Friday, February 25, 2011

Paperback 389: Yoga For Physical Fitness / Richard L. Hittleman (Warner 91-281)

Paperback 389: Warner Books 91-281 (14th ptg??? 1974)

Title: Yoga For Physical Fitness
Author: Richard L. Hittleman
Cover artist: photo

Yours for: not for sale

Warner91281.Yoga

Best things about this cover:
  • There is only one word I can think of when I look at this. Junk. JUNKJUNKJUNKJUNKJUNK. Dorothy Hamill's crotch isn't faring much better, frankly.
  • "First, lay your junk on the head of a seated young woman..."
  • God bless the people who invented non-obscene yoga clothing. I could not / would not practice in whatever that guy's got on.
  • I had no idea there were "famous yoga instructors" in the U.S. in 1974.
  • I guess they're forming the letter "Y." I'm really glad I don't have to see them do the "MCA" part.

Warner91281bc.Yoga

Best things about this back cover:
  • Hey, that crotch looks familiar ...
  • "Tied to the kitchen sink?" That's either kinky or cruel.
Page 123~

This firming exercise is self-explanatory.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

P.S. thanks to Jami for the book...

5 comments:

Marla said...

I think we can add "increase vitality" to the list of wink wink nudge nudge phrases.

JamiSings said...

Oh good, you got the box then! LOL Honestly, I didn't mean to send you anymore, but then I saw the yoga book - then I saw the others.... I figured even though you're more pulp then anything you could get some fodder out of them!

Don't be surprised if I send more. I bought some old paperbacks recently but I'm going to New York for a vacation and am keeping them to read on the plane.

Deb said...

Wow--a banana hammock, a camel toe, and an implied menage-a-trois--it's a '70s trifecta!

Unknown said...

Granted, "Hittleman" is a difficult surname to be encumbered with, but why would you insist on including your middle initial, so that at first glance everyone reads "LITTLEMAN" as being the author? At least he went with "Richard" rather than the diminutive.

borky said...

For those who don't know, the guy on the cover isn't Hittleman.

Hittleman was this sort of mixed race Japanesey/Chinesey looking bloke, (a bit like Dr No in the Bond film), who gave off this air of being in his late fifties, early sixties, but with the nimbleness of a teen and the looks of a thirty year old. He was always surrounded by these very healthy looking young and middle-aged women, but y'had the peculiar sense that for all their admirable flexibility George Takei or Rock Hudson'd've stood a better chance of Riding the Camel's Crotch, or Inserting the Carrot in the Valley of the Setting Moon, or some such 'yogic' position.

I know all this 'cause I used to sag off school a lot and a British version of Hittleman's show used to go out in the early '70s on Granda TV during what was the birth of British day time television.

At first it was a huge hit, but the advent of Bruce Lee's movies and the Kung Fu TV series seemed to depreciate its initial oriental glamouressness.