#361 - Battling Babes Burmel Devils in Skirts Selbee

Battling Babes
Burmel [Leonard BURtman / Ben HimMEL] Publishing Company
New York, New York
1957

digital replica
and
optimized for ebook viewing

plus a bonus ebook
Devils in Skirts [incomplete]
Selbee Associates
New York, New York
1964

Many of the publications of Leonard Burtman have misleading covers and Battling Babes' cover certainly misinforms. The models shown on the cover of the edition I have access to are not found within. [Another edition has a an appropriate cover.] In both iterations, we find pretty fetish models in stockings, corsets and high-heeled shoes. These two lovelies give us an excellent show of their pretty thighs, legs, and ankles in stockings, pumps and mules.

More than 50 years old, Battling Babes is an obscure Exotique booklet that's seldom seen anywhere. The volume collects a short story by Helen Richardson and well-orchestrated photography of two lovely ladies dressing, tightening corsets and getting into a tangled tussle on and off the sofa. They conflict over a phone call from a man in whom they both have an interest. In the end, they reconcile, finish dressing, and go out on the town together. Replete with fetish details, the fluffy prose refers to contemporary attitudes about dating and how a clever “girl” can “hook” a man by wearing just the right “man bait”.

The digital replica modifies the sequence of pages to more closely align the photographs with the story. It also shows the alternate cover at the end. Conscientious photography in the original makes everything clear in the ebook replica. Tonality was adjusted and specks, spots and blemishes were re-touched.

Battling Babes, optimized for ebook viewing
The optimized version makes the most of the 40 pictures, placing each photo complete on a wide ebook page. The intent is to show pictures of the models that fill the screen from top to bottom, reducing the need for zooming and scrolling. To accomplish this, some of the walls, floors and furniture have been cropped out. Many pages show enlargements of choice pinup assets, such as corsets, stockings and pumps with 5+ inch heels. This is a fine Burtman piece, improved by the ebook process.

Bonus ebook, Devils in Skirts [incomplete]
I can't sell Devils in Skirts as a Bargain Bin item because about 10 pages are missing from the set I have. The incomplete edition will certainly satisfy curiosity about the content introduced by the seductive cover.

Carlson Wade has written an essay titled “We're Being Ruled by Women” and probably the captions that accompany many of the photos. An easy read, his article quotes experts and scholars, and asks questions that anticipate social changes of future decades.

Photos show models holding riding crops, wearing boots and leather jodhpurs. Tanya Benet, Domino, Lonnie Young and Tana Louise present themselves with fierce countenances.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Stanton produced a set of black and white drawings for Mr. Burtman, which he used again and again as filler for the pages of his magazines. These iconic images show simple but powerful female shapes, sometimes including a helpless male. A few of these illustrations were appropriated by British artist Allen Jones, appearing in his paintings and wallpaper. One seldom-seen illustration by Gene Bilbrew shows a woman dominating a man.

The pictures have been adjusted to make them bright. Page layouts have been revised to obtain larger pictures in the ebook.

Three e-books, one optimized, delivered by download from your 30th Street Graphics account.