Caring For Your Monkey

To keep it nice and clean was Mary's greatest hope.
So she washed her little monkey with the best kind of soap.

I've had this image on my pc for a few years, and never did find out anything more on it. Occasionally I run another search -- this time I found an old ebay auction. The listing no longer had the photo, but did have this information:

1. Mary has a little Monkey, just as cute as it can be,

It was covered with the softest hair that ever you did see.

2. To keep it nice and clean was Mary's greatest hope,

So she washed her little Monkey with the best kind of soap.

3. The boys all like Mary, and like her Monkey too,

And when they play so nice with it, what can Mary do?

4. Once Mary's Monkey got real cold That filled her with alarm

So she bought some woolen pants For to keep her Monkey warm.

5. Mary went in swimming and she took her little pet.

A wave hit in the "Good Old Summer Time"

and she got her monkey wet.

6. Mary now is married and it keeps her on the jump,

And between the man and Mary, her Monkey has to hump.

It's clear from these cards that Mary's attentions to her Monkey are about her own genitals. While most of us think of 'spanking the monkey' and other monkey euphemisms are about the penis, it's rather clear that this was not always so.

I blame later periods when women were not to masturbate (which likely lead to the later "hysteria" requiring hysterectomies) for dropping the ability to refer to female monkey business.

The seller says they are risque arcade cards -- but they do measure 3 1/2 X 5 1/2 inches like a postcard.

Perhaps this information will help me find more information (and this time while the auction is still on).

June Wilkinson

If you collect vintage men's mags from the 50's and 60's you can't shake yer a stick without seeing blonde, busty June Wilkinson.




Also as a brunette.



Including Playboy magazines.


She was even featured in Frederick's of Hollywood catalogs.


She also had minor film and television roles, including Evilina on TV's Batman.

Because you've seen so much of June, you may think you know all about her. But I didn't.

I did not know that June Wilkinson toured as a singer with comedy legend Spike Jones, or that late in the '70s she started the June Wilkinson Aerobic Workout Studios in Canada, or that she dated Elvis, or that she was the columnist (at least in name & photo) behind "Girl Watching Problems" for Girl Watcher magazine.


For more on June, read her 2004 interview and see more photos there too.

Ziggy Stardust Comic

This comic book features David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust along with cameos & guest appearances by Elton John, Kate Bush, Mick Jagger, Batman, Freddie Mercury and Ozzy Osbourne.

See scans here.

Tom Jones in Speedos

I have a thing for Tom (someone else already took my "Jones-ing" line), so once I found this pic I had to post it here.

Satyr & Nymph Playboy Comics

I remember these "Satyr & Nymph" comics from my parents' hidden Playboys...



They are by Eldon Dedini, and you can find out more Pinups: Eldon Dedini's Satyrs and Nymphs at Animation Archive.

Don't Say Phooey to Fumetti

Bandes Dessinées Adultes is a French site devoted to Fumetti, also know as comics for adults -- think Anime or Hentai.

I don't read French, but I just clicked about and Voila! Look what I found:

Troubled Tawny, Kitschy Kitaen

You can read about Tawny Kitaen at her unofficial website and see her at MrSkin.com, but who doesn't want to remember her in The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak?

Japan's Sex Slaves

All who opened their legs in Japan were not Geisha, or impetuous lovers, or just plain lusty -- many Japanese women in WWII were forced into prostitution in military brothels.

Tens of thousands of women.



Photo via ComfortWomen.Org.

These women were called "comfort women" and their existence is still controversial, even censored from history and refusing to apologize.

Comfort women were sexual slaves many of whom were taken by the Japanese Army during invasions of their Asian neighbors -- before and during the World War II. As you can imagine, they weren't well cared for or even buried properly.

The story continues: After Japan's surrender and with tacit approval from the U.S. occupation authorities Japan set up a similar "comfort women" system for GIs.

Women in Peace and War (Tokyo, Japan) opened in 2005 and had an exhibit on comfort women -- I didn't find anything that noted how long that lasted...

