| Intl. Notebook | Oct 29 2019 |
The girl next door has a mentally unbalanced doppelganger.
These rare Marilyn Monroe pin-up posters, which are life-sized and were advertised in magazines as something to hang on a bedroom or closet door, appeared in 1953. Two different companies made these. At least we assume so, because they have different street addresses printed on them where the curious could write for info. On the platinum poster it's Pin-Ups, Dept. K, Box 86, Boston, Mass. That pretty much guarantees only single men could buy them. “Honey, what's this letter you've stamped that's addressed to Pin-Ups?” The other address works better for the partnered up: Life-Size, Dept. X, Redstone, New Hampshire. “Honey, what is this life-size place you're sending a letter to? Life-size what?” Okay, maybe that one doesn't work either.
Monroe started her career as a girl-next-door type, but had become a star, gone platinum, and gotten her famed poodle hair-do by 1953. The two pin-up companies—assuming they were separate—both somehow had the identical negative from earlier in Monroe's career. One was content to print her as she was, but the folks in Boston decided on a platinum makeover. It was a canny move, except the re-do is different enough in an almost subliminal way to make her look like a psychopath smiling because she's about to devour a human kidney. Maybe not the best thing to have staring from your closet door after midnight. At least she's wearing blue. It's well known to be the sanest color.
Monroe started her career as a girl-next-door type, but had become a star, gone platinum, and gotten her famed poodle hair-do by 1953. The two pin-up companies—assuming they were separate—both somehow had the identical negative from earlier in Monroe's career. One was content to print her as she was, but the folks in Boston decided on a platinum makeover. It was a canny move, except the re-do is different enough in an almost subliminal way to make her look like a psychopath smiling because she's about to devour a human kidney. Maybe not the best thing to have staring from your closet door after midnight. At least she's wearing blue. It's well known to be the sanest color.
It's possible one company was responsible for both of these pieces, and it simply had two addresses at some point during 1953, but we're sticking with the two printer theory. What isn't a theory is that Monroe is a consummate work of art. Even when she's terrifying. We have an absolute pile of Monroe material in the website, and if you click her keywords below you'll be set upon a path that could keep you busy for a large part of your day. But focusing only on sheer pin-up awesomeness, even though the above examples are great, we prefer the one at this link. If it's not her best it's close.
| Intl. Notebook | Sep 25 2019 |
Politics, show business, and sports collide in one of the U.S.'s oldest magazines.
We've shared lots of issues of The National Police Gazette, but this September 1959 cover, more than others, neatly emphasizes the magazine's three focus areas—politics, celebrity, and sports. Dishing on political figures and celebs was typical for mid-century tabloids, but Gazette's devotion to sports made it unique. And its favorite sport was boxing. Every issue we've seen has reserved a chunk of pages for the sweet science.
In this case the scientist is Sugar Ray Robinson, and the story about him discusses the rivalry he had with Carmen Basilio. The two fought twice when Robinson was in decline at the tail end of his career. Sugar Ray lost the first bout—considered by boxing historians to be one of the greatest fights ever—and a year later won the second. Every boxer declines, but Robinson's career record stands tall—he fought two hundred times and tallied 173 wins, 108 of them by knockout. But for all that hard work he ended up—as boxers often do—flat broke.
Police Gazette was launched in 1845, as incredible as that seems, and was still going strong more than a century later when this issue appeared. We have about twenty-five scans below and seventy-five more entries on Gazette in the website comprising many hundreds of pages. The easiest way to access those, as well as numerous other mid-century tabloids, is via our tabloid index located here.
Police GazetteSugar Ray RobinsonJohn F. KennedyDebbie ReynoldsEddie FisherCarmen BasilioBillie HolidayMarilyn MonroeBrigitte BardotJayne Mansfieldtabloidboxingbaseball
| Intl. Notebook | Jun 9 2019 |
Endless sights in the City of Light.
