The Mystery of The Spanish Irving Klaw Bulletins: 1949, 1950

Since I mentioned advertising bulletins in my last post—tracing examples from Eric Stanton back to Irving Klaw—this time around I thought I'd list my earliest bulletins, which I found quite by accident on a Spanish Internet trading site, much like eBay, which I can no longer recall the name of. These bulletins date way back, as you’ll see. Included in the lot were 4 double-sided pages and one original envelope with a post-marked date.

Let’s begin with the envelope addressed to Francisco Gonzalez (whose address I’ve obscured).

As we can see from the postmark (click to enlarge), it states April 6 1950.

Now we are presented with a mystery, as some of the bulletins (below) appear to date from even earlier … shall we say 1949?... But it’s anyone guess as the bulletins themselves are undated.

Are all 4 pages part of the same bulletin? It doesn’t appear so. But I can’t be sure.

PAGE ONE, ARTIFACT 1:

 

As you can see, the “BB” series is being advertised, which as the bulletin states “features models Barbara Leslie, Loraine Durane, Barbara Buchanan and Louise Sabo.” 36 B&G poses, 8 TBNG (“Tied But Not Gagged”) 4 spanking poses, 11 “fighting girl poses,” and 15 “miscellaneous High Heel poses.” So, as we can see, there are 5 distinct fetish categories (including the group that likes their models “tied but not gagged”).

Let’s take a look at the back of this bulletin, since it’s beautiful and features samplings from others series: “CC,” even “DD.”

The difficulty in dating these bulletins, as you might imagine, stems from Klaw often repeating or recycling previous ads. So as this bulletin advertises samplings from others series—“CC,” “DD”—why does it appear that the “BB” series is being advertised for the first time? And how does that date the bulletin?

While you’re busy pondering that question, let’s take a closer look at what’s on what on this page, because it’s fun and educational. (My idea of educational, anyway.)

Here are some High Heel poses of Barbara Buchanan, looking very lovely in a black satin top almost matching the glossy shimmer of her shoes:

Here’s Barbara Leslie (high heel s + leather opera gloves), having some fun:

Barbara Leslie, again (heels and a riding crop). The lower angle makes her legs look longer:

Here’s Shirley Maitland, Cocoa Brown, and Lois Meriden, posing charismatically:

PAGE TWO, ARTIFACT 2:

Now is this double-sided page part of the previous bulletin? I don’t know.

One side of it features mostly text for wrestling movies (#21, #22: not that interesting), but the other side is pretty cool:

Let’s take a closer look at the top, because it’s pretty dramatic. The model appears to be Barbara Leslie:

I’m not sure who the model is here, (although it may be several models):

We don’t know who the photographers are for any of these, by the way. Certainly not Irving Klaw or his sister Paula.

PAGE THREE, ARTIFACT 3:

Now this is pretty cool, as it features Irving Klaw cartoons (i.e. Chapter Serials). Three artists are featured: “C.W.” for “Gale, Girl Reporter,” “G.”(or “George”) for “Poor Pamela,” and Stanton for “Fighting Femmes.” I would date this bulletin at 1949. Why? Because it was prior to Stanton illustrating bondage Chapter Serials. At this time, Stanton (before he was known as “Eric”) was only depicting wrestling and fighting girls – his personal fetish. At this point, he had completed “Battling Women,” but only 10 of 11 episodes/pages of “Fighting Femmes.” Only the first 5 episodes/pages of “Poor Pamela” were available. (Stanton would eventually complete the rest.)  Concurrently, Stanton had completed the first 16 episodes of “Dawn’s Fighting Adventures” (as we shall see on the reverse side). So it was all fighting/wrestling girls for Stanton and Irving Klaw was yet to “corrupt” him with bondage themed material, although we might imagine that Klaw had already entertained the idea.

Eneg (Gene Bilbrew) and Adolfo Ruiz wouldn’t join Irving Klaw for several years. Bettie Page was not even modeling at this time. Steve Ditko had not arrived in New York City.

But let’s examine the bulletin:

On back, we have an advertisement for “Dawn’s Fighting Adventures” by Stanton; and at the very bottom, perhaps offering a clue to the date, it states that the “CC” Series bulletin will follow:

My favorite detail on this page is the set featuring 2 of my favorite Irving Klaw models, Joan Rydell and Jean Williams. The other model is Betty Price. (Who?)

PAGE FOUR, ARTIFACT 4:

Now for the last page.

The question remains: Is this last double-sided page related to those above? I don’t know. Maybe you can take a look, help me determine how it fits in with those pages above. If it does at all.

This page mentions movie #23, which might offer a clue to its date. It also states that “the first Ten Episodes of Miss Adventure” are available – again another possible clue. Did you notice the so-called “TA-Amateur”  bondage series advertised? Let’s take a look at that because it’s pretty amazing and seeing is believing:

Does this look like amateur work to you?

Aesthetically inspired, no? Dell Hunter is mentioned as the model in these.

Now let’s look at the back of this page and conclude our study for today.

 

Here we have the art of Mory; we have Joan Rydell and Betty Price. But who is that at the very top? Is it? Could it be?

It is.  Mr. John Willie.

 

Hope you enjoyed this week’s examination of artifacts. Take your time in looking them over again, and don’t forget to tune in next week.
Cheers!—Richard Pérez Seves

=> Index ~ of FetHistory ~ From the Beginning:

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

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Thanks for checking in. Hope you'll join me next time....

Cheers. —Richard Pérez Seves

=> Index ~ of FetHistory ~ From the Beginning:

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

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