one is copyright 1967 with art by Tomas Cannizarro.
![FLASHY GORDON](/images/headline/4759.png) Cats always get in the way at the worst moments. ![](/images/postimg/flashy_gordon_01.jpg)
The above cover from the Milan based publishers Longanesi & Co. features U.S. glamour model Virginia Gordon fronting a 1959 translation of Ed McBain's The Pusher. McBain is basically a legend, but is it a stretch to call Gordon legendary too? We don't think so. She was Playboy magazine's January 1959 Playmate of the Month, and because of that her photos are highly collectible and expensive. You'd see two important reasons why if not for a mischievous cat, but you can outmaneuver him by clicking here or here. Below we have a few more fronts from Longanesi, including Jonathan Craig's Case of the Village Tramp, which also has Gordon on the cover, and John Jakes' detective novel Johnny Havoc, featuring Carol Baker giving a nice over-the-shoulder glance. Like Australia's Horwitz Publications and several other non-U.S. companies, Longanesi used (probably) unlicensed images of Hollywood starlets and glamor models as a matter of habit. We'll show you more examples of those a bit later.
![A CLEAN BREAK](/images/headline/4537.png) This is really fun! After this I'll shave your legs and pluck your eyebrows. ![](/images/postimg/a_clean_break.jpg)
Above, a cover for Shame Star, copyright 1964, written by Evan Hunter using the pseudonym Dean Hudson for Idle Hours Books. Yep, we read it. It's about a free spirit named Francie Jordan who gets low on money, gets into nude modeling, and ends up involved in the NYC skin flick racket. The cover doesn't depict her, though. For some reason it shows a secondary character enjoying an assisted cleanse in a Japanese bathhouse in Harlem. Maybe someone could ask the artist why he chose that scene, but the cover is uncredited. Overall this is standard sleaze, maybe a hair better written than usual, but nothing we'd recommend.
![CROWD PLEASER](/images/headline/3954.png) Just stay over there a minute. I want you to get the full effect of this awesome pose. ![](/images/postimg/crowd_pleaser.jpg)
In Evan Hunter's 1954 novel Don't Crowd Me an NYC advertising copywriter seeks tranquility in the lake region but instead finds himself encountering two sisters with very different temperaments who both seem to find him irresistible. Then, of course, there's a murder to spoil everything, and it looks like he's the only one who can solve it. The plot may sound improbable, but Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino, was better known by his pseudonym Ed McBain, which means you would expect this to be decently written. And in fact you would be correct. The cover art, which is great, was painted by Walter Popp.
![SCIENTIFIC SEXPERIMENT](/images/headline/3352.png) And when ze leetle libidometer say zat your libido is at just ze right level all of us vill haf you sexually. ![](/images/postimg/scientific_sexperiment.jpg) ![](/images/postimg/scientific_sexperiment_02.jpg)
Above you see ze cover of... COUGH COUGH! Had something in the throat there. Above you see the cover of Dean Hudson's, aka Evan Hunter's, Twisted Tulips, yet another winner from Greenleaf Classics, this time for its Leisure imprint. 1966 copyright with uncredited art.
![DESTINATION: SEX](/images/headline/2893.png) You know, here they really frown on this sort of thing, but if you really can’t wait… ![](/images/postimg/destination_sex.jpg)
Above, Passion Suburb by Evan Hunter writing as Dean Hudson, published 1962. The suburb in question is called Rustic Acres, and it’s filled with horny women who bed any man who happens along. Or as the local Chamber of Commerce put it on the brochures: If you lived there you’d be boning by now. The cover art is by Harold W. McCauley.
![SELFISH JEANS](/images/headline/2211.png) It’s not their fault—it’s a jean-etic disorder. In pulp and sleaze fiction there are many types of bad women—vamps, golddiggers, black widows, you name it—but women who wear jeans, or even jean shorts, are destined for a special brand of trouble. Some of these women are already corrupt while others are merely at the gateway, but they all end up in the same place—Calamity City, daddy-o.
![Next Page](/images/pinextpage.jpg)
|
![](/images/piart02v3.jpg) |
The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
2003—Hope Dies
Film legend Bob Hope dies of pneumonia two months after celebrating his 100th birthday. 1945—Churchill Given the Sack
In spite of admiring Winston Churchill as a great wartime leader, Britons elect
Clement Attlee the nation's new prime minister in a sweeping victory for the Labour Party over the Conservatives. 1952—Evita Peron Dies
Eva Duarte de Peron, aka Evita, wife of the president of the Argentine Republic, dies from cancer at age 33. Evita had brought the working classes into a position of political power never witnessed before, but was hated by the nation's powerful military class. She is lain to rest in Milan, Italy in a secret grave under a nun's name, but is eventually returned to Argentina for reburial beside her husband in 1974. 1943—Mussolini Calls It Quits
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini steps down as head of the armed forces and the government. It soon becomes clear that Il Duce did not relinquish power voluntarily, but was forced to resign after former Fascist colleagues turned against him. He is later installed by Germany as leader of the Italian Social Republic in the north of the country, but is killed by partisans in 1945.
|
![](/images/suki.png)
|
|
It's easy. We have an uploader that makes it a snap. Use it to submit your art, text, header, and subhead. Your post can be funny, serious, or anything in between, as long as it's vintage pulp. You'll get a byline and experience the fleeting pride of free authorship. We'll edit your post for typos, but the rest is up to you. Click here to give us your best shot.
|
|