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victorjbanis.bsky.social
The Official Victor J. Banis Family Foundation Bluesky Account
@victorjbanis.bsky.social
580 followers 160 following 150 posts
A nonprofit organization, in memory of The Godfather of Gay Pulp Fiction. Dedicated to promoting his writings, preserving his memory, and encouraging aspiring writers. And here to socialize.
https://victorjbanisfoundation.org/
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victorjbanis.bsky.social
We are excited to announce our upcoming event with Gerbert/Hart LGBTQ+ Library & Archives. If you are in Chicago, July 24th, join us for this FREE event. Our executive director, @margaretw123.bsky.social, will discuss Victor, his writing, and the gay pulp revolution of the 1960s. You can RSVP here.
The Godfather of Gay Pulp. Victor J. Banis and the Revolution He Helped Create. Thursday, July 24th 7pm, Gerber/Hart 6500 N Clark Street. Presentation by Maggie Weadick, Victor's Great-Niece and executive director of the Victor J. Banis Family Foundation.
July 4, 2025 at 2:34 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 29!
The day has come. Victor J. Banis’s last fake queer blurb for a not so queer book. We’ll find something fun to do next year. In the mean time, here’s the final title. The Gay Deserters.
The Gay Deserters book cover. The Gay Deserters, by R.V.C. Bodley Adventure in and out of the French Foreign Legion, as a band of screaming queens, tired of always being the tops, pack up their picnic hampers and strike out on their own, determined to find the legendary gay quarter in Marrakech. When their camels, frightened by the outre makeup, stampede, these twenty-four intrepid butterflies trudge in stilettos across the endless sands of the Sahara. Water runs out and they learn the benefits of bodily fluids, and just as it appears they might starve, they stumble upon an oasis of date palms, the first time that some of them have ever had real dates. In a cliff-hanger finale, they are rescued from their oasis by a retired couple from Boise traveling in an RV. For all who love heroic action.
June 29, 2025 at 11:47 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 26!
I have a confession to make. I forgot to post a much earlier fake-blurb-to-a-real-title in the correct day. On the plus side, you get Banis’s blurb today, and it’s about gay werewolves! Queer People with Paws and Claws.
A storybook called 'Queer People with Paws and Claws', by Palmer Cox. Queer People with Paws and Claws, by Palmer Cox A love story like none ever told before: by day, two pretty drag queens living in the Castro; by night, queer werewolves haunting the city's parks and dark alleys, looking for meat to satisfy their perverted needs, always searching for their own kind, endlessly dreaming of someone to call their own. Billy, the alpha male, and Bobby, "beautifully marked," both of them branded with shame, sneered at in the world of men, hunted down after dark, finding true love by the light of the moon. This story will speak to every gay man who loves facial and body hair, or doing it doggie style. It will make you how.
June 26, 2025 at 8:09 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 22!
The month is almost over, but we can still have fun, with Banis’s next queer fake blurb, for As Queer As She Could Be.
(No cover found for this one either, respect to Allen Sawyer for succeeding in collecting these obscure titles).
As Queer as She Could Be, by Jessie E. Wright One night in Pleasant Valley, Ohio, when her babysitter fell asleep, ten-year-old Jessie E. Wright strolled into a neighbor's cornfield and happened upon the first "World's Butchest Lesbian" competition. Enthralled, she watched every event: the tractor pull, the arm wrestling, the BBB competition (broken beer bottle dueling), and a dream was born. This is the story of a young woman following her destiny, overcoming all challenges, marching to the beat of her own percussion band, until the dream was hers and she won not only the trophy she had sought, but the heart of the high school gym teacher she had long loved from afar. Her acceptance speech is an inspiration to all: "If you're going to be queer, be as queer as you can be."
June 22, 2025 at 10:24 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 19!
Welcome back! Midway through the month, and we’re up to Banis’s very queer fake blurb to a not so queer book, Teeny Gay. (Sorry, no cover was found).
I would’ve changed the ‘witch doctor’ to a witch, but overall this sounds fun.
