White Circle CD 486
White Circle C.D. 488
White Circle C.D. 510
White Circle C.D. 514
White Circle C.D. 516
Showing posts with label photo covers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo covers. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 October 2010
Collins White Circle Photo Covers Part III
A new edition of White Circle C.D. 516 originally published by Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd is a good reason to post more of these photo covers. I covered the first 10 of 32 in the first two posts. Here we'll look at the last five but one, all from 1951.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Collins White Circle Photo Covers - Part II
In the first part of this blog I described how Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd produced 32 photo covers for their White Circle imprint. The first five are seen in that post. Here are the next five, all from 1947. The models are known for two of the books thanks to the Quill & Quire article referred to in the first post. Here is a link to one of them.
White Circle 312
White Circle 313 - Rose Burkett (Miss Toronto 1941)
White Circle 316 - Dorothy Henderson
White Circle 322
White Circle 328
Monday, 11 January 2010
Collins White Circle Authors - Part VI
In the last Collins White Circle authors post I noted that there were 142 authors published by Collins in the WC imprint - 153 if you ignore pseudonyms. Seventy-eight authors had just one book published. In this post we'll look at one of these authors who used a pseudonym - James Hadley Chase. Actually Chase is a pen name - his real name was Rene Brabazon Raymond.
Chase's most famous (and infamous) novel was his first of over 80 - No Orchids for Miss Blandish published in 1939 by Jarrolds of London. In the next 70 years the book was retitled, revised, bowdlerized and censored by publishers and modified by the author to produce at least five versions. It also has been filmed twice - a low budget British in 1948 and under the title The Grissom Gang in 1971, directed by Robert Aldrich.
The only Chase book published by Collins was More Deadly than the Male under one of his little used pseudonyms Ambrose Grant. The original edition was published in London by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1946. The White Circle edition dates from 1948 and has a photo cover - one of 34 Collins produced.
It is interesting to contrast this single White Circle edition with the 24 published by Harlequin from 1951 to 1958. Sixteen were under the Chase name and eight under another pseudonym, Raymond Marshall. Keeping the WC edition company below is three Harlequins.
Chase's most famous (and infamous) novel was his first of over 80 - No Orchids for Miss Blandish published in 1939 by Jarrolds of London. In the next 70 years the book was retitled, revised, bowdlerized and censored by publishers and modified by the author to produce at least five versions. It also has been filmed twice - a low budget British in 1948 and under the title The Grissom Gang in 1971, directed by Robert Aldrich.
The only Chase book published by Collins was More Deadly than the Male under one of his little used pseudonyms Ambrose Grant. The original edition was published in London by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1946. The White Circle edition dates from 1948 and has a photo cover - one of 34 Collins produced.
It is interesting to contrast this single White Circle edition with the 24 published by Harlequin from 1951 to 1958. Sixteen were under the Chase name and eight under another pseudonym, Raymond Marshall. Keeping the WC edition company below is three Harlequins.
White Circle 355
Harlequin 135 - 1951
Harlequin 245 - 1953
Original title - The Fast Buck
Harlequin 267 - 1954
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Collins White Circle Photo Covers - Canada's Particular Type of Beauty
In early 1947 William Collins Sons & Co. Canada Ltd. started using photo covers for their White Circle imprint. This was unique in Canada at the time.
A trade magazine article (Quill & Quire, April 1947) provides some background. The article opens with “perhaps working on the theory that truth is more interesting than fiction, if not quite as strange, the White Circles … have recently gone in for photographic covers.” The photographer, at least for the early covers, was Earl Morris of Pringle and Booth Studios of Toronto which were “leading Canadian photographers [with] a pretty glamorous set-up.” When “the models arrive, which quite frequently is a little late, one of the privileges of beauty, they are told what sort of character they are to portray, and various poses and expressions are shot. If costumes are necessary, or outside props, a rough sketch is drawn by Miss Margaret Paull, White Circle Art Director, and the models and studio assistants try to fill the requirements as accurately as possible.” Both colour and B&W photographs were taken.
Five photographs accompany the article, one showing a studio set up for Dangerous Honeymoon (303) , three of models in various poses (with the caption “Cheesecake plus!”) and one of the President of Collins, Franklin F. Appleton, smiling with three of the models.
The article notes “the girls were carefully chosen from Canada’s collection of beautiful models so that with the wide and ever growing circulation of these books, Canada’s particular type of beauty will be known all over the world.” Three models are named, Rose Burkett, a former Miss Toronto [1941], for Duchess Hotspur (313), Marnie Williams for Poison Ivy (293) and Dorothy Henderson for Dark Hero (316). All but four of the photos were colour, although some of them appear to be B&W with colour added. A few covers were combined photo and illustration. About three-quarters of the covers were female only with the rest having one or two males joining the female. A cigarette was the favourite prop, with liquor second. The women usually wore evening dress but ski wear, swimming suits and nightgowns were also seen. Two covers had notices for the supplier of the evening dress, Golden Gate Dress Co. for The Urgent Hangman (336) and Ricky Formals for Dance Without Music (391).
Here are the first five photo covers of the 32 published. All are 1947.
