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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)
2005, Jun 20; 10:36 ::: SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties (2004) - Lydia Lunch, Adam Parfrey
SIN-A-RAMA: Sleaze Sex Paperbacks of the Sixties (2004) - Brittany A. Daley, Adam Parfrey, Lydia Lunch, Earl Kemp, Miriam Linna, Jay A. Gertzman, John Gilmore, Michael Hemmingson, Robert Silverberg, Lynn Munroe, Stephen J. Gertz [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
"Earl Kemp edited smut and went to prison for it..." (more)
From Publishers Weekly
Older readers may remember the lurid soft-X-rated paperbacks-titles like Topless Waitress, Lake of Lust, Casting Couch and so on-that crowded the shelves of newsstands and candy stores but more often adult bookstores in the 1960s. What most distinguished these paperbacks wasn't their narratives but their frequently amazing covers, swashes of erotic eye-candy that, as surely as a Warhol soupcan, now define an era. And so the emphasis in this first-rate celebration of these paperbacks is on the covers, with hundreds reproduced in what looks like accurate (i.e., soul-shocking) color.Most of these reproductions appear in the editors' grouping of sex paperbacks into various themes (Asphalt Jungle, Sex at Play, Butch Swish, etc.) but more show up in the startling essays and profiles that precede these groupings-startling for the several well-known authors profiled (Donald Westlake, Ed Wood, Lawrence Block) and for the praise-going by the illustrations, well justified-for a handful of the star cover artists.
The book opens with overviews of the history of softcore paperback publishing by Jay A. Gertzman and Stephen J. Gertz and, most notably, by acclaimed SF author Robert Silverberg, who in "My Life as a Pornographer" recounts how by 1962 he was "turning out three Nightstand books a month" and earning enough money to buy "an enormous mansion in the finest residential neighborhood of New York City." A catalogue of "sleaze publishers" and a list of author pseudonyms (Miriam Gardner: Marion Zimmer Bradley; Paul Merchant: Harlan Ellison, etc.) close this informative and giddily entertaining book. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Boston Globe, March 20, 2005: The Golden Age of Sleaze
Deeply satisfying...a lavish tribute to the courageous authors, illustrators, and editors...There is much to admire about SIN-A-RAMA.see also: Jay Gertzman - 1960s - sin - sleaze - pulp - exploitation - erotic books
2005, Jun 20; 10:36 ::: Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback (2001) - Susan Stryker
Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback (2001) - Susan Stryker [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
This pair of paeans to the paperback offers two diverse focuses, with some crossover. Culture historian Lupoff's heavily illustrated account traces the paperback's roots to the 1800s but focuses primarily on the era from 1920 onward, with emphasis on the many players who took the penny dreadful and morphed it into a legitimate publishing form to create empires. Stryker, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Historical Society in San Francisco, focuses on the tawdry side of paperback publishing, which in some cases was an extension of the pornography trade tailored for the reading middle class. Though some of these pulp books were penned by serious scribes trying to elevate writings with a homosexual focus into a legitimate art form, most failed to get beyond the sleazy cheap thrills for which they were intended. Many of the trashier ones e.g., Hot Pants Homo, Lesbo Lodge were so bad that they have become kitschy collector's items. Both volumes are profusely illustrated with loads of covers from the sublime to the ridiculous, making them quite browsable. Libraries needing a straight (no pun intended) history of paperback publishing should consider Lupoff's title, strangely available as a pricey hardcover, while those serving gay communities will do well with Stryker. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal" --Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Paperback
Paperback may refer to a kind of book binding by which papers are simply folded without cloth or leather and bound - usually with glue rather than stitches or staples - into a thick paper cover; or to a book with this type of binding. (Contrast hardbound or hardcover.)One of the first publishers to exploit the potential of paperbacks was Penguin Books, and since then paperbacks have become commonplace.
Paperbacks include cheap mass market paperbacks, in the standard "pocketbook" format generally printed on newsprint or other low quality paper, which will discolor and disintegrate over a period of decades, and more expensive trade paperbacks in larger formats printed on better quality paper, sometimes acid-free paper. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paperback [Jun 2005]
Mass market paperback
A mass market paperback is a small, non-illustrated, and relatively cheap version of a book, usually coming out after the hardback and often sold in airports and supermarkets as well as in bookstores.Mass market paperbacks are distinguished from hardbacks also by the different business practices that publishers and booksellers apply to them. When booksellers note that books have been in stock a while and have not sold, they may return them to the publisher for a refund or credit on future orders. However, in the case of mass market paperbacks, this "return" usually means stripping the front cover, returning that for credit, and pulping the book itself. Changes in the costs of printing relative to the costs of shipping have led to the creation of trade paperbacks, which are similar in format to mass market paperbacks, but larger (near hardback size) and with different returns policies applied to them.
