This ad is from 1953, coincidentally the year Playboy magazine was founded. I wonder if that had a positive or negative effect on the risqué-cartoon-book market?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the bottom dropped out (ooh-er, Vicar!).

Daniel Rutter: I haven’t actually seen the book first hand, but this description at a website having one for sale makes me wonder just how racy it was (check the authors, I mean friggin’ Aesop for crying out loud!):

Author Name: Keating, Walter S. (editor)

Title: Marriage Mischief

Binding: Stiff Card Wraps
Book Condition: Good
Size: Octavo — from 7.75″ to 9.75″ Tall
Publisher: New York Plaza Book Company 1951
Illustrator: Louis Priscilla

A collection of chiefly humorous writings on the institution of marriage. Represented are Oscar Wilde (undoubtedly an authority on the subject), Chaucer, Balzac, Burton, Maupassant, Mark Twain, Sterne, Stevenson, Aesop, Billings, Westermarck, Wood, Herrick, Hood, and others. 96 pages. Edgewear, upturned corners, faint soil, moderate general wear.

MARRIAGE, HUMOUR, HUMOR, WALTER S. KEATING, LOUIS PRISCILLA, OSCAR WILDE, CHAUCER, BALZAC, BURTON, MAUPASSANT, MARK TWAIN, STERNE, STEVENSON, AESOP, BILLINGS, WESTERMARCK, WOOD, HERRICK, HOOD

Price = 15.00 USD

I have a record album of the same vintage, with “Racy Party Songs” on it. If I recall, the title is “Spice After Hours”, and the raciest song is probably The Good Ship Venus.

My favorite is the cowboy classic “Little Ball of Yarn.”

The ad copy is remarkably cleverly worded – it leads the reader to believe he’ll get something he won’t without actually making any deceitful claims of the “royal jelly” variety.

“Saucy “undress” view” makes it sound like the book contains nudes (especially when followed by “full page cartoons”), but the word “undress” is being used in the meaning of “literary deconstruction”. “What Every Bride Should Know” again sounds like it should be about sex, but it could be about anything a new wife of the day needs to know about – cooking, cleaning, or even household repairs.

Toronto: When I looked up the Good Ship venus I saw the lyrics to a song that I had always known as “The North Atlantic Squadron” Lyrics can be found here

“And many more provoking topics to keep you gagging.” Not sure how to take that statement.

Rick

FB: Not this version – the North Atlantic Squadron is a very rousing song* by comparison (and not on the album, oddly enough.)

* in a musical sense.