Vintage Pulp

October 21 2024

DANY INSATIABLY

The line between the ravager and the ravaged gets pretty thin.

This Japanese poster was made for Dany la ravageuse, a French sexploitation movie known in English as Dany the Ravager, which premiered in Japan today in 1972. Is it just us, or does Dany the Ravager sound like the name of a Marvel character? Well, Sandra Julien as the titular Dany certainly has a super effect on those around her. She hitchhikes from Paris to the Côte d’Azur and gets into a series of adventures. In one, a driver fantasizes about getting naked and netting butterflies in the woods with her (we have some brilliant production photos of that below). In another, she spends quality naked time lakeside with another woman. In the next she’s picked up by two fugitive gangsters who soon turn on each other over her. And in yet another she meets a couple of hustlers in Monaco who pull the ole switcheroo in the dark so Julien ends up in bed with the wrong guy. It’s played for laughs, but still, it’s rapey.

Overall, the movie is brainless sexploitation, but not of the most pleasant variety, exemplified by a backseat sexual assault in the fugitives episode that turns into mutual attraction. It’s always jarring to experience cinema made before any form of social change took hold, whether change around what consitutued rape, or changes around portraying people of color, or changes around humor and ableism. Our favorite movies from the sexploitation genre feature women in control of their fictional adventures. However, on the opposite side of the social change coin, Dany la ravageuse is unflinching in its approach to male frontal nudity, so in that respect it was well ahead of its time. We think it’s worthy of deeper discussion academically, but as pure entertainment, unless you adore Julien or want to see a lot of French countryside, you can take a pass.

Japan, France, Paris, Monaco, Japan, Dany la ravageuse, Dany the Ravager, Sandra Julien, Jacqueline Laurent, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, nudity, movie review

Vintage Pulp

September 12 2024

EASY DOES IT

All the time and with whoever she can.

We’re back to sleaze digests today with 1951’s They Call Her “Easy” by Gwen Lyons, which is from Ecstasy Novel Magazine with Al Rossi cover art, and posed photos in the interior, as you’ll see below. Lyons tells the story of young Betty Crockett, who leverages her incomparable beauty to make her way from her hometown of Alexandria, Virginia, where she’s a War Department stenographer, to New York City, where she becomes a shoe model, and later to Paris, where she lives on a rich man’s generosity. The rich man sees her more as a daughter, and is actually trying to set her up with his son, who he worries has been hanging with dirty French intellectuals too much and has forgotten family values. The book is light as can be, with only a minor conflict having to do with Betty posing for a few bikini photos only to see her head pasted onto a nude body and sold as a postcard. It costs her her job, but leads to all her later adventures, which struck us as a fair deal. The book was a fair deal too. Only ten dollars for something that may not have been great, but was certainly readable.

Virginia, Alexandria, New York City, Paris, Ecstasy Novel Magazine, Gwen Lyons, Al Rossi, cover art, literature

Intl. Notebook

July 26 2024

THONG AND DANCE

The anatomy and the ecstasy.

We have a tremendous amount of material on burlesque in Pulp Intl., yet it’s been eight years since we put together a full collection of mid-century burlesque dancers, go-go girls, and strippers. That day has arrived again. Above and below you see some of the better shots we’ve run across of late, featuring the famous and the obscure, the restrained and the explicit, the domestic and the foreign, and the blonde, red, brown, and brunette. Where possible we’ve identified the performer, such as above—that’s Carol Ryva, sometimes known as Carol Riva, Carole von Ryva, Cara Rive, et al, a French dancer who rose to fame during the early 1960s. Other familiar faces you’ll see are Lilly Christine, Maria Tuxedo, Gay Dawn, Yvonne Ménard, and Virginia Bell.

Occasionally, when we post something that contains nudity, we feel, in this age of new puritanism that we should comment about it. We saw a survey recently indicating that a large percentage of Gen Z’ers think nudity in movies is unnecessary in all circumstances, especially sex scenes. And we’re like, really? The wonderful thing that virtually every person does, or which practically everyone wants to do, and which is how nearly all of us came to be here on the planet, is somehow taboo, but the horrible thing that virtually none of us do—kill—must be part of nearly every film, book, and television show? Programming works. If you sell sexual shame unceasingly new generations will absorb it, and believe they’ve come to their views organically.

The reality is that sex and nudity are freeing. Burlesque and erotic dance are valuable because they take our DNA driven sexual desire and package it as an art form, fit for public consumption and contemplation. Moving one’s body rhythmically feels good, and watching those who work so very hard but make look so easy the pushing of their physical limits within the realm of such expression is pleasing to the eye and psyche. That’s why we love erotic dance. Our two previous burlesque collections, “Infinite Jest,” and “Dancers Gotta Dance,” are here and here, and we have some notable smaller burlesque forays here, here, and here. But if you want to kill some time for real, instead click the keyword “burlesque” at bottom, then scroll, scroll, scroll. Make sure you pack a lunch.

