FetHistory: Titter

Saturday, July 5, 2014

How Robert Harrison helped shape Irving Klaw: Part 1

Previously we mentioned how Charles Guyette was Irving Klaw’s predecessor. We mentioned in passing the remarkable (and mysterious) individual known as "Little John," who not only paid for the early Irving Klaw sessions but supplied his sophisticated aesthetics as a fetishist. But we can't leave out Robert Harrison, publisher of those popular “girlie” magazines of the 1940s and early '50s: Beauty Parade, Eyeful, Wink, Titter, Flirt, and Whisper. It was Harrison, who also gave direction to Irving Klaw and in many ways helped shape the sexploiteer he would become.

Beauty Parade, June 1949, Richard Pérez Seves

We've all seen and admired these magazines. This particular issue (above) is from my personal collection: Beauty Parade, June 1949. I'm posting it here because it's pretty, for one, and secondly because it made me aware of a particular fetish that I hardly gave much notice to before. (This fetish will be more clear by the end of this blog.)

As far as Harrison's influence on Irving Klaw, let's begin with this sweet issue, also from my collection: Titter, November, 1946

Titter, November, 1946, Richard Pérez Seves

If you'll recall in our preamble blog to the first Cartoon and Model Parade, we mentioned that by the mid-to-late 1940s, “borderline” material was introduced into Irving Klaw's catalogs (then called Movie Star News). We said that this was a natural progression ... as what sold would be featured more and more.

But who inspired such material to begin with? It was Robert Harrison, who by the mid-1940s featured such material in his popular magazines. By now, the self-proclaimed "Pin-Up King" was enjoying some success thanks to the pin-up craze of WW II and could afford to expand his mail order business by advertising in widely circulated magazines like those of Harrison's.

This issue above: Titter, Nov., 1946—aside from being intensely beautiful as an artifact (as you'll see) —is a virtual textbook of borderline material, and, as such, indicates the origin of Klaw's initial pre-bondage "fetish" offerings. Such material was even explicitly broken down into subcategories in Harrison's own short-lived mail order business, "Fem Fotos," which obviously served as a template for Irving Klaw's evolving pin-up photo business. Take a look at the Fem Fotos ad, below:

Robert Harrison's Fem Fotos, Richard Pérez Seves

Now that you've seen the subcategories of borderline material, let's review them by peeking inside the magazine, starting with "Corset Cutie":

"Seductive Siren"

"Dominant Damsel"

"Booted Babe"

"Fighting Femmes"

"Long Haired Lady"

"Long Haired Lady?" Before looking at Harrison's magazines, I never knew (or acknowledged) that such a fetish existed. (That's the fetish that appears at the top of the blog with Beauty Parade, June 1949.) And even that fetish was featured by Klaw by 1949. (It appears as part of Offer No. 13 ["Long Haired Girls"], in issue #29 of Movie Star News and likely in earlier catalogs.)

Not featured on Harrison's Fem Fotos list, but appearing in his magazine would be what Klaw called "Slave Girls" but what Harrison referred to as "Shackled Sirens." Klaw would even create a separate category in the years to come, which he identifies as his "CH" (or "Girls in Chains") series (which, by the way, featured Charles Guyette and John Willie images, as well as pre-code Hollywood stills).

Also not on Harrison's Fem Fotos list, but featured in the magazine would be "High Heeled Honeys"—a phrase that later often appeared in Klaw's advertising.

In this same issue, in the back, is an ad for Klaw, but as we can see, he was still only selling straight pin-ups at the time, although no doubt he was taking notes, learning from Harrison.

Irving Klaw ad, Robert Harrison, Richard Pérez Seves

Tune in next week for Part 2 of "How Robert Harrison helped shape Irving Klaw!"

Cheers!
—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

Charles Guyette: Godfather of American Fetish Art, Expanded Second Edition

+

NEW RELEASE!

> Available Now! <

Bondage Enthusiasts Bound in Leather [Expanded Edition]

=================================

Also Available (Worldwide)!
GENE BILBREW REVEALED

>> Learn More <<

GENE BILBREW REVEALED by Richard Pérez Seves

Also Available Now (Worldwide)!
Sweeter Gwen, The Return of Gwendoline
by Eric Stanton
>> Learn More <<

* * * * * *

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

_________________________

* * * * * * *

FetHistory - Home | Instagram

www.instagram.com/fethistory

Saturday, June 28, 2014

A Tribute to Irving Klaw model, Shirley Maitland

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.”