DAWN OF TIME

These were the days of her life.

It’s been several years since we last shared an issue of the Spanish celebrity publication Colleción Idolos del Cine, but we still have a few sitting around. These magazines, which were miniature in size and only thirty-pages on average, were always devoted to a single star. The above example dates from 1958 and features U.S. actress Dawn Adams, who by that point had featured in such films as The Robe and House of Intrigue. She had also starred on television in such shows as Sherlock Holmes and The Third Man. The next year, 1959, would be big for her. She’d appear in eight films, including the hit Brigitte Bardot vehicle Voulez-vous danser avec moi? Inside Idolos, readers see Adams’ travels around Europe, meet her husband Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo the Prince of Roccasecca, and learn about her upcoming films. Not bad for the palatable price of three pesetas. We have fourteen scans below. The previous Idolos we’ve posted, with Maria Schell and Pier Angeli, are here and here.

A Schell of her former self.

Above is our second issue of Colleción Idolos de Cine, this one featuring Austrian born actress Maria Schell. Not well known now, Schell was an acclaimed figure who won best actress at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival for Die Letzte Brücke, and won the Volpi Cup for best actress at the 1956 Venice Film Festival for Gervaise. As we mentioned before, we found these obscure Idolos in Barcelona a while back and grabbed six. You can see the previous issue we posted here.

Experts reach consensus—she was exquisite.


Above is a little artifact from our last swing through Spain, discovered at the Mercat del Vell de l’Estació de Sants in Barcelona. It’s an issue of Colleción Idolos del Cine, a magazine that devoted itself each month entirely to one celebrity, with rare photos and personal anecdotes. This one is from 1958 and features Ana Maria Pierangeli, who adopted the lyrical stage name Pier Angeli after debuting on the international cinema scene in Vittoria De Sica’s Domani è troppo tardi and winning a Nastro d’Argento, or Silver Ribbon, from the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani. Angeli was a dewy eighteen in that role and looked so young as to be almost half-formed, which was perfect for her portrayal of a teen in the throes of first love. She maintained a youthful and innocent appearance for twenty more years, and is another actress who died young, in her case aged thirty-nine, via drug overdose, though accidental, officially. The printing quality of Colleción Idolos del Cine isn’t the best, but the photos are very interesting. Mucho más Angeli below, and we managed to buy five other examples of this magazine, with stars such as Ava Gardner, Analia Gadé, and Belinda Lee, so look for those later.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1935—Huey Long Assassinated

Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, one of the few truly leftist politicians in American history, is shot by Carl Austin Weiss in Baton Rouge. Long dies after two days in the hospital.

1956—Elvis Shakes Up Ed Sullivan

Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing his hit song “Don’t Be Cruel.” Ironically, a car accident prevented Sullivan from being present that night, and the show was guest-hosted by British actor Charles Laughton.

1966—Star Trek Airs for First Time

Star Trek, an American television series set in the twenty-third century and promoting socialist utopian ideals, premieres on NBC. The series is cancelled after three seasons without much fanfare, but in syndication becomes one of the most beloved television shows of all time.

1974—Ford Pardons Nixon

U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office, which coincidentally happen to include all those associated with the Watergate scandal.

1978—Giorgi Markov Assassinated

Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.

This awesome cover art is by Tommy Shoemaker, a new talent to us, but not to more experienced paperback illustration aficionados.
Ten covers from the popular French thriller series Les aventures de Zodiaque.
Sam Peffer cover art for Jonathan Latimer's Solomon's Vineyard, originally published in 1941.

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