Pulp International

vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news

PERSONAL DEFENSE

I keep hearing that smash Bergers are all the rage, so I decided I needed a little protection.

This shot of Austrian actress Senta Berger was made to promote the television show The Man from U.N.C.L.E., in which she featured during a 1964 episode titled, “The Double Affair.” We’ve visited with Berger a lot, but a particularly nice pair of shots is here. For our many non-U.S. readers, a “smash burger,” which has exploded in popularity, is a hamburger pressed flat from a ball of meat onto a flattop grill and cooked until it has crispy edges. We’ll take our medium rare Wagyu burgers any day of the week.

Austria, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Senta Berger, television

WHOA NEILE

Let's not go off half-cocked.


This promo image with white markings shows Filipina actress Neile Adams, whose nickname was Nellie, entertaining dangerous thoughts with a machine pistol at her side. Adams is known, these days, for being the wife of screen legend Steve McQueen, but she appeared in about ten films and an equal number of television shows, including The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Police Woman, and The Rockford Files. There are versions of this photo with McQueen pasted into the background, so for the fun of it we added one below.
Philippines, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Police Woman, The Rockford Files, Neile Adams, Steve McQueen

POWERS OF INNOVATION

You like my gun? I made a few modifications. It doesn't fire anymore, but it scares the absolute crap out of people.

This promo shot shows U.S. actress Stefanie Powers and was made for her The Man from U.N.C.L.E. spin-off show The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., on which she starred as secret agent April Dancer. She would later go on to become widely known while starring in the 1979-84 sleuthing weekly Hart to Hart with Robert Wagner. The photo is from 1966. You can see another one here.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hart to Hart, Stefanie Powers, Robert Wagner, television

MIDNIGHT BLUE

Dark on the outside, darker on the inside.
This is the second Canadian tabloid we’ve shared in October, and we have several others upcoming in the next few months. This time we’re back to Minuit, the sister publication of Midnight, published today in 1968 with a cover featuring Susan Boyd. She’s looking a little radioactive, and in unusually dark waters. This could everyone’s fate the way things are going in 2022. We don’t know what Minuit editors were shooting for here. Maybe they had a problem during the printing phase. But in it an odd way it’s actually a nice cover, and Boyd pops up again in the centerfold, looking much healthier.

Elswewhere inside the issue Minuit wastes no time with its efforts to shock. We learn about Vietmanese youngster Bon Ngoc Tho, who editors claim is a demi-homme born with many characteristics of his father—a monkey. We can say a lot about this, but let’s skip most of it and simply note that the 1960s were the tail end, so to speak, of a long-running fascination with supposed human freaks.

Moving on, editors have a curious photo of a model with something unidentifiable in her mouth. We took several guesses what the thing was, and they were all wrong. Turns out it’s a pea shooter—a tire-pois. No, we’d never seen one, but a few of you probably recognized it. Minuit editors claim it can kill a kid, and that hospitals around the U.S. have been treating serious pea shooter injuries, along with wounds inflicted by “blow zappers and Zulu-guns.” The article explains that the injuries come not from shooting the projectiles, but from swallowing them while inhaling to fire the weapon, occasionally piercing arteries in the neck.

There are more stories along those lines, but it isn’t all dark at midnight. Elsewhere in the issue you get men’s fitness, nymphomania, and plenty of celebs, such as Claudia Cardinale, Nai Bonet, and Maureen Arthur, plus Robert Vaughn hawking a 100% legitimate Man from U.N.C.L.E. “plume espion.” That means “spy feather,” which doesn’t help at all in determining exactly what it is. But a careful scan of the text suggests that it’s an x-ray vision device that works on everything from walls to clothes. Right. We’ll take two, and see you at the beach. Twenty-one scans below.
Canada, Montreal, Minuit, Midnight, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Susan Boyd, Suzanne Pleshette, Maureen Arthur, Josiane Larazin, Claudia Cardinale, Kim Porter, Nai Bonet, Franl Lee Morris, Clint Eastwood, Robert Vaughn, tabloid

VENTURA HIGHWAY

It's my way or I'll pump you fulla holes. I know that doesn't rhyme, but you get the idea.

Above: a promo photo of British actress Viviane Ventura, who appeared in such films as Docteur Caraïbes and A High Wind in Jamaica, and television shows such as I Spy and The Man from U.N.CL.E. This shot was made when she was co-starring in Battle Beneath the Earth in 1967.

Britain, Battle Beneath the Earth, A High Wind in Jamaica, I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Docteur Caraïbes, Viviane Ventura

THE POWERS THAT BE

Saying U.N.C.L.E. is not going to appease her.

