DANCES WITH WOLVES

When she says she performs every night for a bunch of animals it's a metaphor—but just barely.

It’s too bad Adam magazine never credited its covers. They were painted mainly by Phil Belbin or Jack Waugh, but we’ve never reached the point where we can tell for sure who painted which. This is an especially nice one, in our opinion, with art that pairs with Roderic J. Fittoc’s tale “The Stripper.” This is the second time we’ve run across Fittoc in an Adam, but he’s left no impression elsewhere in the literary world that we could find. His story is about femme fatale Selena Richards, who shows up in an outback town and wheedles her way into a stripping job at a rough and tumble bar. She’s a sensation who sends the patrons into a lustful frenzy, even triggering a riot one night, but she’s also the vanguard of a crew of outlaws. On a particular night when she dances, and every man is present to see her lascivious act, the crew plan to rob the rest of the town. It’s a decent idea for a short story, adequately executed. When it comes to short fiction Adam was always reliable. Below in thirty scans are more stories, several glamour models, wrestlers Gorgeous George, Mildred Burke, and King Kong Kashey, and art by Waugh and others. What’s not to love about this magazine?

She won’t quit till she’s a star on Broadway.

This issue of The National Police Gazette published this month in 1947 has a really nice cover starring a beaming Jean Palmer, billed here as a beautiful and promising songstress making her Broadway debut. We found nothing on her, so it’s possible that debut was a flop. Then again, it’s equally possible she took the Great White Way by storm. Since she was a Broadway performer, we bet there’s at least some info about her in New York City, but if it hasn’t been put online that info might as well be on the dark side of the Moon. We live in a state of semi-reality, all of us on our computers, with access only to what has been uploaded into the continuum. Anyway, if we ever run across any Palmer info, we’ll be sure to share it.

The Gazette is filled with other personalities whose existence we were able to confirm, such as wrestler Mildred Burke, 1946 Mrs. America Beauty Pageant co-winners Connie Spradlin and Kay Kiefer, famed model/socialite Gregg Sherwood, and actresses Marilyn Maxwell, Angela Green, Mary Meade, and Marion Davis. All of those pages are below, along with a few others of interest. And to see our entire collection of Gazette covers and interiors, which is the most extensive on the internet, click its keyword at the bottom of this post.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

1929—Seven Men Shot Dead in Chicago

Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone’s South Side gang, are machine gunned to death in Chicago, Illinois, in an event that would become known as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Because two of the shooters were dressed as police officers, it was initially thought that police might have been responsible, but an investigation soon proved the killings were gang related. The slaughter exceeded anything yet seen in the United States at that time.

Uncredited cover art for Day Keene’s 1952 novel Wake Up to Murder.
Another uncredited artist produces another beautiful digest cover. This time it's for Norman Bligh's Waterfront Hotel, from Quarter Books.
Above is more artwork from the prolific Alain Gourdon, better known as Aslan, for the 1955 Paul S. Nouvel novel Macadam Sérénade.
Uncredited art for Merle Miller's 1949 political drama The Sure Thing.

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