Femmes Fatales

August 1 2023

A VOHS FOR JUSTICE

Now begins my violent crusade against all bra designers.

We showed these photos of U.S. actress Joan Vohs to PI-1 and PI-2—aka the Pulp Intl. girlfriends—and they were like, “What the hell is going on with that woman’s boobs?” They’re of the opinion that bras must have been designed by men. It’s actually a French woman who gets credit for the first modern bra, but by the time mid-century fashion was in full swing we wouldn’t be surprised if men had major input and/or final control. After all, the torpedo or bullet bra must have come from a man’s brain, right? It must have.

This disaster of a bra Vohs is wearing is inexplicable. We won’t even try to understand. We like to think her pain and humiliation were somewhat lessened by an excellent show business career. Her best known movies are probably 1954’s Cry Venegance and Sabrina, but she was constantly employed from 1949 to 1969, which is no easy feat. Possibly, she had some custom bras made with her earnings. That’s what we would’ve done. Wanna see an astounding example of a torpedo bra? Check here, but be careful, kid—you could put an eye out.

Cry Vengeance, Sabrina, Joan Vohs

Vintage Pulp

January 16 2020

ZEST INTENTIONS

It was a different flavor of men's magazine.

Zest magazine, with its bold graphics and cover portraits, looks like a classic mid-century tabloid, but its banner tells you it’s really a men’s magazine. It lives up to its billing in this issue from January 1956—issue number one, actually—with short stories from Michael Avallone and H.P. Lovecraft, real life adventure tales, scare stories (“Is Your Daughter a Sex-Film Star?), glamour photography, and humor.

The Lovecraft tale, “Rats in the Walls,” is called “the greatest horror story ever written.” We wouldn’t go that far, but it’s freaktacular, like everything Lovecraft wrote. It had originally been published in Weird Tales in 1924, and we imagine that its bizarro mutant/cannibalism themes were pretty shocking back then. The Avallone story, “The Glass Eye,” is novella length. He had already published three novels and was building a reputation as a reliable author of thrillers, which makes his inclusion a nice coup for a new magazine.

The photography in Zest is just as impressive as the fiction. Readers get to see rare shots of major celebs such as Sophia Loren, Sabrina, and Delores del Rio. All in all Zest was a high budget effort, but it lasted only two issues. Why did it fold? No idea on that. Competition in the market was plenty stiff at the time. On the other hand, maybe two issues are all that were planned. We’re thrilled to show you one of them, comprising thirty-plus scans below for your Thursday enjoyment.

Zest Magazine, Weird Tales, Michael Avallone, H.P. Lovecraft, Ragnhild Ollausson, Sophia Loren, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes, Delores del Rio, Jayne Mansfield, magazine art, literature

Femmes Fatales

November 10 2019

THE ADVENTURES OF SABRINA

In this week's episode she uses two torpedoes to blow up Monroe and Mansfield.

We’ve seen our share of torpedo boobs but these take the prize. Norma Ann Sykes, better known as simply Sabrina, makes munitions couture look almost passable in this promo shot made in 1957. The bra gets most of the credit for this physics-defying image, of course, but her reported 41-inch bust had something to do with it too. We recently called Sabrina the one-name star time forgot, but that isn’t true. Though she never became the British Marilyn Monroe or Jayne Mansfield she was touted as, and her film career was scant, she was an outsize celebrity and tabloid staple who received up to 1,000 fan letters a week.

She used the recognition to tour the world as a cabaret act and, according to reports, on one occasion an adoring crowd of 10,000 caused part of the roof to collapse at Maylands Airport near Perth, Australia. With these and other adventures to her credit, it’s fair to say Sabrina is one of the most noteworthy celebrities of her era. There’s an extensive website about her that you can access at this link. If you visit, make sure to check the section “Sabrina Incidents,” and you’ll see what we mean by other adventures. One thing is clear—Sabrina hasn’t been forgotten. Not on that website, not on this one, and probably not anywhere.

Britain, Australia, Perth, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes

Vintage Pulp

October 19 2019

FRENCH FROU AND FROU

Parisian publisher does erotica as only the French can.