We Must, We Must... Inflate Or Truss

Via Slip of a Girl comes this post on vintage Frederick's of Hollywood catalogs wherein we find...

more on female self-help via body modification



and men are not spared



Which reminded me of this image of an old 'belly flattener' I have saved on my pc:

Crafting Answers To The Madonna-Whore Complex

An interview with Whitney Lee, the textile artist of Made With Sweet Love:

Like the rest of us kids who made latch hook rugs, you grew up. You're now in your late 20's, a professional photographer, but you came back to the rugs. What made you take on the images, the issues, with the rugs?

360 Degree Spin Rugs by Whitney Lee Like it says in my bio, I am the product of piles of women’s studies and feminist art classes. I can look at almost any image of a woman (especially one from a magazine!) and tell you how she is being objectified, how the lighting, pose, make-up, and airbrush are giving the model a look that is impossible to achieve, and how that makes real women constantly feel physically inadequate. I can talk about 'male gaze' and how images of sexy women make it seem like the entire female gender is one-dimensional and simply waiting for sex.

If you wanted to encourage public conversations about beauty from a feminist point of view why not use your profession, photography? Why use the rugs?

As a handmade artworks the rugs are to provoke a reaction against mass-production and consumerism, and I was interested in pointing out the dichotomy between a crafty, 'motherly' type woman and a sexually confident 'slutty' woman. In our society it is nearly impossible for a woman to be both types, but the two should be -- do -- coexist.

More on Love Letters

An update on the love letters discussion, a post by Chelsea Girl called letters lost and found.

I'm going to have to dig some of mine out...

Miss America 1944, Lady of Firsts

Venus Ramey was the first red haired Miss America, winning in 1944 as the representative from the District of Columbia, and at 82 she's still proving redheads are fiesty: Venus Ramey, 82, shoots tire, stops intruders.

(Image of vintage color poster via Princeton Antiques.)

The first Miss America to be photographed in color, she went on to perform in vaudeville, on Broadway in "School for Brides" and in the movie "My Girl Tisa" but she quickly left Hollywood for the farm.

Back home, she married and began raising her two sons. Passionate about Kentucky educational issues and a "burning desire to see the word 'illegitimate' eradicated from the birth certificates of innocent children" Venus ran for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives -- making her the first Miss America to run for public office.

One impressive broad with a history worthy of taking the 'bimbo' out of the image of the woman whose picture was on the "Flying Fortress," a B-17 that flew 68 missions over Nazi Germany in World War II without ever losing a man.



"I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another," she said.

Toulouse and Too Loose

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and nude woman looking at paintings:



Notice how natural her body looks.

Kitschy Nudies

Lots of kitschy nude items closing today, if you're into the cheesier side of risque collectibles, including handmade ceramics.

More Racist Sex 'Humor'

This time I don't have the paper but the print block -- since there were obviously less print blocks than the paper the imprints ran on, it's rather rare, but I still wish I had a print copy of this to go with it.



Here's a digital rendering of what the print looks like:



The text reads, "Just and Old Hindu Custom!" ...as the snake charmer charms his own genitalia.

Antique Sapphic Vase

I so would have
bid on this at the auction -- she's lucky I wasn't there!

Look at all the lovely ladies! I too wouldn't fault the chips and paint flakes on this old chalk piece.

Big Dick Pinball

In Such A Supple Wrist Coop shares a plethora of sexy pinball paraphernalia pics, including the luscious Ann-Margret. *Ding! Ding!*

Of course, this custom piece, "Big Dick," is my favorite. (Yeah, but does he have the balls for pinball? lol)

The Paintings of Alice B. Sheldon

After reading this review of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, I ordered the book -- and I just finished it. An amazing book, an amazing life.

Curious about her earlier years, I've been searching Google and today I bring you this extraordinary woman's art.

Few of Alli's works exist on the web. These I found at the biographer, Julie Phillips' site. (One imagines that since I'm having difficulty locating Tiptree works at the thrift stores -- where I am normally quite lucky with old paperbacks -- that the art must be under lock and key. And for good reason.


In 1939, Alice (then Alice Davey) submitted a nude self-portrait to an exhibition of American painting at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. This photo is from the show's catalog.