Teeny Gay, by Charlie May Simon Your run-of-the-mill cross-dresser and roustabout with The Dangling Brothers Traveling Circus, Charlie "May" Simon's world was turned upside down when a vengeful witch doctor spattered him with droplets from his magic stick and shrank him to the size and general shape of a bedpan. For more than twenty years, Charlie toured with the circus as "May, The World's Smallest Drag Queen," and entertained the crowned heads of Europe, while concealing in his heart the terrible pain of his unrequited and hopeless love for Rolf, The Strong Man. The heartrending story of how one man faced his personal tragedy with courage, dignity, and a pillbox hat.
June 20, 2025 at 4:00 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 15!
Today's title given a not-at-all true blurb by the late Victor J. Banis...
Queer, Dear Mrs. Goose.

Only Banis could make fairy tales sound like they belonged in plain brown wrapper.
A storybook cover with a fully dressed goose. 'Queer, Dear Mrs. Goose' by Miriam Clark Potter. Queer, Dear Mrs. Goose, by Miriam Clark Potter At last, the shocking story of a debauched life in a shoe, and how an seemingly sweet and innocent old lady lured dozens to their shame and degradation. The true meaning of "Ding, Dong Bell, Pussies in the well", and how they got there. Learn what Little Tom Tucker really had to do for his supper, and why he sang. What made Margery Daw see saw. How Prince Charming put Sleeping Beauty to sleep-and how he woke her up! The beastly ways in which Cinderella's ugly stepsisters really shamed her, and what it was that the Prince tried on for size. By the time you have turned the last revelatory page, you will know how these children came to call her "Mother," and what kind of goose they got for their trouble.
June 15, 2025 at 2:10 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 12!
You know what time it is! Fake queer blurb (found in Come This Way) by Victor J. Banis for a non-queer book!
This time, Grandfather was Queer.

I think I lost track of how many times Victor J. Banis wrote about ghosts in his life.
Dust cover for 'Grandfather was Queer: Wags and Eccentrics in Early America' by Richardson Wright. Grandfather was Queer, by Richardson Wright The haunting story, told in his own tremulous words, of Bruce, a young man torn between two lives: a last chance to forget a meaningful relationship with the mother who deserted him in childbirth, working together in the coal mines of West Virginia; or an elegant antique shop in Beverly Hills, and the arms of Sir Percy Hepplewhite, the only man he has ever loved-and a ghost from the past who comes to shine the light of a miner's helmet on his own underground life, and help Bruce find his way at last to happiness. A man's story, told by one who has been there.
June 12, 2025 at 1:15 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 8!
The next not-queer title given a queer blurb (now found in Come This Way) by Victor J. Banis, The Gay Bandit of the Border.

Now this is more like it. *Singing* It's beginning to look a lot like pride month...
The pulp cover of 'The Gay Bandit of the Border' by Tom Gill. The Gay Bandit of the Border, by Tom Gill Amor is the arroyos, desire in the desert, culos in the cacti. A story ripped from today's headlines, told in penetrating detail. The torrid tale of a lusty coyote who is really a wolf, known to every handsome young muchacho in Tijuana as the Butt Bandit of the Border. What it's like for an eager and hot blooded young man to "cross over" with the Chihuahua Chorizo, and why Dubya really sent the National Guard. This book will keep you up all night!
June 8, 2025 at 7:42 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Pride Month Day 5!
Here is Banis's next not-so-true blurb (scanned from Come This Way), for the title The Gay Sisters. Content warning: incest. Sorry. This was essentially a proto-shitpost.

A little nod to one of his pseudonyms in the end there.
