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

Vintage Pulp

October 28 2023

ACE FULL OF QUEENS

Mid-century girly mags are always a winning draw.

As the Cole Porter song goes, in olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking—and exemplifying that concept is Ace, the “magazine for men of distinction,” which debuted in 1957 during the height of the cheesecake era. In this day and age Ace is strictly kid stuff. But that’s why it’s cool to look back at. Like other publications of its ilk, Ace came along to fill the void left by the slow demise of mens adventure magazines, and as was typical, it grew more daring as the years went by, before finally folding in 1982, itself a victim of changing tastes and more rawness provided by porn mags.

This particular issue, published this month in 1960, features the usual mix of humor, adventure, and models, including the amusingly named Beverly Hills, aka Carla Henderson, who gets a spread inside plus the eye-catching rear cover, Eve Post, who the editors claim was discovered by Jack Benny, and Brandy Kayse, who poses as “Eve.” Several of the models, such as Frances Beck, Lacey Kelly, Virginia Remo, and Pat Gregory, managed minor film roles. Elsewhere in the magazine there’s plenty of nice art, plus the usual “fact” (men are polygamous?) and fiction. Multiple scans below.

Ace Magazine, Frances Beck, Pat Gregory, Lacey Kelly, Virginia Remo, Winnie Graham, Beverly Hills, Carla Henderson, Eve Post, Virginia Rogers, Diane Hartman, Brandy Kayse, Jack Benny, burlesque, magazine art, nudie mags, nudity

Femmes Fatales

September 8 2023

CYR ON HIGH HEAT

She always got the juices flowing.

We ran across the above photo of mid-century burlsque queen Lili St. Cyr today, and it was all we needed to decide it was high time to repost her. She’s looking particularly picturesque here. We have many entries on her, and certainly will have more, but as a service to you (clicking keywords will let you see everything), we’ll make your work easier by pointing to two favorite images here and here.

The practice of burlesque resides in a cultural gray area. The simmering debate is whether it is merely an artful exploitation of women’s bodies, or is basically feminist in nature because of the agency the dancers possess. People more serious than us will decide that. We just think she looks cool, and we regard her on the terms she chose: as a dancer and model. Life can be so simple when you let other people do the worrying.

Lili St. Cyr, burlesque

Intl. Notebook

June 24 2023

MAN TO WOMAN

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Reading old magazines has helped teach us that things have not changed as much as some people would like you to believe. This issue of Man to Man hit newsstands this month in 1957. We’ve now seen trans stories in nine mid-century publications, and keep in mind we’ve not seen even a fraction of a percent of all the magazines ever published. The person under the spotlight this time is Abdel Ibrahim, and Man to Man editors say about him merely that he’s “changing from a man into a woman,” and, “he’s in an Egyptian hospital for an operation designed to help.”

This dispassionate tone has been the norm, from what we’ve seen, and shows yet again how the process of creating hysterical prejudice works. First, you train people to believe something unprecedented is occurring, then you frame that as a threat to people’s “way of life.” But these old tabs serve as an inconvenient truth—sex reassignments have been around for quite a while, and before then, men who passed or attempted to pass as women go back into the depths of history.

During the mid-century era many trans people became national or international celebrities, from Coccinelle to Christine Jorgensen to Ajita Wilson. The knowledge of transexuals was so mainstream that the top-selling tabloid Whisper even published a 1965 story titled, “A Doctor Answers What Everyone Wants To Know About Sex Change Operations,” with the key word in that header—everyone—suggesting that the dominant reaction socially speaking was neither anger nor fear.

Elsewhere in Man to Man you get Zsa Zsa Gabor, including in one photo that looks familiar, sex myths of 1957, motel peepers, war, crime, fiction, a bit of nudism, and a bit of burlesque. You also get two pieces of art from popular illustrator Mark Schneider, who we’ve highlighted before. He mainly worked for Sir! magazine. We put together a collection of his covers for that publication which you can see here. You can also see three more issues of Man to Man by clicking its keywords below and scrolling down.

Man to Man, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Magda Gabor, Eva Gabor, Porfirio Rubirosa, Abdel Ibrahim, Ted Kluszewski, Mark Schneider, tabloid, baseball, burlesque, nudism, lgbt

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

Vintage Pulp

March 27 2023

GRAND TORINO

Cruising in luxury with the top down.

These Technicolor lithograph models are difficult to identify, but for today’s, which is titled “At Ease” and dates from 1959, the work has been done for us. A couple of online outlets confidently state that she’s Joan Torino. Now, as far as which Joan Torino—that’s a little trickier. We found reference to one who was a burlesque dancer at Red Heads Burlesque Theater in Hoboken, a club that first opened during the 1930s and lasted at least until the 1960s. Same time period, same name—gotta be the same Joan, right? That’s what we’re going with until corrected. Oh, and incidentally, yes, we know the car was called a Gran Torino. Gran or Grand—they both fit Joan.

Hoboken, Technicolor pin-up, Joan Torino, burlesque

Femmes Fatales

February 24 2023

RAREFIED AYERS

Warning: some spectators may experience shortness of breath.

Above: beautiful dancer Misty Ayers performs in a production photo made for the 1953 burlesque movie A Night in Hollywood, which also starred Tempest Storm, Jeanne Saunders, and others. This is a return engagement for Ayers on Pulp Intl. See her first stint here, and if you want to see her routine from the film, check here while the link lasts.

A Night in Hollywood, Misty Ayers, Tempest Storm, Jeanne Saunders, burlesque

Vintage Pulp

February 15 2023

DEBT AND DEATH

One way or another someone has to pay.

