FetHistory: A sweet little peek inside Irving Klaw’s very first CARTOON AND MODEL PARADE catalog, 1950!

Welcome back, Fet History fans!

Picking up from last week, we stated that the 29th edition of Movie Star News would morph into issue #30 of Cartoon and Pin-Up Parade, then finally by issue #31, Cartoon and Model Parade.

Irving Klaw's Cartoon and Model Parade, 31st Edition 1950

Now if we look inside this very first edition of Cartoon and Model Parade what do we find?

Peeling back the cover we discover (on the first page) mention of the “New CC-1” series. (Remember previously the “BB” series was advertised?)

CC-1 series featuring Shirley Maitland and Cocoa Brown

And what do we see with the CC-1 series, other than the archaic roots of bondage fantasy, underscored by one word: “melodrama.”

Not only does the stock villainess here dress in black, she even wears a mask.

These photos, by the way, underscore Irving Klaw’s great efficiency as a businessman. His innovation—later widely imitated—was to kill two birds with one stone: To take marketable still photographs (various photographic sets) while shooting 16mm films, thereby creating two product lines simultaneously. In this case the film (advertised further along in this same catalog) is titled, “Captive Girl Foils A Thief,” by which we can assume Cocoa Brown (the captive girl/damsel in distress on the couch) gets “even” by act 3. "Turnabout" is the basic plot formula of many such photo-play fantasies—and a favorite narrative device of Irving Klaw ace, Eric Stanton.

Moving along, let’s see what else we have—as part of this “CC” series:

Three of my favorite pre-Bettie Page models: Joan Rydell, Cocoa Brown, and Shirley Maitland. But what's going on here?

The D-400 series, also highlighted in this very first edition of Cartoon and Model Parade, seems to introduce more theatrics (below)—not to mention an early favorite Klaw model, Shirley Levitt.

Shirley Levitt, Loraine Durane, Ruth Field

“D-530” looks devious. Last week, we took a sneak peek. Shirley Levitt is the masked one, holding down the girl’s head.

Here’s Shirley Levitt (below) without a mask. She cleans up nicely wouldn’t you say?

Is that all that’s inside Cartoon and Model Parade, issue #31? Hardly.

By 1950—even before the arrival of Bettie Page—Irving Klaw had already accumulated an impressive “damsel in distress” catalog of photographs. Like the F-500 series (featuring Shirley Maitland, Shirley Levitt, and Cindy Heller). Here’s an example below:

Shirley Maitland, Shirley Levitt, and Cindy Heller

And the K-600 series (featuring, among others, former Robert Harrison model, Vicki Hayes).

The classic T-200 series (featuring Chris Triplet).

The 4000 series (featuring Aimee, Frances Adams, and Lilli Dawn).

Irving Klaw 4000 series featuring Aimee, Frances Adams, and Lilli Dawn

Not to mention the artist, John Willie, who by then had already licensed artwork to Klaw. The W-1 series (below) represents his early work (photos, as stated in the ad, “taken in Australia”)—and some of these photographs even feature his wife, Holly.

As for his artwork: both of Willie’s highly influential chapter Serials—“Sweet Gwendoline” and “The Escape Artiste”— are also featured in this first Cartoon and Model Parade catalog.

“Sweet Gwendoline” and “The Escape Artiste,” Richard Pérez Seves

Not bad, huh?

Whew! That’s enough. I could go on and on.

Tune in next week for an Irving Klaw “damsel in distress” series I may have missed.

Bye, for now!

—Richard Pérez Seves

=> Index ~ of FetHistory ~ From the Beginning:

http://fethistory.blogspot.com/p/1.html

>> Peek inside the Charles Guyette tribute <<

Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art
** 2018 Expanded Second Edition **

>> HERE <<

* * * * * *

Peek inside with Dita Von Teese:

==>> HERE <<==

Dita Von Teese, Instagram, Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art

Reviews:

"If New York collector, writer and fetish historian Richard Pérez Seves had not decided to assemble what he knew about Charles Guyette (along with a substantial selection of images) into this paperback, this influential forerunner of the genre's better known exponents would have continued a lot longer as the great unsung hero of American fetish art."—Tony Mitchell, thefetishistas.com

"If you're at all a fan of fetish art ... then this book will be right up your alley." —kinkweekly.com

"I've often cited John Willie's gals as my biggest fashion inspiration but I'll have to start tipping my hat to Guyette as well."—Dita Von Teese