The mass market paperbacks sold in airport newsstands have given rise to the vaguely defined literary genre of the "airport novel", bought by travellers to while away the hours of sitting and waiting. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_market_paperback [Jun 2005]
see also: cheap
2005, Jun 20; 09:56 ::: Lovis Corinth (1858 - 1925)
Othello (1884) - Lovis Corinth (1840 - 1915)
Lovis Corinth (July 21, 1858, Tapiau, East Prussia (today Gwardeisk in the Russian enclave Kaliningrad Oblast) - July 17, 1925, Zandvoort, Netherlands) was a German painter who found a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovis_Corinth [Jun 2005]
2005, Jun 20; 09:39 ::: The Ecstatic Virgin Anna Katharina Emmerich (1885)
The Ecstatic Virgin Anna Katharina Emmerich (1885) - Gabriel Cornelius von Max (1840 - 1915)
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (8 September 1774 - 9 February 1824) was a Catholic Christian Augustinian nun, alleged stigmatic, and ecstatic. She was born in Flamsche, near Coesfeld, in the Diocese of Münster, Westphalia, Germany and died in Dulmen. On October 3, 2004, Pope John Paul II officially beatified her, giving her the title "Blessed". (It is worth noting that her writings were not considered in the beatification process, since they were all dictated to Klemens Brentano, who may have taken liberties in his translation and recording of her words.) -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Catherine_Emmerich [Jun 2005]
In 1833 appeared the first-fruits of Klemens Brentano's toil, "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to the Meditations of Anne Catherine Emmerich" (Sulzbach). These visions include grotesque anti-Semitic characterizations of Jews. -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Catherine_Emmerich [May 2004]
see also: 1885 - virgin - ecstasy
2005, Jun 20; 01:31 ::: Blood: Art, Power, Politics, and Pathology (2001) - James M. Bradburne
Blood: Art, Power, Politics, and Pathology (2001) - James M. Bradburne [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Blood: Art, Power, Politics, and Pathology examines one of the most powerful and ubiquitous of human symbols. Illustrated with art works from some of the world ’s most important collections, this volume shows how changing conceptions of blood have shaped social relations and material culture over the past 1,500 years.
From the Publisher
The book presents and discusses various art media such as painting, sculpture, engraving, print, video, performance, and installation, shedding light on the changing symbolism of blood through the ages. The book analyzes in depth blood as a symbol of life and death, health and sickness, and power and powerlessness. It also explores the diverse portrayal of blood in the official " high ”culture of painting and sculpture and the popular " low ”culture of caricatures and newspapers. Including the works of modern artists Hermann Nitsch, Jenny Holzer, and Marina Abramovic, this provocative book examines how blood has been represented in art and culture through the centuries.The Exhibition
Museum fur Angewandte Kunst und Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt am Main (11 November 2001- 27 January 2002)see also: blood
2005, Jun 20; 00:35 ::: Celia, A Slave () - Melton A. Mclaurin
Celia, A Slave () - Melton A. Mclaurin [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
From School Library Journal
YA-- A remarkable biography of a young woman who at the age of 14 became the working and sexual slave of her widowed Missouri master. After bearing two of his children, and falling in love with a fellow bondsman, Celia tried to sever the sexual relationship with her enslaver. He raped her; she killed him while try to defend herself. She was convicted of murder and hanged at the age of 19. McLaurin has masterfully researched judicial, historical, and contemporary materials in preparing this compelling and thoughtful narrative. Enhanced by its sensitivity and brevity, this book is a provocative starting point for discussion of its many ethical, legal, historical, and social issues. It should be required reading for high school students. - Catherine vanSonnenberg, San Diego Public Library Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.White slavery scare
In the mid-19th century in the U.S., there was a white slavery scare which suggested that large numbers of white women were being kidnapped and forced into prostitution. The prevalence of this practice was greatly exaggerated due to xenophobia, and this phenomenon is generally regarded today as having been an example of a moral panic.In fact, at that time, the US victims of sexual slavery were overwhelmingly women of African descent, held as slaves, often purchased with sexual exploitation as the primary goal. A supposedly true story of one such girl, purchased as a sexual slave when she was fourteen, is told in Celia, A Slave by Melton A. Mclaurin, and such practice is also widely referred to in other literature discussing the era, for instance Roots by Alex Haley. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_slavery#Sexual_slavery_in_North_America [Jun 2005]
see also: white - slave - white slave - slave trade
2005, Jun 19; 23:19 ::: Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker
Traffic in Souls (1913) - George Loane Tucker [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
(1913 - silent) dir: George Loane Tucker; w/ Jane Gail, Matt Moore, Ethel Grandia. · · · Being an exposé of the sordid world of white slavery, in which a heroic policeman saves his sweetheart's sister from a fate worse than death and cracks a vile kidnapping and prostitution ring operated by one of the city's most eminent men. Immigrant girls and unfortunate waifs are abducted by bad men and forced by wicked women into a life of sin, but our young hero uses high-tech (the grandpappy of all bugging devices and a wax-cylinder phonograph) to bring the evil traffickers to their just rewards. Ahem. Part crime drama and part morality play with a just a teeny hint of exploitation, the script is pure silent-era schmaltz. The editing, however, is a tad abrupt & bewildering, as we bounce all over the city following the progress of many different people. And in a time before pans & dollies, the photography may at first seem clunky, but the director shows how to use a deep stage and efficient set-ups to cram a lot of story information into a static scene. A remarkably fast-paced script and plenty of exaggerated melodrama makes it actually fun to watch even for modern audiences. --http://www.cathuria.com/bcd/bcsilent.htm [Jun 2005]
see also: white - slave - white slave - prostitution - 1913
2005, Jun 19; 21:30 ::: White Slaves of Chinatown (1964) - Joseph P. Mawra
White Slaves of Chinatown (1964) - Joseph P. Mawra [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0129598/ [Jun 2005]
What Ilsa was to the 1970s, Olga was to the '60s: the ultimate female embodiment of roughie cinema. Born as the sadistic protagonist of the successful bondage and domination film White Slaves of Chinatown, she immediately spawned a line of sequels which increased the sleaze tenfold.
