The King, by Morton Cooper

The cover of The King, by Morton Cooper reads:

HARRY ORLANDO, SWING, SINNER, MILLIONAIRE, CROONER

HELL ON WOMEN, KING OF THE DOLLS

"STRONG MEAT"
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"SUPER-SATURATED WITH 100 PROOF SEX" GALVESTON NEWS

BOOZE, BRAWLS, SEX, SCANDAL

"SHOULD BE PRINTED ON ASBESTOS PAPER"

THE KING -- out sexes VALLEY OF THE DOLLS

The back of the paperback:

He's the Bit-Time pop-singer whose sexy saga has "SET TONGUES WAGGING FROM COAST TO COAST." Detroit News

"IF IT'S SEXCAPE YOU WANT, THIS IS IT." Cleveland Armory

VALLEY OF THE DOLLS
sizzled the move queens -
now it's Harry Orlando's turn;
THE
KING

"A BLOCKBUSTER"
Library Journal
"GRAPHIC AND GUTSY"
Worcester Telegram

What's the best about The King is probably what also makes this book the worst. I've not (yet) read Valley Of The Dolls (though I will; I'm such a huge fan of Beyond), so I can't make any comparisons to that work; but it's safe to assume that The King falls into the genre of trashy books. Books, like those by Sidney Sheldon and Jackie Collins, that I salaciously read years ago. Books which once would have been qualified as great beach reads, with saucy romps and glamorous settings; pure escapism. Books which have now been supplanted by chick lit.

However, what's rather unique about The King is that the main character is male, and we see the world through his eyes as well as several other male leads as supporting cast. While women abound (several even with key or pivotal roles) we see little through their eyes; these characters begin and end as female rolls, if you catch my meaning.

I can't say this is a rare peep into the male psyche -- and truth be told, there are little surprises when you read so many trashy books-- but it is more than a bit refreshing to have the bull-shit set aside in terms of pretense. Heck, it was illuminating -- I thought I had heard all the slang &/or derogatory terms for women, but there were a few revelations, like quiff. Apparently this word predates the current use of the word for 'vaginal fart', drawing from the original definition of the word, a prominent forelock, which certainly makes sense. I am not misinterpreting the multiple and near exhaustive (despite a plethora of other words such as quim, snatch, twitch, and gash) use of the word. Take this passage, taken from page 371, where Orlando admires his notches but realizes the emptiness of such conquests: "You've had the Louvre of lovers, the queen of quiffs, and what have you got in your pocket to take home with you?"

And before you feminists get all pissy, it may soothe (or further upset you) to know that Italian-Americans are Wops, blacks are Niggers and well, you get the idea. The 60's, for all the stuff you read about racial equality, weren't the most racially kind times; and this book doesn't even pretend to be. Enjoy a slice of racial stereo-types with your hair pie (though, I'm not certain that 'hair pie' was actually used in this book -- you get the idea, tho, right?)

But now I'm getting ahead of both myself and Orlando.

The King is filled with sex, yes, but it's not the sex we are used to reading about today. Or is it? I don't know what you've been reading, but when I read a 'graphic' and 'sexy' book, both tab A and slot B are described, usually in detail, along with every step of the action. But in The King, well, it's (nearly) everything right up to those parts. It could be the time, or it could be further evidence that it's all about the thrill of the chase. But in any case, if you expect to find your panties wet from all this action, you'll be disappointed.

If, however, you enjoy a sordid tale of celebrity scandal, well, then, The King should fit the bill. Even if most of the celebs it outs are no longer filling our tabloids, or are dead even, this is fun.

Reading The King doesn't require the use of Google to discover that the lead character, Harry Orlando, 'is' Frank Sinatra (who was really unhappy with this book). Nor will you miss the other celebrities of the 60's hiding behind clear plastic retro bubble umbrellas.

Orlando's be-friended political candidate, the one whose campaign he helps at the request of the candidate's powerful father, is the ill-fated President Kennedy, and so covers the connections between entertainers and politicians. Bland actor turned presidential hopeful, Grant Campbell, is clearly Ronald Reagan. There are assorted smaller characters resembling 'a rat pack' if not the Rat Pack. (Interestingly enough, the black comedian on the late night talk show seems to be Nipsey Russell.) And the respected reporter, Bill Temple, could be very loosely based on James Bacon, but the main pivot points of this character focus on the personal & bitter swing Sinatra -- err, Orlando, makes from Camelot to the Republican party.

Since the babes aren't too fleshed-out, or, rather, aren't much more than flesh, it's hard to point to the not-so-cleverly disguised female celebs from that time period -- other than one who clearly, to me, seems to be Monroe. (She would have to appear in a Sinatra tale somewhere; and I bet the softer approach was due to her death just years before Cooper began writing The King. Then again, the women just don't matter here.)

