Vixen Books of the 1950s. Vintage Sleaze from Greenwich Village and Gil Fox. (en excerpt from Times Square Smut by Jim Linderman)

Vixen Press founder Gilbert (Gil) Fox was a Greenwich Village denizen. Mr. Fox had quite a circle of friends. Perhaps no one has paid attention to the Vixen books because they are hardbacks, and the only hardcovers here. Most of the vintage sleaze action is in lurid paperbacks, but this line of spicy stories certainly qualify.Though hardcovers, they are still cheap,tawdry and one hundred percent grade-A certified sleaze. They are also (when and if you can find them) quite affordable since no one cares. Al are now nearly 60 years old, and even harder to find in their book jackets. Gil Fox was one of the most prolific of sleaze writers. From his early books around 1950 to a massive output of Midwood books in the 1960s. He had pseudonyms such as Kim Savage, Peter Willow, Leda Starr, Kimberly Kemp, Dallas Mayo, Paul Russo, Violet Loring and more. Paperback book scholar Lynn Monroe interviewed Gil once, and I hope there are more chats coming. He certainly has stories to share. The interview is essential for any scholar interested in popular culture of the 1950s. Fox was born in 1917, served in the Air Force during the WW2 and married a female swinger whose swing went both ways. Next thing you know, he is living in Greenwich Village and itis 1950. At some point Gil met John Willie (real name was John Alexander Scott Coutts) who published the Bizarre series digests. Willie had his drawings published by Robert Harrison and is even rumored to have been responsible for asking Bettie Page to pose in bondage get-ups. Apocryphal tale, I think. Not long after meeting Willie, Gil Fox began writing his own books for Woodford Press. Fox also wrote for Stanley Malkan. Some time around 1953, Gil set up Vixen Press at 125 Christopher Street in New York City. 125 Christopher Street was also the location of the Alfred Hitchcock's film Rear Window(!) At least before they changed the address to 125 West the Street in the movie. There is an understanding in the film business that murder films use phony addresses for the same reason every big screen telephone number starts with 555.There is no 125 West 9th Street, but Gil's place still sits at 125 Christopher. Today apartments in the building rent for several thousand dollars a month and it remains a pre-war 6-story residential building. You can find real-estate listings online if you would like to relive the glory days of Greenwich Village... but it looks to me like they re-did the floors and I don't see any of Gil's ink stains.It is,however, nice to think of Gil typing while peering into same courtyard as James Stewart and Grace Kelly. Vixen Books was an apartment operation and an outlet for writers other than Gil. Barry Devlin, one of the most prolific Vixen writers, was selling work which was published as Beacon paperbacks at the same time. Another was the mysterious Justin Kent, the pseudonym of a writer who testified against mobster Edward Mishkin in an obscenity case. They apparently put out a book a month. They were likely distributed in the Times Square bookshops, but they were also distributed by Associated Booksellers in Westport, CT. and at least one other outside of the Tri- state area. Several of the copies here have stickers from "Capitol Book Store" in Indiana, so they got out to the Midwest too. No wonder New York City has a bad reputation. The cover price was $2.50. Each title, regardless of who receives credit for writing, has a hoity-toity quote from Shakespeare or an ancient learned philosopher following the title page, and each is dedicated to a dame or a couple. Hmmm. As you would imagine from the titles and covers, the Vixen line was not noted for fine literature. All the books were written as soft-core pornography. Limp-core. The characters drank and had torrid sexual adventures, even if they acted like soap opera scripts of the day. Remember, these were written in the early 1950s. Some have girl on girl action at a time it was most taboo. Plenty of lingerie too, and being taken off slowly. Some of the original Vixen titles were subsequently published as paperbacks with new titles. Moon-kissed by Barry Devlin came out under the title Forbidden Pleasures as a Berkley book. Kim Savage also had a paperback titled Helen's House published by Beacon. Mark Tryon's The Fire That Burns came out as a paperback with the byline "Girls who pose for anything" on the cover. It is more than possible others were republished in paper with entirely new titles and authors credited. For that matter, and for all I know, AL of them were written by Fox, but in particular I have seen a reference somewhere that Kim Savage was Gil Fox, though I am not sure. File under speculation. In the notes to Girls Lie Back Everywhere: The Law of Obscenity and the Assault on Genius by Edward de Grazia (1972) one Vixen book (Sweeter Than Life by Mark Tryon) was called "the forerunner of the sex pulp novels so numerous in the sixties; It contained a prominent lesbian theme and it seems to have had no appreciable literary value. (The book) is described in some detail in Felice Flannery Lewis, Literature, Obscenity and Law (1976) 180-181." Fair enough. There WAS an obscenity case brought against Gil Fox...U.S vs. Gilbert Fox, Vixen Press et al, involving four of the titles. I am not sure the outcome, nor do I know if Mr. Fox spent any time in pokey. I certainly hope not. The list of Vixen books following is the first one compiled as far as I know. The sleeve they came wrapped in is worth as much as the book. Which reminds me..the jacket illustrations are credited to NJD, de Persis, Patrika, Don Rico, who follows, and sometimes nobody. (An excerpt from the book TIMES SQUARE SMUT by Jim Linderman available from Blurb.com Helena's House Kim Savage 1960 Madame Big Barry Devlin 1953 Chains of Silk Barry Devlin 1954 Golf Widow ? 1953 Boss Lady Rick Lucas 1954 No Holds Barred Barry Devlin Carnal Cargo Barry Devlin 1952 Baby Makes Three Kim Savage (Gil Fox?) 1953 Desolate Sands Michael Norday 1955 The Sinning Lens Mark Tryon 1953 Joanne Scott Stone 1955 Mask of Night Michael Norday 1954 Dreamboat Rick Lucas 1955 Lazylegs Kim Savage 1953 Gold-plated Sin Barry Devlin 1953 Fire and Ice Barry Devlin 1952 Complex Mother Rick Lucas 1955 Take tI Off! Mark Tryon 1953 Fast Curve Justin Kent 1953 Bent to Evil Kim Savage 1952 Weekend Kim Savage 1952 Rogues and Riches Rick Lucas 1954 Blaze Scott Stone 1954 Sweet and Twenty Don Morro 1955 The Fire that Burns Mark Tryon 1954 Devil's Web Scott Stone 1955 Other Loves Barry Devlin 1955 Countess Margo Scott Stone 1955 This Paris Barry Devlin 1955 Sweeter than Life Mark Tryon Acapulco Nocturne Barry Devlin 1952 Mavis Justin Kent 1953 Dark Magic Michael Norday 1954 Strange Journey Rick Lucas 1954 On with the Dance Michael Norday 1954 Gold-plated Sin Barry Devlin 1953 Lovers and Madmen Barry Devlin 1953 Hellion Kim Savage 1951 Moon-kissed Barry Devlin 1953