Portrayed by the formidable Audrey Campbell, the resourceful dominatrix/interrogator returned for Olga's House of Shame and the most widely distributed title, Olga's Girls, before switching actress personas for Olga's Dance Hall Girls and the elusive Madame Olga's Massage Parlor. Here Olga lends her cutting-edge skills as the kinky muscle for a crime syndicate intent on uncovering the rat who's been squealing on them to the cops. As it turns out, the guilty party is one of Olga's Chinatown ladies of the evening, so she embarks on a systemic plan of torture and sexual abuse before fate steps in to throw a few unexpected curveballs. --http://www.mondo-digital.com/olgasgirls.html [Jun 2005]
see also: Olga - exploitation - exploitation film - roughie - sexfilm - sexploitation - sleaze - 1964
2005, Jun 19; 20:32 ::: Andromeda
Andromeda and the Nereids (1840) - Théodore Chassériau
2005, Jun 19; 19:54 ::: Slavery
Babylonian Marriage Market (1875) - Edwin Long
Edwin Long's painting Babylonian Marriage Market depicts the auction of girls for marriage. When it was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1875 it caused a sensation. --http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/2004_44_fri_02.shtml [Jun 2005]
Selling Slaves in Rome (1886) - Jean-Léon Gérôme
Even after the occupation of Algiers, white slavery remained an argument in favor of the ongoing campaign. In their Voyage pittoresque dans la Regence d'Alger, published in 1835, Emile Lessore and William Wyld depicted the former haunts of Barbary corsairs and the slave market in the Place Juba. The accompanying text congratulated the French for ridding Algiers of these slave traders. (135) Vacherot exhibited his picture of the slave market at the Salon of 1841. (136) Under the haughty gaze of a Turkish client, a white odalisque, naked apart from a white sheet drawn across her midsection, reclines in the foreground, immediately in front of a black woman with clasped hands. Prints deploring the slave trade, such as Vente d'esclaves from 1838 by Nicolas Eustache Maurin, featured the same repertory of characters: scantily dressed women supplicating their captors or prospective purchasers (Fig. 10). This racial contrast is central to the series of pictures set in the harem that Chasseriau painted after his return from Algeria. (137) In the mural, his juxtaposition of a black captive with her arms drawn up to her face and the defenseless white flesh of her fellow prisoners echoes the racial diversity of, and the positions assumed by Maurin's female slaves. It is above all in Chasseriau's adoption of the exposed and vulnerable back of the woman in the left of the lithograph for the central figures of his mural that suggests the imprint of the Barbary slave trade in The Return of the Captives. Chasseriau took Maurin's figure and duplicated her, giving the unbound hair cascading down her back to one of his faceless captives and the erotically charged drapery slung low across her naked hips to the other. (138) --http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0422/is_4_86/ai_n8680934/pg_8 [Jun 2005]
2005, Jun 19; 19:43 ::: Moral panic
Criminal Conversations: Victorian Crimes, Social Panic, And Moral Outrage (2005) - Rowbotham, Stevenson[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
In the climate of social panics that characterized so much of the Victorian period, there was keen consciousness of the threats a variety of crimes posed to social stability. Conversations about crime, particularly via the media, were a major feature of Victorian Britain’s daily life, and it was through such conversations that people learned about the nature of crime and criminality, as well as about the individuals who committed crimes or were merely guilty of socially offensive conduct or “bad” behavior.
The essays in this book set out to explore the ways in which Victorians used newspapers to identify the causes of bad behavior and its impacts, and the ways in which they tried to “distance” criminals and those guilty of “bad” behavior from the ordinary members of society, including identification of them as different according to race or sexual orientation. It also explores how threats from within “normal” society were depicted and the panic that issues like “baby-farming” caused.