This next one I love the most, and not just for the nude woman either ;)


I love the lines, the darkness of it all. There's something tortured, yet warm about it. According to Phillips this watercolor is part of a series in which one of the others depicts soldiers marching beneath a monstrous caricature of Hitler.

I continue to search for and read more Tiptree Jr, et all. Of course, I shall post where I've consumed more ;)

Wow, racist Black Americana and a sex joke.

Hubby and I went to an auction, and won a box full of old postcards and photos. He pulls out this first one and says, "Wow, racist Black Americana and a sex joke."

I look at the card and am puzzled... "Sex joke? He's just feeling like the black sheep..."

"Look at the sheep's mouth!" he insists (his tone a mix of impatience and disbelief at my stupidity).


Oh

My

Gawd.

The black sheep is in the same blackface as the man.



"He's been screwing the sheep and this is proof," he exclaims triumphantly. (Not pleased at the imagery, is he, but rather he's glad my light-bulb finally went on.)

So much for me being the 'sex collector' with sex on my mind all the time, huh.

Well, it is my virgin experience with such an item.

Sure, I've seen variations on the old sex with sheep joke, but it's always been the Greeks who sheepishly become the butt of the joke. Not that I'm saying it's better to make jokes about the Greeks than it is the black people, but then blackface takes things to a whole other level. Just talking about this makes me uncomfortable...

Not sure I should even own it. Not sure who should. But for now, I do.

This card, published by Central Minnesota Novelty Co. (St. Cloud, Minn), number 190, also shocks me because is it postmarked 1954. The freakin' 50s?! If this had been from say the 30's, I wouldn't have been quite so shocked. Repulsed, yeah; but less shocked.

But wait, there's more!

We also found another vintage racist postcard in the box. This one depicts a little black boy behind a fence with a goose pecking at his, err, pecker. The text reads, "Early bird catches the worm."



A bit less shocking to me -- maybe because it's after seeing the other one?

...Then again, when's the last time you heard a black man's genitalia referred to as a small worm?

Published by Noble (how ironic is that?), of Colorado Springs, "A Genuine KromeKolor Comic Card" (I'm surprised they didn't make one more "c" a "k" to get the three K's), this one is postmarked 1951. It bears a copyright symbol and is card number 217.

Hughes In Vegas

This isn't so much about 'sex' as most posts are... But I have a fascination with Howard Hughes, so I must mention this online exhibit of Hughes at UNLV libraries.

As to be expected, there's quite a bit of info on Hughes and the hotels in Vegas.

Panty Propaganda

This old novelty pin features bloomers or panties promoting WWII anti-Japanese sentiments. Small, 3 by 3.5 inches, but with a large emotional wallop, the pin is made of paper and cardboard and a red ribbon attached to a pin. Slogan reads, "Shoot the pants of the Japs."



For more modern panty propaganda, Slip of a Girl has the following goods:

Intimate apparel from Down Under.

Political Panty Power.

Using lingerie parties to preach & convert.

Also see:

Axis of Eve where they even have a Minister of Panty Propaganda who organizes panty protests.

World of Nudes

If you think the world lies at the meeting of her thighs more than in her eyes... Check out Vintage Pulchritude. (Found via Fleshbot.)

So good, you'll need a Nookey Ration Card!

Flapper Humor

"Mother, when you were a girl, didn't you find it a bore to be a virgin?"

This was sent to me by Tom, and neither of us know for certain it it is an authentic 20's newspaper cartoon; but if it were, my guess is that it wasn't meant to be funny but rather serve as a negative comment and serve as a warning to parents about their hot-to-trot flapper daughters.

Sexy Smoking Stuff

Why and how did sex and tobacco become so closely intertwined in pop culture? I'll look forward to readers speculating on that one. Me, I'm just a simple researcher, and today I'm sharing the results of my strange voyage into the world of erotic tobacciana.

This will be split into three parts: Ashtrays, Tobacco Cards and Labels, and finally Pipes, Lighters and Miscellaneous.

From Sex and Cigarettes, part of Gloria's Erotic Art Friday series. (Which you know I love.)