In this work of fiction politics and social change are clearly characters -- as well masked as Sinatra supposedly is. The role of communism is actually played by communism, but the fictitious Friends of Victor Wade plays the Christian Right/Moral Majority or the friends of Falwell, as shown in this passage:

It was Temple, following up on a tip, who discovered that Wade and his friends were more than simply braying anachronisms. It was Temple who tracked down the proof that the executive level of the group was riddled with racists and boobs who were dangerous in their boobism. "Our sole function," announced Victor Wade, "is to educate every loyal, red-blooded American citizen on his inalienable right to speak out against all enemies of freedom. We have no other design." In truth, factions of the group, quietly but definitely directed from the top, had been successful in wrecking mental-health programs in many small communities, had infiltrated PTA chapters with members who persuaded passive majorities that this history book would have to be dropped because its interpretations of American history weren't patriotic enough or that the teacher with the funny-sounding foreign name would have to be bounced because of vaguely dangerous ideas he held. Pressure had been successfully put on librarians and bookstore owners to drop from stock books which, because of their political, ethnic, or moral slants, furthered the subversive cause. An astonishing number of men running for local political offices as liberals or moderates had been defeated, thanks to red-herring attacks by Wade Friends--attacks dealing not with the candidates' liberal or moderate views but with rumors about the candidates' sexual preferences or long-forgotten adolescent rebellions.

(The King, © by Morton Cooper, First Printing, January, 1968, Signet Books, pgs 307-308)

(Fiction or not, you didn't think I'd pass up an opportunity to remind everyone how important it is to not remain passive majorities puppeted by the right-restricting political right -- did you?)

Now that you've got the cast of characters, I see no reason to ruin the possibility of you actually reading this book by giving away too much of the plot. Most of it centers on the 'boys will be boys' stuff of babes, friendships and relationships among men, how men get their power, booze & more babes (or how they perhaps waste their power), all set in the swingin' 60's.

For the most part the juicy-joy of this book isn't about the plot; it's about the retro romp. Highly recommended -- and the cheap thrills can be found cheap at thrift stores, at Amazon, and on eBay.

For more on The King, see:

Time's blurb from Friday, Jun. 23, 1967.

For more on Morton Cooper (aka Morton Cooper Feinberg) see:

A list of short stories from vintage magazines, from The FictionMags Index.

Reviews of his other books, The Comedian (Gold Medal Books, 1953), and The Star-Cross System (New English Library, London, 1973; originally published in the USA by Avon Books under the title of Stop-Over in 1960), from Trash Fiction.

The author's obituary from The New York Times, June 6, 2004.

Danger Soft Shoulders

Vintage Glamour Girls Travel Decals, with playful pinups and even more playful sayings:

* Dude Ranch Duds (crack through the graphic)
* Cuba Libra
* Maid in Manhattan (2)
* Shot of Scotch
* Danger Soft Shoulders(2)
* Sound Horn for Service (3) tear in one sleeve
* Stop Blowing Your Horn (2)
* Do Not Pick Wild Flowers
* Oh! Oh! Ohio, Miss America Decal
* Quiet Zone
* Apply Brakes
* Dealer's Choice

Go see the auction for better images in the slide show.

Cuz I'm A Woman, W O M A N

Raquel Welch & Cher, from Cher's variety show:

Russian Bears Schtooping In The...

Baths.



Via Gloria, who got it from Sexblo.gs... Boy, things do spread in a bathhouse.

Picking Up Girls Made Easy

Listen to the pick-up system no girl can resist. As long as you're both in 1975.

Because Your Pal Eddie Needs Them

Check out these vintage glasses -- the arms of the glasses are shaped like legs, with red high heels to tuck behind your ears, and the plastic lenses shaped like a behind.




Eddie always is looking for a lady who'll spread her legs thus for him -- he's always asking for just that when you're out clubbing. This is seriously the only way it will happen.

Vintage Erotica Myth #1

Myth: Back then, everything was natural.

Fact: Sometimes they airbrushed & modified photos -- as in completely blurring removing genitals.

And sometimes, the pussy was completely fake.

Le Crapouillot Is Like Da Bomb, Baby

Searching for additional photos for the Mahu post I ran into this cover of Le Crapouillot. Found here, along with several other issues of the old magazine, I struggled with the ambiguous table of contents in French and even if Tahiti, the cover photo, and the issue's theme of sexuality strongly suggest that a feature of the Mahu, it wasn't clearly stated enough for me to feel comfortable to use it then.

But (too) like many things, the cover & possible contents intrigued me.

High school French suddenly seems more important, and my deepest apologies to Mademoiselles Pfieffer & Glass who both did their best to instill a love of the language.

Using Google's translation, I was able to discover some history on the publication, that illustrator Gus Bofa was a literary critic for magazine between 1922 and 1939, and an easier to follow piece, Paris Muckraker, from Time (Dec. 02, 1935), which said:

Jean Galtier-Boissière founded Crapouillot (name of a small trench cannon) in 1915, at first distributed it only to his fellow soldiers. After the War he branched out, took a partner, began to make journalistic history with a brand of fearless muckraking which caused French citizens' eyes to pop, French officials' hair to rise. With stark facts and photographs Crapouillot took out such disagreeable subjects as the origins and secret causes of the War; French mutinies of 1917; Wartime homosexuality and prostitution in the Army; false Wartime propaganda. It sandwiched learned, readable issues on automobiles, cinema, wines, books between explosive exposures of "The Truth About the Saar," ''Mysterious Deaths," "The Masters of the Wrorld." Greatest Crapouillot beats were on Wartime censorship, on munitions makers in general and sales of French munitions to Germany in particular.

