Book Review: Smut King

 

Book Review: 'Smut King' by George Bishop

5 / 5 Stars

'Smut King' ( 287 pp.) was published by Dell in April, 1974. The cover artist is uncredited.

George Bishop (1927 - 1994) was born in Montreal and during the 1970s and 1980s published several books. 'The Apparition' (1979) is a Paperback from Hell, while 'The Shuttle People' (1983) is science fiction. 'Witness to Evil: The Inside Story of the Tate, La Bianca Murder Trial,' published in 1971, and 'The World of Clowns', published in 1976, are nonfiction.

'Smut King,' has long been out of print, and even in the paperback collector space, copies are difficult to find. A seller at amazon wants $50 for a 'very good' copy, while eBay and Abe Books have no copies, period. I was fortunate to get an 'acceptable' copy for an affordable price, some years ago.

I should state at the outset that the book is not a sleaze novel, with lurid and explicit descriptions of hapless coeds being used and abused by scheming pornographers. The book instead is an overview of the eccentric personalities associated with the smut world; these observations are informed with measures of humor and, at times, pathos. 

While I can find no information that the novel was based on any firsthand experiences of author Bishop, it does have an 'I was there' verisimilitude........as if, for example, the author had spent time working for Milton Luros.

The novel is set in Los Angeles is the late 1960s. The eponymous King is one Jules Vengoff: overweight, grasping, scheming, a 'Semitic Nero Wolfe.' In the opening chapters, first-person narrator Jim Morgan is hired to work at 'Wickwire House', the seemingly staid publisher that serves as the front for Vengoff's porn enterprise 'Pericles Press' (which churns out XXX magazines, and mail-order 'marital aids').

The narrative follows Morgan's adventures as he learns more about Vengoff's business and the people who work for him. It's very much a nuts-and-bolts account of how the content is produced, printed, and distributed, always with an awareness of what mayhem crusading District Attorneys or Postal Inspectors might do should they find Pericles items to be offensive to their social norms.

Being clean-cut, good-looking, and a WASP in a workplace of Jews and blacks, Morgan quickly becomes a standout performer, which brings him into too-close contact with Vegoff's stunning daughter, Reva. Morgan also becomes good friends with his next-door neighbor Anita Jo, an airline stewardess who enjoys swimming in the nude. For him, fine female companionship, a good salary, and a quirky retinue of co-workers makes late-sixties L.A. a magical place to live.

The novel takes a turn in the last 30 pages, switching from a drama, to a crime novel, and a good one at that. There is a crisis, and attendant suspense and action. I won't disclose spoilers, save to say that the author avoids turning the story into a moral lesson about the evils of licentiousness.

In my opinion, 'Smut King' is a solid Five Star novel. Given the exorbitant costs to obtain a copy of the Dell paperback, is well deserving of a modern-day reprinting, and the opportunity to bring the book to a wider audience.

Savage Skulls from Esquire, June 1977

Savage Skulls
by Julian Allen
from the June, 1977 issue of Esquire magazine

Jon Bradshaw's article 'Savage Skulls' appeared in the June, 1977 issue of Esquire magazine. The above illustration, by Julian Allen, depicts the Skulls torturing Anthony Gibaldi before murdering him inside the basement of an abandoned South Bronx building during the night of July 20, 1974. It's creepy, unsettling, disturbing...... in short, an outstanding illustration.

The Esquire article serves epitomizes the reality of the decay of New York City in the 1970s.

Bradshaw's article was based on his (police-escorted) interviews and interactions with several Bronx gang members in the Winter of 1977. Most of the gangbangers he talked to were members of the Savage Skulls, a major Puerto Rican gang in the South Bronx

Whereas in the late 60s and early 70s the mainstream media had elected to portray New York City's street gangs as improvised families for youth abandoned and discarded by an uncaring, racist, classist society, by '77 the reality - that the gangs were comprised of sociopaths who routinely committed robbery, rape, and assault - could no longer be ignored, or explained away by pop sociology jargon.

As Bradshaw reveals, the Skulls hated whites "....without reservation," and they hated snitches. Anthony Gibaldi was both.....and that got him killed.

