vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
Swedish actress Susan Denberg appears in the above promo photo, which was made for the 1967 Hammer horror flick Frankenstein Created Woman. The movie was an entry in a seven part series of Frankenstein movies, mostly pretty bad. As for Denberg, who was a Playboy centerfold in 1966, her acting résumé is scant—she made two movies and appeared on three television shows. Later, she became a subject of intense tabloid interest. You can see an example here.
We had to watch Acapulco Uncensored for two reasons. First, it’s set in Mexico, which is our favorite country of all those we’ve visited so far (nine trips for PSGP and counting), and two, it’s in “throbbing color,” according to this promo poster. Well, there’s color but not much throbbing. At least at first. But about ten minutes in Virginia Gordon makes an appearance. We had no idea. So we retract that statement about there being no throbbing. This was one of three movies Gordon made in 1968, in her thirties by then and growing still more beautiful, sporting six pack abs and a slimmed down frame since her Playboy days.
Okay, so what’s the movie about? It’s a travelogue of Acapulco, part staged, part documentary, purporting to take viewers through the sexual hot spots, places where sun lovers can sun, swingers can swing, and whorehouse Johns can get their ashes hauled. It also discusses the dark side—women stuck in prostitution or sexual slavery, drug dangers, the places where tourists can be robbed or shot if they aren’t watchful. It’s narrated, and the script is intelligently written and occasionally eloquent—another surprise. It’s also a bit superior and rude—not a surprise at all.
Acapulco Uncensored is mainly supposed to be a titillation movie, and it offers plenty of that, including Kathy Williams, aka Ira Makepeace, briefly implying oral sex. Surprisingly for the era, there are flashes of pubes. Gordon pushes the envelope—she’d be offering extended looks at her old growth forest if she weren’t shaved. We presume that was a decision made to confound the censors. If the camera goes low enough that there should be hair but none is seen, should those frames be cut? Apparently not. Acapulco Uncensored is a worthy cinematic oddity, and you’ll even learn a few things. It premiered in the U.S.—and weakened some taboos—today in 1968.
For some reason this image of Virginia Gordon vibed harem for us, though she has no companions in her colorful room. Must be lonely, but on the plus side she gets all the peeled grapes and bubbly beverages to herself. She was a Playboy centerfold in 1959 and went on to make several films, among them Hot Spur and The Muthers. This image, which is titled “Reflections,” probably dates from around 1960. Gordon will be back.
Above: a shot of U.S. model and actress Azizi Johari, whose film résumé includes The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and the obscure West German drama Exit Sunset Boulevard, in which she was billed over Elke Sommer. We’d love to find a copy of it somewhere, but we doubt we ever will. This shot of her in a yarn bikini at the limits of its tensility came from Jet magazine in 1975. See another shot of Johari—a smoldering one—here.
These demure cheesecake images scanned from slides star Idaho born actress Arline Hunter ready for any type of atmospheric conditions, clad in a raincoat that keeps the water off but lets the sunshine—and your eyeballs—in. Hunter first came to public notice in the nudie loop The Apple-Knockers and the Coke, but went mainstream and ultimately generated around thirty acting credits, including in 1958’s Revolt in the Big House, 1959’s The Angry Red Planet, and 1960’s Sex Kittens Go to College. You can learn a little more about her and see a fun Technicolor pin-up of her at this link.
Cigarette vending machines were banned in the U.S. in 2010, but back during the mid-century they were big business, and for a big business you needed big advertising. This bright red calendar sheet fit the bill for the Stern Cigarette Vending Maching Company in terms of major visual impact. It shows Margie Harrison in a shot made by glamour specialist Bunny Yeager, titled at the bottom “Perfection.” And indeed, it’s pretty close, with the pose, hair-do, and raven black arm coverings.
Harrison is a significant model. She appeared as Playboy magazine’s January and June 1954 centerfolds—yes, the coveted double-dip. Back then, Playboy was purchasing content from outside sources. As in the case of Marilyn Monroe, calendar vendors the John Baumgarth Company owned Harrison’s images and sold them to Hugh Hefner. Because the magazine was still tweaking its format, it was actually Harrison, not Monroe, who was Playboy‘s first Playmate of the Month. This photo shows that the title fit her like gloves.
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.
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.
BBC Television produces the first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of Czech writer Karel Capek’s dark play R.U.R., aka, Rossum’s Universal Robots. The robots in the play are not robots in the modern sense of machines, but rather are biological entities that can be mistaken for humans. Nevertheless, R.U.R. featured the first known usage of the term “robot”.
Captured American spy pilot Gary Powers, who had been shot down over the Soviet Union in May 1960 while flying a U-2 high-altitude jet, is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, who had been arrested in New York City in 1957.
Actress Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Los Angeles sidewalk at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street that serves as an outdoor entertainment museum. Woodward was one of 1,558 honorees chosen by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1958, when the proposal to build the sidewalk was approved. Today the sidewalk contains more than 2,800 stars.
Satchel Paige becomes the first player from America’s Negro Baseball League to be voted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige, who was a pitcher, played for numerous Negro League teams, had brief stints in Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Major Leagues, before finally retiring in his mid-fifties.
The Allende Meteorite, the largest object of its type ever found, falls in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone, traveling at more than ten miles per second and leaving a brilliant streak across the sky, is believed to have been approximately the size of an automobile. But by the time it hit the Earth it had broken into hundreds of fragments.