OK, so the few issues I had seen were perhaps a bit less typical, with post war years seeing a deviation from the original intents and purposes -- broadening and growth, if you will. Or it could just be my salacious-sweet-tooth.

But it was this abstract on Non-conformism, `insolence' and reaction Jean Galtier-Boissière's Le Crapouillot, by Nicholas Hewitt at the University of Nottingham, which was even more intriguing than the very first cover I'd spotted:

This article explores the origins of late twentieth-century reactionary political culture through an analysis of Jean Galtier-Boissière and his magazine Le Crapouillot, founded in 1915, which finally ceased publication in 1996. Deriving from both the avant-garde of the belle époque and libertarian politics, the magazine, re-launched in 1919, played a major role in the shaping and expression of political and artistic `non-conformism' in the inter-war years. However, this `non-conformism' began to present certain reactionary characteristics which were accentuated in the immediate post-Liberation period by Le Crapouillot 's fellow-feeling with dissident right-wing political and artistic currents, with which it shared a particular tone, `insolence'. Throughout the Fourth and early Fifth Republics, until Galtier-Boissière's death in 1966, Le Crapouillot presented increasingly recognizable reactionary characteristics, culminating logically in the final phase of the magazine, when it had an explicitly right-wing, and even extreme right-wing, management. An exploration of the history of the journal, together with a discussion of the role of its founding editor, provides a useful insight into the long-term origins, both political and cultural, of late twentieth-century reactionary culture.

With this article, it's not the ability to read French I am lacking, but a membership to the site. :sigh: Well, there's two things to work on: French lessons and a higher income bracket.

But find out more I must because nearly any publication featuring the Profumo Scandal is my kind of publication. Well, that and anti-censorship sentiments, of course.

See more issues here; also, Gay & Lesbian themed issues of Le Crapouillot.

Of Chipies

My grandpa always used to call good-looking gals (the ones with nice gams) 'chipies'. I always thought this had something to do with the the term 'chicks' -- or, when older, 'birds' but apparently it is another animal altogether.

Chipie means "little minx" in French and I have Lochers.com to thank for that lesson.



And, of course, a larger gift wish list too, due to all the other cool stuff there. Like how about the I Love Porn shirt:



Thanks to Slip of a Girl and Angela for the new shopping addiction. I don't know if grandpa would approve... But what the hell, I'm a little minx.

Of Mahu, Men & Islands

The seller of this vintage Tahitian photo writes:

striking woman with very long wavy hair, tropical print dress, leis of whitish flowers around her head and hanging from her neck. gaze to side of camera.

believe this to be a photograph of a Mahu--a person born as a male but raised as a female in Tahitian culture. A practice not only of Tahitians but of groups in India, Indonesia, and other places. Considered as part of the Third Sex by contemporary gender studies.

I wondered how the seller could make such a claim -- other than close inspection of the photo showing more 'masculine' traits in the face. Even then it is rather a big leap.

I did some research of my own on the Polynesian Mahu.

The definition of 'third sex' and 'person of ambiguous gender' is a bit misleading. While Mahu are thought to possess the virtues of both men and women, Mahu are most definitely males -- males who physically remain male but dress and act like women, right down to typical household chores of cooking and taking care of children. (Males who do more than behave like females, who become females, are called Raerae -- transsexuals.) In some ways, this makes the Mahu your every day gay. But that's a simplistic gender view.

According to Like a Lady, In Polynesia by Roberta Perkins Mahu have ancestral customs and were socially accepted -- even admired for the special roles they play within their communities. It's a somewhat complicated picture:

For the English, French and Dutch seafarers who visited the South Pacific Islands in the 18th century, confronting the Polynesian transgenders was a mixture of shock, fascination and repulsion. The best reports of these early contacts come from the HMS Bounty expedition to Tahiti (1789-91) under Captain William Bligh. One of his officers, Lt. Morrison, wrote: "They have a set of men called mahu. These men are in some respects like the eunuchs of India but they are not castrated. They never cohabit with women but live as they do. They pick their beards out and dress as women, dance and sing with them and are as effeminate in their voice. They are generally excellent hands at making and painting of cloth, making mats and every other woman's employment" Being a thorough gentleman who considered it his duty to investigate everything, Captain Bligh's curiosity got the better of him "I found with her a person, who although I was certain was a man, had great marks of effeminacy about him and created in me certain notions which I wished to find out...The effeminacy of this persons speech induced me to think he had suffered castration...Here the young man took his mantle off which he had about him to show me the connection. He had the appearance of a woman, his yard and testicles being so drawn in under him, having the art from custom of keeping them in this position...On examining his privacies I found them both very small and the testicles remarkable so, being not larger than a boy's five or six years old, and very soft as if in a state of decay or a total incapacity of being larger, so that in either case he appeared to me as effectually a Eunuch as if the stones were away." One can imagine old stiff and proper Captain Bligh in full dress uniform fingering the mahu's genitals with his starchy white gloved hands.

(Yes, that Bounty and Captain Bligh.)