Artists and their Models. Painters paint Vintage Sleaze Paperbacks

Representations of painters on paperbacks from the 1950s and 1960s. The most recognized artist in America was Norman Rockwell at the time.  These ain't him.

The Tawdry Origins of Glamour Photography Proto Porn the Book

During the 1950s, under the ruse of "Art Studies" and "Figure Studies" businessman skirted the law publishing hundreds of digest-sized primitive camera art photographs of nearly nude women. Seldom dated, by somewhat disreputable publishers, the digests featured burlesque dancers and models such as Bettie Page in makeshift studios, and were among the first books to challenge censorship and the conventions of the times as it related to photographs of the female form. The tawdry origins of Glamour Photography! The booklets are today scarce and seldom seen. Dubbed Proto-Porn, over 100 have been collected in book form by the first time by Jim Linderman. Proto-Porn details the publishers and addresses the conflicting notions of art and nudity of the Eisenhower years. Colorful, disreputable and quasi-legal, the books nonetheless pre-date modern-day fashion and nude photography. Tame by any standard today, the books have not been shown in over 50 years, and never before collected in a book.

The book PROTO-PORN : THE ART FIGURE STUDY SCAM OF THE 1950s is available as a $5.99 ebook download for iPad or Paperback HERE

Jim Linderman Interview The Auction Exchange and Collectors News 3/26/12 One eclectic collector is seeking the storied past.

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"One Eclectic Collector is Seeking the Storied Past" Jim Linderman Interview with Eric C. Rodenberg The Auction Exchange and Collectors News March 26, 2012. 

ORDER JIM LINDERMAN BOOKS AND EBOOKS HERE

Article "Proto-Porn from the 1950s" by Jim Linderman

NOTE: The following is an article I wrote which was just published at Sugarcut Magazine. Sugarcut is THE premier erotic art and photography site, and I thought some of the camera and visual arts folks who follow Dull Tool Dim Bulb might enjoy seeing it without clicking onto a NSFW site! If you DO want to see the original article on Sugarcut, you can find it, and it has 25 illustrations in a slide show.

Proto-Porn from the 1950S

By Jim Linderman

6 March 2012

Shown is a wide-angle lens full of vintage camera club pinup digests from the early 1950s. Long ignored progenitors of pinup pulchitrude! It was illegal to sell nude photographs in the Eisenhower days, but some enterprising and greedy shutterbug gahoots found a way around the law, frequently in cahoots with the guys downtown, if you know what I mean.

“Figure Study” publications for the artist and photographer!

