Saturday, October 6, 2007

Paperback 23: Hillman 18

Paperback 23: Hillman 18 (1st ptg, 1949)

Title: Collusion
Author: Theodore D. Irwin
Cover artist: N/A

Yours for: $12

Best things about this cover:

  • Jazz hands!
  • "What a scoop!" - that giant flashbulb is hilarious
  • That headboard! Where do you get something like that? Versailles? Goes great with the cheap red veloure bedspread and motel-grade bedside table and lamp.
  • Her hair! (so tightly coiffed)
  • Her eyebrows! (so highly arched / obviously penciled)
  • What's the story here? "Woman Found in Bed ... Alone!"


Best things about this back cover:

  • "... but divorces are made on earth?" Not where I thought you were going.
  • "Night years," cute
  • "A sincere plea for more liberal divorce laws" - 'cause nothing says "sincere plea" like a lingerie-laden paperback
  • Check out the other authors in the Hillman stable: lots of nobodies with three names ... and Balzac.

RP

11 comments:

Michael5000 said...

Ha! Ha! Rex, I was laughing so hard at this one that Mrs.5000 had to come check and make sure I wasn't going to hurt myself. The kicker is trying to imagine the reader who, having enjoyed "Sex and Marriage Problems" as told to E.B. Taylor and "Hell in the Saddle" by Ed Earl Repp, has really worked up an appetite for Balzac's "Ten Droll Tales." Honere, you need a better agent.

Orange said...

I want to know what Let's Make Mary is all about.

Rex Parker said...

Yes, "as told to" makes me spit my coffee every time I read it. As for Let's Make Mary: stay tuned!

rp

Anonymous said...

Steve Yeager? Isn't he someone? Someone famous, I mean?

Rex Parker said...

You're thinking of Chuck Yeager, I think. Although Steve Yeager was semi-famous as a catcher with the Dodgers in the 70s and 80s. Whoa! Wiki says that Steve is Chuck's nephew! Further:

In 1976 he was injured when a piece of Bill Russell's bat shattered and hit him (the on-deck batter) in the neck, piercing his esophagus. He had nine pieces of wood taken out of his neck in 98 minutes of surgery. Yeager is famous for later inventing the catcher's throat protector flap that hangs from the catcher's mask, which he began wearing after the life-threatening incident.

wendy said...

Uh, does Honore de Balzac really belong in that group of newsstand novels?

cornbread hell said...

an excellent and intrinsically provocative blog.

a new reader.

Anonymous said...

How do you all get those little pictures on the right side of your comment?

Rex Parker said...

Hey, Whitey's mom, what's up?

If you have a Blogger account (free), you can upload a photo to your "Profile" - then it just shows up whenever you make Comments. It's very easy to do.

rp

Jeff H said...

The woman on the cover (in the bed) looks suspiciously like Meg Tilly or her sister, you know, whatshername...

Unknown said...

Hi Rex,

I migrated here from the puzzle page.

Last night I watched an old movie: Don't Look Now. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie have that exact headboard in their lodgings.

So the answer to your question is, Not Versailles, Venice.