Femmes Fatales

April 18 2023

CONCRETE JUNGLE

The dress doesn't work as camouflage, but as a fashion statement it's tops.

Pam Grier posed for this photo when she was making the a-list crime drama Fort Apache, The Bronx, which was headlined by superstar Paul Newman. Grier was far down the cast list, playing a drug addict prostitute. It was quite a demotion from her starring roles during the blaxploitation era, but the movie was a big hit. She’d finally be toplisted in a mainstream Hollywood movie when Quentin Tarantino cast her in 1997’s Jackie Brown, and it was worth the wait. This shot is from 1981.

New York City, Fort Apache The Bronx, Jackie Brown, Pam Grier, Paul Newman, Qunrtin Tarantino, blaxploitation

Intl. Notebook

September 2 2022

CANADA AFTER DARK

Minuit puts the country's hospitable reputation to the test.

Ever since we discovered a while back that the U.S. tabloid Midnight was actually a spin-off of Montreal based Minuit we’ve been looking around for issues. We finally had some luck. This example hit Canadian newsstands today in 1968, and on the cover is British actress Mollie Peters, or Molly Peters. Inside, various Hollywood stars are spotlighted in unflattering ways. Edy Williams was allegedly attacked by a lesbian; Paul Newman resorted to transcendental meditation to cut down on his drinking; Jason Robards, Jr. broke everything Humphrey Bogart related in Lauren Bacall’s house; Robert Vaughn paid off his extensive gambling debts and cancelled his credit cards; Janet Margolin allegedly ate a pound of ground beef every day for health reasons; and Ursula Andress attacked Anita Ekberg in a Paris restaurant for making eyes at Andress’s boyfriend Jean-Paul Belmondo.

There’s also a note on Babsi Zimmermann, who Minuit claims just refused a nude role in a French film. We noticed the blurb because of her name, which seems too good to be true, and familiar too. We looked her up and she did exist. It turns out she was better known as Barbara Zimmermann. She changed her stage name after the release of her first film, a counter-culture sexploitation romp called Heißer Sand auf Sylt, aka The New Life Style (Just to Be Love). Maybe she wanted a fresh start because the movie was such a stinker. We know it was bad because we wrote about it, which is why her name sounded familiar. She’s naked as a donskoy cat in it, so Minuit‘s claim that she refused the French movie makes sense if she wanted to rebrand herself. The change still has people confused. Currently IMDB has separate entries for Babsi and Barbara.

Minuit reserves special attention for U.S. actor George Hamilton, who had been generally targeted by tabloids for avoiding military service in Vietnam. Why him? We wrote about the reason a long while back, and if you’re curious you can check. Minuit wryly informs readers that, “George Hamilton somehow managed to break his toe the day after he received a notice to report to the U.S. Army recruiting center. This gives him an interesting three-month [deferral]. It’s clever, isn’t it?” Obviously, toes heal. Hamilton eventually received a full deferral for other reasons.

Also in this issue, Minuit editors treat readers to a story about a man cut in half by a train. We feel like it’s urban folklore, but there are photos—for any who might be convinced by those—and a long story explaining how a man named Regerio Estrada caught his wife Lucia in bed with another man, beat him unconscious, and tied him to a train track to await the next express. Do we buy it? Not really. The internet contains only a fraction of all knowledge and history, but we think this tawdry tale is so bizarre that it would have found its way online. There’s nothing. Or maybe we’re just the first to upload it. Anything is possible. We have additional colorful Canadian tabloids we’ll be sharing in the months ahead. You’ll find eighteen scans below.

Sex Files

July 28 2022

HIPS AND LIPS

Notable show business encounters: the Pelvis meets the Throat.

Issues of National Informer on back-to-back days? Sure, why not? The above example, published today in 1974, is five years older than yesterday’s, and in the intervening timeframe the editors seem to have stopped woman bashing. They’re still treating them as complete sex objects, but that’s what Informer was all about. They’ve also replaced the (not so) Great Criswell with new psychic Mark Travis. We’re still curious who actually bought these mags (we do it for scientific purposes, so we don’t count), and exactly how seriously they took it. Our guess is not very.

The main attraction in this issue is the story on swivel-hipped musical star Elvis Presley and Linda Lovelace, centerpiece of the xxx smash Deep Throat. Lovelace, who was purportedly involved—at least for a few hours at a time—with such aging stars as Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, and (of course) Frank Sinatra, as well as young Hollywood rebels Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, and Dennis Hopper, is alleged to have met up with Presley in Las Vegas. You could be forgiven for assuming that nature took its course, but it didn’t. At least, according to reports.

What on Earth could have stopped these two sex elementals from joining forces? Presley allegedly told Lovelace he was temporarily hors de combat because he had hurt himself having sex with Natalie Wood the previous week. Hey, we just relay this stuff. We make no claim that any of it is true. And we thought Natalie was so sweet. Well, you should never judge a book by its cover. Tabloids, on the other hand, you can safely evaluate at a glance. Informer is just as down and dirty as it looks.

