Here is something a little different for you today guys, Irving Klaw’s former studio in Manhattan where all of his spanking photos were taken. Obviously Bettie Page was a frequent model in this studio, but even Marilyn Monroe once came here to meet with Bunny Yeager, Irving Klaw’s photographer.
So enjoy this one minute, on location video, from Irving Klaw’s former Movie Star News store and studio that I filmed and narrated a couple of years ago. Just click the play button in the middle of the red ‘S’ below.
Wow! Nice video! Was the first floor an adult bookstore at one time or am I confusing this with another place that featured video booths and carried so many of the magazines of that time. This would have been during the late eighties?
I also remember reading that a great deal of Mr. Klaw’s work was destroyed when imminent raids were believed and threats of arrest. He worked during a very difficult time to be doing what he did and did so well!
Thanks for sharing the vid and nice pics!
Blaze Starr garnered further notoriety through her affair with Louisiana Governor Earl Long (brother of Huey). From Wikipedia:
Blaze Starr (born Fannie Belle Fleming; April 10, 1932 – June 15, 2015) was an American stripper and burlesque star. Her vivacious presence and inventive use of stage props earned her the nickname “The Hottest Blaze in Burlesque”. She was also known for her affair with Louisiana Governor Earl Kemp Long. Based on her memoir Blaze Starr! My Life as Told to Huey Perry (published in 1974), the 1989 film Blaze told the story of that affair starring Paul Newman as Long and Lolita Davidovich as Starr, with Starr herself acting in a cameo role and as a consultant.
I love her in a jacket, that was in a block where I lived at the time in the 1950s https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/3bcqun/bettie_page_wearing_a_custom_jacket_for/#lightbox
Like father Jim I seem to remember it as well from my time in New York in the mid 70’s.Great finds I did have many in my collection myself for a while. Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Jim
Thanks for the video and photos, Rich.
I especially liked the third photo, the spankee’s expression is just right, ‘oh, this hurts! How dare you!’
Jim,
You know what I’m not sure. When I first moved to America I used to visit the store (not spanking related) but by this time it had already moved to 17th St. You are correct as well. The legend has it that Klaw had to rent his own material from private collectors for it to be used in film/magazines etc.
Rich
Carl,
Thanks for that information on Blaze Starr, I knew none of it. It would be interesting to see the Paul Newman film.
Rich
Mick,
I took that clip from a longer video that I did about 14th St. There was so much to cover in those two blocks. The theater that was next to this building was called “The toughest house in New York” by George Burns.
Rich
Jim,
As I mentioned to Fatherjim, I actually used to go to the store when I first came to New York, but that was to buy mainstream vanilla photos. Photos of people like Judy Garland and Natalie Wood. I’m not sure if the store is still in New York but I must have visited it dozens of times.
Rich
Theo,
I thought that it would be a little something different. I mean who else is going to visit where his store once stood? 🙂 Where I am filming the video from was actually in front of the original Movie Star News store. It was right behind me before it moved to where I am showing it in the video. In the long form video I cover both stores.
Rich
Really cool information. There use to be a store in NY or somewhere that selling mostly nothing but spanking vids/mags/stuff back in the 80’s or something but it is now long gone.
Pygophilous_one,
Yes, that was Kinematics and I was a frequent visitor to it 🙂 In fact its last location was just two blocks from where I worked. I just looked on Google maps and it was still there in 2011, but it had disappeared by 2013.
Rich