“Don’t show us!” my auction buddy Janet blurted out – very loudly – as the auctioneer pulled out a nudie magazine with a very revealing cover. He was selling a stack of the magazines at auction this week, and I guess he figured that most of us had not seen them on the table.
There was no way to miss them – women (and some men) in all their nakedness – but I, like Janet and most other bidders, just passed them by. A half-dozen stacks of magazines and 8mm filmstrips were grouped together at the end of a table at one of my favorite auction houses. One grouping was wrapped in light gray paper: Stamped on the side of two was a name I remembered from the 1970s: Linda Lovelace.
Remember Linda and her mainstream movie “Deep Throat.” She was quite the popular porn actress back then. In the 1980s, she denounced the business and became a spokeswoman for the anti-porn movement (she died in 2002). I recall going to see the movie in a real theater because I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. Actually thought it was rather boring. Not enough plot.
At auction, it’s not often that I see nude magazines, the last time was at another of my favorite auction houses. But these were not magazines but private nude photos of a couple. They looked to be from the 1950s and, I’m sure, were supposed to be for their eyes only. Those of us who saw them were embarrassed for the pair. I wondered why the family didn’t just throw the photos away rather than leaving the couple exposed on an auction table for strangers to see.
The items at this week’s auction were commercially bought, and there was no doubt about their purpose. They obviously were part of someone’s stash that the family did not want to keep. That I can understand. We bidders took these items pretty lightly – joking, chuckling, having a grand bit of fun.
Some folks, though, were serious about them when it came time to bid. Each set of mags or films had at least two or more bidders. The prices weren’t in the stratosphere, but they weren’t $5 bids, either. Most of the items went to one bidder, who was markedly determined.
Here’s how it went:
Set of 8mm films: $30
Second set of 7 films, including the ones with Lovelace: $40
Set of magazines that the auctioneer said were “hardcore porn,” including the one shown front-and-center to us: $40
17 assorted “gentlemen’s magazines,” as the auctioneer described them: $30
Set of American Nudist magazines: $70. The bidding on these was fierce. In fact, they were the highest-priced items on the tray lots at the auction that night. Nothing else on any of the other tables – including the non-nudie items – went for more. Seeing these magazines made me wonder if the original owner was a nudist or he just liked looking at the pictures. I tried Googling the magazine but could not find any reference to it. I did find a 2004 Washington Post story about two other such mags, and a site that showed the covers of other vintage sleaze mags, as they were described, but no American Nudity.
8 pinup calendars, including several from Playboy: $9. The auctioneer said these were “vintage.” I couldn’t see the year on them so I’m not sure how old they were. I could see that one came from a Chinese noodle shop.