A trade magazine article (Quill & Quire, April 1947) provides some background. The article opens with “perhaps working on the theory that truth is more interesting than fiction, if not quite as strange, the White Circles … have recently gone in for photographic covers.” The photographer, at least for the early covers, was Earl Morris of Pringle and Booth Studios of Toronto which were “leading Canadian photographers [with] a pretty glamorous set-up.” When “the models arrive, which quite frequently is a little late, one of the privileges of beauty, they are told what sort of character they are to portray, and various poses and expressions are shot. If costumes are necessary, or outside props, a rough sketch is drawn by Miss Margaret Paull, White Circle Art Director, and the models and studio assistants try to fill the requirements as accurately as possible.” Both colour and B&W photographs were taken.
Five photographs accompany the article, one showing a studio set up for Dangerous Honeymoon (303) , three of models in various poses (with the caption “Cheesecake plus!”) and one of the President of Collins, Franklin F. Appleton, smiling with three of the models.
The article notes “the girls were carefully chosen from Canada’s collection of beautiful models so that with the wide and ever growing circulation of these books, Canada’s particular type of beauty will be known all over the world.” Three models are named, Rose Burkett, a former Miss Toronto [1941], for Duchess Hotspur (313), Marnie Williams for Poison Ivy (293) and Dorothy Henderson for Dark Hero (316). All but four of the photos were colour, although some of them appear to be B&W with colour added. A few covers were combined photo and illustration. About three-quarters of the covers were female only with the rest having one or two males joining the female. A cigarette was the favourite prop, with liquor second. The women usually wore evening dress but ski wear, swimming suits and nightgowns were also seen. Two covers had notices for the supplier of the evening dress, Golden Gate Dress Co. for The Urgent Hangman (336) and Ricky Formals for Dance Without Music (391).
Here are the first five photo covers of the 32 published. All are 1947.
White Circle 293 (model Marnie Williams)
White Circle 294
White Circle 302
White Circle 303
White Circle 311
Wednesday, 25 November 2009
Studio Publications Part II
In Studio Publications Part I I took a look at the first four books that Toronto's Studio Publications published. Here I'll look at the next four.
After publishing numbers 1 to 4 Studio renumbered the series starting at 105. The look and content of the books also changed. The first four books were short romances originally published by the down-scale American digests and then by the down-scale Canadian publisher Export Publications. The remaining 10 books in the series reprinted books with, if nothing else, better publisher pedigree and, in most cases, literary value.
Books 105 to 108 doubled in size to 320 pages, the price increased from 35 cents to 50 cents and photo covers were introduced.
Book 105 was Werewolf of Paris (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933) by Guy Endore. This had already been reprinted twice by American publishers Avon and Pocket. Unlike its American predecessors the Studio edition substituted the werewolf with the damsel-in-distress in a full pink photo.
After publishing numbers 1 to 4 Studio renumbered the series starting at 105. The look and content of the books also changed. The first four books were short romances originally published by the down-scale American digests and then by the down-scale Canadian publisher Export Publications. The remaining 10 books in the series reprinted books with, if nothing else, better publisher pedigree and, in most cases, literary value.
Books 105 to 108 doubled in size to 320 pages, the price increased from 35 cents to 50 cents and photo covers were introduced.
Book 105 was Werewolf of Paris (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1933) by Guy Endore. This had already been reprinted twice by American publishers Avon and Pocket. Unlike its American predecessors the Studio edition substituted the werewolf with the damsel-in-distress in a full pink photo.
Book 106 was High Yellow (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937 as Children of Strangers) by Lyle Saxon.
Book 107 was Flee the Night in Anger..., an original paperback by Canadian author Dan Keller. That is Montreal on the cover.
Book 108 was Hotel Berlin '43 (New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1944) by Vicki Baum.
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Photo Covers
Today's inoffensive, photoshopped, type heavy mass market paperback covers are a far cry from those of the 1940s through 1960s. Their illustrations were designed to get your attention at the newsstand, drug store or chain store such as Stedmans, Kresge, Zellers and Metropolitan. Without the covers a blog such as this would be informative (I hope) but dull.
Photo covers were very uncommon on paperbacks. Of the three large Canadian publishers only Collins made an effort to move beyond the illustrated cover with photos. I'll discuss them in another post. A smaller publisher, Studio, also used photo covers.
During its first 4 1/2 years Harlequin had three photo covers (of a total of 264). The blurb on the back cover of Paprika begins with a classic sentence - "It was written in the stars, that Paprika, the Gypsy Queen, would love only one man, and that man she would torture." First published in 1935, Paprika was a popular book with the Harlequin edition reprinted in 1953 and two American paperback editions in the 1950s.
Export had four photo covers (of a total of 197) during its 2 1/2 years existence. It's interesting to note that the four were published in a three month period - July to September 1950. Murder in False Face with its sick green mask on a sad looking brown carpet is in the running for ugliest Export cover. The long gone Toronto newspaper The Telegram adds some historical interest.
Photo covers were very uncommon on paperbacks. Of the three large Canadian publishers only Collins made an effort to move beyond the illustrated cover with photos. I'll discuss them in another post. A smaller publisher, Studio, also used photo covers.
During its first 4 1/2 years Harlequin had three photo covers (of a total of 264). The blurb on the back cover of Paprika begins with a classic sentence - "It was written in the stars, that Paprika, the Gypsy Queen, would love only one man, and that man she would torture." First published in 1935, Paprika was a popular book with the Harlequin edition reprinted in 1953 and two American paperback editions in the 1950s.
1950
1952
1952
News Stand Library (NSL) 118
NSL 123
NSL 125
NSL 135
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
