Vintage Pulp

September 27 2024

HARD TO RESIST

1930s celeb publication brought plenty of Allure to newsstands

Above: a cover of a September 1937 issue of Allure magazine, along with, below, some of the more interesting interior pages. The magazine, which we found on Archive.org, was put out by New York City based Yorkhouse Publications, and this was the third and presumably last issue, since we’ve never seen others apart from July and August of the same year. If indeed it died that quickly—and don’t quote us that it did—possibly it was because there were similar magazines in the marketplace, such as Film Fun. Alternatively, it could have folded due to internal causes. Either way, three issues is a really short run.

The cover art is uncredited. It looks like the work of Enoch Bolles, but lacking confirmation we can’t label it as such. Inside are photos of Joan Blondell, Marlene Dietrich, Frances Farmer, Loretta Lee, Lona Andre (here called Lona Andrea), Olivia De Havilland in a swimsuit in Palm Springs, Republic contract star Helen Moler, Paramount signee Shirley Grey, Virginia Merrill, Carol Hughes, single name celebs Hildegarde and Armida, Betty Winkler, et al, plus an artful nude of Della Carroll. In addition Allure features the adventures of its cartoon ingenue in constant peril, Little Nell. All below, in nearly fifty scans.

Allure Magazine, Joan Blondell, Marlene Dietrich, Frances Farmer, Loretta Lee, Lona Andre, Olivia de Havilland, Carol Hughes, Betty Winkler, Virginia Merrill, Della Carroll, Helen Moler, Armida, Bernice Claire, Hildegarde, Andrea Leeds, magazine art

Hollywoodland

December 25 2018

MIDNIGHT IN BABYLON

Kenneth Anger explores Hollywood's darkest recesses in his landmark tell-all.

Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon is the grandaddy of all Tinseltown exposés. It was published in 1965, banned ten days later, and shelved until 1975. It’s exactly as advertised, outing everybody that was anybody for everything. Entire chunks are devoted to Charlie Chaplain, Lana Turner, Errol Flynn, Fatty Arbuckle and other cinematic luminaries. Some of its claims have been proved false—for instance the assertion that Lupe Velez died with her head in a toilet, and that Clara Bow screwed the USC football team (we doubt anyone really believed that one, even back then). But other tales are basically true, including accounts of various legal run-ins and feuds.

Anger’s writing is uneven, but at its most effective mirrors the type of pure tabloid style that influenced the likes of James Ellroy and others. Besides the salacious gossip the book has a ton of rare celeb photos, and those are of real worth. We’ve uploaded a bunch below. They came from a digital edition because our little paperback was too fragile to get on a scanner. By the way, don’t feel as if we’re working overtime on our website this Christmas morning—we uploaded everything in advance and are actually nowhere near a computer today. We’re glad you took a minute to drop by. Copious vintage Hollywood below.

Hollywoodland

May 11 2018

REWARD OFFERED

Crime magazine gives readers the gifts of death and mayhem.

Produced by the J.B. Publishing Corp. of New York City, Reward was a true crime magazine, another imprint designed to slake the American public’s thirst for death and mayhem. Inside this May 1954 issue the editors offer up mafia hits, Hollywood suicides, domestic murder, plus some cheesecake to soothe readers’ frazzled nerves, and more. The cover features a posed photo of actress Lili Dawn, who was starring at the time in a film noir called Violated. It turned out to be her only film. In fact, it turned out to be the only film ever acted in by top billed co-star William Holland, as well as supporting cast members Vicki Carlson, Fred Lambert, William Mishkin, and Jason Niles. It must have been some kind of spectacularly bad movie to cut short all those careers, but we haven’t watched it. It’s available for the moment on YouTube, though, and we may just take a gander later. Because Reward is a pocket sized magazine the page scans are easily readable, so rather than comment further we’ll let you have a look yourself.

New York City, Reward True Crime Cases, Violated, Maxwell Bodenheim, Ruth Fagen, Dutch Schultz, Arthur Flegenhiemer, Frances Farmer, Thelma Todd, Vivien Leigh, Carole Landis, Ruth Snyder, Jeanne O'Connor, Xavier Cugat, Abbe Lane, Lili Dawn, mafia, true crime magazine

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 11

1960—To Kill a Mockingbird Appears

Harper Lee’s racially charged novel To Kill a Mockingbird is published by J.B. Lippincott & Co. The book is hailed as a classic, becomes an international bestseller, and spawns a movie starring Gregory Peck, but is the only novel Lee would ever publish.

July 11

1962—Nuke Test on Xmas Island

As part of the nuclear tests codenamed Operation Dominic, the United States detonates a one megaton bomb on Australian controlled Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. The island was a location for a series of American and British nuclear tests, and years later lawsuits claiming radiation damage to military personnel were filed, but none were settled in favor in the soldiers.

July 10

1940—The Battle of Britain Begins

The German Air Force, aka the Luftwaffe, attacks shipping convoys off the coast of England, touching off what Prime Minister Winston Churchill describes as The Battle of Britain.

July 9

1948—Paige Takes Mound in the Majors

Satchel Paige, considered at the time the greatest of Negro League pitchers, makes his Major League debut for the Cleveland Indians at the age of 42. His career in the majors is short because of his age, but even so, as time passes, he is recognized by baseball experts as one of the great pitchers of all time.

July 8

1965—Biggs Escapes the Big House

Ronald Biggs, a member of the gang that carried out the Great Train Robbery in 1963, escapes from Wandsworth Prison by scaling a 30-foot wall with three other prisoners, using a ladder thrown in from the outside. Biggs remained at large, mostly living in Brazil, for more than forty-five years before returning to the UK—and arrest—in 2001.

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.

Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

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