#592 - Exotica Selbee Personal Ads Leonard Burtman
Exotica, Number One
Selbee Associates
New York, New York
1963
digital replica
Exotica, Number Two
Selbee Associates
New York, New York
1963
digital replica
Exotica, Number Three
Selbee Associates
New York, New York
1963
digital replica
Exotica, Number Four
Epic Publishing Co., Inc.
New York, New York
1964
digital replica
Dr. Bienvenu's American Fetish Dissertation notes that Mr. Burtman includes Exotica in a list of magazine titles in a December, 1961 letter. He did produce a few issues of a full-sized, fetish-pinup magazine named Exotica in 1962. As the reply address in the first Exotica booklet includes a zip code, its publication date could not have been before 1963, when the US Post Office suggested zip code use for the first time.
The dissertation provides this information:
The Exotique Correspondence Club “published a $2.00 contact pamphlet called Exotica, which contained a number of personal ads. These ads were typically composed of a photograph and accompanying text, with a code number to be used by respondents. Individuals wishing to contact the person described in the advertisement would forward a letter in an unsealed envelope with the code number written on the lower-right hand corner of the envelope, with a forwarding fee of $2.00 for the the first letter, and $1.00 of additional letters. These would be forwarded by the ‘correspondence club’ to the intended recipient.”
“According to [YK], who provided ‘realistic’ looking photos for Burtman's contact ads, approximately ‘98%’ of these personal advertisements were ‘house ads’ — i.e., fictitious. This was a lucrative if fraudulent business . . . . Some advertisements were authentic, however. In the case of real females placing ads for themselves, most were professionals.”
The publisher of Exotica is named Bertram Leonard, one Mr. Burtman's aliases, whose publications are characterized by repeat use of content. Many contrived personal ads were reused in issues of Bizarre Life magazine. At least one illustration appears twice in a single issue of Exotica. Nearly all of the artwork that appears in these booklets were re-used in other Burtman projects.
Each booklet has personal ads categorized as Ladies, Men (many transvestites and submissives), and, after the first issue, Couples. Essays, illustrations by Messrs. Bilbrew and Stanton, Exotique photography, and ads for Burtman-related publications fill out the 48-page volumes. It wouldn't be unfair to characterize these publications as filler mixed with deceit.
Exotica, Number One
• For the Love of Leather, article with photographs
• Wetting Parties – Latest Fad, article with photographs
Exotica, Number Two
• Gloves, Gloves, Gloves, article with photographs
• True Adventures of Toni Bond, fragment, four comic panels by Gene Bilbrew
Exotica, Number Three
• Nude Photo Racket by Carlson Wade, article with photographs, as formatted for full-size pages of Exotica, No. 1, a 1962 Selbee pinup magazine.
• Merry Mixup – The Madcap Model, seven comic panels by Eric Stanton
• Six enduring iterations of Mr. Stanton's voluptuous domina icon, made famous when ripped off by British painter Alan Jones (as Warhol recognized soup can graphics). Her image appeared often as filler in Bizarre Life and other Burtman magazines.
Exotica, Number Four
• The Sexual Nature of Masochism, article with Bilbrew illustrations
• Dominant Women, photographs
• Fistic Femmes, 16 comic panels by Gene Bilbrew
Brightness and contrast were adjusted. A few page layouts were revised for fit. Each ebook presents all pages in the original sequence.
All new scans of the old paper.
A seamy instant in fetish publishing history, Exotica promised intimate connections to like-minded adults. Its personal ads were repeated in other magazines through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Digital editing improves clarity of photographs for convenient access to these 20th-century relics.
Four ebooks, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.