Today we have for your enjoyment an issue of Paris Frou Frou, #46, published in 1956. This was the brainchild of S.N.E.T.P., which decoded is Société Nouvelle D’editions Théâtrales Parisiennes. See, the French understood that smut must wear a fig leaf of intellectualism, which is exactly why we write so much on Pulp Intl. rather than just publish reams of nude photos. Hah, just kidding (did we mention the Pulp Intl. girlfriends are out of town?). The eroticism is just a bonus that comes with all the fiction, film, and art. And it’s a bonus that helps our traffic.

Anyway, on the cover of this mag is Austrian actress Nadja Tiller, and the rear features a nice shot pairing yanks Lori Nelson and Mamie Van Doren. With a wrapper like that the inside must be nice, and indeed it is. You’ll see Sabrina, the one-name star time has forgotten, as well as U.S. nudist model Diane Webber, aka Marguerite Empey. If your memory is very sharp you’ll recall one of the same Webber photos appearing in an issue of the U.S. magazine Male from 1958 we shared a while back. Mixed in with the celebs is the usual assortment of Parisian showgirls. We’ll revisit Paris Frou Frou later.

France, Austria, S.N.E.T.P., Société Nouvelle D'editions Théâtrales Parisiennes, Paris Frou Frou, Nadja Tiller, Lori Nelson, Mamie Van Doren, Diane Webber, Marguerite Empey, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes, Tina Marshall, Zaza Brooks, Nadine Tallier, burlesque

Hollywoodland

July 3 2018

QUALITY INSURANCE

Sabrina covers her biggest assets.

Every once in a while we run across stories about Hollywood stars insuring their body parts. A couple of examples: Bette Davis was famous for her small waist and insured it against weight gain for the equivalent of $400,000; and 1920s comedian Ben Turpin, who was famously cross-eyed, took out a policy of similar value should his eyes ever straighten. National Enquirer insists on this cover from today in 1960 that British star Sabrina, aka Norma Ann Sykes, insured her breasts. The tabloid is in fact correct—she allowed her manager Joe Matthews to insure her endowment with Lloyd’s of London for £UK100,000. In today’s cash that would be about £2.4 million, or $3.2 million. You may think that’s excessive, but when’s the last time your boobs caused a riot? Unfortunately the weight she carried on her torso led to chronic back pain and a failed attempt at a surgical fix that left her in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She died in obscurity last year. It was a sad ending for the former sex symbol. But once upon a time she was a one-name star—just Sabrina—and a global obsession.

Britain, Lloyd's of London, National Enquirer, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes, Joe Matthews, Ben Turpin, Bette Davis, tabloid

Hollywoodland

May 21 2016

LOWDOWN BEAT

Mid-century tabloid hits all the familiar tabloid notes.

Lowdown makes the rounds in this issue published in May 1965. Inside, Ann-Margret claims she doesn’t want to be a tease (fail), editors ask if women are more immoral than men (which they really are, once you take war, genocide, faithlessness, and generally violent tendencies off the table), and June Wilkinson’s photo is among those used in a story about women supposedly receiving insurance covered breast implants from Britain’s National Health Service.

Probably the most interesting story concerns Swedish actress Inger Stevens disappearing for a week. Lowdown hints at an alcohol binge, which is nothing special (hell, we do those) but while there are plenty of sources citing a 1960 suicide attempt, we found no other mention anywhere of Lowdown‘s missing week. The story is notable because Stevens would die at age thirty-five of a drug overdose.

Elsewhere you get nude skiing in Austria, Richard Chamberlain and his hit television show Dr. Kildare, the sex powers of mandrake root, and Belgian born actress and dancer Monique Van Vooren endorsing regular exercise. Scans below—oh, and sorry about the quality. Lowdown‘s printing process caused scanner problems. It’s never happened before, so hopefully we won’t encounter the issue again.

Austria, Sweden, Belgium, Britain, Lowdown, Dr. Kildare, June Wilkinson, Inger Stevens, Ann-Margret, Diana Dors, Joan Collins, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes, Monique Van Vooren, Richard Chamberlain, tabloid

Hollywoodland

October 30 2015

PERFECT TIMING

Sørensen throws Playboy fans off her trail.

