Bare was a digest-sized men’s magazine, meaning that it was small enough to fit into a pocket and be carried about unseen. At least, that seemed to be the point. As a bonus, such publications were cheaper to print that standard sized magazines. Bare lasted just a few years, from 1953 to 1955, if the span of issues available online are an indication. You’ll notice its slogan was “The Naked Truth.” There was no nudity, but it did try to titillate. This issue from June 1955 has Evelyn West and Rita Hayworth on the cover, and various celebs and burlesque queens inside. There are also features on Berlin’s racy nightlife, boxer Jack Dempsey’s near defeat by Joe Sudenberg, and the love life of a midget—everything needed to keep an inquiring mind occupied.

It’s been a while since we’ve featured Hush-Hush, but it’s one of our favorite high-end mid-century tabloids, so today we have a newly scanned issue from this month 1957. We learn that Ingrid Bergman called Ed Sullivan a liar for falsely claiming she was booked on his show, and that Phil Silvers was terrified that he would lose his fame, and that Eartha Kitt was destined to forever be lonely because she was interested only in white men.

But the fun story here is the one headed: “Movie Stars Victimized By Smut, Inc.” The article is about Tijuana bibles, and the many celebs who had been unknowingly featured in them. We’ve already posted a few bibles, thus you probably already know that they’re pornographic eight-page comic booklets sold clandestinely in drug stores and soda fountains. Their makers felt free to borrow the likenesses of public figures of the day, and Hush-Hush offers up examples starring Bob Hope, Marie Wilson, Robert Mitchum and others. The article describes them as “unbelievably filthy booklets showing the basest sexual acts and perversions.”

Well, true enough. Their distribution was so worrisome that the FBI got involved, and while the feds did manage to make some arrests, the flow of booklets remained pretty much uninterrupted. We can only assume that Hush-Hush’s exposé made them even more popular, which is kind of how it works with porn, right? Someone gets on their soapbox about it and people walk away thinking, Hmm, I better see one of these with my own eyes. Of course, Hush-Hush didn’t dare reprint the interior pages, but we have no such inhibitions here at Pulp Intl. See the next post, and see here.