Eddie Mishkin
The East Coast Publishers
Eddie Mishkin
In the 1950`s & early 1960`s, Edward "Eddie" Mishkin was a publisher & distributor of fetish material, who operated shops in the Times Square area of New York City. He was at one time a business partner with "Moe" Shapiro and is believed to have been closely linked to the mafia. He owned several stores outright (Harmony, Midget, the Little Book Exchange, Kingsley Book Shop, Esther, and Main Stem), and was silent partner in others. His HQ was Publisher’s Outlet; at least, that is where, in August 1962, a sailor from the Queen Mary arrived with a key to a Times Square IRT station locker. He asked for Eddie, who wasn't there. He gave the clerk the key and said "Here’s something for you from the boys in England." The locker, Customs agents determined, contained twelve copies of a British magazine entitled "Thrashed in Many Ways."
With the burgeoning porn business thriving in Times Square, moral outrage and indignation grew within the clergy in the area and from Operation Yorkville, an influential East Side morality organization, which exerted pressure to have the area "cleaned up".
The Kefauver subcommittee investigating the effects of obscenity on juvenile delinquency subpoenaed Mishkin in 1955, as they did Irving Klaw. Both men’s photo sets and booklet-sized illustrated stories, with their themes of flagellation, bondage, transvestitism, and passive men forced into women’s clothing, were alleged to "get into the hands of small limited minds, and they . . . [get] worked up to a fever pitch, and some poor soul is the victim. Do You get what I am saying?" The words are those of those of the judge sentencing Mishkin for smuggling in those copies of "Thrashed in Many Ways. " In 1957, Mishkin’s "Nights of Horror" booklets caused a major outbreak of indignation in New York, being linked in the press to a juvenile murder in 1954.
Five bookstores were forced to surrender their copies. In 1960, powerful D. A. Frank S. Hogan prepared a 198-count indictment against Mishkin, calling him "the largest producer and purveyor of pornographic material in the U. S." After that, most of the retail outlets to which Mishkin and Klaw distributed may have restricted sales of the materials to trusted adult customers. Mishkin was convicted in 1962. Mishkin and Klaw did not fight their legal battles because of idealism. They were businessmen, albeit of the pariah variety. However small a portion of the general public indulged sadomasochistic fantasies, that subculture bought the material heavily.
Mishkin was, like Shapiro, first & foremost a businessman, with little or no creative input into his products, apart from deciding which "section" of the market was to be exploited.
One of the side-stapled, typewritten booklets used (with over 70 others) as evidence in People v. Mishkin, 1960(over 70 were cited). This one is about flagellation and female domination
Mishkin instructed his hack writers that he wanted "an emphasis on beatings and fetishism and clothing," on lesbian scenes, and on "sex in an abnormal and irregular fashion." The Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 1966 ( MISHKIN v. NEW YORK, 383 U.S. 502 (1966)) , but a month later, before serving his prison sentence, Eddie was back in business at Square books on 7th Avenue, where police found films on "female masochism" and novels such as Perverted Lust Slave.
"Moe" Shapiro
In the late 1940`s, Allan Wilson and his partner, Aaron Moses ("Moe") Shapiro, were the editors of the Woodford Press; Citadel was their distributor. Jack Woodford was a prolific writer of soft-core erotica.
Shapiro and Wilson’s books, many by Jack Woodford himself and others, sold especially well in drug stores and near army bases, as well as in general shops in Times Square and in other cities. They issued dust jackets featuring busty women in dresses with low décolletage for these inexpensive hardbacks. Moe knew the compulsions of his customers and how to entice them to come back for more.
With his partner Philip Lewis at P. Lewis and Company on East 23rd, he ran a library of classic under the counter titles for which wealthy patrons may have paid up to $100 a rental, with much of that rate returned when the book itself was. He had several publishing ventures, including Gargoyle Sales. Gargoyle Sales was co-owned by Lenny Burtman (who was married to a relative of Shapiro). His Gargoyle books were available on Times Square, in porn kingpin Eddie Mishkin’s shops. He also ran Waron Books of New York.
"Moe" Shapiro published the first American Fetish Contact magazine, La Plume. It created the format later followed by Lenny Burtman, House of Milan and others. Unlike Burtman, Coutts & Guyette, Shapiro was not a practitoner publisher, his approach to his products and quality was solely based on maximisation of profits. Shapiro was subpoenaed to appear before the Kefauver Committee on the same day as Irving Klaw, but he failed to attend.
Satellite Publishing Co.
Stan Malkin, who worked out of Liberty Gift Shop (later Forsythe Books) and owned a Times Square topless bar, published "Unique", "Wee Hours" and "After Hours Books" in the mid 60s. The paperbacks were soft core, but had covers by leading fetish artists Gene Bilbrew and Eric Stanton. Malkin ran a distribution outfit called Satellite. He may have sold it to Cleveland pornography kingpin Reuben Sturman. Satellite operated in the early to mid 1960`s. Their products were similar to Irving Klaw's. Similar enough, for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to believe in 1964, that there may have been a link between Satellite & Klaw. Satellite also published a magazine called "Bound".
Gordons
A Canadian publisher & distributor who resold material produced by Lenny Burtman & others. They produced a variety of material in the early & mid 1960`s, including stories & photosets featuring Female Domination, Spanking, Bondage & Bizarre Costumes.
Sam Menning
Sam Menning was a photographer & Fetish Lingerie producer who had worked for Robert Harrison, Irving Klaw and Lenny Burtman. During the late 1950`s & early 1960`s, Menning produced an independent catalogue called "Sam Menning`s Cover Girl Originals". This was to advertise his fetish lingerie products.
The West Coast Publishers
Irving Klaw`s 4 main comtemporary producers in the Los Angeles & West Coast area are listed below.
Continental Publications
Continental Publications, like many West Coast producers, were mostly imitators of material created in New York & the East. Continental Publications (Bizarre Books, Pagan Books & Hamilton Publications) had a mailing address in Hollywood, CA. Around 1960 they advertised Klaw Nutrix booklets, reprinted & pirated. Klaw doggedly tracked them down, but decided against legal action due to the prevailing political environment. Continentalwas raided by the L.A.P.D. in June 1960.
The Lucian Press
The Lucian Press of Los Angeles resold Burtman material and, from 1957, published a magazine called Fantasia magazine, similar in presentation to Exotique.
Flag Publishing
Of San Diego & L.A., were in production from the late 1950`s, through the 1960`s. Their product line was mostly Burtman based, producing; novelletes, magazines, photosets , a correspondence club digest & "The Spankers Monthly" . Unusually they also produced a 12" LP record called "Tortura - The sounds of pain & pleasure" - it`s subtitle was " a factual living record of discipline & punishment".
National Book Market Co. (NABOMA)
An L.A. Bookseller & Importer , established 1935. NABOMA entered the fetish market in the 1940`s. NABOMA became connected with practitoner groups. Fetish material, especially tight lacing, became their centerpiece.
See also [ The Case Against Eddie Mishkin ]
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