Tuesday 18 March 2014

Exotic & Ecstasy Novels !


I have put these two great publishers together, this is because for just shy of the first two years each edition was published bi-monthly, so each month they would take it in turns to publish each edition, for example 'Exotic' in March then 'Ecstasy' in April ! this happened from April 1949 until March 1951 these earlier examples were not numbered, they were only given a year & month on cover, Ecstasy were published later in the first year. After this they both branched out and were published on the same month with the same numbers, this was not a hard and fast rule and there are some minor numbering abnormalities which I hope to explain later.



These are really great books and were aimed at the romance/love audience, you won't find too much sleaze, murder and crime within each book but good fun they are and they still have that killer artwork to entice you to buy !

I now own every title in the Exotic Novel series.

Exotic & Ecstasy Novels.

Here is a list of the first two years publications!

PART 1,

Exotic 1949 - April/04 - Pay For My Kiss - Luther Gordon.
Art by Fred Claude Rodewald

Exotic 1949 - June /06 - Any Man's Girl - Luther Gordon.
Art by Fred Claude Rodewald

Exotic 1949 - August/08 - Divorce Bait - James Clayford ( Peggy Gaddis)
Divorce Bait # 1949/08 - James Clayford

Exotic 1949 - Oct/10 - Her First Sin - Jack Woodford
Her First Sin # 1949/10 - Jack Woodford

Ecstasy 1949 - Nov/11 - A Body To Own - Trudy Hamilton.
A Body To Own # 1949/11 

Exotic 1949 - Dec/12 - Buy My Love - Perry Lindsay (Peggy Gaddis)
Buy My Love - Dec 1949 Art by Rodewald

Ecstasy 1950 - Jan/01 - Paula Has A Price - Perry Lindsay (Peggy Gaddis)
Paula Has A Price # 1950/01 - Art by Rodewald

Exotic 1950 - Feb/02 - Passion's Slave - Gene Harvey.
Passion's Slave - Art by George Gross.

Ecstasy 1950 - March/03 - Harlot In Her Heart - Norman Bligh (William Arthur Neubauer)
Harlot In Her Heart # 03/1950 

Exotic 1950 - April/04 - Once There Was A Virgin - Norman Bligh ( William Arthur Neubauer)
 # 04/1950 - Art by G. Gross

Ecstasy 1950 - May/05 - The Private Life Of A Street Girl - James Clayford (Peggy Gaddis)
# 05/1950 - Art by George Gross

Exotic 1950 - June/06 - Three Men And A Mistress - Florence Stonebraker.
Exotic Novel 06/1950 Art by George Gross

Ecstasy 1950 - July/07 - Intimate Confessions Of An Artist's Model - Norman Bligh (W. A. Neubauer)
Ecstasy Novel 07/1950 art by George Gross

Exotic 1950 - Aug/08 - Suzy Needs A Man - Joan Sherman (Peggy Gaddis)
Suzy Needs (and gets) A Man # 1950/08

Ecstasy 1950 - Sept/09 - Reno Tramp - Florence Stonebraker.
Exotic 1950 - Oct/10 - Thrill Girl - Gene Harvey.
Thrill Girl ! - Artwork by George Gross.

Ecstasy 1950 - Nov/11 - Dime A Dance Queen - Doug Duperrault.
Dime-A-Dance Queen - Art by George Gross

Exotic 1950 - Dec/12 - Men Call Her Tramp - Joan Sherman (Peggy Gaddis)
Men Call Her "Tramp" # 1950/12

Ecstasy 1951 - Jan/01 - Virgin Or Harlot - Peggy Gaddis
Virgin Or Harlot ? # 1951/01

Exotic 1951 - Feb/02 - Bodies On Fire - Joan Sherman (Peggy Gaddis)

My copy of  'Bodies On Fire' (Below) by Joan Sherman is a mint condition copy, never read and more than likely never removed from it's box since the day it was delivered to the newsstand or warehouse, this little beauty you see pictured below is pretty much how you would have seen it on the train station kiosk, fresh and unread ! it is worth a pretty price I can tell you !!!
Bodies On Fire # 1951/02

Ecstasy 1951 - March/03 - Bed-Time Angel - Norman Bligh (William Arthur Neubauer)
Bed-Time Angel # Ecstasy # 1951/03

So what you have here in the first of nearly two years publications are some splendid 35c novels, each one containing some steamy black & white photo's which apparently were posed by professional models !!!