The dust jacket to the 1942 novel 'The Gay Sisters' by Stephen Longstreet. The Gay Sisters, by Stephen Longstreet In their groundbreaking book, Sex and Society (Pelican Books, 1955), Kenneth Walker and Peter Fletcher stare: "The development of sexuality in both sexes follows a well-defined course dictated by the impulse to convert ill-defined hunger into love by the discovery of the appropriate environmental counterpart. This search begins in the self with the self as object, and the phase is marked by narcissistic reveries. When these fail to bring satisfaction the field of investigation is widened...until a proper "object of desire" has even found in a person. If the "I" eventually succeeds in meeting its "Thou", hunger is at last transmuted into love." This is the story of two young women, more than just sisters, more even than twins, who found their "I" and "Thou" in one another. Their faces were mirrors-and so was their twilight love. "The oldest family game!" Don Holliday, author of Brothers in Love (Leisure Books, 1967)
June 5, 2025 at 3:13 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
We begin with Bully Bull Frog and his Queer Relations. We would provide the cover, which will be a regular feature, but there is only one online image of the original cover. It’s a photo of the book on an angle. It’s for sale if anyone’s interested. www.ebay.com/itm/20378359...
Bully Bull Frog and his Queer Relations, by Elizabeth Stafford Fry. Froggie goes a'courting! In Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (St Martin's Press, 1999), Dr Bruce Bagemihl states homosexual or transgender behavior has been observed in no fewer than four hundred and fifty species. Elizabeth Stafford Fry tells, with shocking candor, the story of Bully, one of those creatures of the night, in a world where lavender is really green. It's all here, stripped bare for the reader's edification: life in the backwaters, the indiscriminate hopping, the bashings and the all night croaking. You will laugh when Bully's dream date turns out to be a toad, and thrill when he finds himself with a frog in his throat, but you will never look at frogs' legs the same way again. A story to rank with the finest animal literature of the past. Move over, Black Beauty, Green Glamour is here.
June 1, 2025 at 8:23 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
For further context, Banis explained, in his anthology book where the blurbs had been reprinted (Come This Way):
Author's note; This one requires a bit of explanation. My friend Allen Sawyer, director of San Francisco's acclaimed Hot Pants Homo Players, has a long collected books with queer sounding titles that in fact are not at all "queer" or gay in content. In 2006, the Hormel Center at the San Francisco Public Library did an exhibition of Allen's collection, and Allen asked his writer friends to write some dust jacket copy as if the books did have gay content. These were my contributions.
June 1, 2025 at 8:23 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Now FOUR artists have officially drawn Jackie Holmes. Robert Bonfils, Darryl Milsap, Harry Bremner, and Kenneth Laster.
The Man From C.A.M.P. book cover. Blond secret agent in a black silk suit, with a white poodle, in front of a background of pink and lavender concentric circles. The cover of 'Gothic Gaye' where protagonist Jackie Holmes is in the hallway of a dark castle. Gay-Safe book cover, with Jackie Holmes taking off a trench coat. A blond secret agent in a floral shirt, holding a bejewelled derringer, standing in front of a pink spiral background.
January 5, 2025 at 8:27 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Through @cartoonist.coop's E-Sim for Gaza Donation Drive, we received a spectacular surprise. The first new artwork of Banis's most famous character, Jackie Holmes, in over 50 years. Credit and thanks to Kenneth Laster. 🤩
Blond, young secret agent, wearing a floral shirt and holding a bejewelled derringer, standing in front of a pink spiral background.
January 3, 2025 at 1:23 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Holidays from all of us at the Victor J. Banis Family Foundation!
Book cover of 'Holiday Gay', with many happy, gay men in Christmas attire, playing inside baubles.
December 25, 2024 at 1:20 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Attention Buckeyes! Our foundation and Preble County Pride are hosting the 'That's So C.A.M.P.' masquerade party. Join us at Taffy's of Eaton, on the 13th of December.
A black poster with masquerade masks and white text. The white text says the following: 'Taffy's of Eaton Presents That's So C.A.M.P. Masquerade Party. Friday, Dec 13, 2024. $10 suggested donation. Doors: 6pm. Festivities: 8pm. DJ Doug Lullabies. Silent Auction. Cash Bar* *non-alcoholic options available. Taffy's of Eat 123 E. Main Street, Eaton, OH 45320. Victor J. Banis Family Foundation. victor jbanisfoundation.org - Preble County Pride. linkt.ree/preblepride
November 24, 2024 at 1:00 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
And Victor J. Banis wrote many 'woman fleeing gothic atmosphere' pulps under a few different nom de plumes. Here's a few.