Tempo was a pocket-sized celeb and pop culture magazine published bi-weekly out of Atlanta and New York City by Sports Report, Inc. We don’t know how long it lasted—this one is vol. 7, issue 9—but we know we’ve never seen one dated before 1953 or after 1958. When Dane Arden appeared on the cover of this one from today in 1956, she was already famous thanks to her appearance as Playboy’s centerfold just the previous month. But she had posed under her real name Elsa Sørensen, and back then that may have kept most Playboy readers from realizing Sørensen and Arden were the same person. It’s curious. We have no idea if that was her intention, or why she’d have wanted to do it.

If we had to guess, we’d say that Playboy wanted an exclusive association with her Sørensen identity, and pressed her to choose a new name for future modeling. Or perhaps she thought of magazines like Tempo as lower class, and didn’t want to diminish her Playboy image. Or maybe she thought Elsa Sørensen was a little too Danish sounding for Hollywood. But there’s no evidence she ever had an interest in movies, and if she did wouldn’t she have been sacrificing much of the useful recognition she’d gained as a Playboy centerfold? All we can say is it’s one of history’s little mysteries. Hmm… that has a nice ring. Think we’ll claim that one—History’s Little Mysteries™. More Dane/Elsa below, plus Brigitte Bardot, Shirley Falls, Erroll Garner, Sabrina, the Cleveland Browns, Anita Ekberg, et al.

Vintage Pulp

October 13 2011

FROU FROU FLIRTATIONS

My eyes are up here, cherie.

Paris Frou Frou #58, with Jayne Mansfield, Sabrina, Mickey Hargitay, and many unknowns. We’re really starting to appreciate this magazine because it always seems to have at least two or three truly striking images, including, in this case, the cabaret dancers Mitzi and Mimi (mmm… twins) and the back cover, just above. You may be pondering what exactly is a frou frou? While it sounds like a small, furry mammal, possibly with razor sharp teeth, it’s actually an onomatopaeic phrase originally created in French to imitate the swishing sound of a woman’s skirts, and to describe unnecessary showiness (kind of like this sentence). File that definition away in the cobwebbed nook of your brain reserved for truly useless info that might one day win you a point in a pub quiz or prompt someone to label you a metrosexual. See our other Paris Frou Frou here.

France, Paris Frou Frou, Jayne Mansfield, Sabrina, Mickey Hargitay

Vintage Pulp

October 6 2011

EURO EXPOSURE

Sabrina slips her top in London and Ava replaces her Spanish bullfighter with an Italian actor.

This issue of Exposed from October 1957 gives top billing to British sex symbol Sabrina, aka Norma Ann Sykes, and tells us she lost her dress in the street and caused a riot. How did it happen? During a public appearance in London someone supposedly stepped on the hem of her dress. The garment came off, the Brits went bonkers over her 41-inch bare bust, and Sabrina was so distressed that she fainted, so we’re told. Is this story true? We tend to think so, because Exposed goes on to ponder whether the whole fiasco was a publicity stunt. Their ruminations lend the tale just the right element of verisimilitude, so we’re going to say yes, it probably happened. Also on the cover of Exposed, like clockwork, appears Ava Gardner. Readers are told she’s doing the dirty with Italian actor Walter Chiari. This would have been after splitting with Frank Sinatra but before the official divorce. But wait—didn’t we just write about her seeing Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín while also still married to Frankie? Come on people—that was so 1956. Sometimes you have to wonder how Gardner had time for all these affairs, but let’s just say that if she liked a man she always found a way to squeeze him in.

Britain, Italy, Exposed, Ava Gardner, Sabrina, Norma Ann Sykes, Luis Miguel Dominguín, Frank Sinatra, tabloid

Intl. Notebook

December 8 2009

THE SWEDE HEREAFTER

The two guys Top Secret tried to portray as enemies actually kinda liked each other.

