We’ve featured Playboy model and aspiring but unfulfilled actress Marilyn Waltz, aka Margaret Scott, a few times, and here’s yet another striking photo, dating from 1959. Waltz has been good to us. We were the first to make the Waltz-Marilyn Walk connection a decade ago, and seven years ago we dug up a rare Technicolor lithograph of her published by C. Moss that was very good for website traffic. We have other shots of her, but there are many other obscure celebrities to upload, and only so much time. If we don’t see Waltz again, this was a good shot to go out on.
On the subject of traffic, the recent outages, 404 errors, and general lack of posting here the last two weeks has been because of a tricky refurbishment and rehosting. We first began having problems with our website back in 2011 and had been promising a revamp ever since. Hey, sometimes things don’t happen when you want them to. But it’s done now, save for formatting aspects of several hundred posts. We’ll have to deal with that bit by bit going forward. It will take some time. Probably several months to get everything in the same shape as Ms. Waltz.
We can’t complain, though. This has been one of our better years. Our many travels took us to Lisbon and Marrakech, we moved into a big old stone pile of a house on the warm Atlantic coast of Spain, our jobs have been smooth, we’ve maintained extremely active social lives, our best friends have visited, and thanks to a very good developer we got the new website we wanted. We’ve also purchased a lot of pulp matter and have many new items to scan and upload. V.2 of Pulp Intl. will hopefully function properly for some years, and, knock on wood, so will we. We’re happy to be back.
Above: a lovely Technicolor lithograph of Jayne Mansfield. Lithos were often derived from magazine sessions. The original photo appeared in Playboy in 1956, so this item could have been printed that year, the next, or even the next. But figuring a time lag to work out the rights, let’s call it 1957 until someone comes across with better info. See two more Jayne lithos here and here. You’ll notice the poses on those are basically the same as above.
A heady new brew of tabloid gossip gets served up in Hollywood.
We have a brand new tabloid to our website today—the colorful Off the Record Secrets, of which you see its June 1963 cover above. This was published by an outfit calling itself Magazette, Inc., which aimed for the high end of the tabloid market with bright fronts along the same lines as the big boys Confidential, Whisper, Hush Hush, et al. Like those, Off the Record Secrets covers miles of ground between its pages, spilling on everyone from Hugh Hefner and his Bunnies, to Frank Sinatra and his Pack, to Elsa Martinelli and her hubby Franco Mancinelli Scotti, to Kirk Douglas and his bad behavior.
Of the items on offer, we were struck by the photo of Annette Stroyberg stuffing her face. We always thought trying to catch celebrities eating in embarrassing fashion started with the internet gossip sites, but apparently we were wrong. In any case you can see why the best restaurants have private dining rooms. Stroyberg must have been furious. Also of note, you Cary Grant fans get see him in a towel at age sixty-one. He’s holding together nicely, though there seems to be some stomach sucking going on. Still, nothing to be ashamed of. He’s got ninety-five percent of men his age beat.
The earliest issue we’ve seen of Off the Record Secrets is from January 1962. By the early 1960s the tabloid market was crowded, therefore owing at least partly to a logjam on newsstands, this magazine lasted only into 1964 before folding its tent. Because of its scarcity issues sometimes go for hefty prices. We got ours for $19.00. But we’ve seen them auctioning for $75.00. The high pricing means we may not buy another example for a while, but we’ll get it done. In the meantime, get acquainted with Off the Record Secrets. We have multiple rare images for you below.
Infancy, adulthood, and death in twenty-four years.
This issue of Man’s Magazine hit newsstands this month in 1963 with Mel Crair cover art we suspect is cropped from a larger piece. In the past the magazine had featured paintings that occupied its entire front, but by this time it was experimenting with a tabloid look, giving more space to blocked text with sensational messaging, and reducing the dimensions of art acquired from Crair and others. More cover changes would come. From fully painted fronts, to the tabloid style you see here, it shifted to photo covers, which happened in 1969 and saw cheesecake and adventure imagery alternating, until the early ’70s when cheesecake took over and adventure was relegated entirely to the interior. Man’s Magazine was by that point publishing nude and semi-nude women on all its covers. Other men’s adventure magazines were doing the same.
This shift happened quickly, but had been in the wind for a long time. Private publications had crossed all red lines much earlier, though they hadn’t been openly available. Producing and selling them was to risk prison. But it was understood that men wanted more eroticism, wanted it at high quality, and would buy it even if it wasn’t behind the fig leaves of art and literature. However, art and literature were needed in above-ground publications because they helped avoid obscenity convictions. Otherwise, erotic content had no “redeeming qualities,” and legal troubles were guaranteed. Mainstream men’s publications were largely articles, fiction, and cartoons for that reason—and to attract advertisers.