Victorian alarm was about crimes and bad behavior which they saw as new or unique to their period—but which were not new then and which, in slightly different dress, are still causing panic today. What is striking about the essays in this collection are the ways they echo contemporary concerns about crime and bad behavior, including panics about “new” types of crime. This has implications for modern understandings of how society needs to understand crime, demonstrating that while there are changes over time, there are also important continuities.
Judith Rowbotham is senior lecturer in history, Nottingham Trent University. Kim Stevenson is senior lecturer in law at the University of Plymouth. Rowbotham and Stevenson are founders and directors of SOLON: Promoting Interdisciplinary Studies in Bad Behavior and Crime. --http://www.ohiostatepress.org/index.htm?books/book%20pages/rowbotham%20criminal.html [Jun 2005]
Moral panic
A moral panic is a mass movement based on the perception that some individual or group, frequently a minority group or a subculture, is dangerously deviant and poses a menace to society. These panics are generally fuelled by media coverage of social issues (although semi-spontaneous moral panics do occur), and often include a large element of mass hysteria.A moral panic is specifically framed in terms of morality, and usually expressed as outrage rather than unadulterated fear. Though not always, very often moral panics revolve around issues of sex and sexuality. A widely circulated and new-seeming urban legend is frequently involved. These panics can sometimes lead to mob violence. The term was coined by Stanley Cohen in 1972 to describe media coverage of Mods and Rockers in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. A factor in moral panic is the deviancy amplification spiral.
A moral panic is different from mass hysteria in that a moral panic is specifically framed in terms of morality, and usually expressed as outrage rather than unadulterated fear.
Recent moral panics in the UK have included the ongoing tabloid newspaper campaign against pedophiles, which led to the assault and persecution of a pediatrician by an angry mob (who'd mistaken the terms) in August 2000, and that surrounding the murder of James Bulger in Liverpool, England, United Kingdom in 1993. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic [Jun 2005]
2005, Jun 19; 18:59 ::: The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) - Claude Levi-Strauss
The Elementary Structures of Kinship (1949) - Claude Levi-Strauss [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Claude Lévi-Strauss (born November 28, 1908) is a French anthropologist who became one of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals by developing structuralism as a method of understanding human society and culture. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%E9vi-Strauss [Jun 2005]
The Elementary Structures of Kinship was published the next year and instantly came to be regarded as one of the most important works of anthropological kinship to be published and was even reviewed favorably by Simone de Beauvoir, who viewed it as an important statement of the position of women in non-western cultures. A play on the title of Émile Durkheim's famous Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Elementary Structures re-examined how people organized their families by examining the logical structures that underlay relationships rather than their contents. While British anthropologists such as Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown argued that kinship was based on descent from a common ancestor, Lévi-Strauss argued that kinship was based on the alliance between two families that formed when women from one group married men from the other. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_L%E9vi-Strauss [Jun 2005]
see also: anthropology - structuralism - 1949
2005, Jun 19; 18:59 ::: The Maiden Tribute of Modern BabylonOn 6 July 1885, the Pall Mall Gazette, one of England's premier daily newspapers, began a series titled "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon." The series was an instant sensation; it not only rocked English society to its foundations, but sent shockwaves throughout Europe, through France and Belgium, and into the United States. The public outcry that followed forced Parliament to enact specific legislation and led to the establishment of local organizations and international networks which survive to the present day. The topic of "The Maiden Tribute" was white slavery-the abduction, sale, and organized rape of English virgins.
As the title suggests, "The Maiden Tribute" successfully linked in the public mind two basically unrelated topics-prostitution and slavery. The title was itself an odd admixture of Christian legend and Greek folklore, combining temple prostitution in ancient Babylon with the tale of the Minotaur. According to Greek mythology, every seventh year the people of Athens were compelled to sacrifice seven virgins to this "frightful monster, half man, half bull, the foul product of unnatural lust." But in "The Maiden Tribute," London had become the modern Babylon:
This very night in London, and every night, year in and year out, not seven maidens only but many times seven, selected almost as much by chance as those . . . flung into the Cretan labyrinth, will be offered up as the Maid.--Pall Mall Gazette , Monday, 6 July 1885[...]
Whether or not white slavery actually existed or represented a significant factor in prostitution will not be argued here. Many Victorians were convinced that white slavery existed, while many others were just as certain that it did not; what is of concern is the dialogue itself. The issue is essentially one of definition: acceptance of the white slavery idea depends a great deal upon how one defines it. For example, what the modern feminist might call white slavery the anthropologist benignly labels "the exchange of women." Claude Levi-Strauss identifies the exchange of women as "a fundamental principle of kinship," with women acting as the units of exchange by which men established kinship ties and avoided constant warfare; hence Levi -Strauss argues that the traffic in women is nothing less than the foundation of civilization. Alternatively, Marxists draw upon the concept of white slavery as a means of blurring the distinction between sexual and economic exploitation; the earliest use of the term actually refers to the exploitation of wage laborers by industrial capitalism. It is in this sense that Karl Marx argues that "prostitution is only a specific expression of the general prostitution of the labourer," and hence casts the capitalist as white slaver.
via http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~epf/1996/wslavery.html [Jun 2005]
see also: 1885
2005, Jun 19; 18:59 ::: The Shock! package from Screen Gems
By 1957, RKO, Monogram, PRC, and a number of other studios had begun releasing their films to television. One of those films was King Kong. In May of 1956, a showing of that film in New York city was watched by an estimated 90% of homes with television sets. That caught the attention of a number of executives.