Virginia Bell

Noel Toy, and more here.

Lee Sharon.

Dixie Brandy.

A group shot from the legendary Crazy Horse, Paris.

Stacey “Stormy” Laurence at Louisiana State University in 1948.

Maria Tuxedo. More here.

The incomparable Lilly Christine. We also have a set of photos from one of her performances here, and more links from that point.

The Follies Theater at 337 S. Main Street, Los Angeles, 1946.

Tempest Storm.

Gay Dawn.

Yvonne Ménard, and more photos here.

Carol Jane, aka Spider Woman.

Jackie Miller.

Debra Paget, who performed one of the most provocative screen dances ever in 1959’s De indische grabmal.

Blaze Starr. We also saw her recently here.

Vintage Pulp

April 6 2024

CURTAIN CALL

Before we go in, I should warn you that Isa might jump out from somewhere. Act surprised. She'll leave you alone after that.

Above: a cover for the 1953 adventure Isa, written by René Roques and published by his Paris-based company Éditions R.R. Their cover art was often by Jef de Wulf, but this one is signed YB. We have no idea who that is, nor have we ever seen his or her work elsewhere, but it’s an interesting effort. R.R. produced attractive covers even in collaboration with obscure artists, so some of the credit for their consistency probably goes to the company’s art director—René Roques himself. Click his keywords below to see more.

France, Paris, Éditions R.R., René Roques, cover art, literature

Musiquarium

January 4 2024

L’GRECO

La Muse de l’existentialisme et Miles.

This striking music brochure promo art for French singer Juliette Gréco and Disques Fontana (a subsidiary of the Dutch label Philips Records) was created by the famous illustrator O’Kley in 1956. The art was reused for record covers, as you see below.

Gréco, an actress as well as singer, was a fixture in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés area of Paris, and her acquaintanceships with such figures as Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty earned her the nickname La Muse de l’existentialisme—the existentialists’ muse. She was also, according to Miles Davis, one of the great loves of his life, and the feeling was reciprocated, so that wins major points right there because Miles was the bomb.

Moving on to the art, O’Kley was a pseudonym for Nantes-born Pierre Gilardeau, the man behind some of the most collectable Folies Bergère posters. He also illustrated many book covers and movie posters, and after a long career died in 2007. We’ve seen some good examples of his art, so we’ll try to get back to him a bit later—but we make no guarantees. You can see another Fontana post here.

France, Netherlands, Paris, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Fontana Records, Disques Fontana, Philips Records, Pierre Gilardeau, O’Kley, Juliette Greco, Miles Davis, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Folies Bergère, cinema, album art

Intl. Notebook

November 20 2023

CRAZY ABOUT PARIS

The sights are incredible there.

The photo series above was made to promote the famed Parisian nightclub Le Crazy Horse and its featured dancers. Posing on a terrace with a line of sight to the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysées, and Arc de Triomphe are Anna Portobello, Rosa Fumetto, Bonita Super, Maria Tuxedo (who we’ve featured before), Eva Wowor, Sophia Palladium, and Prima Symphony. That was today in 1968.

France, Paris, Le Crazy Horse, Anna Portobello, Rosa Fumetto, Bonita Super, Maria Tuxedo, Eva Wowor, Sophia Palladium, Prima Symphony, burlesque

Intl. Notebook

October 8 2023

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

Welcome to the greatest show on Earth

Renato Casaro was a celebrated Italian movie poster artist, but he worked in other media, including album sleeves and portraiture. Above he’s created an advertising poster for Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, a Parisian circus that traces its roots back to 1852, when Charles de Mornay, commonly referred to as Duc de Morny, undertook its creation and named it after his half brother Prince Louis-Napoléon III. When the circus finally opened in 1859 it featured equestrianism, animal acts, and aerial acrobatics from the famed Jules Léotard. After being interrupted by World War I, the business passed over to Gaston Desprez in 1923, and again in 1934 to the Bouglione Brothers, who were Italians who’d made a name for themselves traveling France with a menagerie and wild cat act. The circus was halted during World War II and the occuptation of its buildings by the Nazis, but emerged post-war to continue its growth and fame, known by then as Cirque d’Hiver Bouglione, the name it bears today. Casaro’s lovely poster dates from 1970.

Italy, France, Paris, Renato Casaro, Louis-Napoléon III, Jules Léotard, Gaston Desprez

Vintage Pulp

September 27 2023

ANATOMY OF AN ASSASSINATION

A murder by any other name would kill as dead.