This shot of U.S. actress Stefanie Powers was made as a promo for the television series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., in which she played the wonderfully named spy April Dancer, aka Agent 0022. The show was a spin-off from The Man from U.N.C.L.E., but lasted only one season during 1966-67, which gives us the date range on this photo.

The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Stefanie Powers, television

PLENTY MOORE

The woman from U.N.C.L.E.

This nice shot of U.S. actress Barbara Moore was made as a promo for the television show The Man from U.N.C.L.E., on which she made a series of guest appearances as the character Lisa Rogers, Agent 46. And that was pretty much it for Moore. She had bit parts in a couple of movies and appeared on one other network show, before fading from public view. This photo, though, we hope will stay in view for a while, because it’s great. It was made in 1967.

The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Barbara Moore, television

DESTINATION HOLLYWOOD

In real life this could only be a road mirage or a carjacking. Anything else would be too good to be true.

Above is a striking photo of U.S. actress Dolores Faith, who had no major roles during her brief career, but is probably best known for the sci-fi b-movie Mutiny in Outer Space, for her guest appearance on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and for being a world class beauty. We don’t have a date on this, but her time in Hollywood lasted only from 1960 to 1966, so take your pick from any of those years.

Mutiny in Outer Space, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Dolores Faith

LEIGH BY EXAMPLE

You think you can ball? Then show me what you got, chumps!

We featured Leigh Chapman as a femme fatale not too long ago, but here you see her again in 1965 schooling some fools on a Culver City, California basketball court during down time from filming television’s The Man from U.N.C.L.E. She needs to drive hard and draw contact. But not against the flabby shoeless guy—he’d probably like it way too much.

California, Culver City, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Leigh Chapman, television

CHILLY AND GRAY

She has a classic case of cold feet.

British actress Janine Gray must really be suffering in this cold. She was born in Bombay, India, and though she left at age five, may have been there just long enough to get used to the tropical weather. Her show business career was short, but she did appear in some of the better television series of the 1960s, including The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Saint, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. The shot above was made to promote her role in the cinematic comedy Quick Before It Melts, which is set in Antarctica. Luckily for Gray it was filmed in California. But that’s a place that can feel pretty cold too, when you have no pants. See below. 1964 copyright on these images.

Britain, India, California, The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Saint, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Quick Before It Melts, Janine Gray, television
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1916—Richard Harding Davis Dies

American journalist, playwright, and author Richard Harding Davis dies of a heart attack at home in Philadelphia. Not widely known now, Davis was one of the most important and influential war correspondents ever, establishing his reputation by reporting on the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and World War I, as well as his general travels to exotic lands.

1919—Zapata Is Killed

In Mexico, revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata is shot dead by government forces in the state of Morelos, after a carefully planned ambush. Following the killing, Zapata’s revolutionary movement and his Liberation Army of the South slowly fall apart, but his political influence lasts in Mexico to the present day.

1925—Great Gatsby Is Published

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby is published in New York City by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Though Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s best known book today, it was not a success upon publication, and at the time of his death in 1940, Fitzgerald was mostly forgotten as a writer and considered himself to be a failure.

1968—Martin Luther King Buried

American clergyman and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is buried five days after being shot dead on a Memphis, Tennessee motel balcony. April 7th had been declared a national day of mourning by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and King’s funeral on the 9th is attended by thousands of supporters, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

1953—Jomo Kenyatta Convicted

In Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta is sentenced to seven years in prison by the nation’s British rulers for being a member of the Mau Mau Society, an anti-colonial movement. Kenyatta would a decade later become independent Kenya’s first prime minister, and still later its first president.

1974—Hank Aaron Becomes Home Run King

Major League Baseball player Hank Aaron hits his 715th career home run, surpassing Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old record. The record-breaking homer is hit off Al Downing of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and with that swing Aaron puts an exclamation mark on a twenty-four year journey that had begun with the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro League, and would end with his selection to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.

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BRAZIL UNDERGROUND

Edições de Ouro and Editora Tecnoprint published U.S. crime novels for the Brazilian market, with excellent reworked cover art to appeal to local sensibilities. We have a small collection worth seeing.

FLUENT IN VIOLENCE

Walter Popp cover art for Richard Powell's 1954 crime novel Say It with Bullets.

IN HOT WATER

There have been some serious injuries on pulp covers. This one is probably the most severe—at least in our imagination. It was painted for Stanley Morton's 1952 novel Yankee Trader.

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