This unusual poster was made for the gritty John Cassavetes drama The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and features co-star and Playboy model Azizi Johari. It’s an alternate promo that was never used in cinemas, however it appeared at auction several years ago, and thence onto the internet. We noticed it because of the lovely Johari, who we’ve highlighted before, but we also knew the movie, which is one of Cassavetes’ more discussed efforts. It’s about a cabaret owner, played by Ben Gazzara, who has a serious gambling problem. After making the last payment of a loan shark debt he’s been whittling down for seven years, he goes right out accompanied by Johari and two of his club’s dancers, loses big again, and must sign over his club as collateral on the debt. Later, as the film’s title suggests, his creditors demand—none too politely—that he kill someone.

Gazzara is one cool cucumber. His aplomb makes you wonder whether he’s self-contained or just stupid. But really, how smart can you be to fall right back into a hole it took seven years to climb out of? Now it’s called gambling addiction, but we think of it as merely being a mark. We wondered whether his cabaret Crazy Horse West, which features amazingly mediocre acts, was meant to embody his generally poor judgment. In any case, his bill will come due. Cassavetes puts all this together in his trademark patchwork style, with small moments stitched together to create the main character’s life, and what a crazy quilt it is. The style may be off-putting to some, and the movie is marred by substandard acting from a couple of minor castmembers, but overall The Killing of a Chinese Bookie shows why Cassavetes was such a respected director. It premiered today in 1976.

The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Playboy, Ben Gazzara, Timothy Carey, Seymour Cassel, Azizi Johari, John Cassavetes, poster art, cinema, mafia, burlesque, movie review

Intl. Notebook

January 2 2023

INFORMER IN COLOR, BLACK, AND WHITE

America's worst tabloid pops the bubbly and starts the year strong.

Above is a cover of the tabloid National Informer that hit newsstands today in 1972 featuring an unidentified Champagne toasting model. We love how the editors emphasize the word “truthful” in the second banner, beneath the name of the paper. That’s a bold claim from one of the ultimate bottom shelf tabloids of the era, one that traffics in faux news and sensationalism more than actual journalism. But we won’t argue the point. Whenever one’s reputation is less than stellar don’t leave it to chance: tell people what opinion to have of you. National Informer says it’s truthful, fine.

There are a couple of stories of note in this issue. According to Informer, German high wire artist Karl Traber died when he lost his balance during a walk between the towers of two Munich churches and fell two-hundred feet onto a spiked fence. We couldn’t find a single reference to anyone named Karl Traber online, though we did to a Traber family who remain famous today as aerialists. We did a Boolean search within German websites and still found no Karl Traber who suffered this grisly death. It’s no surprise. Cheap tabloids often leave you with more questions than answers. We’ll blame it on sloppy journalism (maybe they got a name wrong?) rather than false reporting. But since we don’t want to spend our Monday searching the internet, we’ll just move on.

Later in the issue Informer‘s resident seer Mark Travis produces a slate of predictions, and one of them qualifies as his wildest ever: I predict the invention of a serum which is injected into the bloodstream to create more pigmentation of the skin and turn a white person black. It will be very popular among the young college students. This serum [snip] will enable white youngsters from affluent homes to really see what life in the ghetto is like. Since the results will wear off in a few weeks if the injections are discontinued, it will be quite an adventure to “go black” for a short period of time. Only a wig will be necessary to complete the disguise. And since another drug which works in reverse—lightens the skin—will enable any Negro who desires to do so to pass for white, it will soon be impossible to tell who is white, who is black, and who is one in the disguise of the other.

We think we know how that would turn out: the caste-destroying serum would be banned in all fifty states, plus overseas U.S. territories, and bring penalties for usage ranging up to execution. We’re only half kidding. Imagining the possible fallout from such a form of recreation makes us want to pitch the idea to some of our Hollywood friends. Can you imagine the television show that could be produced? Travis has made some blah predictions over the years, but we bet this one hit a nerve among Informer‘s readership. Unfortunately, we don’t have the next few issues to check the infuriated responses in reader mail. Maybe it’s better that way. As a side note, this is the thirtieth issue of Informer we’ve shared.

West Germany, Munich, National Informer, Brigitte Bardot, Karl Traber, Laila Leeds, Wendy Sity, Mark Travis, Janet Baker, Barbara Fenney, tabloid, burlesque

Femmes Fatales

December 17 2022

IRRESISTIBLE RHYTHM

Blaze Starr drums up interest in her dancing.

Actress, burlesque dancer, and famed consort Blaze Starr looks like a natural with this authentic animal hide djembe, and she’d surely be the center of the best drum circle of all time, but we suspect she rarely needed props to help her draw a crowd. She was one of the top performers of her era, taking her talents from the stage to cinema with the naturist paean Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, and later becoming infamous when her affair with a prominent U.S. governor became public. We talked about that episode a little here, if you don’t already know her and are interested.

We tried to date this photo made by James Kriegsmann but it was tricky. Online claims are often incorrect, and we’ve replicated such errors a few times by trusting them, so our method these days is to be evidentiary about it and try to find the shots on or inside magazines. Most sources, including the respected Getty Images, date the photo to 1960 or 1962, but we found it inside a January 1957 issue of Modern Man. The photo could have been made earlier, even several years earlier, but we’re calling it 1956 and we feel pretty confident about it.

Modern Man, Blaze Starr Goes Nudist, Blaze Starr, James Kriegsmann, burlesque

ABOUT

EMAIL

LEGAL

SEARCH PULP INTERNATIONAL

PULP INTL.
HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 6

1966—LSD Declared Illegal in U.S.

LSD, which was originally synthesized by a Swiss doctor and was later secretly used by the CIA on military personnel, prostitutes, the mentally ill, and members of the general public in a project code named MKULTRA, is designated a controlled substance in the United States.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.