Sizzle was published by Spice Publications. At least initially...by the seventh issue here their name had been hastily changed to Smash Publications, and from the "hurried up dropped in" typeset here, it must been done quickly. Get this...that was the THIRD name they used in just seven issues. Number six was published by Tri-S publications.
Talk about a shoestring operation. Were you guys trying to hide something? Some payments due? They also moved from West 25th Place to Santa Monica Blvd."Yea, Dis is big Santos....uh...you got a listing for Spice publications? I got a present for dem." "No? dey moved AGAIN!"
The editor remained through "the major shake-up" though, one Curt Wilson. So there we have it. Epitomizing the fly-by-night of the smut business AND exhibiting what I would define as one of the most perfect, most sublime magazine covers ever. Unfettered with clutter...just one busty model trying to hold herself up like a turkey whose breast had been hormone-gorged for the Holidays. No offense, but that forlorn pose hardly presents a "I just got PAID" look.
I will have more to say about Slippery Sizzle in an upcoming post. Until then, enjoy this pure, primitive representation of what Vintage Sleaze is all about. Simple, goofy and likely unpaid.
VINTAGE SLEAZE / DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS 2012 AND EBOOKS FOR SALE HERE
Pretty Pixie Pert hovers in a field of Pistachio mint green in this "proto-porn" figure study digest from 1955 or so. There is no date, but I can tell you it was one in a series of six of bogus guides for the photographer. Curiously available not at your local camera store, but from a mail-order address which changed frequently and had at least six publisher imprints. As this is a general audience website, It is not possible to post the interior photos, but I can assure you "pert" refers to Pixie's nose.
THIS IS NUMBER TWENTY ONE IN THE SERIES 'THE RARE DIGESTS' Small essays on hopelessly obscure and scarce soft-core publications of the 1950s. Enjoy them All!Dull Tool Dim Bulb Books and Ebooks Catalog HERE
Not much out there on Kayo Harris. Fun Packed Rib Tickling Fun with Female Belly Laughs! I believe Harris was based here in Oregon, but ended up in Florida (don't they all?) He advertised his drawings and postcards in Billboard Magazine for a while, and here in an Adam Book of Adult Stag Humor in 1968, so there should be something (or someone) out there who knows his work. If so, get in touch? You can look for it under "Sexsational" I guess.
Nice cover, and also quite a concept! She seems to be on the way to the hot-dog stand, but what's with the hand motion? "Toni Wray" also wrote Latent Lesbian published a year earlier. Publishers Export Company, or PEC as it is known, was a California imprint. I guess California had plenty of drive-ins. But were there really working girls on the grounds of the now extinct drive-in?When I was young, the screen would tell us to roll up our windows when the mosquito fogger came through. I hope she had a client, that DDT was sprayed around thick enough to obscure the movie. And it was toxic...Blondie here may have offered a freebie just to get inside!
Everyone learned how to make-out at the drive-in, but I sure don't remember anyone on the stroll. X-rated films being screened at the local drive-in was fairly common. They just waited until the kids fell asleep, that's why there was a playground under the screen. The kids wore themselves out and fell asleep during the second moldy cartoon, then it was showtime.
An essay by David L. Lewis titled "Sex and the Automobile: From Rumble Seats to Rockin' Vans" in the wonderful book "The Automobile and American Culture" reports "management occasionally helped matters along, hiring "ushers" who served as "auto pimps" and providing prostitutes to make "car calls."A whole chain of X-rated drive-in theaters in Indiana and Ohio were owned by mobster Burt Gorelick which were so profitable he was convicted of skimming half a million dollars from the operation. I wouldn't be surprised if he had a few strutting on the grounds, but I certainly have no proof. So don't come looking for me.
Blurb Vintage Sleaze / Dull Tool Dim Bulb Book Catalog HERE
One of the most lovely sleaze magazines ever, oxymoron intended. Fling started as an odd sized digest, and here is issue number one. Beat to hell, I know. I could have jazzed it up with a black magic marker, but then for the rest of my life I'd look at it and only see the touch-ups. Repairs don't happen here. 
Later, under the wide open lens of Russ Meyer, who became something of house photographer for a while, the magazine turned into a big boob thing. How much later? ISSUE TWO. In fact, Russ did a layout in number one, and he'd somehow convinced the editors to "go big" for real with the second one. Soon after, the magazine grew accordingly. Despite these covers, a full-size magazine was required to contain Meyer's dames...and sell more on the stand.Most notable, other than the wonderful covers..are the FLING COUPONS! Yep, the Groupon™ of smut! Feel free to cut these out and use them for your NEXT fling. Actually, all they were good for was crap on the back page. Folding binoculars, a golf-club ashtray and musical cufflinks! Still, you pay 50 cents for a fling, you want the extras.
Fling Magazine Number One 1957 Collection Victor MinxOther covers cribbed from the web.
BLURB BOOK DOWNLOADS AND ORDERS HERE
ELMER FORMS A CLUB !CLICK TO ENLARGEMan's Favorite Pastime was Elmer Batters first magazine, though he had been photographing beautiful woman for a while. You'll often see his work, uncredited, in Humorama gag magazines and other cheesecake from the early 1950s. Man's Favorite Pastime was to be his entry in to the grown-up glossy world.
He only lasted there a few issues, and it went on without him. How can you get fired from your own magazine after a few issues?
Man's Favorite Pastime had an angle. "No fiction, no abstract drawings, and no cartoons." A bold move, as the facade of editorial material kept a few publishers out of jail. You know...judge the work of art as a whole? They must have been hesitant with their convictions, as you can see they added considerable overlay grill work to the model on the cover of issue one!
Elmer was a leg man. Exclusively. Unless you count feet as a separate category, in which case he was also a foot man. It is as if the camera lens was too heavy for him to hold horizontal. Elmer liked to shoot the calves and below. So I am going to guess Elmer was let go for shooting only the stockings.Nick Tosches wrote a nice profile of Mr. Batters which appears in The Nick Tosches Reader. He quotes Elmer describing how after he left, Man's Favorite Pastime "deteriorated into a bosom book" with distain.So it wasn't long before Elmer had to use his OWN legs and walk to a new job.
Elmer must have remained bitter, as he later founded an organization called "The Royal Order of the Garter" in which he claimed "You can still enjoy Man's FAVORITE PASTIME..." He used the auspices of this exclusive club to peddle his long legged stag films.Man's Favorite Pastime Issue Number 2 collection Victor Minx DULL TOOL DIM BULB / VINTAGE SLEAZE BOOKS AND DOWNLOADS HERE