Man’s Magazine had launched in 1952 and operated in reasonable health for at least fifteen years. But by the mid-1960s social repression and censorship were in retreat. Language was changing. Racier novels could be published without legal concerns, and more revealing cinematic content was possible. In the magazine realm, brands that foregrounded women’s nudity more than previously were prospering. The erotic but coy Modern Man had launched in 1951. Playboy had arrived in 1954 and been willing to push the standards of what was possible. Penthouse arrived in the UK in 1965, in the U.S. in 1969, and began to show pubic hair. When Hustler arrived in 1974 the floodgates weren’t just open, suddenly, but gaping.
Man’s Magazine is a classic example of a publication that was swept away by all that change, but refused to go down without a fight. Its attempts to adapt failed and it folded in 1976. Interestingly, by the end, during the latter half of that year, it moved to personality covers. Cover stars included Richard M. Nixon, Muhammad Ali, and even Paul McCartney and Larry Csonka. We don’t know what prompted that move—a final attempt to appear more highbrow, perhaps? We haven’t bought any of those last gasp issues to seek clues, but nothing could help Man’s Magazine retain market share in a landscape that featured publications with more nudity and gloss.
But it wasn’t only explicitness and printing quality that pushed Man’s Magazine and its ilk slowly off newsstands. With their tighter operating budgets when compared with Playboy and cohort, they generally had lower quality fiction, profiles, essays, and cartoons. By contrast Playboy would eventually interview some of the most important people in the world, and its fiction would feature the most acclaimed authors. Man’s Magazine never had a prayer of keeping pace. But today’s issue appeared before the decline. There’s fiction from the well known Richard Deming, non-fiction by the respected Richard Hardwick, and many excellent illustrations. All of that and more are below.
Enquiring minds want to know, but people can't always get what they want.
Tabloids are our thing. We’ve talked quite a bit about how influential they were during the 1950s. Apparently, considering the revelation that a recent presidential candidate depended upon one to catch and kill stories that could harm his campaign, they still are. This National Enquirer hit newsstands today in 1958. The cover has a rare shot of Ireland born actress Maureen O’Hara, who says she doesn’t have a lot offer but wants a man around the house. She had plenty to offer, but she’d been divorced for around five years, so the headline makes sense. We’d have bought this but some joker wanted eighty bucks for it, which made milk come out our noses, we laughed so hard. We generally get our tabloids for fifteen, and the ones we choose are usually far more colorful than this early-period Enquirer.
We wonder if the ask was so high due to the paper’s current newsworthiness. The whole situation is interesting, because unlike old top-tier tabloids like Confidential and Whisper that often uncovered inconvenient truths, the newer interations generally just make everything up, which places them closer to satire than news. Even so, tabloids remain the traditional last stop for people wanting to sell sensational stories, but who’ve been turned away by more ethical publications, which means facts occasionally land on tabloid editors’ desks. Former Enquirer head David Pecker understood that, has testified during the ongoing Donald Trump hush money/finance disclosure trial that he expected it to happen, and, as it turns out, he was correct in spades.
Politics is a dirty business, but politicians are generally pretty square. Enquirer wouldn’t have found itself in a position to help 95% of them, but for a serial cheat and swindler like Donald Trump (fact, not opinion), whose flaws have been famously described as “fractal” (i.e. inside his flaws are more flaws, ad infinitum into bottomless, kaleidoscopic eternity), Enquirer was uniquely able to weight the electoral scales. Pecker must have felt a tremendous sense of power. We would have. The politics-journalism nexus hinges upon access, and having access in D.C—basically being an insider—is like being an insider in Hollywood, but with the added heady sensation of being in the center of world-shaping events. It must really be something to have the president’s ear.
We’d give a lot to have been in some of those Enquirer interview sessions, especially the Karen McDougal ones. A year after McDougal was made Playmate of the Year, PSGP (one of your two Pulp boys) started as a temporary hire at Playboy Entertainment Group and rose to have an office and a staff, before chucking it and running away to Guatemala. So there’s a six degrees of separation aspect to it for him. It’s a shame Enquirer killed McDougal’s and Stormy Daniels’ stories. Tabloids are part of the dark underbelly of U.S. culture. They’ve always catered to prurient interests. And reveled in it. But hidingprurience? That’s low. In a rational world that would cost Enquirer the actual designation “tabloid.” We’ll talk to the National Association for Tabloid Oversight (the other NATO) about that. Oh right—it doesn’t exist. Well, it should.
Every top notch private investigator knows the best clues are found in bed.
We wanted to show you another poster painted by John Solie, who was responsible for numerous blaxploitation, sexploitation, and action promos, all executed at the extremely high level you see here with his one sheet for Stacey. His other notable efforts include those for The Arena, Star Crash, Hit Man, and Hollywood Boulevard. You can click his keywords at bottom to see everything we’ve shared from him.