Las Vegas, Deep Throat, National Informer, Elvis Presley, Linda Lovelace, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, Tony Curtis, Frank Sinatra, Natalie Wood, Mark Travis, tabloid, nudity, xxx

Hollywoodland, Sex Files

January 20 2022

NEWMAN’S OWN BUSINESS

Informer digs for Hollywood dirt but comes up empty.

Above is the cover of a National Informer published today in 1974, and unlike other issues, this one has an actual, real life, major celebrity inside—none other than Paul Newman. How did he end up inside a cheapie sex tabloid? Good question. Reading the story—which discusses his relations with female fans—you get the sense that the magazine managed to get itself admitted to a press junket interview session, at which a group of journalists together ask questions of a star. We’ve participated in ones with Ron Perlman, David Caruso, Renee Zellweger, and others. Group sessions with small and lesser known press outlets saves the stars and publicists time, and the promotional companies aren’t terribly discriminating as long as the publication has the right credentials.

But even if you don’t know how press junkets work, you’d notice that Informer‘s interview doesn’t read like a one-on-one sit-down. It’s a few basically innocuous answers from Newman. Informer journo Tex Harmon wants to tell readers that Newman is slinging dick all around Hollywood, but can’t because he has only a few quotes with which to work. So he writes an article with a mildly sexual slant, calls it a day, and probably hits the local watering hole for whiskey shots. Newman does talk about his wife Joanne Woodward a bit, but respectfully. You can read the whole piece yourself below.

Elsewhere, Informer offers up its usual style of quasi-journalism, with the claim that illicit affairs can be good for marriages, a piece on a woman who was a sex slave of the mob, and a chat with a Dutch policewoman named Anita Hausmann who encountered a flasher in Amsterdam who was “letting it all hang out.” Hang isn’t the word we’d use for him, but whatever. Informer also has its usual set of predictions from Mark Travis, and of course there are photos of pretty young models. We’ve gotten good at identifying them, but this issue is tricky. Andrea Rau is in panels six and seven, but the rest we’re blanking on. Feel free to give us an assist if you have any answers.

Update: French actress and model Karin Petersen is in the last panels.

National Informer, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Mark Travis, Andrea Rau, Karin Petersen, tabloid

Hollywoodland

February 8 2018

A WHOLE NEWMAN

Sometimes a great notion becomes a perfect photo op.

Above is an image of Paul Newman made while filming the 1970 drama Sometimes a Great Notion. The shot was placed atop a grid background and distributed as a gatefold poster in a 1976 issue of the Japanese pop culture magazine Roadshow. We love this thing. The magazine editors flipped the negative and colored in the dirt bike’s number plate, which is why it looks like “EI” instead of 13, but whichever way you look at the shot, Newman seems to be staring off into the distance and thinking, “I wonder if there’s anyone on this planet remotely as cool as I am?” Then he goes, “Naaah!” and sends up a rooster tail of loose dirt as he rockets away. He rode the bike for a scene in Great Notion, but if you plan to watch the movie be forewarned it’s adapted from a Ken Kesey novel about loggers, and has little to do with racing. That said, it’s a pretty good flick and the novel is killer. As is this promo. Japanese promos in magazines like Screen and Roadshow are often amazing and this one follows in the tradition. Wanna see what we mean? Look here and here.

Japan, Oregon, Roadshow, Sometimes a Great Notion, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Lee Remick, Ken Kesey, cinema

Hollywoodland

November 22 2017

SYLVA SCIENCE

Who'd like to help me perform a little experiment?

We’ve been seeing a lot of Sylva Koscina lately, haven’t we? Well here’s one of the biggest sex symbols of the 1960s again, this time on the front of an issue of National Enquirer that hit newsstands today in 1959. She says American men are boobs as lovers. Since she studied physics at university, we can only assume she used the scientific method to come to this conclusion—observation, measurement, experimentation, and repetition. We’re sure there was no shortage of volunteers, and she was willing to revisit her conclusions, apparently, since after this cover appeared she hooked up Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, and—it’s rumored—Robert Kennedy. Who says science is boring?

National Enquirer, Sylva Koscina, Paul Newman, Kirk Douglas, Robert Kennedy, tabloid

Sportswire, Vintage Pulp

May 3 2017

FRIEND IN HIGH PLACES

Somebody up there liked him 67 times. And didn't like him 10 times.

