Six small photo illustrated “Girlie Magazines”, photo illustrated with nudes and semi-nudes, images interspersed with excerpts from Paris Olympia Press titles. 2 of the titles, ” The Stripteaser” 1953 and “The Teaser Pure and Simple” 1954 are very common indeed and I will mention them no further here.
The other titles are more elusive. Bibliographical information courtesy of Patrick Kearney, The Paris Olympia Press, The Liverpool University Press 2007. The index numbers are the location of the actual description in the bibliography.
3.2.1 PARIS EXOTIQUE 1953: Collation: Unpaged, but [64] pp. Saddle-stapled with no signatures. 20.0 x 13.0 cm. Printed on off-white, wove paper. Contents: Illustrated profusely throughout with b&w pinup photos, interspersed with Passion de la Nuit, extracted from …et Treize Fois Impure by René Roques. Binding: Glossy coloured photographic wrappers. Front wrapper: Colour photo against a black background of a red-head wrapped in something transparent and with her right hand on her hip. Printed across the top in green caps: PARIS EXOTIQUE. Printed in green at the bottom left: Fr. 150. Back wrapper: Colour photo against a black background of a kneeling brunette dressed in a skimpy Mexican-inspired costumes, complete with sombrero. Printed across the top in orange caps: PARIS EXOTIQUE. Front inside wrapper: PARIS EXOTIQUE | No 1 | ―Passion de la nuit‖ qui nous publions | dans le numéro 1 de Paris Exotique est | extrait du grand roman de René Roques : | …et Treize Fois Impure. Mieux que les | plus grands écrivains modernes qui ont | décrit le désir et la joie charnelle, tels que | Colette, Jules Romains, Erskine Caldwell, | D.-H Lawrence, etc., René Roques a su | peindre avec un lucidité impitoyable la | passion des corps et des esprits. Nul mieux | que lui n‘a su montrer la violence soured du | désir, les ruses de la chair, l‘assouvissement | des coeurs. Son art subtil er pénétrant nous | livre un récit imprégné de mystère et de volupté. | Les ouvrages de René Roques sont en | vente dans toutes les librairies. Ils peuvent | égalemente nous être commandés directement : | …ET TREIZE FOIS IMPURE | VIOL | INERDIT AUX JEUNES FILLES | Chaque volume : Frs 390 | (plus 30 Frs pour frais dřenvoi). | Adresser la commande accompa- | gnée du règlement à OLYMPIA | PRESS, 13, rue Jacob, Paris-6e, | C. Ch. Postaux: Paris 9875-60.. Back inside wrapper: conclusion of extract from …et Treize Fois Impure with, at foot of page: [rule] | Paris Exotique‖ est édité par Olympia Press, |13, rue Jacob, Paris-6e, et imprimé par | l‘imprimerie Moderne du Lion, Paris | depot legal : 4e trimestre 1953 | Printed in France. Notes: …et Treize Fois Impure, and at least two other novels by Roques, were distributed by the Olympia Press, although the books seem to have published by the author. An English translation, as Ladies at Night, by James O’Leary was published in 1954 by the Olympia Press as vol. 3 of the Atlantic Library series.
3.3.1 PARIS TEASER 1953 Notes: Not seen. Reported to be an English translation of 3.2.1, PARIS EXOTIQUE, above. Known to exist from ban in 1954, photos and BNF records.
3.4.1 THE NEW PARIS TEASER 1954: Collation: Unpaged, but [64] pp. Saddle-stapled with no signatures. 20.0 x 13.0 cm. [Printed on off-white, wove paper?] Contents: Illustrated profusely throughout with b&w pinup photos, interspersed with brief extracts from Olympia Press publications. p. [1] THE NEW | PARIS TEASER | is published by | THE OLYMPIA PRESS | 13, rue Jacob, Paris 6, France | [within a double line box:] All the excerpts published in The New | Stripteaser [sic]| are taken from full-length, completely unexpurgated books published by The | Olympia Press, and available at all bookstores | or by order direct from our Paris offices. The | season’s | publications include important novels | by Henry Miller, the Marquis de Sade, Jean | Genet, etc. | New novels in English to be released in | March, 1954, include the following highly | recommended titles : | LADIES AT NIGHT by René Roques $1.90 | THREE PASSIONATE LOVERS by | René Roques… $1.90 | LUST by Count Palmiro Vicarion… $1.90 | HELEN AND DESIRE by Francis | Lengel… $.190 [sic] | Prepaiment [sic] requested | Catalogues will be provided free on request. [below the box:] Sole distribution for Norway, Sweden and Denmark : | SANGKO – NORDEN | 7 Madvigs Allé, Copenhagen, Denmark | [rule] | The New Paris Teaser, publication non périodique, est édité | par The Olympia Press, 13, rue Jacob Paris 6e, et imprimé par | l’Imprimerie Moderne du Lion, Paris. | Dépôt legal : 1er trimestre 1954. Printed in France. pp. [3-18], Helen and Desire by Francis Lengel. – pp. [21-36], The Virgin and the Monks [extract from Justine, ou Les Malheurs de la vertu]. By D. A. F. de Sade. – pp. [39-64], Good Company [extract from Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure] by John Cleland.
Binding: Glossy coloured photographic wrappers, with, spread over front and back wrappes, a photo of a girl naked save for judiciously positioned orchids or similar, laying on what appears to be the seashore. At the top of the back wrappers, in blue, is printed: THE NEW PARIS TEASER | Fr. 150. Inside front and back wrappers, b&w pinup photos.
3.6.1 THE NEW STRIPTEASER 1954 Notes: Not seen. Known to exist from ban in 1954, and photo.
Now this one is really interesting, there is a black and white image too poor to reproduce here, and much speculation about whether any of this item are still in existence, including rumours that all copies have been destroyed, complete tosh, the French in the 1950’s were still to sensitive to the censorship and excesses of the occupying forces during the war, to engage in book burning, many Olympia titles suddenly appear in numbers, usually because a cache has been discovered either from materials confiscated and stored by the Brigade Mondaine or stock withheld by a printer, for non payment of invoices.
That aside there is no doubting that this is one of the rarer items of ephemera related to the press, so I was delighted to discover that a fellow collector has a copy, and had sent me an image in colour of the cover, unfortunately the image is in a format not supported (actually not permitted) by WordPress. So I am unable to share it.
I have also communicated with the owner to offer a pro forma description of another Teaser to allow him to produce the first know description of this title, but as yet I have no response but watch this space.
As for its existence elsewhere I have seen one copy in a Belgian collection some 20 years ago.