TRASHY TUESDAY: BLONDES, MOVIE STARS AND DOLLS – MORE LARRY KENT COVERS

When it came to book titles and covers, Australian pulp fiction publishers of the 1950s and 60s were firm believers in the old adage that blondes have more fun, and therefore more sales.

Blonde was a frequently found word in the titles of books by Carter Brown, Marc Brody and other popular faux-American fiction of the period, including the long lasting Larry Kent series.

The Larry Kent series of crime digests originated in 1954 and ran until 1983. The books were originally based on the Sydney radio show ‘I Hate Crime’, about an American reporter, Larry Kent, who moved to Australia and set himself up as crime busting private investigator. The novelettes (around 50 pages) and books (which were under a hundred pages each) moved the hard drinking, tough talking Kent to New York, but kept the ‘I Hate Crime’ tagline on most of the covers. Published by Cleveland Publications, the Larry Kent books were a rival to Carter Brown and were churned out each month.

I have recently come across a number of Larry Kent Blondes from Bottle Blonde to Reluctant Blonde to Barely A Blonde and others.

One of the earliest Larry Kent Blondes I have is the 1961(?) novelette Blonde For Benny (Cleveland, No.78), which features a nicely choreographed cover by well known Australian artist Walter Stackpool. Featuring a leggy blonde and the almost obligatory gun, Blonde For Benny is a good representation of the covers that Stackpool did for Cleveland.

Bottle Blonde (Larry Kent #572, Cleveland 1966?) features a later painting by Stackpool from the mid 1960s, when the covers were moving away from the dramatic scenes of the late1950s to formulaic drawings of slightly dressed girls and background guns.

The Larry Kent books are undated, but some sources indicate that Bottle Blonde is from 1966. The pricing would suggest that it was from early 1966 or more likely 1965.

Bullet For Blondie, (Larry Kent #581, Cleveland 1966?), is another Stackpool drawing from the same period as Bottle Blonde. Again it is probably from early 1966, rather than 1967 as suggested elsewhere. This time with the evoking of some Hollywood star power in the background.

Barely A Blonde, (Larry Kent #658, 1969?), is a late 1960 cover. I don’t think that Stackpool is the artist here.

The Reluctant Blonde, (Larry Kent #739, Cleveland 1972?), is from a later period when the Spanish syndicated art agency Nova Bossa started providing a lot of covers for Cleveland. Using Spanish artists such as Rafael Cortiella, Fernando Fernandez and Enrich Torres, Nova Bossa provided covers which were usually more violent and sexualised in their approach.

The cover for The Reluctant Blonde is by Spanish artist Sebastian Boada (born 1935), who is probably best known for his horror comics and western covers. The dramatic use of a blonde girl, guns and a helicopter (which seems to be flying itself), is in keeping with the Spanish covers of the time.

Off theme, but I also recently acquired another couple of Larry Kent books below, which nicely represent the different periods that they come from.

Big-Time Baby, (Larry Kent #65, Cleveland 1960?), is an early One Shilling Novelette which only ran to 48 pages.

The cover is possibly by Walter Stackpool and seems to feature a painting of a movie star of the time, possibly copied from a still. I have tried identifying her, but without success.

The Murder Doll, (Larry Kent #712, Cleveland 1972?), is another 1970s Spanish cover book by an unattributed artist. It is a pretty routine cover with the almost obligatory semi-naked girl and gun. The moody man in the background frame adds an interesting element, but these later covers really lack the charm and attraction of the early Walter Stackpool pictures.

The Larry Kent covers sit uncomfortably in today’s world, but they do cast an interesting light on popular culture in the 1950s to the 1970s.

There are plenty articles on the covers in my blog. Here are the links to some:

https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/gals-with-guns-early-larry-kent-covers

https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/trashy-tuesday-more-larry-kent-spanish-covers