Customer Reviews

The Best of American Girlie Magazines

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Reading the review from a reader in Seattle I wonder if I have the same book. My 'American Girlie Magazines' is about Robert Harrison and his pulp girlie titles Beauty Parade, Eyeful, Titter, Wink, Whisper and Flirt. They were published between 1942 and 1958 and the contents mostly showed black and white photos of scantily clad ladies (Harrison did not approve of nudity) in slapstick situations...all very tame by todays standards. The book reproduces covers and spreads from these magazines.

The contents of these magazines are basically trash but they do have one thing of interest, their covers, these were paintings rather than photos. Pin-up artist Peter Driben painted hundreds of covers for the six titles and dozens are shown in this book, some other pin-up artists are included as well.

Before you rush out and buy the book you need to know that all the covers and the spreads have been sized sligthly bigger than the book. This does not matter too much with the reproduced spreads but all the covers have been ruined because of this enlargement, the title logos and coverlines run of the side of the page.

Two better Taschen cheesecake titles are 'The Rottenberg Collection', seven hundred pages of American pin-ups (mostly nudes) from the forties to the sixties from the collection of Mark Rottenberg. European pin-ups are covered in 'Serge Jacques' by Gilles Neret. Both these titles are far superior to 'American Girlie Magazines'

As an earlier reviewer pointed out, there are problems with image oversizing (but, to my mind, it's not a significant problem). I would also say that too much space is devoted to reproducing the covers (some of which are identical) and not enough space given over to those wacky and surprisingly still erotic photo spreads. It's also true that this is a reprint of another Taschen book, but this time it comes with hard cover and glossy pages (as opposed to the hard-cardboard backs and pulpy pages of the original). This book is practically being given away at this price and while I might have made different editorial choices, I am very happy with this book as is.

This book is flawed but if you want the covers from Robert Harrison's magazines by famous pin-up artists this is it. One problem is the cropped covers that prevent the reader from seeing the whole effect. The images also cover the full page so there is no white margin to absorb finger marks and other edge damage from use without harming the image. This book is also a paperback despite coming in at over 700 pages. At 2.5 inches thick the spine creases with ease, and with long use the book will likely fall apart. Taschen should have focused on the pin-up artists rather than trying to make a book cover all of Robert Harrison's magazines. By changing focus to the artists they could have dumped the black and white photos and shrunk the book. They then could have published full covers in an oversized book.

Taschen has republished the same material in two other books but they repeat many mistakes, and make some new ones. First, is a much smaller selection of covers from this book in "Pin-Up Icons" by Neret. I would just buy a good used version of "Girlie Magazines" for a little more and get 3-4X the illustrations. Second, is 1000 Pin-Ups which is a hard back (good), apparently adds 60 pages (good), but also comes in at 1/2 an inch thinner (bad). How did they do this? The pages are much thinner paper. While a good value, in my opinion "Girlie Magazines" remains the better book, with better paper quality.

Had to have this, as I don't have the originals anymore. As boy from 50's this is my time slot.

Not a book to read, unless you are true fan. More book to flip through. No index or page numbers. Thick enough to be a door stop.

Check it Out.

If you like pin-up girls and the 40's and 50's style pictures. This is the book to get! It is filled cover to cover with amazing art work. There are a variety of artists shown. The art varies from movie posters to pulp fiction book covers and magazine covers. I have never found a book with such a great range, as I said a real resource for fans of pin-up girl art.