Screen Gems, the television arm of Columbia, owned the TV rights to hundreds of old Universal films. It quickly assembled 52 into a package it called Shock!, which it released to television in October of 1957. Screen Gems ran a series of ads in Variety promoting the release, as well as the ratings increases seen by stations which ran the package. To promote the films, it supplied studios with a promotional kit, which encouraged all kinds of antics. The use of a "host" was encouraged, and a number of stations elected to use them.
Others, such as A.A.P. jumped on the bandwagon, and also released horror films.
The country went wild, and Columbia quickly released a second package, which contained a number of its own horror films, as well as some of the classics from Universal, which for some strange reason were not included in the original Shock! package. It was called Son of Shock!, and was released in May of 1958. --http://www.milwaukee-horror-hosts.com/hosts_inline.html [Jun 2005]
see also: television - horror film - horror from Universal Studios - programming
2005, Jun 19; 14:29 ::: TV horror hosts
Spook Along With Zacherley (1960) - Zacherley [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
American Scary is a look at the nation's tradition of horror hosting, from Ghoulardi to Ghoul-A-Go-Go. Follow this American folk art form from its glamorous beginnings, through repeated waves of popularity, to its scrappy resurgence and survival in the age of cable access and the Internet.
Everywhere we go, the people we meet remember their local hosts fondly: from Bob Wilkins and John Stanley in the San Francisco Bay area, Zacherley in New York, Chicago's Svengoolie, to Sir Cecil Creepe in Nashville. --http://www.americanscary.com/index.html [Jun 2005]
Trailer here.
American Scary is a look at the nation's tradition of horror hosting, from Ghoulardi to Ghoul-A-Go-Go. Follow this American folk art form from its glamorous beginnings, through repeated waves of popularity, to its scrappy resurgence and survival in the age of cable access and the Internet. --http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0371530 [Jun 2005]
John Zacherle
John Zacherle (born September 27, 1918, he is sometimes credited as John Zacherley) is a U.S. television host and voice actor known for his long career hosting television broadcasts of horror movies in Philadelphia and New York City in the 1950s and 1960s. Best known for his character "Rowland/Zacherley", he also did voice work for movies, and recorded the top ten song novelty rock and roll song "Dinner With Drac" in 1958. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zacherle [Jun 2005]see also: television - horror - host
2005, Jun 19; 14:08 ::: Vampira (Maila Nurmi)
Maila Nurmi as Vampira
The TV horror boom officially began in 1958, with the release of the Shock movie package from Universal studios. Along with the unleashed horrors came their hosts. But a full four years before the explosion, shock waves were coming from the studios of KABC in Los Angeles, CA, where the impossibly waspwaisted Vampira greeted her weekly audience with a bloodcurdling shriek. "Screaming relaxes me so," she would moan with a seductive smile.
Maila Nurmi brewed up Vampira out of elements of Charles Addams, screen glamour queens and bondage magazines. Adding to the startling visual a sophisticated graveyard humor, the effect was immediate. Within weeks, Vampira was gaining national attention in the pages of Life and Newsweek magazines. Her fame burned bright, but briefly. Her show was on the air for little more than a year. But in Vampira, Maila Nurmi created the first truly iconic TV horror movie host.
Outside the world of Vampira, the artistically inclined Maila gravitated to the counter culture, sharing time with the likes of James Dean, Orson Welles, Marlon Brando, Elvis Presley, Stanley Kubrick... and Ed Wood. In 1956, she revived the Vampira look for her appearance in Wood's transcendently dreadful Plan Nine From Outer Space. And though her life has more in common with Kerouac than Karloff, the role solidified her association with 50s horror. --http://www.americanscary.com/bios.html [Jun 2005]
Maila Nurmi
Actress Maila Nurmi (born December 21, 1921 in Petsamo, Finland) portrayed "Vampira" in many shows, and starred in Ed Wood's Plan 9 From Outer Space.She unsuccessfully sued Elvira for stealing her act. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampira [Jun 2005]
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957)
Plan 9 from Outer Space is a 1957 Ed Wood science fiction horror movie. It was originally titled Grave Robbers from Outer Space, but it was renamed because that title was considered to be "sacrilegious" by its religious funders. It is widely regarded as one of the worst movies ever made. The movie earned Wood a post-humous Golden Turkey Award. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_From_Outer_Space [Jun 2005]see also: television - horror - vampire
2005, Jun 19; 12:41 ::: Comicsvf.com gallery
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2005, Jun 19; 12:31 ::: French Vampirella magazine (1970 - 1976)
Vampirella magazine (France, 01/1970), published by Publicness
image sourced here.Vampirella est la 3ème revue d'horreur publiée par les éditions publicness en 1971, apres Eerie et Creepy. Elles reprennent certaines histoires des versions américaines des editions Warren. On y trouve les signatures de neal adams, steve ditko, reed crandal ou esteban maroto...les editions françaises alternent bd et reportages photos sur les grands films fantastiques.Quand à l'héroine du titre, Vampirella, elle connaitra plusieurs scenaristes et dessinateurs mais ses meilleures prestations seront dûes à archie goodwin pour le scenario et josé gonzales pour le dessin.. Texte Pascal A. --http://www.encyclobd.com/biblio/album.html?id=55569 [Jun 2005]
Vampirella Magazine (1969-1983) est le premier magazine paru chez Warren. L’éditeur (déjà "coupable" des parutions horrifiques Eerie et Creepy) ruse en publiant ce magazine en noir & blanc. Une façon comme une autre de contourner le Comics Code qui ne considérait pas les publications N&B. Le magazine actuel rendra hommage à son modèle jusque dans le format : beaucoup plus grand qu’un comic-book classique.