We're back from Paris and it was as expected. We found a lot of great items we'll be uploading in the next days and weeks. And months, probably. Paris has many great sights, in every part of the city, but this time we ended up staying in Montmartre, an area that reminds us a bit of Washington Square, in San Francisco, that same feel of a tourist zone in a big city that has somehow managed to hang onto a neighborhood identity. As we wandered around town we saw scores of bookstores, some of which you see photos of below, and many had the type of material we were searching for. The focus this time ended up being on cinema magazines and comic books. Keep your eyes peeled. We have amazing things to show you.
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FranceParisMontmartreThe Seven Year Itch7 ans de réflexionMidnight LacePiège à minuitMarilyn MonroeDoris Daycinema
| Intl. Notebook | May 14 2019 |
Going for a stroll in the city where feet and pavement rarely meet.
Above, random photos made from the 1930s through the 1960s of women on the streets of Los Angeles. Most of the subjects are regular people, but some are models, and you may recognize a celebrity or three. A couple of these are from a collection of photos documenting the city's killer smog, which is why you see a few people seemingly crying. Want more L.A. walkers? We have a set of Vikki Dougan shocking Angelenos with a dress cut down to her asscrack, and a single image of Ingrid Bergman strolling quietly in Bunker Hill. Check here for the former, and here for the latter.
Los AngelesDonna Mae BrownLana TurnerMarilyn MonroeRita HayworthJoan BradshawJune WilkinsonJayne MansfieldNancy Wilson
| Femmes Fatales | Feb 13 2019 |
Who needs make-up when you have a face like hers?
This candid style shot purports to show Marilyn Monroe without make-up, but we suspect she at least has on a little something. In any case, lacking her usual mascara, eyeliner, and lipstick, she does have a nice fresh look. The photo was made while she was filming Ladies of the Chorus in 1948.
| Hollywoodland | Dec 8 2018 |
And you think America is polarized today.
The iconic polar bear rug. What can you say about them? Well, it's not a good look nowadays, but back then people thought these sorts of decorations were quite chic. When did that end? Possibly shortly after the three-hundredth Playboy model posed on one, or when many people began to see trophy hunting as the obsession of vain and unsavory millionaires. One of those two. Personally, we blame Hefner. In the shot above Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay take polar bear style to its pinnacle. Just look at that room. Besides the bear they have a copper ceiling, satin curtains, and a white shag rug. It's a pimp's wet dream and all of it must have cost a fortune. We like to imagine what the look on Jayne's face would have been if anyone walked in with a brimming glass of red wine. We bet she'd have turned whiter than the bear.
We have more photos in the same vein below. If you need help identifying the stars, their names are in our keywords in order of appearance. Looking at the entire collection, we tend to wonder if there were three or four bears that ended up in all the photos. You know, like bears owned by certain photography studios or prop departments. Just saying, a couple of them look suspiciously similar. But on the other hand, how different from each other do bears really look? You'll notice that the poor creatures were generally posed to look fierce. But by contrast Inger Stevens' bear, just below, strikes us as a bit reflective and melancholy, which is understandable. Elizabeth Montgomery, meanwhile, gets extra points for wearing her bear. We have twenty-plus images below, including another shot of Mansfield, sans Hargitay.
We have more photos in the same vein below. If you need help identifying the stars, their names are in our keywords in order of appearance. Looking at the entire collection, we tend to wonder if there were three or four bears that ended up in all the photos. You know, like bears owned by certain photography studios or prop departments. Just saying, a couple of them look suspiciously similar. But on the other hand, how different from each other do bears really look? You'll notice that the poor creatures were generally posed to look fierce. But by contrast Inger Stevens' bear, just below, strikes us as a bit reflective and melancholy, which is understandable. Elizabeth Montgomery, meanwhile, gets extra points for wearing her bear. We have twenty-plus images below, including another shot of Mansfield, sans Hargitay.
Jayne MansfieldMickey HargitayInger StevensAnn MillerAnn SheridanNichelle NicholsCarol BakerClaudia DellPat KirkwoodLupe VelezElizabeth MontgomeryLizabeth ScottEvelyn NesbittDorothy SebastianJean HarlowMarilyn MonroeSophia LorenVeronica LakeRita HayworthDiana DorsOlga BaclanovaJoan Collins
| Hollywoodland | Aug 31 2018 |
Monroe goes for a joy ride and bums out fifty-one women.
