Zorita (featured)
 
Presenting: The Fabulous Zorita (vintage adult pinup digest magazine, 1950s)
 
New York: Burmel Publishing, 1950s. N11. Vintage adult digest magazine featuring model & burlesque snake-dancer Zorita, posing seminude & emphasizing natural assets, w/ heels, hose, garters, corsets, on the phone. Zorita was born in Ohio as Kathryn Boyd, grew to lush dimensions, lived around Miami Beach (FL), noted for dancing w/ two boa constrictors, Elmer & Oscar. She left the strip scene early 1950s just as many were making their name, operated several clubs afterwards, eventually left the scene altogether to breed Persian cats. Owing to the oddity of her performances, she often appears in tabloid magazines, where other burlesque dancers favored men's magazines. Zorita's languid, slinking performances must have been sss-sensational. 
 
Hundreds of similar digest magazines were produced by fly-by-night operations, mainly around New York, notably Burmel Publishing (Lenny Burtman's enterprise). Many were published as "photography studies" booklets, w/ technical camera data, exposure chart, & the standard emphasis on sexual liberation; early issues featured several models per issue & many maintain airbrushing techniques rolled over from nudist magazines, much of the posing naturally obscures otherwise censored areas. Still scarce institutionally. 
 
32pp, 5.25 x 8.25 inches, B/W throughout, duochrome wrapper, saddle-stapled. Very Good Plus, light creasing & spine wear, pencil price notation. 
 
Steve Sullivan, "Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia," p310, 1999; Jim Linderman, "Proto-Porn: The Art Figure Study Scam of the 1950s," 2012. [Book ID 126111] [Magazines]