In 1973 the twenty-one year-old Gibaldi, who was mentally retarded, worked as a shoeshine boy at the intersection of Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard. While his family, immigrants from Italy, understood that the South Bronx was turning into a hellhole, they were reluctant to leave. Anthony was pathetically eager to make friends with others in the neighborhood, and some of the boys he consorted with were members of the Savage Skulls.

In January, 1973, while walking on Westchester Avenue, Gibaldi was robbed by two Savage Skulls, 'R. C.' and 'Popeye'. His father pressured Gibaldi to report the crime to the police. R. C. was arrested and sent to the Elmira reformatory, and Popeye, to Attica. Upon their release, both men were keen to retaliate against Gibaldi.

On the night of July 20, 1974, Gibaldi was walking through the South Bronx when he was approached by a group of Savage Skulls, who invited him to accompany them to a party nearby. Gibaldi trustingly followed the gang members into the basement of an abandoned building.

There, he was stripped naked, tied up with clotheslines, and tossed onto the floor. Then, over the ensuing hours, he was tortured by the stoned, boozing Skulls, including a vengeful Popeye, who tied a nylon cord around Gibaldi's penis and yanked so hard on it, that the cord / penis combination lifted Gibaldi's body off the floor.

After the gang spent some time stabbing the inert Gibaldi multiple times, Popeye shot him to death and burned the corpse.

According to Tom Walker in his 2011 book Return to Fort Apache: Memoir of an NYPD Captain, after the corpse was discovered, the medical examiner declared the cause of death as 'undetermined, no violence found'. Gibaldi's father denounced the Medical Examiner's declaration and over the course of the next two years pressed the police to solve the murder of his son. 

After a prolonged investigation (that revealed the corrupt and dysfunctional nature of the work done by the ME's office in the mid-70s), in October 1976, 'R. C.', aka Arce Santiago, was convicted of the murder of Anthony Gibaldi and sentenced to life in prison.

Julian Allen did illustrations for a variety of well-known magazines during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. He also illustrated the comic 'Wild Palms.' A biographical sketch is available here.

Book Review: Jones: Portrait of A Mugger

Book Review: 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' by James Willwerth

5 / 5 Stars

Though Jones drifts through most of his days with little regard for passing time, he expects others to be punctual - especially his women.

One night a few weeks earlier, he'd expected Carol home at 11 pm. She arrived past midnight.

"Is this eleven o'clock, Carol ?"

"It's only a few minutes after......."

"A few minutes - my fucking ass ! You say you're coming home at eleven o'clock, you be here, bitch !"

"I come home when I want, motherfucker !"

In a swift, sweeping motion Jones hit her face with the flat of his hand. She cursed at him again. His hand moved again across the space between them with the gathering force of a huge winged bird. She was knocked across the room and down.

"You don't like it," Jones said mockingly, "You can leave." 

Carol was sprawled on the floor and crying. 

"FUCK YOU, YOU CAN LEAVE, BASTARD !"

He shrugged: "All right........what the fuck.......I will."

'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' (252 pp) was published in hardcover by M. Evans and Company in 1974. A mass-market paperback edition also is available; however, copies in good condition have very steep asking prices.

In his Forward, author Willwerth explains that in 1973, he decided to write a book about a young, black street criminal. He soon met a 24 year-old mugger, who is referred to by the pseudonym 'Jones', who was willing to allow Willwerth to observe his daily life, and interview his family and associates. 

Jones, who grew up in a New York City housing project, is half black and half Italian, and a resident of the Lower East Side of New York City. 

Over the course of the four months in which he hung out with his profilee, Willwerth comes to be something of a friend and confidant of Jones.

Willwerth meticulously records his conversations with Jones, and his interactions with Jones's parents, girlfriends, street associates, and fellow drug abusers. Jones comes to trust Willwerth enough to relate to him his strategies for mugging (for example, he dresses well when out on the streets, since a well-groomed appearance can lull potential victims in feeling a false sense of security) as well as his memories of growing up in the projects, becoming a junkie, doing time in prison, and............. staying in style.

