SHE, December 1956 / BAD GIRLS U.S.A.

 

A 1956 pocket magazine for our perusal tonight, hot off the presses, the December issue of SHE which heralds BAD GIRLS U.S.A.  If the bold reds and yellows don't pop out at you, Joi Lansing is sure to draw the male gaze.  You just know this is gonna be sleazy pleasey.  Take my 15 cents now, newsdealer, and I'll stick that mag in my back pocket where Mama can't see.

Get the scan here: SHE v01n04 (1956-12.Cape Magazine Management) (Darwination)

or you can read online or get alternate formats at the IA here.

At just over four inches wide, publishers turned to the pocket magazines when post code comics lost their bite and the magazine market began to falter. SHE was published by Cape Magazine Management, and associated pocket magazines include Inside, Glance (second series), and Frauds and Rackets.  Sweats from this publisher include Bold Men, Man's Thrills, and Savage Adventures for Men.

Each issue of SHE looks to follow a theme, and here we have Bad Girls.  The kind that will set you up and steal your wallet.  The kind your mom warned you about.  You just wish some bad girl would make a sucker out of you.  But why are so many young girls getting swept up into the current of juvenile delinquency?  Our editor pontificates:

Maybe, it's the stress of the A Bomb that has the girls acting crazy.  Who gave them the vote anyways?  Perhaps it's these dirty little magazines poisoning the minds of these "feminine renegades." Party girls, confidence gals, gun molls, and gang members, the manners of delinquency never end.

Young girls dragged into the court system, strung out on narcotics.  Did the war make them this way?  How could this happen, coming from such well adjusted homes...

Who knows what sort of deviancy might slip into these little magazines  purportedly aghast at the state of things

Already afraid of male hitchhikers, you'd better be on the watch for the distressed gal with her thumb out.  It may not be the expected proposition and maybe chivalry the least motivation.  Purportedly, one ne'er do well hitchhiking lass robbed three people in one night, pistol whipping a female victim.  Or the marine who was forced to make love at gunpoint with two females before they left him naked and stole his car.  True story.

Narcotics addicts recruit young girls into their ranks, the upsurge in dope a menace in the form heroin and barbituates.  The three dangerous looking ladies below apparently threw a marijuana party at the trailer park, REEFER MADNESS

At least Peggy looks like she's having a good time with all of this. 

When they have trouble affording the dope, some turn to prostitution.  The more ambitious operators might sell dope themselves.  Cruel looking dealers with slightly ethnic looks like these two might lure the uninitiated into the web of drugs through sex parties.  Don't let that happen to you, dear reader, that would be awful!

And if these slightly sleazy magazines stray from their purpose of warding readers from crime, perhaps they serve another purpose as well in advertising other even less savory publication like the REALLY SPECIAL photos of Miss Myles here.

This millionaire provides Benzadrine goofballs and bennies for the purpose of making home movies. The couple on the left are not models but real criminals caught in the act, saved perhaps from white slavery at the end of a needle.

These dangerous looking escorts might only get five percent of their take, with mobsters like Lucky Luciano taking the rest

As we arrive at the centerfold, the heart of darkness, a dark street in New Orleans where unbounded jazz fills the night, played by darkskinned denizens of the Big Easy

The birthplace of blues and big time prostitution. "Overhead, Spanish balconies stand in mute testament to the earth past when scarlet queens stood behind the lacy ironwork and teasingly displayed their wares to passersby."  Yes, readers, we, too, seem to be on a tour of the wildside, and the seemingly informs where you might want to look for a good time in NO.  Bordellos may be gone, but there are showgirls and call girls and seemingly upscale interest, too

Apparently, even garment manufacturers like to send models out to help procure sales (the identities of the salesgirls kept secret here by grey boxes

Casinos and bars are in on the action, too, as G-girls get men to gamble and drink.  One visitor to Vegas, says, "You can't trust any women in Vegas except your wife."  I'm sure he took her with, and that he can fully trust her when he's away.

Or watch out, an innocent dalliance might turn into blackmail, like that perpetrated by this dangerous looking mixed race couple here

Fighting Females, Bizarre Book Service, Party Records (for adults only) and a ringleader of girl cattle rustlers from Texas.  (as well as statement of ownership of this upstanding magazine).

Yes, "the gentle sex no longer lives up to it's billing.  Women have moved out of the kitchen into a world that was molded by men and for men.  And just like men, many females are floored by the hard knocks they must accept in society." 

 Except for grandma here, she used only a toy gun and made out like a bandit with 4 grand.  The world wouldn't be much fun with out a few bad girls to look out for, eh?  No need to hide your face in shame, reader, only through awareness of vice may we avoid it - -