Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Paperback 458: Gutter Gang / Jay de Bekker (Beacon Books B108)

Paperback 458: Beacon Books B158 (PBO, 1954)

Title: Gutter Gang
Author: Jay de Bekker
Cover artist: Uncredited

Yours for: $20

Beacon108.Gutter

Best things about this cover:
  • "Psst. Hey, Billy, you gonna hit that?" "Shut up, guys, that's my mom!"
  • "Billy, you come home right now and do your chores! And take that cigarette out of your mouth this instant!" "Aw, mom...! You're makin' me look uncool in front of the guys..."
  • Art director had only one note: "Grimier."
  • I love '50s paranoia about JD (Juvenile Delinquency). I don't know who Norman Anthony is (whoa, I've said that before ...), but I'm sure he was hysterical.

Beac108bc.Gutter

Best things about this back cover:
  • Well, when you have your midnight orgies in the parking lot of the A&P, that'll happen.
  • "Sponsors"=not the word I was expecting. "Hey girls, let's all go to AA!" "Neato!"
  • "B- B- B- Benny's name is Lesk!"
  • Those poor, poor kids. Getting high, fucking ... I really pity them.
  • This book has chapters with titles like "Muggin'," "Chicken," "Hot Gin," and, of course, "Chivalry"

Page 123~ (cheating: p. 122)
I ask him does he live with this folks, and he says he has a mother and a sister but no real father. He said he was a bastard, a real bastard."
I like how she talks about bastards like they were astronauts or yetis.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Tumblr]

6 comments:

Tulse said...

Here's a hint, Benny, that might help assuage your guilt: If the girl is willing to have sex with you, it's not "rape".

Jackie said...

Not just willing, but begging him to have sex with her.

So is that supposed to be his sister on the cover? How come all the characters look to be about 50?

borky said...

Cover: "Hey, Billy, you gonna hit that?" "Shut up, guys, that's my mom!"

"Which one - the all-in wrestlin' guy in the red dress, or the spud faced chick in jeans and leather jacket with the unlit fag 'anging off her lip?"

If ever there was proof the GUTTER GANG lifestyle of "Lust, Dope and Prostitution" was bad for teens, look at the two morons peepin' out the alleyway - they're supposed to be sixteen but they look a hundred and sixteen!

Jenners said...

"B-b-b-b-benny's name is Lesk" just killed me.

Titus Groan said...

It makes sense that the cover art is uncredited. A reputation was probably at stake!

VC Rogers said...

I don't know what Norman Anthony was up to in the 1950s, but in the '20s and '30s he was a well-known humor magazine editor. He edited Judge and the old Life, and had a major hit with Ballyhoo, which specialized in risque cartoons and ad parodies. His 1946 autobiography, How To Grow Old Disgracefully, is flat-out hilarious.