This means dedicating most of any ill-gotten earnings to the acquisition of the best of mid-70s fashions; at one point, for example, Jones decks himself out in black platform shoes; grey knit slacks; and a bright orange satin tank top. Another time he elects to sport a pink-and-blue dashiki.

A potential drawback for a book like this is the author's decision to politicize the topic. However, although the Willwerth occasionally indulges in sententious remarks ("As long as our society tolerates ghettos........we will have muggers"), 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' avoids overindulging in pop sociology, pop criminology, or identity politics. 

Willwerth is a self-avowed white liberal, and at times he attributes Jones's criminal behavior to an uncaring and indifferent Society. But for the most part Willwerth wisely focuses his narrative on Jones's actions, and his explanations - which are frequently contradictory and self-serving - for his life of crime. There is some in-the-moment reporting as well:

We catch a bus for Broom street.

This is pushing it, a lot; my fear is rising. We are riding into an area of skeletal buildings. Junkies huddle on the corners like packs of starved rats; the streets are deserted in midday, stores closed, windows boarded up.......

We step off the bus and walk toward a windowless drugstore on the ground floor of a grimy brownstone....junkies all around it. The city here is diseased, dying all around me.

The junkies scatter. They probably think I am a cop. Jones recognizes one of them, a Puerto Rican with swept-back hair.

"We'll go talk to that nigger," Jones says.

He adds:

"A nigger around here don't mean a black dude, you dig ? It's a low-class dude who ain't going nowhere - that's the true meaning of the word."

I won't disclose any spoilers about what happens to Jones, save to say that a Journey to Redemption likely is not in the offing.

I finished the book thinking that it stands as an informative account of New York City and its pervasive crime in the era of the movie Death Wish, which also was released in 1974. 'Jones: Portrait of A Mugger' reveals an NYPD and criminal justice system helpless to address the epidemic of crime that grips the city. 

Even former Mayor Ed Koch was forced to acknowledge the depth of the problem - while avoiding any mention of the failure of his administration to do much about it.

'Jones' makes clear that for many New Yorkers, street crime was as unavoidable an aspect of life in the 70s as transit strikes, sanitation worker strikes, air pollution, rising taxes, and crumbling infrastructure. To live in the world of Jones and his victims was to live in a time of danger that contemporary residents of the city likely would not understand or comprehend............

July is Some Tough City month

Here at the PorPor Books Blog we like to take a break every now and then from reviewing and showcasing books in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and instead turn our attention to other genres of literature.

For July, 2024, we are going to peruse fiction and nonfiction associated with the seedier, and more dangerous, side of urban living. If you're looking for uplifting treatments of humanity, you won't find these in any of our July selections ! 

We've got muggers, thieves, pimps, hoes, crooked cops, alcoholics, drug addicts, murderers, pornographers, transvestites, gangbangers, and black revolutionaries. With that sort of a lineup, how can you possibly go wrong ?!

P.S. I got the phrase 'some tough city,' and the 'distressed' font Vtks Escape, from the title of a 1984 LP by Tony Carey. It's a good album, with the songs 'It's A Fine Fine Day' and 'First Day of Summer.'

Playboy July 1978

Playboy 

July 1978

It's July, 1978. On the FM radio, the number one single on the Billboard Hot 100 is 'Shadow Dancing' by Andy Gibb. Also coming up in the chart are some memorable 70s tunes, such as 'Miss You' by the Rolling Stones, 'Baker Street' by Gerry Rafferty, and 'Groove Line' by Heatwave. 

Let's open up the July issue of Playboy magazine, which on its cover features Pamela Sue Martin, who was then portraying Nancy Drew on the ABC TV series The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries.

 

As I composed this post, news was received of the death, on June 27 at age 80, of Martin Mull. In the late 70s Mull was the host of the talk show 'America 2  Night,' I remember watching an episode in July of 1978. I found in inane, but it showcased Mull's ability to project an urbane, comedic personality. Playboy's editors really liked this Mull archetype and featured him in a portfolio, titled 'Martin Mull's Guide to Sophisticated Seduction.'

 

However cringey the portfolio may seem to a modern audience, this was exactly the kind of stuff that the Playboy readership (made up of men over the age of 45) liked to see.