If I had to guess why about connection, past my earlier babblings, I'd say that smoking is an adult passion -- not for the kiddies (well, at least not any longer -- now kids can't even see a smoking cartoon character).

It's a drug which affects mood and that must account for some of it... And tobacco is a luxury. Even before the taxes and current prices, tobacco has always been prized and honored; even used in religious ceremonies.

I'd guess that the more you loved and valued your tobacco, the more you'd want lovely valuable places to hold and use it. It would seem natural for humans to want to create art on the objects which were affiliated with smoking, and the nude female form and other elements of eroticism would seem a natural fit.

Most of the pieces Gloria has shown were also from the days when men smoked in the parlor and other "Men Only" places, only encouraging decadent thought...

Also, many of the ashtrays in particular were also set out in clubs, bars and casinos, which often have adult themes -- the vintage ones with pinups etc. are quite the norm for matchbooks which bars gave away. Drinking and smoking lead to sexy babes.



In a case of 'great minds,' Deanna's also been on the tobacco road. On Monday she wrote Up In Smoke: The Vanishing Culture of Tobacco.

(And of course I posted my additional ashtray pics this week too.)

More Than Prurient Interest Art

In Erotic Art Becoming Mainstream? artist Genevive Zacconi says:

"I do not fall neatly into a genre," she says. "Some of my work is erotic and people say, 'Oh, there's a hot girl.' But I mean to make you think about the psychology behind sex. You are meant to talk about the chemistry between men and women, the social games we play. So yes, I have been called an erotic artist and that is true, but I am not always making paintings that are supposed to get you turned on. I want to get you thinking."

Shown here is one of her works -- it sure seems more 'thinky' than 'erotic' to me.

You can see more of Zacconi's works here.

Zacconi is also co-owner of the Trinity Gallery in Philadelphia, and while (not all of) her art is erotic, her gallery hostess, Ryan sure is. (Shown here on the left, with the tray; gallery director Genevive Zacconi and assistant Robin on the right. Center is a work by Fred Harper.)



In a quasi-related article, Erick Janssen, an associate scientist at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, says that at its core, there's nothing wrong with erotica:

"In itself, sexuality isn't a bad thing nor are depictions of sexuality," he said by phone from his Indiana office this week. "It's not a simple discussion."

There's plenty of pornography that Janssen disapproves of - violent images, for example, or what he called a "no-brainer," anything involving children - but to lump all erotica together or dismiss it out of hand is misguided, he suggested.

In the past few years I've often wondered why Kinsey has been so silent... These times call for the voice of reason & enlightenment.

At least their planning their Second Annual Kinsey Institute Juried Erotic Art Show on the University of Indiana campus. The show starts on the 13th of this month and runs through July 20th. (I might be able to get to that even.)

A Day Late, But Not A Dollar Short (Thank God!)

I just got back from a day at an out of town auction and I had to post this right away!

I know it's a day after my anti-suffrage post, but damn if I can help the luck of the find -- and I think I am darn lucky to find this:

I Hate To See A Woman Do A Man's Work

Another thrust at male fears -- the dreaded lesbian! If she votes, she'll become one!

Even the elderly woman in more Victorian garb will turn lezzie if women get that right to vote.

No mark for maker, just 125 on the right side near the bottom (click to see a larger image and you should see it). No date, but is there really a question as to the time period? lol

At an estate sale, for only a dollar!

Modern Mata Haris

Vintage electronic female spies.

Suffrage & ERA Attacks

Anti-suffrage propaganda warned of the dangers -- tampering with men and women's 'natural' gender roles would lead to the breakdown of society. Here are some selected images...

In What, Dinner Not Ready Yet! What Have You Been Doing? the poor husband is left with screaming babies, burning dinner, cats in the milk jug, and utter chaos. He is additionally feminized with his attire, including a frilly apron. The wife returns home to find him inept, apparently denigrates him, and is literally shown wearing the pants.

(Very popular imagery for the anti-suffragists.)