An unexplained phenomenon on Tahiti was that just one, and only one, mahu resided in each village at any one time. As one Tahitian pointed out: "When one dies then another substitutes...God arranges it like that.. It isn't allowed...two mahusin one place. I've traveled around Huahine (the Society or Tahitian Islands) and I haven't seen two mahus in one place. I never saw it." How this phenomenon worked is still a mystery, but obviously some sociological mechanism must have been at work in each village to ensure that not more than one mahu lived there at a time. Since, as we know the desire to change gender is spontaneous and not an orderly event, how then did such precision occur on cue? Perhaps a young mahu growing up in a village which already had an established older mahu may have been forced to seek a village where none existed. Another suggestion is that a mahu was made by the community, who selected a boy to be raised as a girl to replace the established mahu when she passed on. The question remains, though, what criteria was used for this selection? However it was achieved, mahus were accorded great respect and dignity.

Bligh observed: "The women treat him (mahu) as one of their sex, and he observed every restriction that they do, and is equally respected and esteemed." Anthropologist Robert Suggs reported a similar attitude towards mahus on the Marquesas Islands, while another ethnographer, Donald Marshall, said much the same for Cook Islanders, and by all accounts it was similar on Hawaii. On Mangaia, the mahus were not only well regarded by the rest of the population, but they excelled at women's tasks, sang in an excellent high pitch falsetto and were better dancers than all other women. Anthropologist Robert Levy claimed that the mahus on Tahiti served as an object lesson for demarcating the sexes. Since the sex roles were similar in many respects and some tasks were performed equally by men and women, the mahu was pointed to as neither wholly man nor wholly woman. However, this does not explain the presence of mahus in more warlike societies ouch as the Marquesans, the Hawaiians or the Maoris, where the sexes were clearly defined by the warrior status of men.

According to Captain Bligh: "These people (mahus), says Tynah, are particularly selected when boys and kept with the women solely for the caresses of the men...Those who he connected with him have their beastly pleasures satisfied between his thighs, but they are no farther sodomites as they all positively deny the crime." Indeed, it seems that anal sex, even in heterosexual relations was not practiced in Tahiti. The mahu then was a diversion for oral sex, since many Tahitian men claimed that it’s just like doing it with a woman, but his (mahu) way of doing it is better than with a woman...When you go to a woman it is not always satisfactory. When you go to the mahu it's more satisfactory. The sexual pleasure is very great." However, fellatio was not reciprocal, as one Tahitian explained: "I was 'done' by a mahu...He 'ate' my penis. He asked me to suck his. I did not suck it...He offered me money. I said I would hit him. I did not want that sort of thing, it is disgusting." Despite this, there was a Tahitian belief that semen is like a vitamin supplement. "(Mahus) really believe that (semen) is first class food for them," said one Tahitian man. "Because of that mahu are strong and powerful. The seminal fluid goes throughout his body...I’ve seen many mahu and I've seen that they are very strong." Sodomy was also denied by other islanders. The mangaians, for example, thought anal sex ridiculous, yet were quick to point out that it took place on the other Cook Islands. It is possible, of course, that the Polynesians were quick to realise the disgust with which white men regarded sodomy, and in their eagerness to accommodate them as trading partners flatly denied any such behaviour in their community. So, Europeans began to view mahus not as substitute women, nor as sodomites, but as an alternative sexual arrangement for the sole gratification of men.

As for the incidence of female-to-male transgenders across Polynesia, it seems to have been unknown, or, at least, rare, for anthropologist Donald Marshall was told of the existence of women who insisted on doing men's work (though not cross-dressed), on Mangaia, though he had never seen one.

Like many old world traditions and societal sects, the Mahu tradition has changed. Not with 'the times' so much as in response to foreigners, including more than the usual ministry of white missionaries which stripped them of the respect of their communities.

Just as the Devadasi suffered from colonization, so the Mahu have become sexually sullied with the arrival of outsiders:

But the Mahu tradition is struggling. When thousands of French soldiers arrived for the nuclear testing program there weren’t enough local women to entertain them – so many Mahu turned to prostitution.

As Bormann reports, it’s given a traditional phenomenon a very bad name.

It's simplistic to say "so many turned to prostitution", as if this had no cultural, economic or other motivational issues. Attitudes aside, what currently exists of Mahu culture is a rather watered-down version of the old legacy of the islands. Even the word Mahu is, in many places, now just derogatory slang to dismiss any non-hetero males, ignorant to the word's origin and history.

For more on Mahu you can visit The Island Goddess Pages, "embracing the online Mahu Communities of Hawaii, Mainland US & Worldwide".

Sunday School Girls Learn To Handle Wieners

Via Infomercantile:

A photo from my collection of loose pictures acquired at auctions and estate sales. The back of the photo reads:

Taken at Bluffside Park, just across the Lake.

My Sunday School Class. just before they recieve promotion to the junior class.

P.S. Notice the "Wiener's - they were a happy bunch."

I now have the "Advanced Primary" age 9 yrs - 15 enrolled.

Part of the Victorian Ladies Gone Wild - Helene's Girlfriends photo series.

Once Naked As A J-Bird

CR/LF of Red Blooded Thing wasn't content with looking at the ads for nudist camps in his old magazines -- he took the time to see if he one could still visit them.

Interracial Sex

When Secondhand Rose posted this retro Oreo porno photo she roused racial reactions.