 

 

Returning to our cover girl, Martin was of course hoping a portfolio in Playboy would signal her status as a 'serious' actress who was ready and willing to take on edgier and more mature roles. But in my opinion, her portfolio misses the mark; for one thing, it's too short at just 5 pages, and for another, the pictures are not very flattering. Also, they occupy a 'safe' but unremarkable middle ground in terms of exposure and explicitness. Martin would have been much better served by going to Penthouse.

 

 

Speaking of Penthouse, its dominance over Playboy both in circulation, and as a pop cultural phenomenon, was quite complete in 1978, and the editors at Playboy were trying to emulate their competitor. This is apparent in the portfolio devoted to 'adult film' star Susan Jensen, aka 'Constance Mooney,' an actress in (among other movies) the 1976 XXX film The Opening of Misty Beethoven. 

 

Interspersing stills from Jensen's films with contemporary shots of her posing against Alaskan scenery, Playboy successfully captures the edgier aesthetic that was working so well in Penthouse.

 

There is a cartoon that nowadays probably would be considered politically incorrect.......

The fiction piece in this July issue is a great little story titled 'Galahad,' about a street-level pool hustler who enters a high-stakes tournament against the best talent in the city. Author Walter J. Lowe, Jr., later would go on to be the first black editor at Playboy.

Few artists in the latter half of the 20th century were more profoundly overrated than Leroy Neiman. Playboy had an adoring attitude towards Neiman, thus, we get a portfolio of his crappy sports art. We also learn that Leroy, sly boy that he is, can scrawl some dirty pictures when he wants to.......

The record review column is particularly nasty in regards to Barry Manilow's 1978 album, Even Now. According to the anonymous reviewer,

 

....Barry Manilow blows dead rats. His new album is Even Now (Arista) and Clive Davis ought to be ashamed - he's head of Arista Records. Besides, Manilow has an ugly nose, which protrudes across the cover like a great zucchini. His voice has a certain out-of-time, nagging quality to it, like a woman on downers asking over and over when you are going to take out the garbage. The music itself is like a slimy, fecal continuum that carries you along as if through the isles of a supermarket, bobbing along to the icy Quaalude surf.

 

Ouch ! That said, Even Now featured the monster hits 'Copacabana' and 'Can't Smile Without You,' so Barry did quite well for himself and his nose.

The 'Television' review has a surreal quality that only the decade of the seventies could provide. I don't remember it watching it at the time, but in May, 1978, ABC aired a spinoff of the Battle of the Network Stars franchise, called the Rock ‘N Roll Sports Classic. Playboy writer David Standish was present when the show was taped at the University of California Irvine. His article has the facetious quality that is vital to documenting such an endeavor. 

What is trippy is the lineup of performers who consented to appear in the show: Lionel Richie and the Commodores; Michael Jackson and the Jacksons; Seals and Crofts; Earth, Wind, and Fire; Joan Jett and the Runaways; Boston; and teenybopper sensation Leif Garrett, among others. You can see an overview of the show here.

I can't think of any way to top footage of Tanya Tucker and Marilyn McCoo competing in a relay race on the track. So let's just close the last page of the July 1978 issue of Playboy, and leave with fond memories of how things were, 46 years ago......

Book Review: Here Abide Monsters

Book Review: 'Here Abide Monsters' by Andre Norton

 3 / 5 Stars

'Here Abide Monsters' first was published in 1973 in the UK. This DAW Books edition (205 pp.) was issued in October, 1974, and features cover art by Jack Gaughan. It is DAW Book number UE1686.

The novel is set in July, 1972. In the opening chapter we are introduced to protagonist Nick Shaw, a young man who is motorcycling out to a lakefront cottage for a weekend of relaxation. En route to his destination Nick stops in at Ham Hodge's country store, where he meets an attractive girl named Linda Durant, and her Pekinese, Lung. Linda is new to the lake area and Nick volunteers to guide her to her own cabin. However, it turns out Linda's place is accessible by the notorious Cut-Off road..........a road linked with past tales of people who vanish upon transiting it.

