vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
Since we were just discussing nudism, here’s a little reiteration for you. This very nice image from the magazine Weekly Playboy shows Japanese actress Izumi Shima chilling by the ocean in 1978. We last saw her in the movie Tokyo eros senya ichiya, known in English as Eros Nights in Tokyo, and a while back we shared another frame from this seaside session that’s worth a look. Check here for the first, and here for the second. Shima will be back.
Yes! We’re excited because we found yet another astonishingly rare Japanese poster. This was made to promote Tokyo eros senya ichiya, which would translate approximately as “Tokyo One Thousand and One Nights,” but is known in English as Eros Nights in Tokyo. You won’t see this anywhere else. At least not uncensored. Now the bad news. Just like a few years ago when we shared the film’s standard promo, we’re still looking for a damn copy to watch. It stars Izumi Shima, Ayako Meki, and Erina Miyai, and that’s a trio we want to see anytime. But it’ll have to wait. In the meantime, gaze upon the celestial Izumi in a zoom below, and check her out here and here. For that matter, check out Irina Miyai here. Tokyo eros senya ichiya premiered in Japan today in 1979.
Above is another striking roman porno poster, this one for Tokyo eros senya ichiya. The title means “Tokyo One Thousand and One Nights,” referencing the famed collection of folk and erotic tales from the Islamic Golden Age. But in English the movie was called Eros Nights in Tokyo, which omits the Arabian Nights reference for some reason. We haven’t seen this one, but it starred three of our favorite Japanese actresses—Izumi Shima, Ayako Meki, and Erina Miyai—which means we’ll be looking for it. If we ever find it we’ll revisit this subject. Tokyo eros senya ichiya opened in Japan today in 1979.
We couldn’t resist posting this. It’s part of a calendar originally published by the Japanese men’s magazine Heibon Punch. We’ve seen the image in several places, but we suspect it originated at the website bullesdejapon. Riding without any protective gear whatsoever is Me-ju Ayako, aka Ayako Meki, who appeared in the Nikkatsu flicks Red Assault and Eros Nights in Tokyo. This shot is from 1980.
Albert DeSalvo, the serial killer who became known as the Boston Strangler, is convicted of murder and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison. He serves initially in Bridgewater State Hospital, but he escapes and is recaptured. Afterward he is transferred to federal prison where six years later he is killed by an inmate or inmates unknown.
In the U.S., eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts. The skillful execution of the crime, with only a bare minimum of clues left at the scene, results in the robbery being billed as “the crime of the century.” Despite this, all the members of the gang are later arrested.
Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States. Gilmore’s story is later turned into a 1979 novel entitled The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer, and the book wins the Pulitzer Prize for literature.
American actress Carole Lombard, who was the highest paid star in Hollywood during the late 1930s, dies in the crash of TWA Flight 3, on which she was flying from Las Vegas to Los Angeles after headlining a war bond rally in support of America’s military efforts. She was thirty-three years old.
Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps. Freikorps was a term applied to various paramilitary organizations that sprang up around Germany as soldiers returned in defeat from World War I. Members of these groups would later become prominent members of the SS.