Rose sees the matter of race as "just another set of physical attributes which may be part of attraction and arousal -- and as such, they can be details used to arrive at sexual satisfaction."

She also said:

The subject of interracial sex as a turn-on carries with it many deep-rooted responses, concerns and even accusations, which is really a shame. If one is granted permission to fancy blondes, isn't denying the attraction to skin color rather wrong? If we accept a white male brunette's desire for a blonde woman, why not black man's desire for a natural redheaded female?

Or vica-versa, right?

Related to the topic of racial sex taboos is Angela's article, Cuckold Fantasies and the "N" Word.

Al Franken Receives Mysterious Call From The 70's On The Super BoobaPhone!

From page 71 in Popular Mechanics (August, 1975), the mini-article reads:

Artist Bob Ebers thinks the standard telephone is too sterile-looking and lifeless. So he's created a series of "People Phones" -- humorous characterizations made of plywood and odds and ends of hardware. The figures -- in about a dozen types -- all incorporate actual working phones. They've attracted so much attention they're now selling for $150 to $300 from Bob Ebers, 35 West 20th St, New York NY 10011.

$150 - $300? That's a lot of money back now.

The Night Porter

I was reading a list compiled by Gloria Brame of (relatively recent) BDSM movies and was struck by The Night Porter (1974). I have not seen this film (nor many others on her list), but when she said this, I decided to take a look:

Its themes were more seriously, intensely, and disturbingly frank. Very dark but very realistic. And it explores fetishes filmmakers still shirk from.

I had no idea that the 'very dark' (and perhaps 'fetishes') referred to yet another Nazi theme... I am not trying to beat a dead horse here, and even toyed with not posting this (at least for awhile), but this is from a slightly different angle than my recent posts (1, 2)...

The story line revolves around Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), a concentration camp survivor, who runs into her former captor and lover, SS officer Max (Dirk Bogarde), who is now a night porter at the Vienna hotel she is staying at with her husband.




The film has been considered everything from tasteless to arousing, from blaming the victims to missing its potential, and, of course, as anything but feminist.

According to Liliana Cavani, the film's director, The Night Porter is feminist as it's from a woman's point of view and "It was her investigative journalism into the personal experiences of victims after the war that inspired her to make The Night Porter." (This quote from a wonderful piece exploring women in film, including S/M issues: Lena Wertmuller and Liliana Cavani: Knee-jerk Anger and Slow Understanding for The Black Sheep of Italian Feminist Film. [Italian contemporary women film-makers 1973-1976].)

This is the film's iconic scene,in which Lucia dances and sings topless in a Nazi outfit:



This was apparently the first scene filmed, according to this interview with actress Charlotte Rampling on NPR's Fresh Air.

The film is aging well. Now people are seeing more than the 'potential' but seeing that perhaps it has realized them.

Where once Robert Ebert said, "I can imagine a serious film on this theme—on the psychological implications of shared guilt and the identification of the slave with the master—but "The Night Porter" isn't such a film," now others are suggesting that the film has in fact done so.

Perhaps this is still a case of 'too soon' and as the years pass and taboo of showing Nazis as anything other than evil (and therefore incapable of having any real emotion, or sex we can imagine as pleasurable for another) the film will grow in it's credibility.

Images via The Criterion Contraption, where you can read a full review of the film too.

In Skin Two's issue 57, you can also find an article by Claudia Andrei on the use of Nazi style in fetish films, including The Night Porter.

Sweater Girl, 1942

You might not think that Sweater Girl sounds like a Halloween trick-or-treat post, but it is.

This 1942 Paramount Picture, starring Eddie Bracken, June Preisser and Betty Jane Rhodes, isn't all campus kitsch. Sure it starts all Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland with college kids trying to put on a show, but somewhere over this rainbow it twists into a murder mystery. Ah, make that a musical murder mystery.

At the time of its release, The New York Times didn't like it:

Its cast—all of very tender years and much too immature for shocks of this sort—starts off by preparing that inevitable musical show but become involved in murders, babbling idiots and homicidal insanity in a plot which is nearly as confused as a Times Square traffic jam at curtain time.

However, the song "I Don't Want To Walk Without You" (words by Frank Loesser, music by Jule Styne) went on to become a pop hit -- thanks due to a young and rising star by the name of Frank Sinatra.

According to Wiley Lee Umphlett in Movies Go to College: Hollywood and the World of the College-Life Film some appreciated the film:

"This film's mixture of comedy, mystery and music was handled so skillfully that one reviewer was moved to comment that Sweater Girl was exceptional in its avoidance of the "usual artificiality of college pictures' and therefore contained the "spark of reality."

(Quote via Google Books.)

And the film still has fans who hope for a DVD release.

Naughty Bookstore Adventures

I don't normally cover the same beat as Fleshbot, but this post, "J.K. Rowling inadvertently reveals her Chamber of Secrets", was amusing.

It made me think of several things, including how our sexuality is stamped by seemingly small events, how we currently freak out over the sight of a bra when bikinis bare more, and yes, of my customers in bookstores.

Speaking of dirty magazine purchases:

I hadn’t much done porn or erotic magazines for a few years and wasn’t really aware how things had moved on, so I was surprised, maybe even shocked at what I saw. It wasn’t the nude male body that made me jump, it was the erect cocks, some shown close up. I didn’t want to look at it too interestedly at that stage, but I was seriously intrigued.

