| Hollywoodland | Oct 31 2016 |
Happiness in Hollywood can be hard to hold onto.
Uncensored gives readers the lowdown on all the Hollywood trysts and splits in this issue published this month in 1962. José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney apparently broke up—after eight years and five children—over Ferrer's insistence on carrying on extramarital affairs, as was his natural right. At least that's what he thought: “Since the beginning of our marriage he has engaged in a series of affairs with other women,” Clooney is quoted. “I discussed this with him prior to our separation, but he said he couldn't change his way of life.” Apparently the Puerto Rican born Ferrer was old school with the whole machismo thing. But all was not lost between him and Clooney. They married again in 1964 and managed to stay together another three years.
Pivoting to the hook-ups, Uncensored explains how Joan Collins stole hotel heir Nicky Hilton from Natalie Wood, but Robert Wagner stole Collins from Hilton, leading to Natalie Wood stealing Wagner from Collins, and Collins falling into the arms of Warren Beatty. Mixed in with those four are James Dean, Tab Hunter, Lance Reventlow, and Elvis Presley. Or so the magazine says. That's a lot of guys and only two women, but the old tabloids loved to slut shame women while either ignoring or approving the antics of men. For example, Beatty was already known in 1962, after some years in television and with two hit movies behind him, as a fuckboy, but that's not mentioned here at all. These days, though, that immunity is largely gone. Although you'd have to have the brain of a fourteen-year-old to believe—as many people do—that he's slept with 12,000 women.
Uncensored next gets to Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. It's since been established that the two hooked up, but at the time this magazine was published the pair were generating mere rumors. Why? Because Monroe was flying to Las Vegas regularly and staying in Sinatra's home there. There's no rationale needed for this pairing—beautiful people tend to get together. But the editors actually offer a rationale for Monroe's interest in Sinatra and it's simply amazing: “Monroe is having all kinds of troubles with her studio and would like a man around the house to fight her battles for her.” Huh? That one makes no sense to us. Let's run it through our trusty Mid-Century Tabloid Filter™: Buzz...whirrrr... clickety click... Aha. What Uncensored means is Monroe was so emotionally fragile she had to have a guy around 24/7 to handle angry phone calls. Interesting, but we're still not buying it. Twenty scans below.
Puerto RicoLas VegasUncensoredJosé FerrerRosemary ClooneyVince EdwardsDinah ShoreKeeley SmithNicky HiltonNatalie WoodRobert WagnerWarren BeattyJames DeanTab HunterLance ReventlowElvis PresleyMarilyn MonroeFrank SinatraLindis Chloe GuinnessBrigitte BardotSarah ChurchillGail RussellHarry TrumanLaren Bacalltabloid
| Vintage Pulp | Sep 9 2016 |
Monroe, Curtis, and Lemmon give jazz a swing.
On this promo poster for the Marilyn Monroe comedy Certains l'aiment chaud, aka Some Like It Hot, it looks like Russian illustrator Boris Grinsson went a little strong on Monroe's wink, making her look like she got a splinter of glass in her eye, but Monroe actually looked that way in the promo photo used as the basis of the art, which you can see at right.You know all about this movie, so we won't bother to go over it. We'll just mention, if you haven't seen it, don't be surprised that it's in black and white. There are so many color production photos from this one—like the several we've shared below—that we even forgot. And we'd seen the movie several times, though not in about ten years. When it opened with documentary style footage of a car chase and shootout followed by a title card reading “Chicago, 1929,” we were thinking, “Ah, this is where it shifts to color.”
But of course it didn't, and we suddenly remembered that this was a later black and white production, made the same year Technicolor films such as Ben Hur and North by Northwest hit cinemas. According to our research, Monroe actually had a stipulation in her contract that all her films had to be in color, but director Billy Wilder wanted black and white because the heavy makeup worn by Curtis and Lemmon—who spend most of the movie disguised as women—looked green in Technicolor. He lobbied Monroe and she finally agreed her co-stars could not be green.
Does Some Like It Hot fit under our self-defined umbrella of pulp? Of course—there are gangsters, the aforementioned shootout, and it's about two jazz musicians on the run. And few Hollywood figures are more pulp in essence than Monroe. The character of nightclub singer Sugar Kane is one of her better creations. Sit back and enjoy. Some Like It Hot premiered in the U.S. in February 1959, and opened in Paris as Certains l'aiment chaud today the same year. Another promotional poster by Grinsson appears below, and you can see the very different West German promo poster here.
FranceRussiaParisChicagoCertains l'aiment chaudSome Like It HotMarilyn MonroeTony CurtisJack LemmonBoris GrinssonBilly Wilderprohibitionmafiaposter artcinema
| Hollywoodland | Aug 9 2016 |
Monroe is the pause that refreshes.
Below, a Marilyn Monroe cover and interior pages from an August 1962 issue of France's Stop magazine. We grabbed this in Paris back in 2009. Yes, there's other stuff in the issue, but summer makes us lazy about scanning—and surely Monroe is more than enough.
| Vintage Pulp | Jul 30 2016 |
So I found these awesome leopardskin drapes on sale. What do you think? Too much?