Warren mettra la clé sous le paillasson en 1983 après 112 numéros de la série (le nombre est loin d’être certifié à 100%, l’auteur de Vampirella assurant qu’il n’y a eu que 108 numéros). --http://www.france-comics.com/article.php3?id_article=2151 [Jun 2005]
PUBLICNESS (Paris, France) published issues of Vampirella numbered zero through at least number 26, at least five collected "albums", and a special, all from 1970 to 1976. Each issue drew three to six stories, including a Vampirella story, from the contemporaneous Warren Vampirella (occasionally from Warren's Eerie or Creepy as well) — all translated into French. The rest of the content was comprised of film-related articles and reviews as well as a few pages of advertisements. The film-related content occupied a significant number of pages — beginning in no. 1 with a series entitled "Vampirama" (6 numbered installments), followed, beginning in no. 9, with a series entitled "Cinéma bis" (at least 16 numbered installments). An early series in nos. 1 through 8, entitled "L'écran des maniaques", featured principally stills from films. The film content featured. Other regular review columns included: Courrier [Letters] (in about 13 issues), Livres [Books] (in about 3 issues), Disques [Discs] (in about 4 issues), Concerts (in at least 1 issue). --http://isd.usc.edu/~shoaf/vampirella/chrono01.htm [Jun 2005]
see also: comics - American comics - European comics - vampire
2005, Jun 19; 12:31 ::: French Eerie magazine (1969 - 1973)
Eerie magazine (France, 04/1969), published by Publicness
image sourced here.Les années 70 : la décennie de toutes les contestations
BD alternative et Fanzines
Le journal Actuel, fondé en 1970 et représentatif de la contre-culture française, traduit un grand nombre d'histoires issues de l'underground américain et publie quelques récits dessinés par Marcel Gotlib, Francis Masse et Nikita Mandryka.
a bande dessinée alternative se développe également à travers quelques supports plus éphémères comme la Gueule ouverte ou Zinc - on y retrouve les premiers travaux de Soulas, Poussin ou Nicoulaud. Publicness propose pour sa part Eerie, Creepy et Vampirella, trois magazines consacrés essentiellement à la bande dessinée d'horreur en provenance des Etats-Unis ou d'Espagne. Dès cette époque, les fanzines (abrévation de fanatique et magazine) se multiplient et alternent les propos lapidaires, les études sérieuses et des bandes dessinées conçues par des amateurs - dont certains deviendront célèbres, comme Philippe Vuillemin, Bernard Hislaire, Loustal, Yves Chaland, Serge Clerc ou Tito. --http://www.loustal.nl/les_annees_60.htm [Jun 2005]L
see also: comics - American comics - European comics
2005, Jun 19; 12:31 ::: French Creepy magazine (1969 - 1976)
Creepy magazine (France, 03/1969), published by Publicness
image sourced here.In 1964 publisher James Warren launched a new comic book which was unlike any other at that time. It was entirely in black & white, it was in a magazine size format, and it was done without the seal of the Comics Code Authority. Its name was CREEPY
His timing was perfect. In the 1950's, EC Comics (under editor William Gaines, who later went on to found MAD magazine) published a line of shock/horror titles such as Tales From The Crypt, Vault Of Horror, Shock SuspenStories and Haunt Of Fear, hosted by ghoulish personas such as the Crypt Keeper and the Old Witch. They were popular but widely controversial due to their graphic depictions of gore. Rising pressure forced conservative leaders to take notice of what their innocent children were reading. The resulting movement drove these horror comics out of business.