These Italian promo posters were made for the drama Lassù qualcuno mi ama, better known as Somebody Up There Likes Me, the rags to riches biopic of boxer Rocky Graziano, who survived a violent father, street gangs and prison to become a world middleweight champion who finished his career with a 67-10 record. If somebody up there liked him, we’d love to hear why he got his ass whipped ten times, but whatever. Paul Newman played the lead in this after intended star James Dean was killed in an auto accident, and the film went on to earn acclaim and win a couple of Oscars for cinematography and art direction. The posters were painted by Renato Casaro, one of the most important mid-century film artists, a man who produced hundreds of masterpieces and was behind this gem and this racy little number. Casaro is still around at age eighty-one and maintains a website detailing his work and career. Lassù qualcuno mi ama was originally released in the U.S. in 1956 and had its premiere in Italy today in 1957

Italy, Academy Award, Lassù qualcuno mi ama, Somebody Up There Likes Me, Rocky Graziano, Paul Newman, Renato Casaro, James Dean, Pier Angeli, poster art, cinema, boxing

Vintage Pulp

December 15 2016

LE JAZZ HOT

Newman and Poitier show Paris how to sizzle.

Remember last week we said you should watch the movie Paris Blues? We took our own advice. Above is a nice Rolf Goetze poster promoting the film’s run in West Germany, which began today in 1961. The movie features a couple of jazz horn players portrayed by Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier who are having a grand time in Paris playing the clubs and escaping the political unrest in the U.S. Both meet American women, and both fall in love. Poitier’s girlfriend Diahann Carroll is deeply concerned with civil rights and goes about convincing Poitier that he’s running away from his responsibility to make America better. Pretty soon he feels heavily pressured to go back, even though it means giving up his wonderful life for hatred and turmoil.

Okay. Forgive us. Here’s the thing. As foreigners abroad we think this is utter horseshit. We feel no particular allegiance to our birth country, and it’s only fair, because the people who really matter feel no allegiance to it either. If they did, then how could captains of industry ship millions of jobs overseas, people who have enough money to live fifty lifetimes constantly dodge taxes, and corporations suck public money out of the federal government until it can’t pay for schools and roads? They obviously don’t care, so why should we? And why should Sidney Poitier’s character care? We don’t think an actual man in his situation—especially an African American man who’s escaped rampant racism—would let anyone make this an issue for him, not even Diahann Carroll, who’s sweet looking, yes, but certainly nothing unique in Paris.

But it’s in the script, so Carroll’s constant harping on this provokes an inner crisis and Poitier frets and wonders if it’s right to live an idyllic life playing jazz music in Paris while his brethren are suffering. Will he go back? Only a viewing of the film will reveal the answer. We’ll encourage you to watch it by adding that on the way to his big decision you’ll get cool Parisian scenery, lots of scenes in nightclubs, a jazz cameo or two, and an equally complex love story between real-life spouses Newman and Joanne Woodward. While Poitier and Newman aren’t actual jazz musicians, their pantomimic musical sequences mostly work, and the movie is fun, exotic, and insouciant most of the way through. Just try not to fall for the Hollywood social engineering that suggests any life outside the U.S. is one filled with the blues.

West Germany, France, Paris, Paris Blues, Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carroll, Rolf Goetze, cinema, movie review

Hollywoodland

December 7 2016

A DIFFERENT DRUMMER

Sidney Poitier chases the Blues away.

There are plenty of movies about Americans in Paris, and even a few about American jazz musicians in Paris, but for our money Paris Blues is one of the best. It starred Bahamian born actor Sidney Poitier, along with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, and Diahann Carroll, and above you see Poitier having a turn on the drums in the nightclub set where much of the movie’s action takes place. In the film he doesn’t play drums. He’s actually a saxophonist. But you know how it is with drums—if they’re sitting there vacant somebody’s going to start pounding on them. We say that speaking as drummers—yes, both of your Pulp Intl. scribes are drummers, and if we had a dime for every time we found some hoser whaling away uninvited on our expensive gear, well… we’d have a lot of dimes. Anyway, we recommend you check out Paris Blues.

Bahamas, Paris, Paris Blues, Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Diahann Carroll, cinema

Femmes Fatales

February 1 2012

PAMELA PRINCIPLE

More precious than gold.

This cool image features American actress Pamela Tiffin, who appeared in films such as Harper with Paul Newman, Kill Me My Love with Farley Granger, and the Italian production I protagonisti with Pulp Intl. fave Sylva Koscina. This photo session, from 1968, also produced the image below, which you see on the cover of the Japanese cinema magazine Movie Information/Movie Pictorial. See another Tiffin shot at the bottom of this post.

Japan, Italy, I protagonisti, Torture Me but Kill Me with Kisses, Harper, Kill Me My Love, Movie Information, Movie Pictorial, Pamela Tiffin, Paul Newman, Sylva Koscina, Farley Granger, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 7

1959—Dark Side of Moon Revealed

The Soviet space probe Luna 3 transmits the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The photos generate great interest, and scientists are surprised to see mountainous terrain, very different from the near side, and only two seas, which the Soviets name Mare Moscovrae (Sea of Moscow) and Mare Desiderii (Sea of Desire).

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.