TOTALLY DREAMY

Excellent, Carole! Now let's do some profile shots. Carole? Um, are you still with us?

It’s been a long time since we visited with Hollywood legend Carole Lombard. Above you see her in a particularly lovely shot, emphasizing her arctic pale eyes, possibly focused on someplace far beyond the confines of the photographer’s studio. While she appeared in a few pulp-style movies, she made her name in screwball comedies such as Big News, Twentieth Century, and My Man Godfrey. Those choices certainly worked. At the time of her early death in 1941 she was one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. 

Twentieth Century Fox offers up a mix of Monroe's most famous tunes.

Above: the front and rear sleeves of a 1962 Twentieth Century Fox album featuring the brightest star in Hollywood, Marilyn Monroe, performing musical numbers from three films—River of No Return, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and There’s No Business Like Show Business. Inside you get a “ready to frame” Monroe photo, which is the cover shot unaltered. It’s a nice image indeed. The full list of songs is as follows:

“Heat Wave,” “Lazy,” “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It,” “River of No Return,” “One Silver Dollar,” “I’m Going To File My Claim,” “A Little Girl from Little Rock,” (with Eileen Wilson), “When Love Goes Wrong,” (also with Eileen Wilson), “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” and “Bye Bye Baby.”

You can hear most of the tunes by looking around YouTube, if you’re curious.
I just insured them for a million dollars. You think I'm actually going stand on things that valuable?

Trivia time, vintage Hollywood fans. Our subhead tells you all you need to identify the person in this photo, even though she’s upside down. Give up? It’s Betty Grable, whose famous gams were allegedly insured with Lloyd’s of London for a cool milly. It’s was her studio Twentieth Century Fox’s doing, though some say it was a publicity stunt. Either way it worked. The free ink the insurance (or insurance fairytale) produced was priceless. It continues even today, obviously, as nearly everyone who writes about Grable mentions the policy. Grable once said, “I became a star for two reasons, and I’m standing on them.” But not in this photo.

Touch a hot Stover and you'll get burned.


Above is a promo poster made for the Jane Russell drama The Revolt of Mamie Stover, which premiered in Honolulu today in 1956, and was sourced from William Bradford Huie’s novel, a book we discussed at length some months back. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh of Casablanca fame. He’s properly credited on the above art, but for some reason on the second poster, which you’ll find below, his name appears as Walsh Raoul. It’s a weird mistake to get past so many studio eyes, but things like that happen, we guess. The U.S. art is uncredited, but the third poster, also below, was made for the film’s British release and that was painted by Jock Hinchcliffe. He wasn’t a noted stylist whose work is especially sought after today, but he did paint numerous posters, and he signed the piece below. Anyone who did that gets singled out here, because so few artists were credited by the studios.

Regarding the movie, needless to say, the challenging themes of Huie’s novel were turned on their head by Hollywood. Mamie is no longer a racist toward Hawaiian islanders—in fact, the one islander character who gets to speak is bigoted against her. And she’s no longer a prostitute but a hostess who induces men who frequent Honolulu’s Bungalow Club to buy more booze and pay extra for private time. That private time takes place in a rattan decorated sideroom, but there’s no bed evident. Instead there’s a table and two chairs, so apparently men pay just to chat with Mamie, and the other women at the club. There’s a sexual implication, but of the barest sort, because obviously Twentieth Century Fox could not have made a movie about Jane Russell prostituting herself 51,840 times—the exact number given in the book.

The Revolt of Mamie Stover is another example of suppressed sexual themes during the mid-century era, which is a big reason why we extend our purview at Pulp Intl. into erotic films and imagery—because in our era the previously unshown can be shown and openly examined. We’ve discussed this before. If you watch the movie, it’s interesting to ponder the presumed maturity of book readers, who were asked point blank to consider a prolific prostitute the protagonist of the story, as opposed to cinemagoers, who were never presented with the possibility. In any case, the screen version of Stover, while not a sex worker, is at least a very knowing character, and Russell certainly has the sneer needed to pull off portraying a romantically cynical money worshipper determined to reach the top tax bracket no matter what it costs—her or others.

We figure anyone who has what it takes to get rich for simply, er, chatting with men deserves wealth, and indeed Mamie gets her money. That’s not a spoiler, because it’s never in doubt. It’s part of the revolt—her resistance against forced membership in the underclass. The question is whether she can retain her newly gained higher status, and whether she can preserve the love she’s stumbled upon along the way, because in American cinema moneyseeking characters must choose between their fortunes and their souls. That choice is supposed to supply the drama, but we think the movie is more interesting for its proto-feminist feel and class discussion. It’s pretty good on all fronts, though, except that co-star Richard Egan is a bit of an empty shell. But he doesn’t ruin it. How can he? He has Russell to carry him the entire ninety-three minutes.
I have to dig around in this dank cavern under Twentieth Century Fox to find good scripts, but I always manage.

The golden age film studios didn’t take kindly to actresses who wanted input into their own careers. U.S. star Jean Peters, who you see above in 1954, had pretty firm opinions about the types of roles she wanted to play. These led to her withdrawing from her planned debut in I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now, being suspended by Twentieth Century Fox for refusing to appear in Sand, and later Yellow Sky, being replaced in Mr. Belvedere Goes to College, being suspended again for refusing The View from Pompey’s Head, and refusing to play sexy roles of any type after her turn as a vixen in the film noir Pickup on South Street.