Many of us hung around in a trendy and alternative bookshop near the campus. The next week I noticed they stocked the magazine. I’ve never been someone that doesn’t have the nerve to do things like that. Once I’ve made my mind up, I go for it. The female assistant got it down from the shelf, looking as if she felt right-on that she was so OK with gay men. I didn’t try to explain.

All the way home the magazine burned a hole in my jacket. I felt this way when I first bought a mainstream porn magazine from a station newsagent at the age of about 14 and on the way to stay with relatives. I had the same concerns then about being knocked over by a bus on the way home and being found carrying the magazine, and took extra care to avoid this. If the government really wanted a novel way to improve road safety, I’d suggest making everyone carry a shameful magazine.

Nudes By The Numbers

Over at eBay, three nude paint by number paintings, each measures 12" by 16".








Addressing the issue of nude paint by numbers is William L. Bird, Jr., author of Paint By Number: The How-To Craze that Swept the Nation and curator at the National Museum of American History (Smithsonian), where in 2001 he organized an exhibition on paint by numbers:

Were nudes a requested subject? Was there a subgenre of paint by number pornography?

Well, porn is in the eye of the beholder. Still life nude scenes were quite popular designs. They were advertised in the catalogue by a blank frame and a number.

(From an interview published at cabinetmagazine.org in 2004.)

For more on collecting paint by numbers, see Rec-Room Rembrandts: Smithsonian Revisits the Artistry and Kitsch of Paint-by-Number, The "Art" of Paint By Number Paintings, and www.paintbynumberz.com.

Paperdolls Or Blow-Up Dolls?

Grand Faboo-Ba of Fabulon, Thom, has posted these darlings for us:



They seem to have originated at The Crime In Your Coffee. Translation: They are paper dolls from the comic series Doc Dare and Scion, both published in Penthouse Comix.

What We Do & Don't Remember

I don't usually play these gizmos, quizzes & such, let alone post the results, but this one was not only fun, but a coincidence...

Here's looking at Silent Porn Star, kid.

Which movie was this quote from?

Get your own quotes:

When you click you get the movie answer, which is quite obviously this blog's name plugged in for the word 'you' in the famous line from the movie Casablanca. (Which, by the way, would actually look good on a tee, as shown here -- it's one case of well-done advertising for the custom T-Shirts @ Spreadshirt.)

What's coincidental about this?

Well, Gracie and I were just chatting about my reaction to the Nazi comic and the subject of a recent NPR show came up. We'd both heard the episode of Fresh Air, an interview with author and historian Robert Satloff discussing his book Among the Righteous: Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach into Arab Lands, and we both were struck by the reference to the film:

One of those lessons is that the Holocaust experience of Jews and others persecuted in Arab lands are not "untold stories" but rather "lost stories." Recall, for example, this scene from the movie Casablanca, in which a Gestapo officer urges the devoted wife of the Czech underground leader to convince her husband to return to Paris under German protection.

Major Strasser: There are only two other alternatives for him.

Ilse: What are they?

Major Strasser: It is possible the French authorities will find a reason to put him in the concentration camp here.

Ilse: And the other alternative?

Major Strasser: My dear Mademoiselle, perhaps you have observed that in Casablanca, human life is cheap. Good night, Mademoiselle.

When Warner Bros. released the movie, in December 1942, filmgoers did not scratch their heads at this passing reference to French "concentration camps" in Morocco. The existence of these camps — much like the terrible fate of Jews more generally — was known, certainly among those who were interested in knowing. Somehow, over the last sixty years, those stories have been lost.

The fact that such a reference in the film went unnoticed by both Gracie and myself (and when prompted to think about it, it would have seemed odd -- like the movie was inaccurate) was proof of the author's words -- and a reminder that we do indeed romanticize the past, as I had posted.

Here's a movie dedicated to the message that love doesn't conquer all -- especially in times of war. Its bitter-sweet message has been so romanticized that the reality of war and Nazis is lost in the swoon factor of a man and a woman giving up personal happiness for the greater good.

So while I may be in error interpreting the old Nazi comic the other 'ugly' facts about the racist humor in that magazine still exist and so my main point stands quite well.

Terri "Cup Cake" O'Mason: "She's back again, brighter, better, more daringly naughty than before."

Terri "Cup Cake" O'Mason was a burlesque performer who signed a contract in 1960 with Fax Records to record for their "Stag Party Special" series of LPs.

And where "Cupcakes" (from Stag Party Special Number 2) is a mere taste of her unique talents, here's a full on dessert; "Stag Party Special Number 4; 'Back for Seconds' ".

WFMU link found via PCL LinkDump.

Wet & Wild Maria Shriver

I'm posting this here as part of a discussion regarding Maria's status as a sex symbol.

After bashing, bolstering & befriending Maria Shriver in this discussion, we are now trying to establish just what does make a sex symbol... I invite command you all to jump in with your thoughts.

Janis Joplin, Topless

This is purported to be a photo of Janis Joplin -- I had it saved on my hard drive, and have no further information on it.

