vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
Where would sleaze fiction be without Midwood Books? The company was launched in 1957 by Harry Shorten, and the sub-genre of office sleaze quickly became one the new company’s linchpins. Above are some examples of these books, with art by the always excellent Paul Rader and others. Thanks to all the original uploaders.
Another great cover today for an Alan Marshall sleaze novel. This time it’s The Orgy Inspector, featuring a lecherous older swing dancer whose favorite maneuver pays high dividends when he tries it on his young partner. You get the impression that by the time she completes her revolution she might end up completely undressed. Girls, let this be a lesson that the whole room is apt to get a good look at the kitty kat if you go swing dancing without undies, so always wear a pair and— Wait. Did we say always? Er, never. That’s the word we were looking for.
Don Bellmore, whose Hot Pants Heiress you see above, was one of many prolific smut authors during the 1960s. He wrote Shame Agent, Sin Dealer, Prey for Rape, The Dyke Department, The Twins’ Initiation, and many more. It all sounds pretty low rent, but you’d be surprised how robust the market is for vintage sleaze. We saw The Twins’ Initiation going for $49.95 on one site. Pretty good for an author that wasn’t even real. Bellmore was one of those names shared by a number of writers, including George H. White, who also wrote as both Jan Hudson and J.X. Williams, though the J.X. pseudonym was also used by John Jakes among others. White/Bellmore also may have filled in as Alan Marshall when Donald E. Westlake wasn’t inhabiting the role. It all gets pretty confusing. But what isn’t confusing is this humorous cover art, featuring a bottomless vixen doing the upside down bicycle exercise and her friend with a shoe fetish. We have some more Bellmore covers below. Enjoy.
This looks like the work of Robert Bonfils, one of my personal fave pulp artists.
Submitted by ScoreBaby.
This is a simply perfect Robert Bonfils cover for Alan Marshall’s, aka Donald E. Westlake’s, Lust Always Rings Twice. The overall humor of the piece is great, but Bonfils has really nailed the postman’s facial expression, which is that of a guy pleasantly shocked to discover he’s going to be giving a beautiful woman an entirely different type of package than he’d thought. This almost makes us want to apply for a postal job, except we’re not lucky enough to get a route like this guy’s, nor are we nimble enough to avoid the sprays of indiscriminate gunfire from disgruntled employees. So we’ll just stick with the book—it really delivers.
Novelist and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake died Friday of a heart attack at age seventy-five. Westlake who began publishing in 1960, wrote more than one hundred books under his name and several pseudonyms, including Richard Stark, Rolfe Passer, Tucker Coe, Barbara Wilson, and so many others that he once quipped that it was probably impossible for people to believe one person could produce so much work.
His crime writing earned copious acclaim. He won three Edgar awards from the Mystery Writers of America, and his screenplay of Jim Thompson’s novel The Grifters resulted in an excellent film and earned him an Academy Award nomination. Fifteen of his own novels were adapted to film, including 1972’s The Hot Rock, with Robert Redford, and 1999’s Payback, with Mel Gibson.
Like many pulp authors, Westlake wrote a few erotica novels, these under the pen names Alan Marshall, John Dexter, and others. Curiously, a visit to Westlake’s official website finds no mention of Marshall, which we count as an official disavowal. Nevertheless, you see an Alan Marshall cover below. Westlake said he published under so many names because it would have been unbelievable that one person wrote so much. His feverish output will continue even after death—his latest novel Get Real is due to be published in April.
Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,300 stars.
Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.
The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.
English singer Matt Munro, who was one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s and sang numerous hits, including the James Bond theme “From Russia with Love,” dies from liver cancer at Cromwell Hospital, Kensington, London.
British European Airways Flight 609 crashes attempting to take off from a slush-covered runway at Munich-Riem Airport in Munich, West Germany. On board the plane is the Manchester United football team, along with a number of supporters and journalists. 20 of the 44 people on board die in the crash.