Above is a page from the Japanese celeb magazine Roadshow of Marilyn Monroe having a laugh in the rear of a convertible while acting as Grand Marshall of The Miss America Pageant. The one she headlined was the 1952 event, held in Atlantic City today that year. You'd think all the contestants would have resigned dejectedly after getting a glimpse of their marshall, who was 
pre-superstardom but was still Marilyn Monroe, yet the pageant actually went on and was won by Neva Jane Langley of Georgia.
pre-superstardom but was still Marilyn Monroe, yet the pageant actually went on and was won by Neva Jane Langley of Georgia.A lot of websites get that last fact wrong, which we think is because of Wikipedia. There the pageant winners are listed according to the year they served, not the year they competed. Since the contests were held the previous summer or autumn to choose the upcoming year's queen, most sites say Colleen Kay Hutchins won the pageant Monroe marshalled.
Nope. It was Langley, who beat out contestants from all forty-eight states, plus Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico. There she is below wearing her sash, which says 1953, for her reign beginning the first of the next year. But even in victory she's probably thinking, Now that I've seen Marilyn I'm going to lock myself in a cellar for sixteen months and have someone feed me through a slot in the door.
| Intl. Notebook | Jul 19 2018 |
Putting Monroe on the cover was a Smart move.
Above, a few scans from the Hong Kong celeb magazine Smart Weekly, with Marilyn Monroe looking druggy but very sexy on the cover. Even halfway around the world Monroe was a guarantor of magazine sales. This was issue #98 from Smart, and you'd think after nearly a hundred print runs the publishers would pay for a better process, but no such luck. Graininess tended to be a characteristic of mid-century Hong Kong mags and this one from 1956 is no exception. We can't read it, but we don't have to. When it comes to Monroe, we (and you too) already know what they're writing.
| Hollywoodland | Jun 22 2018 |
Comic book icon Stan Lee goes Hollywood.
Nostalgia Illustrated was a New York City based magazine published by none other than comic book kingpin Stan Lee. It debuted in November 1974, with the issue you see here coming this month in 1975. It's exactly as its title suggests—a collection of vintage photos of American icons. We imagine Lee wanted to get into the burgeoning tabloid market, but one that didn't go full Hollywood gossip. Instead the stories are more along the lines of respectful bios, which makes it less tabloid than fanboy publication.
Except for the cover, its design is nothing special, but it contains a wealth of old Hollywood photos we haven't seen before, which makes it worth a share. You get John Garfield, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe (because what's a nostalgia magazine without her?), a youthful John F. Kennedy, and many other celebs. There's also a story on John Lewis Roventini, the “world's smallest bellhop” at four feet in height, who was famous in New York City for a time. All in thirty scans below.
Except for the cover, its design is nothing special, but it contains a wealth of old Hollywood photos we haven't seen before, which makes it worth a share. You get John Garfield, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe (because what's a nostalgia magazine without her?), a youthful John F. Kennedy, and many other celebs. There's also a story on John Lewis Roventini, the “world's smallest bellhop” at four feet in height, who was famous in New York City for a time. All in thirty scans below.
Nostalgia IllustratedMarvel ComicsStan LeeMarilyn MonroeJohn F. KennedyJohn Lewis RoventiniJohn GarfieldMarilyn MonroeRaquel WelchBetty GrableGreta GarboMarlene DietrichJane RussellRita HayworthMae West
| Vintage Pulp | Apr 18 2018 |
Documentary charts Marilyn Monroe's climb to the top of Tinseltown.
Completing the third of a triptych of poster for the documentary Marilyn, above we have a U.S. poster made for the movie's premiere there today in 1963. We already shared the Yugoslavian and Japanese posters. They're all similar—the dress and the backgrounds change color but they all have the same image of Monroe in the hands raised pose you see here. And we love the shot. The movie, as we mentioned before, was put together by Twentieth Century Fox to celebrate Monroe, and mission accomplished. It's a must for fans.
