From the hair salon to the executive suite. This issue of The National Tattler hit newsstands today in 1974, and as you can see, it lacks a certain something compared to issues of the 1960s. The earlier Tattler featured fantastically exploitative stories conjured from the darkest reaches of the editors' imaginations, while the 1974 version has content that is—amazingly—mostly true. Mostly. We're not sure about Richard Burton turning to a faith healer to help with his drinking problem, and if he did, it didn't work. Alcohol problems plagued him until his death. The story that really caught our eye is the piece on Barbra Streisand moving in with her hairdresser. That hairdresser was Jon Peters, who, with a major boost from Streisand, became one of the biggest producers in Hollywood. Quite a climb from giving perms. Starting from scratch, knowing literally zero about moviemaking, he soon earned production credits on hits such as Caddyshack, Rainman, Batman, and The Color Purple. But he also made some ludicrous flops—The Bonfire of the Vanities and Who's That Girl come to mind. That's par for the course for producers. Win a few, lose a few. Along the way Peters became a legendary eccentric, and these days he's almost as well known for being the subject of a Kevin Smith diatribe about everything that is wrong with Hollywood than for his movie work. Smith's take on Peters is one of the funniest Tinseltown insider tales of all time, and we suggest you do yourself a favor and enjoy it in its entirety. Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here. It may be the best eighteen minutes you've ever spent online, and as bonus it's got spiders in it.
The whole thing was purely sexual. Above, a typically text-heavy cover of The National Tattler from today in 1964. Inside, the editors report on the sexual deviations of American women, basically echoing the famous Kinsey Report that in 1953 completely upended what the public thought they knew about female sexual behavior. Check out our other Tattlers by clicking the keywords below.
Tales from the dark side. We’ve got quite a backlog of tabloids here, so we’re officially designating March tabloid month at Pulp Intl., and we’re starting with this issue of The National Tattler, published today in 1970. It features tales about Charles Manson’s revenge fantasies, Dean Martin’s partying lifestyle, and Jackie O’s problems with poltergeists. Stories about Kennedy ghosts were rampant during the early ’70s, and we actually have a few other tabs we’ll show you later that riff on the same chord. Also of note is a story about America reaching its pollution doomsday in 1980. Again with that year? We just don’t get it. Perhaps in the other tabloids we share this month we’ll find an answer. Expect appearances from The National Police Gazette, Hush-Hush, Confidential, Whisper and all the other heavy hitters of the era, as well as a few obscure finds we’ve made during the last year. See the Tattler in rare form here and here, and check the website badmags.com for even more.
I slink therefore I am. The National Tattler is truly one of our favorite tabloids. How could it not be, when its editors had so few qualms about leaving reality coughing in a cloud of dust by the roadside? Plus, we have a soft spot for it because it was the first tabloid we ever posted. The Tattler’s niche was shock, and when they couldn’t find images of decomposing bodies or mutilated accident victims for their covers, they resorted to old-fashioned paste-up, as in this image of a human caterpillar who has a wife and family. Some would see his condition as a handicap, but certainly there are advantages to being born a caterpillar. For one thing, by the time you get married you’ve already learned to crawl.
National Tattler cover, 1 November, 1964. We suspect they have a different kind of meal in mind than we do, but in any case it must have been an awfully slow news day.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1939—Batman Debuts
In Detective Comics #27, DC Comics publishes its second major superhero, Batman, who becomes one of the most popular comic book characters of all time, and then a popular camp television series starring Adam West, and lastly a multi-million dollar movie franchise starring Michael Keaton, then George Clooney, and finally Christian Bale. 1953—Crick and Watson Publish DNA Results
British scientists James D Watson and Francis Crick publish an article detailing their discovery of the existence and structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, in Nature magazine. Their findings answer one of the oldest and most fundamental questions of biology, that of how living things reproduce themselves. 1967—First Space Program Casualty Occurs
Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1 when, during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere after more than ten successful orbits, the capsule's main parachute fails to deploy properly, and the backup chute becomes entangled in the first. The capsule's descent is slowed, but it still hits the ground at about 90 mph, at which point it bursts into flames. Komarov is the first human to die during a space mission. 1986—Otto Preminger Dies
Austro–Hungarian film director Otto Preminger, who directed such eternal classics as Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Carmen Jones, The Man with the Golden Arm, and Stalag 17, and for his efforts earned a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, dies in New York City, aged 80, from cancer and Alzheimer's disease. 1998—James Earl Ray Dies
The convicted assassin of American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., petty criminal James Earl Ray, dies in prison of hepatitis aged 70, protesting his innocence as he had for decades. Members of the King family who supported Ray's fight to clear his name believed the U.S. Government had been involved in Dr. King's killing, but with Ray's death such questions became moot.
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