The models may have been a bit dodgy but you cannot argue with the quality of art/title and novel, these truly are stunning books and it's a shame most of the art is not credited, even so you can make your mind up with a few examples from my collection.


Peggy Gaddis a veteran writer of romance/love novels wrote a total of eleven books,  eight of the first series & three in the second, one under her own name, five under her pen name James Clayford, two under Perry Lindsay and three using the pseudonym Joan Sherman. Norman Bligh AKA William Arthur Neubauer contributed four titles to the early runs. Norman A. Daniels managed to get published in the second series twice as did Davis Dresser under his pseudonym Anthony Scott.



PART 2.

Now I will conclude the series on Exotic & Ecstasy with the later novels with a list and where possible some great photo's of books from my collection, also to note, the photo model shots inside are now down to just the one photo (times must have been hard)  .....here goes !

Each book from now was designated a number instead of the earlier editions which had the month and year !

Ecstasy 1951 - # 10 - Never Say "No" - Luther Gordon.
Never Say "No" # 10 - 1951

Ecstasy 1951 - # 11 - Free And Easy - Luther Gordon.
Free And Easy # 11

Ecstasy 1951 - # 12 - Web Of Sin - Anthony Scott (Davis Dresser)
Web Of Sin # 12 - 1951 - Art by Howell Dodd

Ecstasy 1951 - # 13 - Unknown
Exotic 1951 - # 14 - Tonight For Sure - James Clayford (Peggy Gaddis)
Tonight For Sure # 14 - Art by George Gross

Ecstasy 1951 - # 14 - Doris, Broadway Virgin - Elizabeth Deane
Doris - Broadway Virgin # 14

Exotic 1951 - # 15 - Man Crazy - James Clayford (Peggy Gaddis)
Man Crazy # 15 - 1951

Ecstasy 1951 # 15 - Wanton By Night - James Clayford (Peggy Gaddis)
Wanton By Night # 15 - 1951

Exotic 1951 - # 16 - Bad As The Rest - Tom Stone (Florence Stonebraker)
Bad As The Rest ! # 16 - 1951

Ecstasy 1951 - # 16 - They Call Her "Easy" - Gwen Lyons.
Art by Al Rossi

Exotic 1951 - # 17 - Ten Toes Up - Anthony Scott (Davis Dresser)
Ten Toes Up - # 17 - 1951

Ecstasy 1951 - # 17 - Come Night, Come Desire - David Wade ( Norman A. Daniels)
Come Night, Come Desire - #17 - 1951

Exotic 1951 - # 18 - Give Mr Ecstasy - Mark Reed (Norman A. Daniels)

Exotic 1951 - # 19 - Fever Hot - Jon Balmer.
Fever Hot ! # 19 

Exotic 1951 - # 20 - Lover's Don't Sleep - Laura Hale.
Lover's Don't Sleep - # 20 - 1951 - Artist Howell Dodd


Right here are some Exotix/Ecstasy back covers
Back cover - Exotic - Thrill Girl # Oct/1950 
Back cover - Ecstasy - Virgin Or Harlot # Jan/1951


Back cover - Ecstasy - Wanton By Night # 15 - 1951
Back cover - Ecstasy - Bed-Time Angel # March/1951

Here is a interesting B/W pin-up model which was the inspiration for the art for Exotic Novel 'Buy My Love' by Fred Claude Rodewald.


So that concludes my little story of Exotic and Ecstasy novels, beautiful books that you can still get for good prices, some earlier editions will fetch much higher on the open market and some titles are very scarce indeed

2 comments:

  1. I would to come across a copy of Fever Hot by Jon Balmer...but I think it's quite a rarity! Awesome cover though

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