In a police raid in October 1934, over
10,000 girlie pulp magazines were seized.With their pin-up covers and racy text, they were deemed
indecent and were later burned.It was yet another salvo in the war between the
self-appointed citizen champions of decency and the publishers of
the girlie pulps.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the girlie
pulps proliferated, but were sold “under the counter” to
protect innocent eyes.Published
in the belief that “sex sells,” each month they sallied forth,
their covers adorned with bewitching vixens in various states of
undress, showing as much as the law would allow — and often
daring to show more.Talented
artists such as Enoch Bolles, Peter Driben, Earle Bergey, Norman
Saunders, H. J. Ward and Zoë Mozert created a body of gorgeous
pin-up art that, unlike the later magazine and calendar art of the
1940s, has generally remained hidden until now.
UNCOVERED tells, for the first time,
the tale of these magazines, their artists and publishers, of the
constant struggle they endured against censorship.With over 400 covers reproduced in full color, UNCOVERED
is a visual tribute to the nearly 50 artists represented therein.
Compiled by Douglas Ellis and an enthusiastically recommended
addition to personal and academic American Popular History
reference collections, Uncovered: The Hidden Art Of The Girlie
Pulps is a risque presentation of the erotic art of the
"girlie pulp magazines" the were published in the 1920's
and 1930's. The predecessors to the "girly magazines" of
today, some of these pulp magazine titles were so racy (according
to the standards of the time) that they were seized in police
raids. The informatively presented story of these magazines
(printed and marketed simply because sex sells), is enhanced with
an extensive gallery selection of full-color pin-up images and is
what distinguishes Uncovered: The Hidden Art Of The Girlie Pulps
as a unique book of erotica images that pushed the envelope of
social mores of their era.
AMAZON.COM
Editorial Reviews Book Description The colorfully covered, cheaply printed pulp
magazines of the 1920s and 30s were a staple of popular culture
that offered every genre of readership the sensual thrills,
adventures, and entertainments they craved. This tribute to the
"bad girls" introduces a wealth of colorful cover art
from the likes of Pep, Saucy Stories, Spicy Adventures, and
Bedtime Stories, capturing the provocative sense and taste of
what the glory years of pulp magazines had to offer their
enthusiastic readers. Uncovered uncovers the "Girlie
Pulps" like no other book ever has. 208 full color pages
and over 400 cover reproductions.
"Uncovered: The Hidden Art of the Girlie Pulp",
October 1, 2003
Reviewer:
A reader from Foyil, OK
UNCOVERED is the kind of book that revives that old line people
used to use with PLAYBOY magazine: "I don't know about you,
but I just buy it for the writing." In fact, UNCOVERED is a
perfect balance of pulp-magazine scholarship and wild pin-up
style cover illustrations, impeccably reproduced in full color.
I've been following Douglas Ellis' work for quite a long time
now, and it's always been first class. With this one, he's
achieved the perfect balance of art and story, sharing the
history of the '30s girlie fiction magazines and their creators
with a breeziness that belies what must've been an incredible
amount of research, and sharing also some of the rarest and most
appealing pulp covers I've ever seen.
You don't have to know anything about pulp magazines to enjoy
UNCOVERED. Anyone who enjoys classic pinup art or weird American
pop culture will find this opulent book to be a great addition
to his or her home library as well. Highly recommended.
This is an outstanding anthology of cover art from the
depression-era "girlie pulps" by such highly worthy
(and undeservedly obscure) artists as H.J. Ward, Norm Saunders,
and Enoch Bolles, among many others. To the best of my knowledge
there's no other great source of their work in print (especially
Bolles), but they're very well served here, and very little of
the work seen here is reprinted elsewhere. The text is diligent,
thorough, well-written, and interesting, covering the rise and
fall of the magazine niche-industry that produced these amazing
visual works; it is scholarly and will be of great interest and
service to students of the subject, but the broader appeal- pun
intended- is in the more than four hundred color images. These
are beautifully reproduced at a generous size, and on slick,
high quality pages. The overall design of the book is also
excellent.
I'd like to see another volume, perhaps including some of the
interior art, if it's worth seeing. I've also been waiting for
years for someone to do "The Art Of Enoch Bolles"- how
about it, Mr. Ellis?
The author's review below is very informative and
interesting, with much more information about this worthy book.
History & Art of the Spicy Pulps, August 7, 2003
Reviewer:
Douglas Ellis from Chicago, IL USA
As the author of this book, I thought I'd post a brief
description of it here. UNCOVERED contains over 400 pulp cover
reproductions, all in full color. In addition, the history of
these magazines -- their publishers, artists, writers and their
struggle to survive -- is examined in 30,000 words of text,
covering titles such as SPICY ADVENTURE STORIES, SAUCY MOVIE
TALES, GAY PARISIENNE, VICE SQUAD DETECTIVE, LA PAREE STORIES,
PARIS NIGHTS, SCARLET ADVENTURESS, SNAPPY DETECTIVE MYSTERIES
and many others. Although there were many players in the field,
during the 1930's it was dominated by the magazines of Harry
Donenfeld, who would later go on to greater success with the
company that eventually became DC Comics. Over 100 different
titles (many very rare) are pictured, by 50 different artists --
among those artists heavily represented in the book are H.J.