A pulp book cover of a woman in a sheer dress, fleeing from a manor to a greenhouse. A brown pulp cover of a woman in a silk dressing, running away from a castle. Pulp book cover of a woman in a black dress, running away from a castle's entrance.
November 23, 2024 at 4:51 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
3/3
An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': could do some traveling, see the world a bit. No, he didn’t run away." "Do you think he was kidnapped?" "That’s the damnedest part. I was convinced of it and I was ready to pay any price they asked. You may not believe this, but I’ve got more jewelry stashed away in this house than they have at Tiffany’s. Always kept my money in diamonds, you know. But the silly thing is, no one’s contacted me. Not a word about ransom." "I see." From all appearances, it seemed that Rosarita’s young Ramon had been a victim of the same kidnapping ring that Jackie was already trying to track down.
November 14, 2024 at 1:35 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
So, very positive for 1966. But we believe we can do more. Through our upcoming Agents of C.A.M.P. series, we intend to have lots of trans protagonists, characters, and authors, starting with the non-binary protagonists of the first novel by our project lead @laurenfoxwrites.bsky.social 2/?
An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': to their patriotism. But he did not interrupt. Rosarita’s expression and tone was one of wistful reminiscence. She was almost talking more to herself than to Jackie as she thought back over the years. "It’s been good for me down here, south of the border. Of course my friends were always telling me to go down, but I had to find out for myself. Anyway, where was I oh, yes. Well, there was this man — a perfect angel I can tell you that. How I loved that s.o.b. Almost gave up the business for him, but one of us had to work and God knows he wasn’t about to. Worse yet, he had a family." "A family?" Jackie prompted. "You mean a real one?" Rosarita sniffed as though her honesty were being questioned. "As real as anything else in this fairy world. Two heavenly little boys. Seems his wife just ran off and left the lot of them, so of course he brought them to me. Told me I was the reason his wife ran off, so I owed it to him to help with the kids. But I didn’t mind, they were little sweethearts. That ape didn’t even know what their names were." "Sounds like a charmer." An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': "Well, he was; that’s a fact. But to make a story short, he decided after a little while to imitate his wife and there I was with two children to raise." At that Jackie had to raise his eyebrows. The image of Rosarita Beech as a mother was a hard one to envision. "You kept them?" he asked, trying not to sound dubious. "Raised them as my own," she declared [...] An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': A warning bell sounded in the back of Jackie’s mind and he began putting the pieces together. "You said, ‘could,’ didn’t you?" His hostess raised a handkerchief to dab at her eyes. With anyone else the gesture might have seemed artificial. But he knew her well enough to know that the sadness she revealed, ever so briefly, was genuine. "That’s why I wanted to see you, darling, I need your help. Something’s happened to him." An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': Jackie’s interest quickened. He had suspected that the evening was only a diversion, unconnected with the case upon which he was working. It was beginning to look, however, as though the two affairs might be closely related. "What do you mean, something’s happened to him?" "He’s gone, that’s what I mean." She was practically wailing as she made the statement. "Maybe he just ran away. It sounds cruel, but young men at that age frequently feel the urge to get out on their own." Her eyes flashed angrily at the suggestion. "Not my Ramon, I can tell you that. It may be hard to believe, old bag that I am, but that little stallion loved me just like I was his mother." Jackie regretted having made the suggestion. "It’s not hard to believe at all," he said soothingly, patting one gnarled hand. "I shouldn’t have said it at all." She accepted the apology with a wan smile. "Anyway, he was going to be out on his own in a few weeks. I gave him some money for his birthday, just for that purpose, so he [...]
November 14, 2024 at 1:31 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Here's to Trans Awareness Week 🥂
Banis's 'The Son Goes Down', from The Man From C.A.M.P. series, featured a trans woman. Rosarita Beech. The wording is a bit dated, and at worst her age is viewed a little negatively. But she was portrayed as a proud leader, a caring mother, and a joyful woman. 1/?
