By 1960, Playboy was a juggernaut that couldn't be ignored. There were Playboy Clubs and a late night TV show (Playboy After Dark) and of course, the magazine. At this point in time, Playboy was eclipsing every other girlie magazine on the stand and in the press.

Which was not to say that the others were dead. Adam, still one of Playboy's staunchest competitors, was just coming into its own as a magazine. Sharing a name with Fawcett's much tamer (and now defunct) Adam, the Knight Publications version was outselling its parent company's original mag, Sir Knight. Along with Modern Man, Adam was giving Playboy a good run for its money on the newsstands, if not much anywhere else.

Adam was coming into its prime in 1960, with fancy articles and fiction by big-name writers and some of the sexiest women between the covers. Granted, the images were pretty mainstream, even for the time, but that seemed to be what the public wanted, as Adam easily outsold more fetish-oriented magazines from Selbee and other such publishers.

This issue includes pictorials of Liane Morrelli, Wendy March, Gloria Gilbert, and Darlene Carr. The covergirl is Dane Arden. There's also fiction and articles by the likes of Arnold Stover, Charles Steele, Charles Dennis, Richard E. Geis, Connie Sellers, Leonard Shannon and others. You've probably never heard of them, but some (especially Richard E. Geis) were authors of some note.

Our most recent offering is Gaze from August of 1959. Gaze was one of those digest-sized cartoon magazines from Humorama. Among the ladies presented are Mona Miller (2 pictures), Virginia De Lees (3), Marle Sanderson (5), Donaldo Jordan (2), Cozette Hutner, Cherry Knight, Sherry Britton (4), Nancy Kirsten (4), Jean Carmen, Joanne Mayer, Carol DiCarlo (2), Celia Fields, Carol Hill, Lynn Barton, Joanne Jordan (7), Jayne Hayden (4), Suzi Peterson (4), Laura Vickers (4), Simone Auger, Jonnie Smith, Joanna Lee, and Niki Gibson.

Humorama was a division of Martin Goodman's publishing empire, Magazine Management. Goodman published an incredible variety of magazines and comic books including Marvel Comics (Captain America, Spider-Man, etc.), Red Circle (pulp magazines such as Uncanny Tales and Western Supernovel Magazine), paperback books (Lion Books), and men's magazines (For Men Only, Male, Stag, etc.)

Humorama was managed by Goodman's brother, Abe, and published up to 20 different magazines of this type over the years, all with the same mixture of racy cartoons and semi-clad ladies. Usually the pictures of the girls were images that had already been published elsewhere and the photographer could pick up a few extra bucks selling them a second time to Hurmorama. The Humorama line was printed on newspaper stock, so the photos weren't particularly clear, but they got the point across.

These magazines, like Sex to Sexty, are much-treasured by collectors and while they're easy to find on places like eBay, they're usually expensive. Bill Ward was a big contributor to the Humorama digests. Oddly he's not represented in this particular issue, which is probably why I managed to get it in an auction for less than $8. There are a LOT of great cartoons though, and a lot of beautiful babes, so enjoy a rare treat!

I've mentioned Sampson Publishing before. Although I really have no info on the owner or publisher, I do know that Sampson was the same company as Delilah Publishing, as their addresses are the same. I also know that they had a tendency to slap books together quickly, often without much order to the pages or even a proper indicia (the text, usually at the bottom of the index page, that lists the publisher, the date, and the number of the issue). Compare this issue of Eve with the one I have posted by Delilah. While the girls are about the same, the Delilah Eve is put together hastily and sloppily. Perhaps to obtain a copyright as quickly as possible.

Sometimes Sampson aspired to the quality of Selbee, as witnessed in the magazine French Frolic. Other times, they seemed to just publish what they could get their hands on.

Sampson's Eve was not the first girlie magazine to use that name. Knight Publications started a mag called Eve in the mid 50's, along with their Adam magazine. Eve didn't last long; Adam did. Sampson's Eve may not have lasted long, either. I've never seen an issue past #3, although that doesn't mean there weren't any.

In this issue, we have pictorials of Ann Wesley, Maria Clarance, Christine Ballard, Marlena Loren, Nina Corol, Audrey Nichols, and Bambi Martino.

There's also one-each clothed pictures of Peggy Evans, Arlene Stevens, Jacquie Bernard, and Laura Thurlow, all in Fredrick's of Hollywood Lingerie. Not an ad, but an article entitled "Hollywood Starlets Love Fredrick's Fashions". After seeing them, I love them too.

Our latest magazine is from the mind of Robert Harrison, publisher of such delights as Titter and Beauty Parade.

Harrison worked for Motion Picture Daily in 1941 when he began cutting and pasting pictures to make Beauty Parade after everyone else had gone home for the day. Harrison knew what he liked, and his tastes were a tad more fetishistic than the girlie mags on the stands at the time. Harrison liked high heels and lingerie. In fact, he liked them so much that the models were never without them in his publications. Never.

While there was no nudity, Harrison's mags had a sense of style, gaudy though it may be. He featured models like Bettie Page and strippers of the day in pictorials with baggy-pants comedians that looked like they came right off the burlesque stage, which in fact they had.

Magazines like Modern Man and Playboy eventually drove Harrison off the newsstands, but not before he reigned supreme for over a decade, giving us a more innocent girlie mag.

Our magazine for today is Exotica, and it's a Selbee Publication, so in my eyes it's already a gem.

Leonard Burtman founded Selbee. Burtman worked in the electronics industry in California in the 1940's. After some trouble with the authorities involving the transportation of false securities, Burtman felt it best to set up business elsewhere, and an entirely different business at that. He became a photographer and reportedly did some work for Irving Klaw before founding his own company in the early 1950's and his first publication, Exotique.

Lenny must have learned some things from Klaw, because he had the same fetish-bent attitude for the pictures: lots of heels and hose and leather and lingerie. The girls were usually strippers and nude models and you saw a lot of the same settings and props in the pictures. One model, the sexy Tana Louise, became Mrs. Burtman and had a column in every issue of Exotique.

Exotica had no date in the indicia, hence I'm unable to know the exact date. The magazine was published in 1962 OR 1963. (Thanks to Mushashi7 for determining that for us all.) This lack of publication date was a common tool for men's magazines at the time. If there was no date on it, customers were less likely to ignore it because it was last month's magazine. Besides, Burtman wasn't always able financially to print on a monthly basis. He often sold content to a couple of Canadian printers (Acme and Health Knowledge) who would make his magazines. In exchange, Burtman got some much-needed cash and copies of the magazine to distribute for himself.

Exotica continued in the same style of leather and heels as Exotique and featured a lot of sexy strippers and odd articles. This type of magazine is much to my liking and I hope to yours too. Enjoy.