And indeed, while driving down the Cut-Off, Nick and Linda pass through a Warp, and find themselves stranded in a strange, alternate world called 'Avalon', where - at first glance - people and creatures from mythology wander bucolic landscapes. 

It turns out someone, or something, in Avalon has a habit of teleporting people from 'our' world into Avalon, a form of kidnapping that has been going on throughout recorded history. 

Thus, as Nick and Linda explore Avalon, they are astonished to find Chinese soldiers, medieval brigands, and a small group of World War Two-era Britons, loose in the forests and fields. The latter, led by the intense former game warden Sam Stroud, the avuncular vicar Adrian Hadlett, and the obdurate pilot Barry Crocker, are priggish, but willing to allow the two teens to join up with them for purposes of mutual safety.

As Nick and Linda accompany the Brits on their forays, they learn that time flows more slowly in the territories of the alt-world, as the Brits have not aged much at all despite being trapped in the alt-world for 30 years. The Brits do have unwelcome news for Nick and Linda: no one has ever found a portal from Avalon back to the 'real' world.  

As the narrative progresses Nick begins to rely on his own intuition in coming to terms with the situation. The plot culminates in a desperate, last-ditch effort to find the way home, an effort that could well see everyone succumb to the malevolent forces sweeping the land........

'Here Abide Monsters' is not much different from those other novels from Norton that I have read, that are intended for a Young Adult (YA) readership. The novel starts off on an engaging note, with concise world-building and characterization. However, as narrative progresses the mystery surrounding what is happening in Avalon becomes more opaque, with revelations doled out to the patient reader in drips and drabs. The novel's denouement delivers some explanations, but sizeable plot holes remain, giving the book's conclusion a half-baked quality.

'Monsters' also suffers from its status as a YA novel, something common in almost all of Norton's works; there is no genuine suspense, as no one ever is killed (or even seriously injured). While there are some scares and tribulations in the novel, they lack impact due to the reader's knowledge that the characters always will win through. 

Summing up, it may be that I am asking too much from another one of Norton's YA novels, but the bloodless nature of 'Here Abide Monsters' means that it's not going to be a gripping entertainment for the adult reader.

John Carter Warlord of Mars omnibus

John Carter, Warlord of Mars

Marvel omnibus, 2012

'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' omnibus was issued by Marvel in 2012. At 626 pages, it's a mid-sized omnibus, as these things go. It contains all 28 issues of the 'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' comic book Marvel published from June, 1977, to October, 1979, along with the 1979 Annual. There is a brief Afterward which consists of scans of original sketches, and promotional materials.

I purchased this omnibus ten years ago for $37, and copies in good condition nowadays go for $125 on up. So I thought I'd provide an overview of the omnibus so those interested in spending that amount of money for a copy can see what it is they are going to get.

The artwork, primarily done by Marvel stalwart Gene 'The Dean' Colon, holds up well, as do the colors and lettering. Where modern readers are going to find the contents less than impressive is the writing, which was done by Marv Wolfman and Chris Claremont, who were fond of over-writing any property they got their hands on in those glory days of the writers at Marvel. 

Most panels are overloaded with speech balloons and text boxes, and the plots - loosely based on the original novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs - have an overheated quality, as the writers try to compress all sorts of events and incidents into the confines of a 17-page monthly comic.

Another area where these comics from the 1970s differ considerably from more modern treatments of the Mars franchise is in the cheesecake index. While Marvel wasn't averse to showcasing the charms of Deja Thoris, 'Warlord of Mars' was a Code book, and thus there was only so much T & A the women of Barsoom could get away with presenting. 

Compared to the modern-day 'Deja Thoris' comics from Dynamite, the female characters in Marvel's series are overdressed, but that's how times and mores have changed (as well, the Marvel series was aimed at comic book geeks - young men in their teens and early twenties, while the Dynamite titles are firmly aimed at middle-aged and older men, with considerable Disposal Income in their hands).

'John Carter: Warlord of Mars' works best when you don't get too caught up in analyzing it, and instead simply enjoy it for a fun comic with lots of beautiful women, menaces and monsters, sci-fi gadgets, and action.

As I said at the beginning, hopefully this overview will give Marvel and Barsoom fans an idea of what to expect with this omnibus.