Here's a lovely bit to send to your Valentine -- you know how I love these -- a postcard just making me feel worn all over:

If you will only marry me you can have all woman's rights
Such as staying up on evenings when I'm out late at nights
And should such things not satisfy the longings of your soul
You can wash up all the dishes and carry all the coal
As a really model husband I feel I'm bound to shine
So say that you take me to be Your Valentine

In the Suffragette "I told you so" postcard, (Copyright 1909, by Walter Wellman), a man and woman read a poser which reads:

"The Morning Suffragette Bulletin.
A New Era of Prosperity at Hand.
With the news that a suffragette has been elected as our next Presidentess, several flatiron and rolling pin factories have resumed on full time.
It is stated that 10,000,000 faltirons have been ordered by the new War Department alone."

Ah, yes, one of my favorites... Because male voters viewed their ability to pull a lever for a candidate akin to having their own levers pulled...

"Which Do You Prefer? The Home of Street Corner For Woman: Vote NO on Woman Suffrage"

Even women thought it was bad for women to vote. Every era has it's Phyllis Schlafly.



The image above is from this blogger, who writes that "Schlafly and others were able to exploit fears about the larger meaning of women’s equality, and a lot of those fears have faded." I don't see it that way. The ERA still isn't an amendment.

In fact, those against the ERA employed the same tactics of the anti-suffrage movement -- and for the same damn, tired reasons.



As with suffrage, the Equal Rights Amendment is all tied to the scary notion that women are equals. If women are more than or at least not limited to care taking roles for those with more rights, what will happen?

I'm so glad you asked, because here's a sampling...
Well, I certainly don't want the government, let alone this administration, in charge of anyone's children... But this is ridiculous.
Women in football?! The horror! (Notice hos she doesn't get any chest protection lol)
This one is not funny at all. Using the fear of unisex bathrooms as a 'progression' to rape. (Click to enlarge the image and see that the artist included a bit of newspaper clipping to authenticate his stance.) Disgusting fear mongering.

Still A Good Egg

I meant to get this posted on Easter, but I didn't manage it...

You can buy copies here.

Also, read about frisky sexy spring.

I may be late in posting, but I'm still a good egg (a rotten egg would have just skipped posting it at all).

Be Careful Where You Flick: Nude Ash Trays

You know I have a thing for risque ashtrays...

Here are some more lovely vintage nude ashtray art works:




(From Dargate auctions.)



(Via Deco Spirit.)



The Ronson Art Metal Works produced a line of wonderful Ashtrays going back to the 1920's, including art deco nudes.

Indian (Sex) Servants of God

Devadasi literally means "Servant of God." Like Christian nuns, the Devadasi were girls who married a deity or temple.

In addition to taking care of the temple they learned and practiced classical Indian arts traditions. Originally, like nuns, they were to be celibate all their lives, but at some point in their history (likely as the wealth and prestige of temples grew) sex became part of their sacred duties. In Hindu belief, the Devadasi had sex to commune with their god; it was a sacred experience.

The Devadasi life was not forced upon anyone -- like many Christians dropped young girls off at nunneries, so did Hindus take their girls to be raised and trained for the honor of serving their faith. (Yes, I'm sure many of the poor just dropped off their kids for one less mouth to feed, but many a nun began thus -- or as an orphan.) This was not forced prostitution and the Devadasi occupied a rank next only to priests. They were revered, enjoying a high social status.

However, as colonialism imposed cultural changes, bringing about the demise of kingdoms and Hinduism itself, the Devadasis were deemed immoral for their sex outside of marriage -- as defined by Christians. They were not only frowned upon and classified as prostitutes, but many were forced to become prostitutes just to survive.

There is a movement to reclaim the role of Devadasi, both to uplift them historically (removing the Western biases) as well as to resurrect the legitimacy of the practices today. One such women is Kama of Kingston, who is interviewed here.

Kama knows (and can perform) her Kama Sutra, but she also knows so much more. Her blog is filled with political and cultural matters: "This is the personal diary and commentary of an Indian Devadasi escort living and working in the UK. I am hoping that this Blog will let me record my experiences and feelings about being young, foreign, and selling sex in the UK."

It's an amazing history, and quite surprising to see such a young little thing standing up tall (to be the nail who takes the hardest pounding) in such culturally, politically intolerant times of conservatism, censorship and control.

