vintage and modern pulp fiction; noir, schlock and exploitation films; scandals, swindles and news
The 16th annual Venice Film Festival ended today in 1955, and one of its highlights occurred when British star Diana Dors was paddled out into the Canalazzo, or Grand Canal, in one of the city’s gondolas. Dors didn’t have a film in competition, which was probably all the more reason to try and steal the show. To that end she wore a fur bikini and posed for eager photographers. The swimsuit was a bit diapery in terms of fit, but Dors, as you see, still looked fine. Next stop: free publicity.
This image ranks as one of the more unusual shots of a nuclear explosion. It shows the high altitude atmospheric test codenamed Orange, which was part of a two-test pairing codenamed Operation Newsreel, which was in turn part of the broad series codenamed Operation Hardtack. These warhawks and their codenames, right? The test took place today in 1958 and was a 3.8 megaton blast lifted to an altitude of approximately twenty-seven miles above Johnston Atoll in the North Pacific Ocean by a Redstone Missile. The result was among the first well-studied nuclear electromagnetic pulses ever produced. You see a wider shot of the test below.
It’s been several years since we last shared an issue of the Spanish celebrity publication Colleción Idolos del Cine, but we still have a few sitting around. These magazines, which were miniature in size and only thirty-pages on average, were always devoted to a single star. The above example dates from 1958 and features U.S. actress Dawn Adams, who by that point had featured in such films as The Robe and House of Intrigue. She had also starred on television in such shows as Sherlock Holmes and The Third Man. The next year, 1959, would be big for her. She’d appear in eight films, including the hit Brigitte Bardot vehicle Voulez-vous danser avec moi? Inside Idolos, readers see Adams’ travels around Europe, meet her husband Don Vittorio Emanuele Massimo the Prince of Roccasecca, and learn about her upcoming films. Not bad for the palatable price of three pesetas. We have fourteen scans below. The previous Idolos we’ve posted, with Maria Schell and Pier Angeli, are here and here.
We have a tremendous amount of material on burlesque in Pulp Intl., yet it’s been eight years since we put together a full collection of mid-century burlesque dancers, go-go girls, and strippers. That day has arrived again. Above and below you see some of the better shots we’ve run across of late, featuring the famous and the obscure, the restrained and the explicit, the domestic and the foreign, and the blonde, red, brown, and brunette. Where possible we’ve identified the performer, such as above—that’s Carol Ryva, sometimes known as Carol Riva, Carole von Ryva, Cara Rive, et al, a French dancer who rose to fame during the early 1960s. Other familiar faces you’ll see are Lilly Christine, Maria Tuxedo, Gay Dawn, Yvonne Ménard, and Virginia Bell.
Occasionally, when we post something that contains nudity, we feel, in this age of new puritanism that we should comment about it. We saw a survey recently indicating that a large percentage of Gen Z’ers think nudity in movies is unnecessary in all circumstances, especially sex scenes. And we’re like, really? The wonderful thing that virtually every person does, or which practically everyone wants to do, and which is how nearly all of us came to be here on the planet, is somehow taboo, but the horrible thing that virtually none of us do—kill—must be part of nearly every film, book, and television show? Programming works. If you sell sexual shame unceasingly new generations will absorb it, and believe they’ve come to their views organically.
The reality is that sex and nudity are freeing. Burlesque and erotic dance are valuable because they take our DNA driven sexual desire and package it as an art form, fit for public consumption and contemplation. Moving one’s body rhythmically feels good, and watching those who work so very hard but make look so easy the pushing of their physical limits within the realm of such expression is pleasing to the eye and psyche. That’s why we love erotic dance. Our two previous burlesque collections, “Infinite Jest,” and “Dancers Gotta Dance,” are here and here, and we have some notable smaller burlesque forays here, here, and here. But if you want to kill some time for real, instead click the keyword “burlesque” at bottom, then scroll, scroll, scroll. Make sure you pack a lunch.
Virginia Bell
Noel Toy, and more here.
Lee Sharon.
Dixie Brandy.
A group shot from the legendary Crazy Horse, Paris.
Stacey “Stormy” Laurence at Louisiana State University in 1948.
Maria Tuxedo. More here.
The incomparable Lilly Christine. We also have a set of photos from one of her performances here, and more links from that point.
The Follies Theater at 337 S. Main Street, Los Angeles, 1946.
Tempest Storm.
Gay Dawn.
Yvonne Ménard, and more photos here.
Carol Jane, aka Spider Woman.
Jackie Miller.
Debra Paget, who performed one of the most provocative screen dances ever in 1959’s De indische grabmal.
Blaze Starr. We also saw her recently here.
Above is the cover of the July 1967 issue of Continental Film Review, a magazine produced by London based Eurap Publishing, which updated readers on the latest developments in European cinema. This issue focuses on the Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Sweden, Greece, Italy, and the Cannes Film Festival.
Here’s an interesting quote from within: An indication of Italy’s mammoth production appeared in an Italian trade journal a few weeks back which listed thirty-eight films premiered in the previous few weeks, seventy-six ready to be premiered, twenty being edited, forty-four in production, twenty-one about to start shooting and thirty-one being prepared, making a total of 230 films (including, of course, co-productions).
You probably think that’s an enormous number, but last year Italy released 356 films. It’s amazing how much there is to see from other countries if you care to look, and that’s largely what Continental Film Review was about. We have twenty-plus scans below, and other issues scattered here and there in places around the website.
