Inside Story of August 1957 offers up stories on Elsa Martinelli, Ann Sothern, Clark Gable and others, but the subhead reading “The Night Audrey Hepburn Can’t Forget” is irresistible. So what happened on the night in question? Nothing fun, unfortunately. Fully expecting to read about some wild party or drunken escapade, journo Gwen Ferguson instead tells us that in 1942, when Hepburn was a Dutch teen named Audrey Kathleen Ruston, she was “brutally kidnapped and subjected to terrible indignities” by a Nazi soldier. As is typical for mid-century tabloids, this claim comes not from direct interviews, but rather from a fly-on-the-wall third person account. In this case, the magazine claims she confessed what happened to prospective husband Mel Ferrer, pictured next to her below, because she wanted him to have a chance to rescind his marriage proposal. The implication is clear—“indignities” is a euphemism for rape. Or else why would Ferguson suggest Ferrer might turn tail and run?

We found this issue of the magazine Paris Frou Frou with cover star Lili St. Cyr, always lovely but wearing a crown this time, which is a fitting accessory for one of the queens of burlesque. The issue was incomplete, but below are a few interior pages, including one with the semi-famous 1950s dancer who billed herself as Miss Kalantan, as well as shots of Kirk Douglas and Elsa Martinelli. Also mixed in were some clippings from a second issue of Paris Frou Frou, and we’ve added those pages too. All the images date from the mid-1950s.

First the Festival of San Fermin, and now Spain’s World Cup victory. To say last night’s celebration was exuberant is an understatement. Nevertheless, we’re back to doing what we do, so here’s a random Spanish-language magazine we ran across, the long-running film publication Ecran, which is not from Spain but rather from Chile. This issue is circa 1965, with Italian actress Elsa Martinelli on the cover. Martinelli starred in a couple of our favorite cheesy flicks from the sixties, which means we’ll be getting back to her in more detail soon.

Assorted frolicsome images from Japanese celeb magazines, with “Sharlon” Tate in panel four and Sylva Koscina in panel eleven.     

If this looks like a poster for some sort of gothic lesbian vampire romance, well, you should start up your own psychic friends network, because you’re right. Alternatively, maybe you aren’t psychic, and this is just extremely successful promo art. Directed by Roger Vadim, Il sangue e la rosa is loosely based upon Irish author Sheridan LeFanu’s classic tale Carmilla, which appeared in his 1872 anthology In a Glass Darkly. Vadim’s adaptation was originally released in France under the title Et mourir de plaisir, but later renamed and paired with the fantastic art you see above. It premiered in Italy in… well, if you’re psychic you already know.