An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': "Rosarita Beech!" There was no mistaking the identity of his host or rather hostess, for the one-time female impersonator had once gained for himself some notoriety by paying a visit to Denmark. He had gone, as he had been quoted by the press, "an old man" he had come back "a new woman." That, of course, had been quite a few years in the past. There was little left of the once ravishing beauty, now a gaunt, spindly creature with eyes and mouth too large for her face, arms too long for her body, and hands too large for her arms. Even her clothes were outdated and worn out. The lace that she wore over her head fell limply and raggedly about her shoulders, the red of [...] An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': her ruffled dress was faded to a dirty pink. Yet there was still something about her that was compelling and exciting, something that seemed to say she was not yet finished. In his surprise at seeing his friend of old Jackie had forgotten his armed companions and the manner in which he had been brought here. Now he suddenly remembered. "What’s the big idea?" he demanded, indicating the goons. "Didn’t anyone tell you, you can’t get a man with a gun?" "To be honest, love, that’s about the only way I can get one these days," Rosarita answered, sweeping across the room to wave her hand grandly in the faces of the hoods, who quickly fled the room. "But I didn’t intend for them to use one on an old sister. I hope they didn’t hurt you." "Only my nerves," Jackie assured her. "To be honest I thought I had stumbled onto something much more sinister. I was all prepared to fight my way back out of here." The gaudily painted eyes looked him up and down. "Hmm, now that you mention it, you might yet have to. I do believe you’re more stunning every time I see you." She [...] An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': didn’t allow him any opportunity to answer, speaking in an almost continual stream of words. "First, some sherry for you, positively reeking of Spanish Fly oh, my dear, you wouldn’t believe some of the Spanish flies I’ve had in my life — and then we’re going to talk seriously always a chore for me, if you remember." Jackie did remember, but he offered no protest as she thrust the sherry into his hand and fairly dragged him to a sagging divan. "Well, you can start by telling me how you knew I was in town," he said while she was pausing for breath. She guffawed at that, flinging her head back and lifting her feet off the floor. "Oh, you ought to remember I never miss a trick that’s the story of my life in a nutshell. There isn’t a damned thing goes on in this town I don’t hear about, usually before it happens. One of my spies actually the whole town’s on my payroll — came flitting in here to tell me about a wild blond who had just crossed the border with a handsome man in tow — by the way, what did you do with him? No, never mind, you probably killed him with that sex drive of yours and left his body in an alley; not, I pray, near here or I’ll have to [...] An excerpt from 'The Son Goes Down': buy off the local constabulary tomorrow — again." "So you sent your boys to fetch me and bring me here. Now the question is, was this just to see an old friend or did you have something on your mind?" "Merciful heavens, the things I’ve got on my mind would make Fanny Hill enter a convent. But seriously now, enough of your humor. I did have a reason." Jackie waited patiently for her to explain, surprised to see that she actually had grown sober for a minute. "I’ve been working this house for years now," she explained. "I came down here for a visit and when I saw all of the lovely young American servicemen tripping around I decided to go into the business. Patriotic Nell, that’s what they always called me — I was a Victory girl, you know, with gardens and all. I hoed from one coast to the other during the war." Jackie’s own recollection was that Rosarita’s war efforts had consisted of running pretty much the same sort of businesses from one coast to the other; and her employees had been known as Victory Darlings, more for the initials than as a tribute [...]
November 14, 2024 at 1:17 PM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
5/4
Forgot the last one.
"In 1965 I wrote my first gay novel, The Why Not. The Why Not of the title was a bar my friends and I frequented, actually called The Castaways but dubbed The Why Not by my secretary, Lady Agatha, because the usual conversation on a weekend was, ‘Are you coming to the bar tonight?’, ‘Why not?’ The book was essentially a collection of vignettes describing my experiences with the bar and its habitués."