Ward, Earle Bergey, H.L. Parkhurst, Enoch Bolles, Peter Driben,
Norman Saunders and George Quintana. Others whose work is
reproduced include Gene Pressler, Zoe Mozert, Charles Wrenn,
Worth Carnahan, Jack Greiner, Allen Anderson, R.A. Burley, Fred
Craft, Archie Gunn, Cardwell Higgins, Seymour Marcus and Joseph
Sokoli. Unlike the later pin-up magazine cover art of the 1940's
and 1950's, most of this art has never been reprinted and has
been hidden since its original publication. In choosing images
for reproduction, I made an effort to try and avoid duplication
of covers reproduced in other pulp histories. Each image was
carefully scanned and cleaned, for the best reproduction
possible.
I tried to do as much research as possible using period
sources, such as the writer's magazines and newspapers of the
time, and various books published by censorship groups. In the
process, I've corrected some errors that had crept into previous
pulp histories. Unlike most books of its kind, UNCOVERED is
fully footnoted and indexed.
It examines in depth their war with censorship groups
(particularly in New York City) which sought to shut them down,
and which were often successful in causing these magazines to be
banned from the newsstands and, in some instances, seized by the
police as indecent and burned. These groups were ultimately
successful, and though the girlie pulps burned bright for
awhile, by 1940 their flame had all but been extinguished. Sold
"under the counter" when first published, their art
and story has remained hidden from then until now.
Though focused on the risque pulps of the day, I think that
almost any fan of the pulps will find much of interest in
reading UNCOVERED, as many of the publishers, writers and
artists crossed over into "traditional" pulps as well.
The tale of how some spicy pulp publishers continually changed
company names in an effort to stiff their authors on overdue
payments is, for example, also typical of some of the more
mainstream pulp publishers. And contrary to popular belief,
other spicy titles actually were at the top of the pulp food
chain in payment rates. The spicy pulps were only one segment of
the larger pulp industry that supplied reading material for a
significant portion of the population during the 1920's and
1930's, but their heretofore untold story is intertwined with
that of this larger industry.
From Bud Plant:
UNCOVERED: The Hidden Art of the Girlie Pulps
By Doug Ellis.
YOUR
PRICE: $40.00
This presents, in glorious full color and lively detail,
the story of the girlie pulps from their stormy beginnings
to present-day collector's items.
Often banned and destroyed throughout the 1930s and
'40s--they were thought to erode the public
morality--these issues have become scarce and highly
sought after. Their covers feature artwork by some of the
best illustrators of the day--Earle Bergey, Enoch
Bolles, Peter Driben, Jack Greiner, Norman Saunders,
Rudolph Belarski, H.J. Ward and others; more than 400
examples are shown here. The content inside was even more
risqué, with demure ingénues and racy vixens in one
precarious situation after another.
Clear, thorough text and lots of great color covers
combine to disclose the untold tale of these lurid pulps.
A real eye-opener through and through! "Don't miss
this--a book this nice hasn't been done since Stolen
Sweets, which is now a high-priced collector's item of
its own. I think this is the best book ever done on the
subject." -Bud. Adventure House, 2003.
Mature Readers — by ordering this item you are stating
you are over 18 years of age.
HC, 12x9, 208 pages, FC.
Oddments:
Uncovered: The Hidden Art of
Girlie Pulps
By Douglas Ellis
Adventure House, Silver
Spring, 2003
Primarily an art book
reproducing some 400 covers from 100 different
"girlie" pulps, this excellent volume nevertheless
contains much information on editors and publishers of the
magazines that is not currently available elsewhere.
From Frank M. Robinson:
History is a panorama
of battles won and battles lost, of the rise and fall of nations
and empires. Popular culture chronicles how people lived,
what they read, and—frankly—what titillated them. UNCOVERED
is a collection of the sexy covers of the magazines that could
be found on the newsstands or under the counters before Esquire
or Playboy. An echo of another era, UNCOVERED
is a wonderful pictorial chronicle of the magazines of
yesterday, accompanied by insightful text by longtime collector
Douglas Ellis. An exciting and provocative window on the
past--one not to be missed! —Frank M. Robinson,
editor of "Pulp Culture” and "Science Fiction of the
20th Century.”
From Illustration Magazine:
In 1937, the publisher of Silk Stocking Stories (Ultem
Publications, Inc.) sued the publisher of The Stocking Parade
(Arrow Publications, Inc.) to prevent them from using the
“stocking” part of its magazine’s name. Ultem lost, not
because Arrow wasn’t infringing, but because the court found
neither magazine worthy of protection: “The Court will not
grant either magazine a cloak of respectability by issuing an
injunction. These magazines can have no useful place in the
world of literature, and the very selection of the names is
indicative of the fact that the publishers’ sole desire is a
financial return for the dumping of obscene and filthy
publications at a cheap price where the young, immature and
impressionable people can buy.” Such was the life of the
“girlie” magazine publisher in the 1930s!In UNCOVERED: The Hidden Art of the Girlie Pulps,
Doug Ellis documents the history of these magazines, which
appeared (usually “under the counter”) during the 1920s and
30s, and presents a gallery of over 400 full-color cover
reproductions, many of which are seen here for the first time
since their original publication… —Dan Zimmer –
Illustration Magazine
A risque presentation of erotic art, October 7, 2003
This presents, in glorious full color and lively detail,
the story of the girlie pulps from their stormy beginnings
to present-day collector's items.
PULP
GOODIES AVAILABLE THROUGH ADVENTURE HOUSE
