vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
The Rode Vampen Serie, or Red Femmes Fatales Series, was launched in 1963 by the Dutch publishing company De Vrije Pers, with a new entry unveiled every two weeks. Above are ten nice examples. We would love to read Strip Tease Bar, but Dutch is not one of our tongues. See more from De Vrije Pers here and here.
We’ve done a bit of France and Germany this week, so we thought we’d keep Pulp Intl. international by heading over to Holland. Above you see eight pulp style covers from Rotterdam publisher De Vrije Pers for various works of erotica, including Marquis de Sade’s Wilde Nachten, aka, The 120 Days of Sodom. These were part of De Vrije Pers’s Sexpress collection, and indeed the rear covers inform readers Een nieuw serie ware sex verhalen sprankelen van realisme—a new series of true sex stories sparkle with realism. Which is good, because who doesn’t love a little sparkle? We also love the covers. You may remember we shared one a while ago and promised to revisit the collection. So this is us doing that. Middle and late 1960s on these.
If you run Spelen op het strand through the trusty ole translator you come up with “Playing on the Beach.” That doesn’t seem to match the front of this paperback at all, does it? Well, it doesn’t matter, because the art is great—it’s signed, but unreadable, so we can’t tell you who did it. But we can tell you Spelen op het strand is part of the Sexpress collection from Rotterdam, Netherlands based publisher De Vrije Pers, and it appeared in 1967. We’ll post more of these interesting Sexpress covers down the line.
Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, along with his team Olav Bjaaland, Helmer Hanssen, Sverre Hassel, and Oscar Wisting, becomes the first person to reach the South Pole. After a celebrated career, Amundsen eventually disappears in 1928 while returning from a search and rescue flight at the North Pole. His body is never found.
Mexican actress Lupe Velez, who was considered one of the great beauties of her day, commits suicide by taking an overdose of sleeping pills. In her note, Velez says she did it to avoid bringing shame on her unborn child by giving birth to him out of wedlock, but many Hollywood historians believe bipolar disorder was the actual cause. The event inspired a 1965 Andy Warhol film entitled Lupe.
After a fifteen minute flight into space on a Jupiter AM-13 rocket, a monkey named Gordo splashes down in the South Pacific but is lost after his capsule sinks. The incident sparks angry protests from the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, but NASA says animals are needed for such tests.
American actress, talk show host, and party girl Tallulah Bankhead, who was fond of turning cartwheels in a dress without underwear and once made an entrance to a party without a stitch of clothing on, dies in St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City of double pneumonia complicated by emphysema.
The last executions in Canada occur when Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin, both of whom are Americans who had been extradited north after committing separate murders in Canada, are hanged at Don Jail in Toronto. When Turpin is told that he and Lucas will probably be the last people hanged in Canada, he replies, “Some consolation.â€
Ernesto “Che” Guevara, representing the nation of Cuba, speaks at the 19th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. His speech calls for wholesale changes in policies between rich nations and poor ones, as well as five demands of the United States, none of which are met.
After suffering a heart attack several days before, erotic model Bettie Page, who in the 1950s became known as the Queen of Pin-ups, dies when she is removed from life support machinery. Thanks to the unique style she displayed in thousands of photos and film loops, Page is considered one of the most influential beauties who ever lived.
