Beschreibung:

Title: Two related Los Angeles and Hollywood “tourist” guides of World War II Author: Place: Various places & dates Publisher: Date: 1942-1943 Description: • Marcel Rodd. Souvenir-Album, Los Angeles, Hollywood and the Southland at a glance: What to see/ Where to see it / How it all began... (Marcel Rodd, Hollywood, 1942-1943) Original pictorial wrappers with front cover color drawing by Fritz Willis. 5 x 8.5”. Profusely illustrated with hundreds of photographs on 88 unnumbered pages + 4 pp. of maps of Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles. • Bob Houston, compiler. Marcel Rodd’s Sinning In Hollywood / Los Angeles And The Beaches … /100 Places…To Go / Servicemen Only / 100 Girls, illustrated by Fritz Willis. 4 x 5.25”, 64pp. In original pictorial wrappers. (Marcel Rodd, Hollywood, 1943). Rear cover postcard type-format for souvenir mailing. Both books are uncommon. The first booklet is held by only a handful of California libraries and the Library of Congress; WorldCat lists the second, showing bibliographical data, but locating no library holdings. Marcel Rodd, an English immigrant and Los Angeles entrepreneur and publisher - his ventures included a cheap record label – was convicted in 1948 of mailing obscenity in another of his imprints, “Call House Madam”; the US Supreme Court refusing to review the 1948 conviction by the first trial court which called the book “repulsive”. Rodd’s publishing house was actually quite respectable issuing a wide variety of books in the 1940s, including religious texts, a Chinese language guide and a Baudelaire anthology. Despite the fact that the business was based in Hollywood, these seem to be his only Hollywood-related imprints. The first book, priced at 50 cents, had captioned photos both of Hollywood studios and LA scenes in general, from religious revivals to Rosie the Riveter workers in the aircraft industry. The second book a 25 cent throwaway souvenir for World War II GIs focuses on “hot spots”, including night clubs, “jump and jive” clubs and “low-brow girls shows”. It was possibly a spin-off from the first, but also an apparent knock-off from two “risque” classic guides to California nightclubs of the Bugsy Siegel–Raymond Chandler era: “How To Sin in Hollywood” (1940) and “Where To Sin in San Francisco” (1939). The artist for both books, Fritz Willis, drew hundreds of “risqué” semi-nude pin-up drawings for decades, his work still appearing in “girly calendars” of the 1970s, but he also did illustrations for Foster’s art instruction series, Esquire Magazine, the Ice Capades – and four children’s books that Rodd published after the War. Lot Amendments Condition: Very good. Item number: 276243