A few years passed. Then the early 1960's brought a revival of interest in horror. Almost all of the classic monster movies of the 1930's and 1940's were released to television. Usually featured on matinee bills, many shows were hosted by frightful characters modeled after vampires, ghouls and mad scientists, much as EC and Suspense Radio had done. They gained new and widespread popularity. In England, Hammer Films followed this success with its own new series of horror films. Even two of the big three American television networks got in on the act, giving viewers The Addams Family and The Munsters. --http://www.horrorseek.com/horror/unclecreepy/unc.html [Jun 2005]
Famous Monsters of Filmland was a magazine started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman. It was conceived as a one-shot publication with no discernible future, but the first issue was so successful that it required a second printing to fulfill public demand and its established future as part of American culture were immediately obvious to both men. Warren and Ackerman eventually became millionaires through the property, and spinoff magazines such as Spacemen, Famous Westerns of Filmland, Screen Thrills Illustrated, Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famous_Monsters_of_Filmland [Jun 2005]
Forrest J. Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman (also Forrest J. Ackerman), born November 24, 1916 and still living and active, is often called "Forry" or "4e" or "4SJ", and is a legendary science fiction fan, as well as an occasional author, actor, producer (Vampirella), magazine editor and literary agent of many of the science fiction greats. Although he is best known to baby-boomers as editor-writer of the magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, this is actually only one facet of his enormous influence on the origination, organization, and spread of science fiction fandom and of science fiction as a respectable literary, art and film genre from its inception in the early 1920s to the present. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_J._Ackerman [Jun 2005]see also: comics - American comics - European comics
2005, Jun 19; 11:09 ::: Nightmare on Main Street: Angels, Sadomasochism, and the Culture of Gothic (1997) Mark Edmundson
Nightmare on Main Street: Angels, Sadomasochism, and the Culture of Gothic (1997) Mark Edmundson [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Amazon.com
If you observe American pop culture, you'll recognize the questions Mark Edmundson raises in Nightmare on Main Street: Why are the 1990s seeing a resurgence of the gothic? Why do tabloid stories about people such as O. J. Simpson and Lorena Bobbitt captivate the public imagination? Why are "goth" fashions and music in vogue? Why is sadomasochistic sexuality on the rise? And what about the craze for what Edmundson calls "pop transcendence," the phony innocence exemplified by Forrest Gump, angels, and the inner child? Nightmare on Main Street is well written and accessible, and will be of interest to anyone appreciative of (or concerned about) horror books and movies. As Richard Rorty writes, "[This] book argues that America now has a bloated Id, a lascivious and cruel Superego, and almost no Ego at all: almost no moral resolution or political will." Edmundson's proposed solution is kind of vague, but he acknowledges the positive, creative role of horror: he proposes that we "take Gothic pessimism as a starting point and come up with visions that, while affirmative, never forget the authentic darkness that Gothic art discloses." --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Library Journal
Edmundson (English, Univ. of Virginia), who writes prolifically for both the "lit-crit" elite and the mass intelligentsia, here addresses neither literary historians nor "practitioners of...cultural studies." Yet because his work, however fun horror literature and movies are, after all, created as entertainment is still an academic product, he may fail to reach his intended audience. Any book that expects its readers to be breezily familiar with Prometheus, Foucault, Poe, and Freddy Krueger assumes a certain hipness rarely found beyond campus environs. The point of this disquisition is also obscure. While Edmundson backs up his basic observation that today's popular attraction to slasher flicks, tabloids, and O.J. Simpson true-life horror tales is similar to the Gothic phenomenon of the early 19th century, he never explains why he thinks the culture of Gothic flourished, then and now, and why it matters. Not recommended. Scott H. Silverman, Bryn Mawr Coll. Lib., Pa., Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Inspired by: Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin (1999) - Richard Davenport[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
see also: sadomasochism - mainstream - gothic
2005, Jun 19; 11:09 ::: Gothic script
Walbaum-Fraktur (1800)
The name Gothic script
The term Gothic was first used to describe this script in 15th century Italy, in the midst of the Renaissance, because Renaissance Humanists believed it was a barbaric script (Gothic was a synonym for barbaric). Flavio Biondo, in Italia Illustrata (1531) thought it was invented by the Lombards after their invasion of Italy in the 6th century. Not only the blackletter were called Gothic script, but any other seemingly barbarian script, such as Visigothic, Beneventan, and Merovingian, were also labelled "Gothic", in contrast to Carolingian minuscule, a highly legible script which the Humanists called littera antiqua, "the ancient letter", wrongly believing that it was the script used by the Romans (it was only invented in the reign of Charlemagne).The blackletter must not be confused either with the genuinely Gothic alphabet or with the sans-serif typefaces that are also sometimes called Gothic. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackletter#The_name_Gothic_script [Jun 2005]
Blackletter typefaces
Blackletter fonts were the earliest fonts used with the invention of the printing press. They resemble the blackletter callygraphy of that time. They are often called gothic script. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface#Blackletter_typefaces [Jun 2005]Fraktur
Most commonly known among the blackletter typefaces are those of the Fraktur family, which started when Emperor Maximilian I (1493-1519) established a series of books and had a new typeface created specifically for this purpose. Fraktur faces were in wide use in Germany until the Nazis prohibited them in 1942. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typeface#Blackletter_typefaces [Jun 2005]Fraktur and Nazi Germany propaganda
Some people strongly associate the Fraktur typeface with Nazi Germany propaganda (although the typeface is much older, and its usage was banned at some time in Nazi Germany). --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism#Nazi_.2F_Third_Reich_terminology_in_popular_culture [Sept 2004]Inspired by: Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin (1999) - Richard Davenport[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK] and Caroline
see also: Nazism - printing - gothic
2005, Jun 18; 10:23 ::: Naming a sensibilityTo name a sensibility, to draw its contours and to recount its history, requires a deep sympathy modified by revulsion. --Susan Sontag in Notes On Camp (1964)Inspired by: Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin (1999) - Richard Davenport[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
see also: Susan Sontag - sensibility - camp - gothic
2005, Jun 17; 10:46 ::: Super Disco Brake's
Super Disco Brake's vol.4 (1981) - Paul Winley
Tracklisting
A1 Martin Circus Disco Circus
A2 Cerrone Rock It In The Pocket
A3 Creative Source Who Is He And What Is He To You?