These obscure digests were all purportedly aimed at the burgeoning nude photography hobbyist, or at least they claimed to be. They were available under the counter or through the mail, at least until Uncle Sam got wise. The models, some famous (Blaze Starr, Judy O’Neal, Bettie Page and many more) were pulled from burlesque routes and strip clubs…others were amateurs who replied to ads. There are no less than five devoted to Ms. Page alone from various publishers. All are hard to find today. Each is now over 50 years old… and since they were published in small editions by phony companies, then carried by trunk and hand to the shop, few survive today. Many have no return address or date. Shop owners priced them at what they thought the risk was worth.

The models in these “proto-porn” periodicals never had pudenda or pubes. The photographs were black and white, and each digest-sized booklet ran from 20 to 50 pages. The colorful covers belie the blurry pages inside. The men behind the camera were seldom identified, but with care and a loupe, one can often identify the photographer’s swinging pads from the wall decorations and curtain designs.

Who was responsible for these stroke books masquerading as figure studies for photographers? At least one series was produced by a later prominent publisher of fetish pinup periodicals. Others came from a husband and wife team living in Midtown Manhattan a few doors down from Bettie Page, and a big load from a mysterious photographer with a Florida address…a sunny address he began using after apparently thinking the city up north was “too hot” and left Brooklyn behind. Nearly all were published in series, but a complete set is unheard of.

The books are today relics of days gone by. Despite history books which credit Hugh Hefner with starting the modern revolution in nude photography, not to mention sexual mores, it was a dozen independent small presses with moxie (and buxie) with a few mob-connections who got the balls rolling.

Jim Linderman is an author, collector and editor of the daily blog VINTAGE SLEAZE. This group of original “Figure Study” digests come from the author’s collection and date circa 1950 – 1955. Vintage Sleaze the daily blog is HERE.

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Chief Paul Protects the Public from Peep Show Perversion Second City Smut Vintage Sleaze Midget Movies

Chicago citizens will sleep better knowing the pin-up peep shows have been unplugged by Chief Investigator Paul Newey. Since there was no other crime in the second city on this day in 1959, Chief Paul invited the press over to see his collection of confiscated coin-op smut. Paul's pursuit of the peep shows was crime-bustin' action of the highest order. To celebrate (and convince the public Newey was on top of the situation) he flicks his ashes on the filthy coin slot in distain!

Original Press Photograph (8" x 13") Unknown Chicago Paper 1959 Collection Jim Linderman

Order THE BIRTH OF ROCK AND ROLL HERE

Books and Downloads by Jim Linderman Available HERE


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Weegee Bettie Page and the FBI The Last (?) Unpublished Photographs and What Weegee told the FBI about Bettie Page

(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images


(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images


(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images


(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images


What if you could put Bettie Page, the most influential pinup model of the last 50 years in the same room with Weegee, certainly one of the most famous photographers in the world...and he had a camera in his hands? I'd say it would be so juicy even the FBI would be interested. And it appears they were!

Search for a photograph of Bettie Page taken by Weegee. One appears on the International Center of Photography website, which is appropriate as Weegee's widow Wilma Wilcox donated his extensive archive to the museum in 1993. The photo actually appears on Fans in a Flashbulb, the museum's exceptional blog.

Weegee (Arthur Fellig) was personal friends with the model, for years living only three blocks apart from each other just off Times Square (Weegee on West 47th Street and Ms. Page on West 46th Street), a walk one can do in less than five minutes, even Weegee with a cigar. There is a story reported that Weegee once climbed into a bathtub fully clothed with Bettie hoping for a better photo until she literally kicked him out. But until now, very few of the photographs Weegee took of his beautiful acquaintance have ever been publicly shown.
Cass Carr, Harlem jazz musician and promoter of amateur camera club outings also had a space in the very same neighborhood at 218 West 47th Street (a mere two blocks from Weegee's house) which he called the "Concorde Camera Circle" with a rudimentary studio. I believe the revealing studio shot here showing other participants snapping away was taken at Carr's place. It is typical of Weegee to create his own particular view in a photographic setting. The one thing you do NOT want to see in a photo of Bettie Page is other men, but there you go. Leave it to Weegee to turn the camera on the cameramen.

(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

Carr also arranged outings to local farms and parks for camera club participants prior to forming the Concorde Club (previously known as the Lens Art Club) but he changed the club's name after being arrested along with others for promoting an outing in South Salem, New York. Some accounts have Weegee arrested at a camera club outing along with Ms. Page, if so it probably would have been the South Salem, New York shoot on July 27, 1952.

One thing I can confirm is the outdoor photographs here were taken at Headley Farm in New Jersey, as the gas pump has figured in other photographer's pictures. Also present at the shoot, which took place on September 9, 1956, were photographers Art Amsie, Arnold Kovacks, Don Baida, and an unknown woman photographer seen here on the left holding her own camera with the boys.