November 8, 2024 at 9:44 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
4/4
"Needless to say we did finally get to the ground intact, if not unsoiled. I vowed that I would never again set foot in an airplane. We arrived at the Federal Courthouse only a few minutes late – and within a few minutes more the judge had dismissed the conspiracy count of the indictment. Which meant effectively that he had dismissed me. Acquitted, I was free to go – to spend several days returning back to Los Angeles by bus or train, or renege on my vow and hop a plane." "Still I was free. My co-defendants proved not so lucky. They were convicted by the Sioux City jury, those uptight – sorry, I meant upright – men and women who had declined even to look at the evidence presented to them. In time those convictions were overturned on appeal, as our attorneys had foreseen, but my co-defendants would spend the intervening time wondering if they were on their way to prison and live out their lives with the stigma of a federal conviction. Was Justice served, I asked? ‘Justice was served,’ Dick Geis answered me with understandable bitterness. ‘She was served her head on a platter.’ For me, the bottom line was that my innocence was gone forever. I had been screwed in no uncertain terms. And we all know what that means for your virginity. I felt sore and violated. I came home from Sioux City with a burning resentment for the callous disregard that the government had displayed for what I considered some pretty fundamental rights I thought guaranteed by our constitution. There’s a reason that the founding fathers put freedom of speech right up there at the beginning. Without that, the rest doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, does it? And it had all been for naught, as I saw it. It can be a mistake attempting to explain the thought processes of others, but one would have to suppose that in part, at least, the governmental individuals involved in indicting me must have assumed that they could discourage me from any further activity in the paperback business. Ironically, the result was exactly the opposite. Under other circumstances, I’m not sure that I would have had much interest in pursuing a paperback writing career; Gloria had been fun but a whim, really. Certainly I had no interest in a career writing of faux lesbians." "I was still hurting, however, and I felt practically compelled to write at least one or two more books, to show the Federales (and myself) that I had not been intimidated. Well, if I am going to be entirely honest, I have to mention that I quickly discovered that the books were easy to do, for me at any rate. And they paid money. The only problem was, I had decided I wanted to write gay books, and if lesbians incited government censors to action, writing about gay males doing the deed was like waving red panties in front of a horny bull. The postal authorities and the courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, had already proclaimed that sort of dalliance a no-no. Two men holding hands was enough to render a book obscene, as these folks saw it. Holding anything else was blasphemy, at the very least. I continued to write for Brandon House Books, heterosexual and lesbian-bisexual novels; none, I’m sure, of any real merit. Not even out of respect for our common travail, however, would Milt Luros venture into homosexual waters, nor was I able to generate any interest among the other paperback publishers of the day. By now they all knew who I was. Paperback publishing in those days was a small town and I had paid my dues by taking my lumps along with Luros and company. Everyone was eager to see something from me in the heterosexual or lesbian vein, but even the bravest of them were convinced gay books would be like dropping their pants with little hope of satisfaction. Well, as everyone knows, when a guy gets really hot for something he isn’t usually much inclined to be discouraged. I remained stubbornly convinced that there was a large and largely untapped market for gay books. The Stonewall uprising wouldn’t happen until 1969, but already by 1965 gays were coming out of their closets."
November 8, 2024 at 9:28 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
3/?