Yes, Peters was particular, but her hits were notable. Pickup on South Street was spectacular, Forever Amber was a star making turn, and Three Coins in the Fountain was a major success. In 1957 she married Howard Hughes and didn’t act again until after divorcing him in the early 1970s. Correlation is not causation, or something like that, but it’s too bad she lost those years because she chose to wed a kook. She had a good career by any measure, though. She may have hated playing sexpots but we think she was at her best as the smoldering Candy from Pickup on South Street. Watch it and see if you don’t agree.

Let me be frank with you. Actually, that's unavoidable, isn't it? Instead I'll be deadly fucking blunt.


Frank Sinatra uses his ole blue eyes for a steely glare in this Twentieth Century Fox promo photo made for the 1968 thriller Lady in Cement. We last saw the movie on television when we were kids and don’t remember much about it. Specifically, we don’t remember who Sinatra is aiming at, but whoever it is had better pull up a chair and a whiskey glass, because the head of the Rat Pack does not drink alone. We figure this movie is worth a fresh look, so we’re going screen it and report back. 

Answer me honestly. Do men actually like this kind of cumbersome lingerie? No? Me neither. Ahh... that's better.

For a couple of years we were mystified by the identity of the above model, but recently learned that she’s Virginia De Lee. There’s actually some information out there about her, some of it quite interesting. For example, in June 1957, according to Hollywood columnist Erskine Johnson, she walked into his office dressed as a harem girl, accompanied by a “225-pound giant of a fellow and a four-foot [little person],” unrolled a rug, served him a cup of Egyptian coffee, and announced, “We are here to remind you that the Tyrone Power movie Suez will be on television tomorrow night. It’s the premiere performance of a series of Twentieth Century Fox movies on KTTV.”

That’s what’s called an old fashioned publicity stunt and as far as we know stuff like that doesn’t happen these days. De Lee also popped up in the press when famed Hungarian sculptor Sepy Dobronyi said she had a perfectly formed body, so it’s possible she modeled for him at some point. She obviously sought stardom, but her only movie role was a minor appearance as a stripper in the b-drama Hell Bound. Whatever fame she has these days mainly derives from the many collectible Technicolor lithographs in which she and that quirky right eyebrow of hers were featured. We showed you a few lithos already, and we have one or two more sitting around. You may see them later. 

Someone to watch over you.

Above, a Twentieth Century Fox promo item, a giant die-cut head of movie star Betty Grable made to promote her 1944 musical Pin Up Girl. That isn’t the type of movie we usually talk about here, but for her we’ll make an exception. This is the second time, actually, but we’re into any kind of vintage memorabilia, especially something this rare and interesting. Plus Grable is kind of fun, as any viewing of her movies will show. This is a very large scan, as you can by our zoom of her eye. See another fun Grable image on the cover of Paris-Hollywood magazine here.

Sophia Loren is priceless as always.

Not much we can say about this. It’s a brilliant Japanese promo for Sophia Loren’s 1960 film The Millionairess, one of many movies, such as El CidHouseboat, and Arabesque, that she made in English at the height of her fame. Some were Hollywood productions, but this one was produced and shot in England and co-starred Peter Sellers. There’s no Japanese release date on it, but if we had to guess we’d say between 1962 and 1965. We haven’t watched this yet, but we’ll report back.

Everyone says I'm amazing in the sack, so as a fashion choice this is really a no-brainer.


Above, Marilyn Monroe in her famed potato sack dress, circa 1951. Legend has it this photo was cooked up by Twentieth Century Fox after a journalist complained that a gown Monroe wore made her look “cheap and vulgar,” and suggested she’d look better in a potato sack. We don’t think Monroe ever dressed in a way that could be truthfully described as vulgar, but you didn’t get a lot of leeway back then when you had already posed nude. In any case, Fox decided to troll the journalist, with amazing results.
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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1989—Los Angeles Herald-Examiner Folds

William Randolph Hearst’s newspaper the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, which had gained notoriety for its crime and scandal focus, including coverage of the Black Dahlia murder and Charles Manson trials, goes out of business after eighty-six years. Its departure leaves the Los Angeles Times as the sole city-wide daily newspaper in L.A.

1938—Seabiscuit Defeats War Admiral

At Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, Maryland, the thoroughbred stallion Seabiscuit defeats the Triple Crown champion War Admiral in a match race that had been promoted as “The match of the Century” in horse racing. The victory made Seabiscuit a symbol of triumph against the odds during the dark days of the Depression, and his story became the subject of a 1949 film, a 2001 book, and a 2003 film, Seabiscuit, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

1984—Indira Gandhi Assassinated

In India, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two of her own Sikh security guards in the garden of the Prime Minister’s Residence at No. 1, Safdarjung Road in New Delhi. Gandhi had been walking to meet British actor Peter Ustinov for an interview. Riots soon break out in New Delhi and nearly 2,000 Sikhs are killed.

1945—Robinson Signs with Dodgers

Jackie Robinson, who had been playing with the Negro League team the Kansas City Monarchs, signs a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers to become the first African-American major leaguer of the modern baseball era.

1961—Soviets Detonate Super Nuke

The Soviet Union detonates an experimental nuclear weapon called Tsar Bomba over the Arctic Circle, which, with a yield of 100 megatons of TNT, was then and remains today the most powerful weapon ever used by humanity.

Uncredited cover art for Lesbian Gym by Peggy Swenson, who was in reality Richard Geis.
T’as triché marquise by George Maxwell, published in 1953 with art by Jacques Thibésart, also known as Nik.

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