You can buy statuary with Devadasi images here, and watch videos of Kama here.

You Just Wanted To Wrestle

"Don't talk to me -- You said you just wanted to wrestle."

I'm not sure, but I think this vintage postcard may be an error print... Not that it matters for the reasons I'm showing it here -- that's for the giggle. But I thought I'd point it out anyway.

The front credits the art to Michael Angelo, with copyright 1949 Dennis Delger, but the back says, "From an original etching by Wm. Standing. Noted Indian Artist."

I couldn't find any references to Angelo and Standing other than other copies of this postcard for sale, and the style doesn't seem in line with Standing's usual works. (I'm not suggesting the artist would be incapable of such whimsy, just noting that it is more cartoon like than the works I've seen -- including his sketches. I am no expert here.)

I find moments like this intriguing. As a collector I often find myself side-tracked into researching something or someone that I've never heard of before -- or wanting to know more than I do -- simply because of an object. While the Internet can be a helpful tool, I'm still so very surprised when there's nothing on Google. If it's not in Google, can it really exist? It must, for it's in my hand...

The temptation might be to think you have something very rare, simply because it's 'nowhere to be found.' But that's a puzzling thing because most of my junk isn't so rare... For example, this postcard is from 1949, not 1849, and isn't all that rare. If this postcard isn't rare, then why hasn't anyone else posted about the Michael Angelo/Wm Standing connection?

I have so many stories like this, where what I think will be simple research simply isn't. (Neither simple nor existing.) I must admit here that this can only make me more obsessive. I've wasted hours, days, on trying to find answers to simple things like this. To no avail.

Sometimes my husband rolls his eyes when I'm two hours into such a search (not that he should, he's nearly as likely to do so for his things) wondering if I've lost my mind (at least I acknowledge that sometimes I've lost my priorities for a day or two). But he's partly to blame: he took me to the auction, the estate sale, the flea market etc. Like the snarky feline on this postcard I speak over my shoulder, "Don't talk to me -- you said you just wanted to bid on some stuff."

We both knew what would happen if we did. ;)

I don't think I'm alone here in my urge to quest. Most collectors' purpose or interest surpasses just questing for the objects and goes to the larger picture or context of the object itself.

In the scheme of things, this little innuendo postcard isn't important. On its own it's amusing and I'd like to keep it -- and when added to the rest of my risque-to-naughty collection, it sure provides a fuller picture of things. But the matter of who drew it isn't as important to all of that. At least not to my collection's story. But I just like to know...

And as a collector, I know these details are part of its value; the whole collection's value.

So, if you know anything, let me know.

It's number 45 in a series by Western Stationary Co., Yachats, Oregon, if that helps...

"the 'sex' of letter-writing"

Anastasia of Chaos Noir had a post on Hemingway & Dietrich that you must read...

Vintage BBW Pinup Art

Slip of a Girl turned me onto these...



Hilda, the vintage BBW pin-up girl, is from artist Duane Bryers.

Classic Vintage Self-Help Propaganda

We've updated, refreshed and reprinted a series of unintentionally funny booklets from the 1930s and 1940s! Each one is filled with tantalizing secrets, advice and wisdom from the days when "making love" meant holding hands on the porch swing.

McPhee has reproduced the following titles:

The Art of Kissing

How To Make Love

How To Get Along With Girls

How To Get Along With Boys

Image and link found at The Blushing Ladies' Journal.

Mouth Made For Pie; I Could Just Die

An old postcard I got this week... This one reads:

If all the world was made of pie
I could be happy, quite
You see this little mouth I have
For pie is built just right.


Around the boy/man is a dotted circle -- just begging for me to cut or punch it out. (I won't; but I want to.)

Of course, it could just be my dirty mind which makes me think this vintage naughty. (Maybe the circle is nothing but a design... And maybe pie is just a tasty pastry treat.) But I was laughing so hard at this, I had to buy it. A whopping US dollar. Now that's priceless, MasterCard.

The only marking is a 'G' in the lower left corner. If you know more about this gem, please let me know!

