Irving Klaw - WikiHQ

Irving Klaw (November 9, 1910 – September 3, 1966), self-named the "Pin-up King", was an influential American merchant of sexploitation, fetish, and Hollywood glamour pin-up photographs and films. Like his predecessor, Charles Guyette, who was also a merchant of fetish-themed photographs, Klaw was not a photographer, but a merchandiser of fetish art imagery and films. He would commission fetish art (with models like Bettie Page, June King, Joan Rydell, Jackie Miller, et al.) and sponsor illustrative artists (like Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew, and many others), and indirectly promote the legacy of Charles Guyette and John Willie. Irving Klaw is a central figure in what fetish art historian Richard Pérez Seves has designated as the "Bizarre Underground," the pre-1970 fetish art years.

Early life

Klaw was born on November 9, 1910, in Brooklyn, New York, into a Jewish family. His father, a BMT subway conductor, died when Irving was in high school. His divorce-combined family included three boys and three girls. Paula Klaw is a step-sister. when he and his sister Paula opened a struggling basement level used bookstore at 209 E. 14th St. in Manhattan.

After he discovered teenagers were frequently tearing out photos from his movie magazines, Early Klaw fetish models included Harrison models Barbara Leslie, Vicky Hayes, Joan "Eve" Rydell, Lili Dawn, Shirley "Cici" Maitland, Kevin Daley, Roz Greenwood, and Bettie Page.

Inspired by John Willie, Klaw also commissioned and distributed illustrated adventure/bondage chapter serials by fetish artists Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew, Adolfo Ruiz, and others.

Burlesque features and bondage film-loops

<blockquote>Irving Klaw had this loft and he was acquainted with an awful lot of strippers... His mode of operation was that he would take these separate segments, one with me, and one with Betty (Bettie) Page, and all these other girls, then he would splice these together until he had enough time, fifty minutes or whatever, and make what he would call a full picture...a bunch of segments of ten or twelve different girls doing their various acts... He'd piece them together in several different movies

:— Lili St. Cyr

Censorship and early retirement

In 1956, Abe McGregor Goff, general counsel of the Post Office Department, denied Klaw use of the U.S. mails, insisting he was "one of the nation’s largest dealers in pornographic material".

Final years

After the Senate hearings and the ensuing legal difficulties with state authorities, Klaw was barred from continuing his business in New York. Shortly thereafter he moved his Nutrix Publishing Company, along with the associated Satellite Publications (Stanley Malkin & Pat Martini), to an office building in Jersey City, New Jersey. Both companies sold similar fetish-oriented photos and magazines.

To further avoid prosecution, Klaw's Nutrix publishing imprint was restricted to a mail-order-only business. For several years he published a number of small illustrated bondage/fetish photo-booklets. Titles such as Girl Psycho Handled with Restraint (1960), which includes old photos of Bettie Page, Girls Punishment at School of Discipline (1962), Tortured Models in the Wax Exhibit (1962), and Paddled Severely During Sorority Initiation (1963) are typical examples. Eventually he sold this business to Ed Mishkin, who changed the company name from Nutrix to Mutrix, adding the first initial of his last name.

Klaw relocated to Florida where he briefly returned to filmmaking in 1963, producing two films: Larry Wolk's Intimate Diary of an Artist's Model and Nature's Sweethearts, co-directing the latter. Photographer Bunny Yeager worked closely with him during this period. She had multiple duties on these films, including casting, writing dialog, etc. Unlike his previous movies, both pictures were exploitation "nudie cuties" that featured a number of topless women. Irving continued to photograph bondage in Miami as well, with models like Maria Stinger.

In 1963, Robert F. Kennedy led the campaign to convict Klaw and his brother-in-law, Jack Kramer, of conspiracy to send pornographic materials through the U.S. mail.

Filmography

Striporama (1953)
Varietease (1954)
Teaserama (1955)
Buxom Beautease (1956)
Intimate Diary of an Artist's Model (1963) – producer
Nature's Sweethearts (1963) – producer
Irving Klaw Bondage Classics Volume I & II (London Enterprises 1984)
Bettie Page: Bondage Queen (Cult Epics 2005)
Bettie Page: Pin Up Queen (Cult Epics 2005)
Bizarro Sex Loops Volume 4 (Something Weird Video 2007)
Bizarro Sex Loops Volume 20 (Something Weird Video 2008)

References

External links

Movie Star News – Preserving Hollywood Since 1938 archived October 26, 2016
Irving Klaw's Antique Erotica, Vintage Erotica archived August 2, 2014