As far as I know, this unknown woman's pictures of Bettie have not turned up, but we can now say Bettie was photographed by at least three women, the others being Paula Klaw (Paula Kramer) and Bunny Yeager (Linnea Eleanor Yeager)

(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

The Weegee photographs (and there are more) are beautiful pictures of the model in her prime. Striking poses of a young model obviously both aware of her talents and enjoying the session. That they were taken by one of the most interesting and talented photographers in history adds to their charm and importance.

The photographs Weegee took of Bettie Page have never been shown, and it is an honor I do not take lightly. It is also the reason the copyright notice I have placed under each image is not to be ignored.

One of the Weegee photos of the model taken in a studio is notable primarily for the unusual bikini Bettie wears which she would have made herself! It was a talent she was proud of, but maybe she should have stuck with store-bought. It also appears in a cropped version on a website or two, but in poor and possibly purloined quality.

(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

The other Weegee image from the ICP collection which has appeared on the web is a cropped print showing Ms. Page in virtually the same pose taken at the same day by four different photographers.

Another Weegee photograph here shows Ms. Page in a make-shift studio not as yet identified. It could be either of their own apartments, as Page was known to pose individually on request and for her standard modeling fee. It is not known (to me anyway) if Weegee was in the habit of hiring individual models, but he did sell and publish other cheesecake photographs in news digests and quite likely some joke and gag publications. I would like to think Bettie gave him a freebie on this one!


(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images
But what of the FBI? Recently the FBI released several documents on Bettie Page, likely in response to repeated requests. As we know, the model was harassed and hounded by zealots and government agencies during her modeling years. Once being called by the Kefauver Committee in conjunction with their investigation of Irving Klaw, and earlier in relation to an obscenity bust in 1956 Harlem (in which the amateur bondage model was asked about "ping pong paddles" and a riding crop. She denied being involved, and also denied knowing of any photographs of the sort being produced in Harlem.



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In the the newly released FBI document pictured here I noticed a most interesting story hiding in the redacted print! Half way down, note the passage enlarged here which indicates photos of the model were "turned over on 5/25/60...by (name omitted) also known as (name omitted) a photographer who resides at (location omitted.) Now I do not know of any other New York City photographer working with a short pseudonym who took pictures of Bettie Page! So there you go... it now looks like we can add Weegee to the long list of artists who have been pestered by the long arm of the law.


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Now if I were writing this for a tabloid in the 1950s, when the neighborhood all three principles called home was known as "Hell's Kitchen" I would have titled this 'WEEGEE SQUAWKS TO FEDS" but to be fair, anyone with the slightest connection to "dirty" pictures was vulnerable to such puritanical procedures, when the laws attempting to define obscenity were far more strict than today. So let's call them all pioneers rather than pigeons.


(c) Weegee/International Center of Photography/Getty Images

I would like to thank the International Center of Photography for allowing me to use the above unpublished photographs from their archive to help illustrate this discovery and story. If you are not an active member or supporter of the museum, please take the time to join.



Jim Linderman is author of Times Square Smut and The Birth of Rock and Roll

 "Times Square Smut" available now covers the same time period as the above in detail and publishes numerous works by African-American artist Eugene Bilbrew unseen for over 50 years. Times Square Smut will tell the story of denizen and mobster Edward Mishkin, who printed and sold proto-porno soft-core books using the artist's work on 42nd Street at the same time Irving Klaw was publishing photographs of Bettie Page. In the meantime.  The Birth of Rock and Roll might be the most unusual music book you have ever seen!

New Series on Vintage Sleaze the Blog CONTEMPORARY VINTAGE SLEAZE Comic Artists and Cartoonists

Are contemporary artists and cartoonists influenced by vintage sleaze? Of course they are! Contemporary artists and cartoonists are influenced by everything! And as long as one person is attracted to (or repelled by) another, there will be situations requiring a piece of work or a gag. In this spirit, Vintage Sleaze (Brother and Sister blog to this site) is proud to announce a new series: CONTEMPORARY VINTAGE SLEAZE

Select artists of TODAY influenced by pinup and risque gag artists of the past are celebrated here with a unique work they have created especially for Vintage Sleaze the Blog! A showcase for (and a tribute to) talented artists who draw today. (Who may just draw upon the drawings of past Sleazy Cheesecake Pinup Masters) PLEASE also take the time to follow links to the individual artist sites! Not only will you see some outstanding work, you might be compelled to purchase, commission or follow the artist. Each and every site is a delight.

Submissions are welcome but we can not post everything. If you draw and enjoy Vintage Sleaze please participate!

We begin the series with the work of Lena H. Chandhok. Other notables are participating including Gary Panter, Vanessa Davis, Paul Swartz and many others. The series will run weekly on Vintage Sleaze. Make sure to follow and share!
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