This is a rather pretty cover painted by Charles Copeland for E.M. Harper’s 1960 novel The Assassin, the story of Alec Jordan, who’s spared the guillotine in an Algerian prison but must repay the shadowy government operatives who freed him by murdering an Arab political figure. We’ve seen convicts turned into assassins a couple times in vintage literature. What sets this story apart is its many flashbacks to Jordan’s youth, from the time he was witness to his moonshiner father’s killing by cops, to being sprung from reform school to play high school football (seems someone always wants to put his skills to use), to his various war experiences.

The story begins in Paris, from which Jordan pursues his target to London and Vienna, world weary, haunted by the past, and hounded by the people who are operating him. There’s, unsurprisingly, the requisite woman-from-his-past for whom he still has feelings—a beauty named Renée who married an Austrian count while Jordan was hors de combat. Conveniently, she’s now a widow, but is reclaiming the past an option for Jordan? To survive but lose your soul, to resist corruption but be killed, to find redemption in love. You’ve read it before, and though Harper breaks no new ground plotwise, he wrote a contemplative iteration of the story that offers some enjoyment.

Algeria, Paris, London, Vienna, Berkley Books, E.M. Harper, Charles Copeland, cover art, literature

Vintage Pulp

May 28 2023

IN DUE TIME

They're willing to hustle, side-hustle, and even hustle on their backs to get what they want.

When we stumbled across this Italian poster and saw that it was for a film starring the lovely Catherine Deneuve and her unbeatable hair, we felt a screening was needed. Due prostitute a pigalle is a French/Italian co-production that was originally titled Zig-Zig, with the name changing to Zig-Zag for the U.S. The movie is about two Parisians played by Deneuve and Bernadette Lafont who work as cabaret entertainers, bookies, and prostitutes in order to raise enough money to buy a chalet in the mountains. Their signature song and dance number “Zig Zig” earns them a small measure of fame around Paris, and the dream home seems closer by the day.

However, Deneuve has no idea that Lafont is involved with a gang of cross-dressers who’ve kidnapped the wife of a prominent politician. When she finds out, she freaks out, and it looks like her friendship with Lafont is cooked and their house will never come to be. The movie has its moments, but jarring shifts of tone from serious to farcical and an insistence upon an ironic and unrealistic ending definitively sink it. Even so, it has Deneuve, and her hair can’t be sunk under any circumstances. Due prostitute a pigalle premiered in France in early 1975, and in Italy today the same year.

Italy, France, Paris, Due prostitute a pigalle, Zig-Zig, Zig-Zag, Catherine Deneuve, Bernadette Lafont, Walter Chiari, Paola Senatore, poster art, cinema, movie review

Intl. Notebook

April 30 2023

SIGHTS OF PARIS

Because the Louvre and Versailles don't stay open late.

Above are the cover and various interior pages from Cancans de Paris issue thirty-three, which hit newsstands this month in 1966. The magazine was one of several that explored Parisian burlesque, along with Folies de Paris et de Hollywood, Paris Frou Frou, Regal, and others. For more from Cancans just click the keywords below and scroll.

France, Paris, Cancans de Paris, Fabienne Fabre, Ingrid Klenk, Virginia Green, nudity, burlesque

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 25

1949—First Emmy Awards Are Presented

At the Hollywood Athletic Club in Los Angeles, California, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presents the first Emmy Awards. The name Emmy was chosen as a feminization of “immy”, a nickname used for the image orthicon tubes that were common in early television cameras.

January 25

1971—Manson Family Found Guilty

Charles Manson and three female members of his “family” are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders, which Manson orchestrated in hopes of bringing about Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise between blacks and whites.

January 24

1961—Plane Carrying Nuclear Bombs Crashes

A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two H-bombs experiences trouble during a refueling operation, and in the midst of an emergency descent breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five of the six arming devices on one of the bombs somehow activate before it lands via parachute in a wooded region where it is later recovered. The other bomb does not deploy its chute and crashes into muddy ground at 700 mph, disintegrating while driving its radioactive core fifty feet into the earth.

January 23

1912—International Opium Convention Signed

The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first international drug control treaty. The agreement was signed by Germany, the U.S., China, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam.

January 22

1946—CIA Forerunner Created

U.S. president Harry S. Truman establishes the Central Intelligence Group or CIG, an interim authority that lasts until the Central Intelligence Agency is established in September of 1947.

January 22

1957—George Metesky Is Arrested

The New York City “Mad Bomber,” a man named George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs. Metesky was angry about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier. Of the thirty-three known bombs he planted, twenty-two exploded, injuring fifteen people. He was apprehended based on an early use of offender profiling and because of clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. At trial he was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.