There’s been increased talk over the last few years about the weaponization of space, however that bridge was crossed a long, long time ago by the U.S. and Soviet Union, with the U.S. getting the ball rolling in 1958 with a series of tests secretly conducted over the South Atlantic Ocean. The above photos, which were made from Honolulu, Hawaii, and the one below made from a surveillance aircraft, and show the U.S. nuclear test known as Starfish Prime. It was one of five explosions comprising Operation Fishbowl, which itself was folded within the encompassing set of tests known as Operation Dominic. The detonation took place in space at an altitude of about 250 miles, and was launched from the North Pacific Ocean’s Johnston Atoll atop a Thor ballistic missile. That was today in 1962.
Was Star Trek the greatest sci-fi series ever aired? We think so, though there have been other great ones. But even if Star Trek wasn’t the best, it was the most topical and groundbreaking, with its anti-war and anti-racism allegories, diverse crew, and costumes that pushed the bounds of censorship. The two shots above are from the 1967 episode “City on the Edge of Forever,” written by Harlan Ellison and considered by many fans to be the pinnacle of the series. In the photo are Enterprise crew members looking at the Guardian of Forever, an eternal being that records all of history and acts as a gateway for those who wish to observe the past firsthand.
When Doctor McCoy suffers an accidental drug overdose that makes him psychotic he leaps through the gateway to a past Earth. At that moment the Enterprise, which is in orbit, disappears. Somehow McCoy has changed Earth’s past, and caused the ship—possibly all of humanity—to wink out of existence. The crew members have no choice but to follow McCoy into the past to try and stop him from doing whatever altered history. Spock refers to that past—the 1920s—as “a rather barbaric time.” We wonder what he would think if he came from the future to the 2020s? We have a feeling the word “barbaric” wouldn’t suffice.
We made it to Marrakech and back. As always we kept our eyes open for pulp style material, but came up empty. The place is kind of pulp in itself, though, even without paperbacks and magazines to collect. We did see one thing—above is a restyled Casablanca poster hung in a nightspot we visited at which we saw a wild Moroccan jazz performance, with scantily clad Senegalese tribal drummers and dancers added for spice. It was insanely raucous and outrageously good.
The poster reminded us of all the vintage movies set fully or partly in Morocco. We’re talking, aside from the aforementioned, Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vincent Price’s The House of 1,000 Dolls, Morocco, Moon over Morocco, Outpost in Morocco, Road to Morocco, A Night in Casablanca, Our Man in Casablanca, Our Man in Marrakech, La môme vert de gris, Port Afrique, Tangier, The Woman from Tangier, Mission à Tanger, Billete para Tánger, (mid-century filmmakers really liked Tangier), Trapped in Tangiers, Casablanca nid d’espions, and many more.
These movies aren’t all good, and only a few were actually shot in Morocco, but they channel the unique vibe of the country just the same. Books we’ve talked about that pass through there include The Shocking Secret by Holly Roth, Seven Lies South by William P. McGivern, The Last Match by David Dodge, and—again—many more.
It was nice to return to Marrakech. Every once in a while you need to get away from Western culture. It’ll help you appreciate the amazing variety of people in the world, who, even so, are similar to you despite their different religions, dress, and interests. We feel refreshed and ready for the heat and fun of summer.
Above: four Skating Vanities performers cavort on Fifth Avenue in New York City as part of a public awareness campaign during World War II. The photo was made today in 1942, and this stunt, in addition to highlighting gas conservation, publicized Skating Vanities, which had been launched earlier in the year. It had grown out of an earlier skating extravaganza called the Roller Follies. Under its new name it enjoyed a successful fourteen year run in New York City, nationally, and overseas. Some of the spectaculars employed as many as one hundred skaters at a time. This quartet is, from left to right, Ronnie Billet, Dolly Durkin, Isabel Newland, and Jo Reilly.
It’s intermission time. Yes, we just took a break, but it was unplanned due to our move and its many associated delays. The upcoming intermission has been planned for a while. We’re going to stage a triple birthday celebration in Lisbon with some of our favorite globetrotters. The Pulp. Intl. girlfriends are coming too, but are bailing on day four. They say they want us to have boy time, but the truth is four days with this crowd is all they can endure.
Mixed into the days and nights (of sedate museum visits and early bedtimes, we swear, girls) will be serious pulp digging. We have no idea whether Portugal has such items, but we’ll only learn the answer by looking. Hopefully we’ll make it back home intact by March 16. That’s the plan, anyway. But you know what they say about plans. To tide you over until our glorious return, let us direct you to some Pulp Intl. favorites.
A small collection of paperback covers by George Gross.
Fifteen covers of the pulp magazine Short Stories.
Modern pulp art by the amazing Owen Smith.
All our issues of the French art deco style magazine Paris Plaisirs.
All our issues of the Australian men’s adventure magazine Adam.
Misty Ayers does her daily lingerie workout then cooks a meal.
The paperback cover art of Bill Edwards.
A look at historic cinemas from around world.
Beautiful covers from the Italian publishers Edizioni MA-GA.
All our write-ups on sexploitation queen Laura Gemser.
And finally, below you’ll find our inexhaustible tabloid index, which used to reside somewhere in 2018, but which we’ve moved in case anyone wants to check out all the scandal sheets we’ve written about.
Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, one of the few truly leftist politicians in American history, is shot by Carl Austin Weiss in Baton Rouge. Long dies after two days in the hospital.
Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing his hit song “Don’t Be Cruel.” Ironically, a car accident prevented Sullivan from being present that night, and the show was guest-hosted by British actor Charles Laughton.
Star Trek, an American television series set in the twenty-third century and promoting socialist utopian ideals, premieres on NBC. The series is cancelled after three seasons without much fanfare, but in syndication becomes one of the most beloved television shows of all time.
U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office, which coincidentally happen to include all those associated with the Watergate scandal.
Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.