Naturally we watched Stacey and it’s a cheesy detective tale starring erstwhile Playboy centerfold Anne Randall, who plays a model-turned-private dick hired to investigate a rich woman’s extended family before any of them are allowed to be included in her will. Randall arrives just in time for intrigue and murder. Private investigators need to possess a Class C license in order to legally take on clients. The C on Randall’s license probably stands for “casual sex.”
Even so, there’s not much here. The detective elements are uninspiring despite a noir style voiceover, and the sexual elements, even with Randall and co-star Anitra Ford in occasional undress, are not going to blow your skirt up. To put the overall nothingness of the movie in perspective, consider the fact that we couldn’t find a copy with sharp enough resolution to make screenshots worthwhile, nor enough official production photos to make them worth sharing. That’s how much of a historical afterthought it is.
In lieu of imagery you could use your imagination, but we recommend not bothering. Stacey resides at the low end of grindhouse cinema characterized by numerous bold and outrageous entries. In our opinion it’s notable only for being the first exploitation effort by director Andy Sidaris, who would go on to helm boobalicious ’80s throwaways such as Malibu Express, Hard Ticket to Hawaii, and Savage Beach. Stacey premiered in the U.S. this month in 1973.
Eve Meyer, who was Eve Turner before marrying filmmaker Russ Meyer, is seen here in a photo made when she was a Playboy centerfold in 1955. A black and white version of the photo was included in that layout. After a few years modeling, Meyer appeared in several films, then produced fifteen movies, including Cherry, Harry & Raquel, Motorpsycho, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, all of which are schlock classics. We think this shot of her is classic too.
The two items above serve as interesting examples of how long Technicolor lithographs were manufactured in the U.S. We’ve seen and shared examples from as far back as 1952, but the two above feature Pamela Zinszer, who modeled and acted during the early 1970s and was a Playboy centerfold in March 1974. We’ve gotten used to calling these Technicolor lithos because of the printing process, but we can’t be sure ones as late as these used that method. We’ll stick with the terminology, though. See plenty more Technicolor lithos by clicking the keywords just below.
This Christmas themed image of Algerian born Italian star Edwige Fenech was made in 1976 while she was filming the comedy Cattivi pensieri, known in English as Evil Thoughts. She actually does in the film exactly what you see here, posing and dancing on a table while covered in holiday glitter, before being whisked off to bed by co-star Luc Merenda for some hazy focus softcore sex. Don’t let that entice you into watching the movie, though. Fenech is a wonder, but she’s done far better stuff.
If she was fishing for compliments she probably got them.
Danish actress Kirsten Lindholm strikes an interesting pose in this promo image made around 1970. Acting under her own name and as Kirsten Betts, she had small roles in seven movies, including The Love Factor,Crescendo, Twins of Evil, The Vampire Lovers, and Lust for a Vampire. Four of those were horror flicks made by Hammer Studios, which is why she’s remembered by cult movie fans as a “Hammer horror babe,” which is like being a James Bond girl but with more blood and screaming. She was also a model, and turned up at one point in Playboy, which made occasional use of this pose, as we’ve seen previously with Dolores Donlon. We’ve not yet screened a Lindholm/Betts movie during our long pulp project, but that’s probably inevitable. Expect to see her again.
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€
1964—Guevara Speaks at U.N.
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.
2008—Legendary Pin-Up Bettie Page Dies
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.
1935—Downtown Athletic Club Awards First Trophy
The Downtown Athletic Club in New York City awards its first trophy for athletic achievement to University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger. The prize is later renamed the Heisman Trophy, and becomes the most prestigious award in college athletics.
1968—Japan's Biggest Heist Occurs
300 million yen is stolen from four employees of the Nihon Shintaku Ginko bank in Tokyo when a man dressed as a police officer blocks traffic due to a bomb threat, makes them exit their bank car while he checks it for a bomb, and then drives away in it. Under Japanese statute of limitations laws, the thief could come forward today with no repercussions, but nobody has ever taken credit for the crime.
1965—UFO Reported by Thousands of Witnesses
A large, brilliant fireball is seen by thousands in at least six U.S. states and Ontario, Canada as it streaks across the sky, reportedly dropping hot metal debris, starting grass fires, and causing sonic booms. It is generally assumed and reported by the press to be a meteor, however some witnesses claim to have approached the fallen object and seen an alien craft.
1980—John Lennon Killed
Ex-Beatle John Lennon is shot four times in the back and killed by Mark David Chapman in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Chapman had been stalking Lennon since October, and earlier that evening Lennon had autographed a copy of his album Double Fantasy for him.
