Presenting: "Irma" "The Body" [Irma the Body] (vintage adult pinup digest magazine, 1958) by Irma the Body (featured) - 1958

Burmel Publishing, 1958. Very Good. N14, 1958. Vintage adult digest magazine featuring model & burlesque Irma the Body, posing seminude & emphasizing natural assets, w/ heels, hose, garters, typing, on the phone, playing LPs. Irma was born in Brooklyn, grew to lush dimensions, often worked w/ fellow dancer, Zorita (snake-charmer); one of 3 arrested strippers in Boston 1953. A tall woman on the circuit, often in Baltimore, w/ defined legs & exotic appeal, a favorite of cult director John Waters. 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 and/or art "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 rubbing & foxing, ink price notation. Steve Sullivan, "Glamour Girls: The Illustrated Encyclopedia," p284, 1999; Jim Linderman, "Proto-Porn: The Art Figure Study Scam of the 1950s," 2012.