One of the earliest significant ads I can find in a mass market
periodical offering nude photographs of African-American women.
(Or
even women of color...)
From a 1956 issue of Frolic Magazine. Scarce today, Frolic was printed
on cheap pulp but the covers were bright and vibrant to stand out on the
top shelf of shops. In 1956 the magazine was published every two
months with Luke Bailey as editor. Harlem was about 100 blocks north of
the editorial offices.
The photo sets offered here were common in the day, but to cater to a
race market was not. Mar-Mays photos MAY be yet another "branch" of the
enormous "Marr" or "Marno" distributor of countless figure study
digests documented as well as can be in the book
PROTO-PORN: The Art Figure Study Scam of the 1950s.
The ad here ran four years after African-American photographer Cass Carr
was arrested for organizing nude camera shots which used ethnic
models...and Bettie Page. Carr was a pioneer of sorts and lived in
Harlem. His studio was shut down by police as reported in Jet Magazine
in 1952. It is likely the photographs above came from informal (or even
illegal) amateur camera club models such as those used by Carr.
