Hitt 'er Miss

Orrie Hitt
Varying publishers & cover art, overall some unearthed gems. Hitt may have used pseudonyms, but here all are credited to Hitt as Hitt, an unsung king of "sleaze." Maybe he was from the Deep South, & one might perceive that to be true given the number of "backwoods" or "swamp" themes present in many of his books, other sources say he was from New York. He wrote several for Beacon, arguably the best of 1950s smut (romance novels, who are we kidding?); may even have written for some of the earlier digest paperbacks from Universal (Uni-Books). Many of his novels seemingly center on the obviously nymphomaniacal life of an insurance salesman, leading the casual collector to believe Hitt worked in the field; for how long before/after his writing career blossomed no one really knows, but perhaps he has relatives out there aware of Orrie though maybe not aware of his tenure as one of the more expansive writers the 60s had given to the world of lurid publishing.

 

Books shown are all available on eBay currently.

Beacon Books

1. DOLLS AND DUES - BB151, 1957. Reprint? Union boss vice.
2. TEASER - B158, 1956. Reprint? Waterfront, nightclubs. Photo cover.
3. ELLIE'S SHACK - B159, 1958. Pond, backwoods. Voyeur cover.
4. AFFAIRS OF A BEAUTY QUEEN - B174, 1958. Beauty pageants. Photo cover. 
5. CALL SOUTH 3300: ASK FOR MOLLY! - B176, 1958. Television sales execs, call girls.
6. TRAPPED - B186, 1954. Reprint. Camera clubs, farms. Photo cover. 
7. WOMAN HUNT - B197, 1958. Murder/rich gf.
8. HOT CARGO - B203, 1958. Gun-running Southern states, Hispanics. 
9. SHEBA - B211, 1959. Saleswoman, used cars. 
10. NUDIST CAMP - B212, 1957. Reprint. Danish girl in mountains w/ camp. 
11. THE WIDOW - B222, 1959. Cabins, photo racket, murder. 

Various publishers

1. SUMMER ROMANCE - Midwood Books 16, 1959. "A Summer Romance" (title pg).   
2. A DOCTOR AND HIS MISTRESS - Midwood Books 38, 1960. House favorite cover art.
3. SUBURBAN INTERLUDE - Kozy Books K108, 1960. Divorce, insatiable wife. 
4. TWISTED LOVERS - Kozy Books K134, 1961. Lesbiana, Stepford.
5. TRAMP WIFE - Chariot Books CB153, 1960. Victor Olson cover. Insurance sales.
6. PARTY DOLL - Chariot Books CB167, 1961. Photo cover. Call girls.
7. LIBBY SINN - Chariot Books CB1617, 1962. Photo cover & several first pages. Oceanfront night clubs/lesbian burlesque dancers, sad death.
8. THE PASSION HUNTERS - Domino Books 72-712, 1964. Mountain cabin, insatiable women.
9. MALE LOVER - Gaslight Book GL117, 1964. Lieberman or Rand cover art? Football, same-sex love, NYC. 
10. WHILE THE CITY SINS - Ember Library Book EL363, 1967. Bonfils cover art. Small-town beauty pageants, backwoods. 
11. PANDA BEAR PASSION - PEC Giant 1145, 1968. Fun cover art w/ toy panda. Central City insurance agency, sex toys. Likely a more adventurous Hitt title.

Dawn Richard the Redhead Indian

Margaret Dawn Richard was a model & actress of Native American heritage, featured in many late 1950s "adult" magazines, & starred in films like "I Was a Teenage Werewolf" & a slue of detective TV shows. Her rust-colored hair & eyebrows mix w/ almond-shaped eyes and near perfect facial symmetry helped earn her a seat in heaven, as PLAYBOY's May 1957 Playmate. House favorite unsung model who got out before it got hard.

[PHOTOGRAPHY FOR MEN

Sterling Group (NY); additional entry at Rockville, MD; distributed by PDC. B/W throughout, 74pp. Vintage non-nude pinup magazine featuring figure studies by top photographers, often a prolific model/celebrity woman. Began late 1957 and ran through 1959(?). 