The incomparable Marilyn Monroe, wearing see-though lingerie, stars on the above Technicolor lithograph titled “Vivacious Marilyn.” The image was originally shot by acclaimed Hungarian lensman Laszlo Willinger in 1947. Most sources say 1949, but we can confirm 1947 because we've seen another frame from this leopard series used on a 1947 Sunoco calendar. However, the above lithograph wasn't printed until 1955, when the negative fell into the hands of the good people at A. Scheer Co. and they said, “She's sheer! We're Scheer! It's a match made in heaven!” A. Scheer made another print of one of Willinger's other famed Monroe images which we'll show you a bit later. In the meantime, we offer the bonus image of Monroe on the phone for no reason at all. You can see more lithos of Hollywood's greatest star wearing assorted bits of almost nothing here.
| Musiquarium | Jun 13 2016 |
If only the music were as flawless as the cover art.
Here's little curio from the former Yugoslavia—a record sleeve from Serb pop-rock artist Boris Bizetić with a Marilyn Monroe cover motif. We've seen her image rather poorly used on album covers, but this one is nice, we think, if almost certainly unlicensed. And the music? Hah hah. We dare you.
| Vintage Pulp | May 23 2016 |
The law of this jungle is steal or be poor.
We don't need to tell you anything about The Asphalt Jungle because you've seen this film classic, right? So today we're all about the poster. Look at this beauty. It was painted by Italian artist Angelo Cesselon, complete with his distinct signature and its supersized “O”. Cesselon worked for many studios and mastered a distinct style featuring large character portraits such as the one you see here. His work is among the most immediately identifiable of the mid-century period. As for the film, when you get John Huston directing a heist story you can't go wrong. Don't let the poster fool you, though—Marilyn Monroe is a bit player. Why is she starring on the art? Because Cesselon painted it a few years after the film's initial release—by which time Monroe was world famous. The Asphalt Jungle premiered today in 1950.
ItalyNew York CityThe Asphalt JungleJohn HustonMarilyn MonroeSterling HaydenAngelo Cesselonposter artcinema
| Intl. Notebook | Mar 3 2016 |
New neighborhood, new view, same Pulp Intl.
Well, we're back. Our internet guy went missing for a few days, but funny things about jobs—if you want to actually get paid you usually have to show up eventually. So in the end he got us hooked up. We don't know how things resolved with the guy in the shoe store, who lost a gigantic pane of curved plate glass that probably cost $5,000, but we did notice he invested in a video surveillance system, which he now has pointed right at the front windows. Despite these conflicts, and the fact that our building is a relic, we've actually moved to a swankier district and feel a bit like Marilyn Monroe in the above shot made today in 1955 showing her peering off the balcony of the Ambassador Hotel in New York City. Our view here from the third floor isn't quite that good, but it's a pretty nice pedestrianized street where we can people-watch shoppers and listen to musicians playing, and we're still only three blocks from the beach. Also, we're next door to the internet provider, and are told our speeds should be the fastest in town. We would think the speed is the same everywhere in town, being a digital signal and all, but what do we know? In any case, between the new flat and the strong signal the world seems to be our oyster. We'll see how long that lasts.
| Vintage Pulp | Nov 30 2015 |
Just a woman trying to find her way.
Above, a Japanese poster made for the biography Marilyn. We really like this image of a flower-like Monroe surrounded by a void. You can see another poster from the film, and learn what it's all about here.
| Intl. Notebook | Nov 15 2015 |
Ciné-Revue's clever mix made it one of Europe's longest running celeb magazines.
This issue of the Belgian magazine Ciné-Revue was one of our treasures from last year's trip to the Saint-Ouen flea market in Paris. Inside you get too many stars to name (and too many pages to scan), but the highlights are Marlon Brando, Susan Denberg, Marilyn Monroe, and Nadja Tiller. On the cover is British actress and pop singer Minnie Minoprio, who during the early 1970s starred in several films, all considered obscure today. But that was Ciné-Revue's m.o.—giving equal exposure to both lesser lights and the biggest stars. And of course the obscurities were usually required to get naked, justifying their positioning on the covers and in the centerfolds. Monika Käser, who you see below, is a perfect example. We can find nothing about her. Her only moment in the spotlight—insofar as we can determine using the internet to research her—seems to have been the photo below. But Ciné-Revue's formula worked—it began publishing in 1944 and is still around today (though the days of centerfolds are gone). This issue hit newsstands today in 1973.
BelgiumParisCiné-RevueMinnie MinoprioMarlon BrandoFranco NaraJane SeymourRoger MooreSean ConneryJonny WiessmullerElizabeth TaylorGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouSusan DenbergClaudette ColbertClark GableCary GrantFrank CapraMarilyn MonroeMonika KäserNadja TillerDany Carreljack LemmonMary PickfordJean LefebvreRobert RedfordRobert Shawcinema
| Vintage Pulp | Oct 23 2015 |
Monroe as always is top Billed.
Above, four more Marilyn Monroe covers of the Danish magazine Billed Bladet, with the first example published after her overdose, declaring that the “myten” may be dead but the “sex-symboliet” will live on. Who says Danish is hard to learn?
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