Vintage Male Wrestling Photo Exhibit

From the Wessel + O'Connor exhibit of 1950's Physique photo studio Western Photography Guild founded by Don Whitman:

As one of the top proponents of the golden age of Physique photography, he captured in his work the All-American macho virility that represented every mans fantasy of the Wild West. Even during an atmosphere of extreme sexual repression in 1950's America, his studio flourished, due in large part due to the unique skill and taste he employed in creating his work's "look".

See more photos from the exhibit.

Belgium Sex Shop Photos

More photos from Brussels here.

Hairy (Jazz) Onions Anyone?

"Silverstein, when not writing for children, often breached such exclusively adult topics as drug use and sex."

Read all about Hairy Jazz by Shel Silverstein and the Red Onion Band.

(More on the other kind of hairy onions is found here.)

Sex, Drugs & Hoaxes

If you haven't yet heard of it, Hoax the latest Richard Gere movie is the film Howard Hughes never made, but wanted to, about author Clifford Irving's brazen hoax of an autobiography of Hughes.

Here's a 1972 Time article on the whole thing as it broke.

We also have Irving to thank for Watergate. Nixon, paranoid about what Irving's book might reveal, ordered the second Watergate break-in to discover what Irving might have told the Democrats about Nixon's financial and political dealings with the reclusive billionaire.

Oooooooh scary and fun. The 70's were so.... what's the word? Wacked?

Irving himself gave an interview in the Village Voice in which he said, "I was talking to Richard Gere the other day and we kind of honed in on something that not many people have talked about thus far, which is that the climate of the late 1960s and early '70s was a climate of happening and events. And where I lived, on the island of Ibiza, that was a community of anything goes. It was sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. It wasn't the real world. And that was a very important part of what happened that, unfortunately, is not included at all in the movie."

Does that mean there's no sex in the movie -- not even a fade-to-black thingy? I find that hard to believe.

Well, even if Gere isn't acting out Irving's adultery here, we know lots of folks were screwed in 'the great literary fib.'

(Hughes shows up a lot in sex history, doesn't he? He's even been here at this blog with Billie Dove.)

Gene Tierney

I just missed this pretty photo of a young Gene Tierney -- and when I say 'missed' I don't mean time wise (there are a few hours left) but rather that I am $95 shy.

(In a world where collectibles are worth what folks will pay for them, I'm betting this sells -- the seller sold another for $95 and that wasn't anywhere as pretty or sexy.)

Tierney is most famous for her role as Laura Hunt in the 1944 film noir classic Laura (at least to me). Others might remember her most for her role as the femme fatale Ellen Berent Harland in Leave Her to Heaven. (And why not? This performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 1945.)

Tierney had two husbands, costume and fashion designer Oleg Cassini (they divorced) and Texas oilman W. Howard Lee (former husband of Hedy Lamarr), but was romantically linked with Prince Aly Khan (former husband of Rita Hayworth) and Tyrone Power.

During the filming of Dragonwyck, she met John F. Kennedy, who was visiting the set. They began an affair that ended the following year when Kennedy told her he could never marry her because of his political ambitions. It is said that after the election in 1960, Tierney sent him a note of congratulations on his victory — although she later admitted that she had actually voted for Richard Nixon because she thought that he would make a better president.

It's a Sick Sick Sick World (If You Don't Like Sexploitation)

If you do love the old sexploitation films, this old 50's film trailer will thrill you:



Bedazzled.TV is a blog with a few sexploitation clips -- I hope they continue to put more up.

Art Nudes (Photography)

Art nudes by Fabrice Robin.

(Link via Zen Fetish.)

WWJD?

A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after Cardinal Edward Egan and other outraged Catholics complained.

Sheesh, the comments are worse than I thought... so many close-minded folks out there.

Do you think Jesus would be against a chocolate version of the crucifixion? Would he be against any nude art?

Then again, what would he think of chocolate bunnies for Easter? ...I bet he'd bite the ears first like the rest of us.

Vintage Beauty Guides

A review of three vintage beauty/makeup collecting guides.

(Photo is from a page in Vintage Compacts & Beauty Accessories by Lynell Schwartz.)