V1 N3, JUL 1958. Photographers: Wil Blanche, Paul Duckworth, Charles Kell, Earl Leaf, Jan Caldwell, Rod MacArthur, Gai Terrell, Ed Alexander, Gabriel Gyorffy, Peale Howe, Erno Slovak, Dave Sutton, Don Loomis, Ed DeLong, Barry King, Paul Wagner. Models featured: Dawn Richards fantastic cover, Julie Newmar, Jayne Mansfield, Zahra Norbo, Melinda Markey (Micky Marlo), Marla English, Martha Hyer, Natalie Wood, Gigi Reynolds, Judy Hall, Lisa Linden, Joy Harmon, Cheryl Kubert, Marlyn Maher, Nikki Gibson, Simone Auger, Jackie Monroe, Betty Brosmer (ad)]. 

A Wintertime Affair w/ Greenleaf Paperbacks

[Greenleaf] Nightstand Books
No publisher (early issues), then San Diego, CA. Lurid paperbacks published by William Hamling in the 1960s, one of many imprints w/ pink or yellow spines, & early work by writers like William Knoles, Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Andrew J. Offutt, & John Jakes. Cover art was primarily Robert Bonfils, Macauley, & a few others. Lurid but still without certain 4-letter words until closer to 1970. A fantastic example of early Greenleaf/Corinth.
Hundreds of similar items have gone from one palm to the other in a matter of days. Winter here is not so much what's going on outside, because there isn't much of anything, but more focusing on what's more important inside, away from the light, like these little collectible pocket vampires. When there's not enough snow for your children to be impressed by, & when each photo snapped of them in the elements could be interpreted as a turn-of-the-century stereoview, it's time to nurture the Inner Self.

Popular themes explored:

• Mountainside infidelity. 
• Call girls, murder. 
• Dance studio sin. 
• Driving instructor sins.
• Florida prostitution. 
• Burlesque, murder. Soho London. 
• Wall Street. 
• Ex-child actor caught up in sin.
• GI vice south of the border.
• Burlesque, gambling.
• Lusty co-eds. 
• Depraved swingers.
• Small town vice. 
• Tabloid newspaper industry. 
• Lusty real estate agent. 
• Big business, stolen money.
• Grifting.
• Yachts, Jersey City.
• Lesbiana, insatiable wives.
• Lesbiana, gold-diggers.
• Writer swapping.
• Male lawyer escapades.
• Lusty cruise, lesbiana. 
• Revenge, gold heist, murder. 
• Lesbiana, swinging. 
• Jamaica, murder.
• Insatiable housewife.
• Murder mystery backwoods.
• Ad execs.
• Insurance industry, nymphomaniac.

The Banned Caper Case

VOL 13 NO 13, Dec 1969

CAPER

See Magazines, dist. Kable. Once a major competitor of PLAYBOY. 

This issue notable for having been recalled in 1969 due to a potential "blindness and death" warning issued by the Food & Drug Administration...

stating that bodily harm could occur if the reader followed instructions on pp. 52-54 to "dissolve any two of these magazine pages in methyl alcohol - and drink the mixture." The reader was then suggested to look again at the blurry images to test their hallucinations. CAPER stated "the ink used in printing this issue has been mixed with diphenylphloroamyl-2-benzoate, a most powerful hallucinogen." While all this sounds fine, methyl alcohol is actually a deadly poison, and the diphenylphloroamyl has yet to be identified. 

Other features: Janine Labrune (layout), Paul Rader illustration, sultry blonde Ramona Elliott, space virgins fiction, Lee Marvin interview, lesbians, Sin art, "Lucrezia Borgia" film review, Rodrigues art, lithe Tracy Reeves, hot Sharon Wilson (center/layout), slender Phil Bloom, Bertrand Russell on adultery, dark Barbara, Herbert Huncke on junkies. Lili St. Cyr lingerie ad.

Tabloids Past! Digest this...

A healthy dose of tabloid & pinup digests & pocket magazines, 1940s-60s. The later issues like BOLD go further into nudity than did those like BRIEF, CANDID, CARNIVAL, EYE, FOCUS, PAGEANT, PEOPLE TODAY, PHOTO, PHOTO LIFE, PIC, PICTURE DIGEST, PICTURE SCOPE, PICTURE WEEK, even SCOOP! & XCITEMENT, although the latter 2 essentially bridge the gaps. They have slightly more "men's magazine" aesthetic too. 

Do you have a favorite tabloid digest/pocket magazine?