This Master Detective published today in 1960 has a nice cover by Al Drule, and inside the issue are several interesting stories, but the one we're looking at today is “The Crime that Wasn't in the Script,” about a murder that took place during the filming of John Wayne's western The Alamo. The story is kind of forgotten, but basically, an actress named LaJean Etheridge was killed by her boyfriend Chester Harvey Smith, who was angry that Etheridge had decided to move closer to the movie set in Brackettville, Texas. Such a killing is impossible to understand under any circumstances, but putting on your jealous madman cap for a second you can picture a possessive man losing it over his girlfriend moving thousands of miles away. Like if someone told you the story you'd nod and go, “Umm hmm,” because you could see it.

But Etheridge wasn't moving thousands of miles. She and Smith had both scored work as extras on The Alamo, had traveled from Hollywood together, and were living in Spofford, Texas with three other extras in lodgings set up by Wayne's Batjac Productions. Etheridge had decided to move from Spofford to Fort Clark, ten miles north, a relocation precipitated by her landing a larger part in the film. Was she simply moving closer to the set to facilitate the changed demands of her role? Or was she leaving her boyfriend? Still wearing your jealous madman cap, you can picture Smith believing the latter. Etheridge would be out of sight, living with unknowns, possibly having fun with production staff and carousing with handsome actors. But she never got the chance—as she was packing Smith stabbed her in the chest with a Bowie knife, and she died on the scene. He was arrested when police arrived fifteen minutes later, pled guilty to murder, and was sentenced to thirty years in prison.

Etheridge's part in The Alamo was left on the cutting room floor. No surprise. The murder caused enough bad publicity as it was, so naturally there was no way she could have remained in the film. It wasn't until an extended version was released in 1993 that her role as Mrs. Guy was seen by movie fans. Though the story of the murder hasfaded somewhat, author John Hegenberger used the events as the backdrop for a 2017 crime novel called Stormfall. Chester Harvey Smith, John Wayne, and others are characters, and the star is Hegenberger's detective creation Stan Wade. The book opens with the murder, and Etheridge uttering her final words to Smith before she dies. What were the words? According to the statement Smith gave police, Etheridge said, mortally wounded and bleeding to death, “I love you.” You can take off your jealous madman cap now. 

This is the fiftieth issue of Adam we've shared, which is a milestone of sorts for our website, considering how hard the magazine is to obtain. The cover illustration depicts the moment in John P. Gilders' story “Girl Trap” when a body is dumped in Sydney Harbor, theoretically to be carried out to sea on a receding tide. The hero had intervened to stop a woman from being beaten by her violent boyfriend only to stand by in horror as she shot the guy dead. He soon discovers that the woman is actually a prostitute and the boyfriend was her pimp. Cops eventually get involved but the hero skates because the police “just know” he isn't a murderer. The story is as bad as it sounds, but on the plus side it's short.

We're very interested in Australian men's magazines. Today we have a new entry for you—Cavalcade, published by Kenneth G. Murray, the same person that gave the world Adam. This issue from February 1956, has a killer cover—uncredited, which is par for K.G. Murray Publishing. There aren't many art or photo pages inside, but we've posted the ones that were there. You may have noticed the somewhat weird slogan “The Know Yourself Magazine.” We guess the idea being peddled is that Cavalcade helped men become better versions of themselves. It sounds almost zen, almost like the Buddha would say it. But then you open it and see all the raunchy cartoons and bikini beauties and realize—no, it's just a regular men's magazine. And if you bought it, you probably knew yourself quite well already. We may get back to this one a bit later.

American Detective Magazine was a product of the Cleveland Publishing Company, which, ironically, was based neither in Cleveland nor anywhere else in the U.S., but in Australia. Or we should say is based, because the company launched in 1953 and still operates today. American Detective Magazine ran for several years, and featured exclusively stories by Australian authors, and awesome but uncredited femme fatale cover art. These examples are from the mid-1950s.

We finally picked up a new scanner and life is good again. You may have noticed the difference in recent uploads. No moire patterns. No weird rainbows. All clean. You may also have noticed the website looks a bit different. We were making some changes over the holidays and got caught in the middle, but we'll finish everything as soon as we can and get it all working properly again. We know, we know. We're really slow with this stuff. But we'll get there.

Meanwhile, today we have for your enjoyment an issue of Australia's Adam magazine, published this month in 1972 with a cover illustrating Martin Rudyard's tale “The Mafia Oil Stakes,” about an organized crime cartel trying to take over a group of Oklahoma oil fields. Most of the owners sell out, but one stubborn cuss refuses, and sabotage followed by violence soon results. The climactic fight takes place against the backdrop of an oil well conflagration. A femme fatale is at the root of all this craziness, and her name is Angela Fierce. Sometimes writers try a little too hard, don't they?

The inside cover star, just above, is Lois Mitchell, someone we've been meaning to feature. She was a popular glamour model during the ’70s, and appeared in copious amounts of high quality images shot by men's magazine contributors Ron Vogel, Edmund Leja, and others. The photo appearing here is new to the internet as far as we can tell. We have thirty-some scans of today's Adam, forty-eight other issues inside the website, and about thirty more we plan on sharing down the line.

Above is a really nice cover for an issue of Australia's Adam magazine published this month in 1969. The art illustrates John Dean's story “Aces High,” which is about an undercover operative trying to take down an organized crime kingpin. His way in is a Casino Royale style high stakes poker game, where he's surprised to find that his girlfriend is the arm candy of the kingpin. In the final shootout the girlfriend helps the agent take out the crooks, and we and the boyfriend learn that she's also an agent working undercover—deep undercover—to set up the crooks for the police. We've read better. We've read worse. We'll give Dean credit for deftly working the titillation angle of the girlfriend repeatedly bedding the kingpin so that he would thrust fully in her—er, we mean trust fully in her.

Since mentioned French attitude above, let's revisit the French magazine with coolest attitude ever—V. We've scanned and uploaded some issues of this publication (check here and here for a start) but haven't circled back to it for a few years. Above you see a cover for V Cocktail, which is was just one iteration of the magazine. There was also V Sélections, V Spécial and of course just plain V. These were all painted by René Caillé, one of several great cover artists employed by the magazine, along with Jean David and others. One of these images came from Au carrefour étrange, so thanks to that great blog.

Mid-century artist George Quaintance, aka George Quintana, is best known these days for creating gay-themed illustrations, often for men's fitness magazines popular with gay customers. He played it straight too. His highly collectible body of work includes covers for the mainstream pop culture magazine Movie Humor, of which you see eleven examples below. You can check out more Quaintance here and here.