What We Learn From Porn & Men's Magazines

We like to imagine that the stars of our erotic dreams, as they pose with such poise and promise, are, if not blissfully happy, then some sort of underground rebels, pushing past the limits and norms to just do what comes naturally.


This phenomenon, wherein we view the act of creating porn as escapist as our viewing it, is a normal part of porn purveyance. And it's one that often finds us under attack.

Such frivolous behavior is bad enough, but when involving erotic images and ideas it is even far more dangerous. It's as if, somehow, that imagining her photographed gaze is just for us, and that envisioning she is as equally pleased 'seeing us' as she is delighted knowing why we gaze back at her, that all of this is somehow at once both dissimilar and more dangerously out of touch with reality than it is with any interaction with mainstream media.

(If I were to begin to undertake the pro-porn argument today, I would surely remind women of soap operas, both daytime and prime time version; girls of boy bands, boys of comic book & anime characters; and men -- those heterosexual men who deny use of female imagery -- of their lopsided obsession with sports figures -- any of which is equally as warped in its idolisation and fantasy... Yet somehow still deemed less offensive and risky than porn. But I won't get into all of that argument today.)

While porn in general presents these potential problems, at least in theory, porn from the past has additional pitfalls. For example, we have a tendency to romanticize the past.

We like to remember the past as those less complicated times "when a man was a man, and a woman was a woman," and no place is this more true than with our vintage erotica. But I'm here to tell ya, porn, even vintage porn, is not always pretty.


Sure, there is porn that's less-than attractive (down-right weird, even); and yup, like in any business, organization or group of people, there are always a few bad apples which make things scary. But I'm talking more about what the adult industry reveals about the rest of our culture...

Flip through the pages of any "man's publication" and you'll find not just nude photos, but there, in those printed pages, a stripped down picture of the culture & the times in which it was produced.

Like a portable men's room, the 'talk' that occurs in men's magazines is as au natural as the status of the models. It's not that these publications are necessarily less than literate; it's not that their minds are simply in the gutter. But most of these magazines shoot from the hip. They are direct, frank, and don't pussy-foot about. It makes sense, for how can you expect pages of naked broads not to be surrounded by equally revealing stories?

The term 'explicit' is normally reserved for erotic stories (and directions, we hope), but this matter of leaving nothing to be implied or hinted at is a common tone in sex magazines. Sure, there's playful innuendo, dirty puns, and other word play for nimble tongues, but the mere fact that all this sex talk can go on means the publication is censor-free. Every day matters, like the politics of the times, cannot be forbidden in a place (publication) which wishes to convey to its members (subscribers) that there are no holds barred here. How can they invite -- nay, propel -- readers to undress the models and caress themselves if there are indeed taboos? If free liquor cannot be sent along with the publication to loosen inhibitions, then the articles and other content must convey, "Speak freely, brother; it's OK here. Anything goes!"

Case in point, this copy of Hollywood Follies (Greenwich Feature Syndicate, NY, Wayne Sabbath, Managing Editor), scans of which have been placed throughout this post.



From 1943, this issue clearly embraces the wartime mentality with the images of sailors and females with sailor caps, sending a military message. But it's the cover tag lines, "Follies for Victory" and "Jokes to Jerk the Japs," which really announces it supports our American troops.

I don't post the racist, sexist and dehumanising bits here to proclaim them 'good' or to condone them; nor to embarrass or dirty the image of our troops today. But the (supposed) humor in this old publication provides much insight into our American culture at that time. The jokes and tone may be are in bad taste, but this was 1943 and we were at war. Something more than mom, apple pie and the flag were needed to rally and replenish the troops, so gash and trash-talk it was.



Perhaps the most shocking thing I found flipping through the pages of this rather small bi-monthly vintage magazine was this cartoon of what appears to be officers at a cocktail party talking about a woman. She is wearing a near backless black dress which reveals number on her back and the caption reads, "Darn subtle, these Nazis."



How shocking and horrific to see the Nazi practice of ID numbers tattooed on Jews and forced prostitution made into a sex joke. It's enough to make bile rise in my throat, make me want to rip the publication to shreds.

But as a collector, an amateur historian, this dreadful comic is one link to the past. And while I too would much rather prefer to think of days gone by as more simple and pure, this copy of Hollywood Follies makes it clear that the good old days were neither simple nor pure.

There were good times, good days, but there were also bad things and bad ways. Just like today. So perhaps it's better to think of them just as the old days. Or at least force a reality check on ourselves now and then by reading the trash-talking articles as well as looking at the gash photos.

Putting On The Ritz, Again

Read about the old, long-running Broadway play, The Ritz -- and the new re-do -- at Fabulon.

Molly Grows Up, Sex Ed Film, 1953

Youtube video found via the Sex-Kitten Message Boards.

The Body of a Man... The Feelings of a Woman

I Was A Man
Half-man, Half-woman
...Which way to go?

The Dark World of the Trans-sexual

A Barry Mahon Production

This 1967 film is also known as I Was A Man: The True Story of Ansa Kansas an Hermaphrodite. According to Chateau Vulgaria, the film was screened at the Finnish Film Archive in 2006, but I've yet to see a release on either video or DVD. (Trailers can be found on a few DVDs such as the Run Swinger Run! / Sex Club International Double Feature and Something Weird's Twisted Sex Vol 01 (which is what Chateau Vulgaria discusses in the link above).

