FetHistory: June 2014

In a previous post, I seemed to have favored one early Irving Klaw model in particular: Shirley Levitt.

But this is the “other” Shirley. Shirley Maitland.

My introduction to this early Irving Klaw model came via eBay, as usual. This image:

At the time I didn’t know who she was. And, in many ways, I still don’t. She remains, quite sadly, something of a mystery.

If you’ve been following my posts on FetHistory, you’ve seen her before. She was the villainess in the mask, capturing Cocoa Brown in the CC-1 series.

Shirley Maitland, Cocoa Brown, Richard Pérez Seves

She was also the damsel in distress in this beautiful image.

For that particular shoot, the classic F-500 series, she wore blond hair, done up in a Nordic style.

Here she is calmly binding Shirley Levitt spread eagle to a St. Andrew’s Cross.

Here she is calmly administering a spanking.

She always maintains that calm demeanor, regardless of playing a top or a bottom ...

... Regardless of the predicament.

On the job, she’s a nurse at work, always maintaining an air of dignity.

Shirley Maitland, Shirley Levitt, Richard Pérez Seves

Some might say she had a dominant yet ethereal presence.

She’s never caught “acting” or “playing cute.” Even in the earliest Irving Klaw, noir-inspired scenarios (here also featuring Lilly Dawn and Odessa Otwell).

Shirley Maitland, Lily Dawn, Richard Pérez Seves

Only once did I see Shirley smile. But it wasn’t for Irving Klaw. It was Robert Harrison, publisher of those popular “girlie” magazines of the 1940s and early '50s: Beauty Parade, Eyeful, Wink, Titter, Flirt, and Whisper.

Here she is in a 1949 issue of Wink, appearing as “Cici Maitland, curvy goddess with raven hair.”

Shirley Maitland, Cici Maitland, Richard Pérez Seves

Until Next Week!

—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 <<

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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