Thursday, March 26, 2009

Paperback 211: Bedrooms Have Windows / A. A. Fair (Dell 603)

Paperback 211: Dell 603 (1st ptg, 1952)

Title: Bedrooms Have Windows
Author: A. A. Fair (pen name of Erle Stanley Gardner)
Cover artist: Mike Ludlow

Yours for: $8


Best things about this cover:

  • "Bedrooms Have Windows" - they sure do. And Blondes Have Mirrors and Peeping Toms Have Trenchcoats.
  • That is the see-throughiest blouse I've ever seen anywhere.
  • I've always loved that Dell keyhole eye logo.
  • I also love the yellow cloth on her ... what do you call that piece of furniture? A vanity!
  • Black bra = trouble. I saw "Psycho." I know.

Best things about this back cover:

  • Arrows, Ha ha
  • "They laugh alike, they walk alike, at times they even talk alike ..."
  • Boy, they sure know how to make an author look exciting.
  • "Pocket-edition Venus" - that's hot.
  • Lam and Cool mysteries are great, and ESG wrote them all (I think) under the A.A. Fair name. Lam and Cool are the Jack Sprat + wife of mystery stories (only they aren't married).

Page 123~

The taffy-haired blonde who was standing in front of the mirror, surveying her partially clothed figure with quite evident approval, was the girl who had picked me up the night before as her escort, and had taken me to the motor court.

~RP

9 comments:

Corey Wilde said...

Ha ha ha! You know the theme song from The Patty Duke Show.... ha ha- wait. So do I.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, the only thing worse than an author's photo is... two of them.

Nicole "Gidget" Kalstein said...

Does anyone else think that trenchcoated voyeur looks exactly like Frank Sinatra? That's the first thing I thought of. :)

Lynn Sinclair said...

I think the "see-throughiest blouse" is the robe of a penoir set -- popular in the 50's. Yes, Lyndee, he does look like Frank, a very, very young Frank.

JamiSings said...

Nothing wrong with knowing the PDS theme. I'm 32 and I know it too. "A hot dog makes her lose control!"

Eunice said...

I'm 25 and I know the Patty Duke Show theme.

I have to go with Lynn and say penoir robe. Notice the blue filminess also goes over the half slip.

Now as to why you'd be dressed like that while sitting in front of an open window at night with the lights on, so you're backlit, while Frank Sinatra's on the loose... No clue.

Anonymous said...

I'm confused -- did the blonde get the taffy in her hair at the motor court?

And what sort of weird..."wallpaper"?...is that on the cover? This woman looks like her room is in a giant stomach. And are those things on the right eggplants?

JamiSings said...

Well, the Sinatra thing is obvious - she wants to doo-be-doo-be-doo it with him. Admittedly, Frank's not my type. If I was going to sit around in a see-through robe waiting for a member of the Rat Pack to come creeping around like all Peeping Tom-like I'd hold out for Sammy Davis Jr!

Sadako said...

Never read this, but I LOVE the cover! It's so deliciously sleazy!