B1 Captain Sky Super Sperm
B2 Blackbyrds, The Unfinished Business
B3 8th. Day She's Not Just Another WomanOriginally released back in the early '80s, Paul Winley's series of breaks albums were the first of their kind. Winley bootlegged the tracks that the likes of Grandmaster Flash and Grandwizard Theodore were mixing into their dj sets. Most of the tracks are extremley hard to find anywhere else unless you have a large wedge. --http://www.tunes.co.uk/tunes/featured/8102.html [Jun 2005]
http://www.discogs.com/release/170655 vol. 1
Tracklisting
A1 Bob James Mardi Gras
A2 Pat Lundy Work Song
A3 J.B.'s, The Blow Your Head
A4 Magic Disco Machine, The Scratchin'
B1 New Birth Gotta Get A Knutt
B2 New Birth I Can Understand It
B3 Creative Source Corazon
B4 Dennis Coffey Scorpiohttp://www.discogs.com/release/166218 vol. 2
Tracklisting
A1 James Brown Funky Drummer
A2 Juice Catch A Groove
A3 Captain Sky Super Sperm
A4 Bill Withers Use Me
B1 Cymande Dove
B2 Meters, The Sophisticated Cissy
B3 Ann Winley Watch Doghttp://www.discogs.com/release/164977 vol. 3
Tracklisting
A1 Cymande Bra
A2 Arawak All Stars Apache
A3 Tanya Winley Vicious Rap
A4 Alan Douglas Hustlers Rap
B1 Mighty Tom Cats Soul Makossa
B2 Dyke & The Blazers Funky Nassau
B3 Gil Scott-Heron In the Bottle
B4 Wagadu-Gu Easy Dancin'http://www.discogs.com/release/166442 vol. 4
Tracklisting
A1 Martin Circus Disco Circus
A2 Cerrone Rock It In The Pocket
A3 Creative Source Who Is He And What Is He To You?
B1 Captain Sky Super Sperm
B2 Blackbyrds, The Unfinished Business
B3 8th. Day She's Not Just Another Womanhttp://www.discogs.com/release/171825 vol. 5
Tracklisting
A1 James Brown Good Foot
A2 Apache Band Bongo Rock
A3 Parliament Give Up the Funk
A4 Politicians Free Your Mind
B1 Ray Charles America The Beautiful
B2 Maceo Party
B3 Grover Washington Jr. Masterpiece
B4 Chakachas, The Jungle Feverhttp://www.discogs.com/release/171826 vol. 6
Tracklisting
A1 Barrabas Woman
A2 James Brown Sex Machine
A3 Eddie Kendricks Girl You Need A Change Of Mind
A4 Curtis Mayfield Super Fly
B1 L.T.D. Cutting It Up
B2 Jimmy "Bo" Horne Spank
B3 Jimmy Castor It's Just Begun
B4 Rufus Thomas Do The Funky ChickenPaul Winley and rap music
In the mid-1970s, hip hop split into two camps. One sampled disco and focused on getting the crowd dancing and excited, with simple or no rhymes; these DJs included Pete DJ Jones, Eddie Cheeba, DJ Hollywood and Love Bug Starski. On the other hand, another group were focusing on rapid-fire rhymes and a more complex rhythmic scheme. These included Afrika Bambaataa, Paul Winley, Grandmaster Flash and Bobby Robinson. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_hop_music#Diversification_of_styles_in_the_late_1970s [Jun 2005]Paul Winley's Super Disco Breaks bootlegs
Paul Winley Record's bootleg Super Disco Breaks were the first break beat compilations. Another series is Ultimate Breaks and Beats of which there are 25 volumes, also bootleg. Hip hop break beat compilations include Hardcore Break Beats and Break Beats, and Drum Drops. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Break_%28music%29 [Jun 2005]see also: Paul Winley - rap - disco - break beats
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