Jackson Barrett Mahon, a.k.a. Barry Mahon, was a pilot. After WWII he became the personal pilot for Errol Flynn, then became the actor's manger -- and that's how he began in his career as a prolific film maker.

Having produced a number of Flynn and Gina Lollobrigida pictures, as well as a considerable output of children's programs, Mahon established The Production Machine, a high-tech film production company in Hollywood, making motion pictures for theatrical and television release. Mahon was the first movie producer to adapt and apply computer technology (as well spreadsheet applications, such as MultiPlan) to the breakdown, scheduling, budgeting and financial analysis of feature-length motion pictures and movies-of-the-week for Columbia Pictures.

According to producer/director James Jaeger, who knew Mahon well and worked with him, Mahon assured him that Errol Flynn was not gay in the least. He might have tried it once, but then Errol tried everything at least once.

The part played by Steve McQueen in the movie, The Great Escape (1963), was loosely based upon Barry Mahon.

Movie poster via Vanessa Is.

Happy Halloween

Nothing says 'Halloween' like a vintage female nude in a Frankenstein mask.

Via Gracie's Art Exhibit.

"It is a very difficult thing to be a woman"

If every woman in our society sparkled, it would have the same uniformity as we would were every woman quiet and retiring. We know, when we think about it, that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and thus a woman who is interesting to one man can leave the second cold. Women who are interesting to men are frequently an enigma to other women…

Before you read this discussion of how we can become more interesting, think of this: Not every man wants an interesting woman any more than every husband wants or could even tolerate a beauty. It is a very difficult thing to be a woman.

From How to be a more interesting woman, by Barbara Wedgwood which is part of the Amy Vanderbilt Success Program For Women (a membership club service from Nelson Doubleday) -- a "retro self-wounding book".

Honest, Ma

I only collect the vintage photos for the objects in the background.


Like the teddy bear, and the knick-knacks. I don't even see that scantily clad woman!

Oscar's Wilde Waterworks, $169

Gay Monopoly (found at a garage sale for $1), copyright 1983, before AIDS became an inescapable issue for gay men (hence the bathhouses). Found (via Fabulon) at Flickr where you can move your mouse over the photo to see detailed notes.

A great find at a buck -- check eBay prices!

Antwerp Erotica Help Needed

Rob of Delta of Venus sends this email with a request:

Hope all's well with you...
I'm currently in Belgium (Antwerp) and was wondering if by any chance you (or perhaps some of your readers) have suggestions for places one might find antique erotica in the Low Countries. I'll be in Holland too, both Amsterdam and some of the smaller towns - itinerary is flexible. Antique shops, flea markets, bookshops, etc, lowbrow, highbrow, and all in between. Primarily looking for pre-1950s photography and magazines, but early films and other artifacts are great too... I've found a small
amount of stuff but nothing too noteworthy so far, so any leads you might have would be much appreciated...

Cheers,
Rob

Got ideas for Rob? Post them here, or use the contact listed at his website.

Spooners Delight

I'm not like the beggars who want a full meal,
Just "a spoon -- a spoon" is my humble appeal.

Copyright 1908, J. Thomas.

I love this postcard, and apparently Thomas created a series as you can find others like it, each with the iconic spoon. Another example is here.

Jaime Pressly Brings Joy

You may know Jaime Pressly from the sitcom My Name Is Earl, where she stars as Joy, but she's appeared in several Playboy publications, including nudes:

Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 58 November 1997 - Michael Bisco, pages 56-59
Playboy's Book of Lingerie Vol. 62 July 1998 - pages 32-33
Playboy's Nudes December 1998 - pages 16-17
Playboy's Sexy 100 February 2003

She even made the cover of Playboy in February, 2004.

According to Hollywood.com:

Her film debut was in 1997's cable-friendly erotic thriller "Poison Ivy: The New Seduction" and posing for Playboy that same year made Pressly's body far more famous than her body of work. Still, those who looked past the film's disproportionate amount of nudity would find that Pressly made the most of her role and brought an eerie coolness to the part of Violet that proved she had more to offer.

Unlike some girls, Presley was able to take nude photos and spread them into a career instead of ending one. A career that in 2001 even Playboy remarked upon -- without mentioning that she'd appeared nude in their publications. Which seems odd, but what do I know?




Recently Pressly had a baby and apparently she was clueless about the 'joys' of pregnancy. However, Jamie clearly isn't an idiot. Along with her celebrity status she's started a clothing line, J'aime, to continue to make her hay when that sunshine fades.

It seems a bit ironic for a gal who turned taking her clothes off into a career to start whoring clothes, but well, if we could all buy a body like hers, then Playboy wouldn't be in business would it.

It takes a savvy woman to realize she can make a fortune off dressing those of us who wish we could look like her naked.

She may play white-trash on TV, play it in photos, but she's certainly anything but.

I Love Norma

I Love Norma Shearer, and I will post a bio about her (she's completely fascinating and extremely under-appreciated), but here's a link to an auction with her photo. I already have two of these, but someone out there needs this, so I post it.

Must find other photos of Norma (and affordable ones too).