As usual, there is an array of interesting teasers on the cover of Top Secret. The squaw in question at left is Jeanne Carmen, who was a famous blonde pin-up, but who was naturally brunette, and had played the role of a Native American girl named Yellow Moon in the cheesy western War Drums. So that’s the source of the squaw reference. Whether Elvis actually stole her from Sinatra, we can’t say. It’s possible any woman in Hollywood would have to be stolen from Sinatra, the guy got around so much. And as if to prove the point, he would later have a fling with the cover star here, Sabrina, aka Norma Sykes. We talked about their tryst in this post from earlier this year.

Anyway, the bit that really caught our attention was not the alleged Elvis-Carmen-Sinatra triangle, but the story about Ingo Johansson being doped. Ingemar “Ingo” Johansson was a world champion boxer who had won the heavyweight crown from Floyd Patterson a year earlier. In the March 1960 rematch, Patterson put Johansson’s lights out with a blow so vicious that Johansson was left twitching on the canvas. It was a definitive victory, just as Johansson’s earlier win over Patterson had been, but in 1960 white-black boxing matches were overtly racially divisive, and so Top Secret took advantage by suggesting that perhaps Patterson’s camp managed to slip the Swede a mickey. That question was answered in the March 1961 third match between the two, when Patterson again knocked Johansson out.

After their careers were over, Johansson and Patterson became good friends and even flew to visit each other in their native countries every year. Top Secret could well have done a story on that, but of course harmony doesn’t sell magazines. So while in the U.S. civil rights strife raged through the rest of the sixties and into the seventies, two guys who once made a living beating the living shit out of each other quietly proved that, given a chance to see each other’s similarities rather than differences, people tend to get along just fine.

Sweden, Top Secret, Ingo Johansson, Elvis Presley, Jeanne Carmen, Frank Sinatra, Sabrina, Norma Sykes, tabloid

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 6

1935—Parker Brothers Buys Monopoly

The board game company Parker Brothers acquires the forerunner patents for Monopoly from Elizabeth Magie, who had designed the game (originally called The Landlord’s Game) to demonstrate the economic ill effects of land monopolism and the use of land value tax as a remedy for them. Parker Brothers quickly turns Monopoly into the biggest selling board game in America.

November 6

1991—Gene Tierney Passes Away

American actress Gene Tierney, one of the great beauties in Hollywood history and star of the seminal film noir Laura, dies in Houston, Texas of emphysema. Tierney had begun smoking while young as a way to help lower her high voice, and was hooked on cigarettes the rest of her life.

November 5

1937—Hitler Reveals His Plans for Lebensraum

Adolf Hitler holds a secret meeting with Nazi officials and states his intention to acquire “lebensraum,” or living space for Germany. An old German concept that dated from 1901, Hitler had written of it in Mein Kampf, and now possessed the power to implement it. Basically the idea, as Hitler saw it, was for the Nazis to kill, deport, or enslave the Polish, Russian and other Slavic populations to the east, whom they considered inferior, and to repopulate those lands with a Germanic upper class.

November 5

1991—Fred MacMurray Dies

American actor Fred MacMurray dies of pneumonia related to leukemia. While most remember him as a television actor, earlier in his career he starred in 1944’s Double Indemnity, one of the greatest films noir ever made.

November 4

1955—Cy Young Dies

American baseball player Cy Young, who had amassed 511 wins pitching for five different teams from 1890 to 1911, dies at the age of 88. Today Major League Baseball’s yearly award given to the best pitcher of each season is named after Young.

November 4

1970—Feral Child Found in Los Angeles

A thirteen year-old child who had been kept locked in a room for her entire life is found in the Los Angeles house of her parents. The child, named Genie, could only speak twenty words and was not able even to walk normally because she had spent her life strapped to a potty chair during the day and bound in a sleeping bag at night. Genie ended up in a series of foster homes and was given language training but after years of effort by various benefactors never reached a point where she could interact normally in society.

November 3

1957—Soviets Launch Dog into Space

The Soviet Union launches the first ever living creature into the cosmos when it blasts a stray dog named Laika into orbit aboard the capsule Sputnik II. Laika is fitted with various monitoring devices that provide information about the effects of launch and weightlessness on a living creature. Urban myth has it that Laika starved to death after a few days in space, but she actually died of heat stress just a few hours into the journey. Today a small monument to her stands in Moscow.