"And that possibility loomed larger as the weeks passed in the courtroom in Sioux City. Besides books the charges involved a handful of nudist magazines as well. Not the hardcore action pics that you can buy in gift shops today, nor even the bare beavers of Hustler or Penthouse. These were more the Sunshine & Health sort of thing – people in the buff playing volley ball, with the occasional limp appendage bouncing about. I suppose someone might have been sexually aroused by the pictures – but then I know people who get turned on looking at pictures of trolleys. By the by, none of these magazines were sold in Sioux City. Indeed, there was only one shop that sold Playboy, under the counter. You had to ask for it and it came in the proverbial plain brown wrapper. So it was worrisome to watch jurors, charged with determining if this material was obscene, pass magazines from one to another without a glance at them, holding them gingerly by their fingertips as it fearing contamination. Had they even read Gloria, I wondered? I doubted it. More to the point, the indictment named me in a conspiracy charge with all the other defendants so that, though I had nothing at all to do with these magazines – heck, I hadn’t even seen some of them, and never got to – the finding that they were obscene could send me to prison." "I got more nervous still when government witnesses, former employees of the Luroses, testified under oath about my connections with the other defendants – meetings I allegedly attended, phone calls, letters – all fictitious. I could only imagine what threats or promises the Federal prosecutors must have made to get this sort of perjured testimony from frightened witnesses. What if I had accepted Mister Schoof’s invitation to testify against Luros? I knew nothing at all about Luros or his operations and so there was nothing in truth I could have said. But would Schoof and the prosecutors have found a way to force me to say what they wanted said, truth or not? I like to think not but clearly they had accomplished just that feat with other witnesses." "I was soon enough aware that they were not shy about intimidation. The trial hadn’t even begun before my first class mail began to arrive opened (yes, Virginia, it is illegal). Manuscripts were routinely left at my doorstep atop their envelopes, in case I had any doubts that they were being perused. Was I paranoid or was my Sioux City motel room really bugged? An employee of the motel whispered to me that it was. I don’t know why he would have made up such a story. And Stanley Fleishman, without saying so directly, gave me to understand that it was safest to make that assumption." "So much for justice and the American way. The foreplay was over. The federal government and Mister Schoof had me on the bed and they weren’t going to let me up until they had their vile ways with me. The trial went on. And on. It became less interesting to sit and listen to testimony I knew to be false. At the beginning we had buoyed ourselves with the hope that the Judge would quickly dismiss the case or that the prosecution’s case would prove brief and we would soon be done with it. The indictments had come down in March of 1965. The trial began in October. We hoped to be home by Halloween. Then Thanksgiving. Christmas loomed. At last in late December the government rested its case. Our side rested its case without presenting one. Fleishman and Foreman were convinced that the charges had not been proven but there was more to their strategy than that. Experience had shown that these cases often went to the appeals courts. That was actually better for the publisher – the results of a local district trial had little impact on the actions of other courts but a ruling by the appeals court was binding on all Federal courts within that district unless overturned by the Supreme Court – in other words, a ruling at the appellate level could work to Luros’ benefit in other courtrooms and to the benefit of other publishers as well. In a sense, then, offering no defense was virtually asking for a move to the appellate court – and at the same time giving the government no goofs in the defense case to seize upon and use to argue against an appeal. All well and good, of course. The strategy was a sound one. But I had been abused and misused for four months; and it left us heading home for a Christmas recess with the outcome still unresolved. Not a very merry Christmas present."
November 8, 2024 at 9:18 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
2/?
"The trials were expensive. Including people like myself and the other writers and freelancers who came to Sioux City made it all the more expensive. Partly for his own protection and partly because it was his nature, Milt picked up the tab for everyone and did so in the grand manner. The ‘best’ hotel in Sioux City was only a Holiday Inn but that was where Milt stayed and that was where we all stayed. We ate in the same restaurants, flew the same flights back and forth when he did – there was no attempt to save pennies by limiting our share of the expenses. It was generous indeed of Milt – and costly. By the time I got to Sioux City I had come to realize that my indictment had really nothing much to do with me or with Gloria or the desire of the U.S. Authorities to see me in prison, though that might well have been the result. The real reason I was there was to help run up the tab." "All of the pulp publishers of the time had their own attorneys however, who performed the same sort of service. In time I came to see that virtually everything these publishers did was done with one eye on the legal arena. As more and more charges were brought and more material defended in courtrooms, the Courts – particularly the U.S. Supreme Court – struggled to find a coherent legal definition for obscenity. The legal stratagems advised by the publishers’ attorneys changed and developed accordingly. Two of the key elements handed down by the Supreme Court during this time were that (in order to be considered obscene) the material must, ‘taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest of the reader,’ and that it must be ‘utterly without redeeming social value.’ By the mid-sixties it was common for paperback novels to include on their covers or front page blurbs quoting various authorities or ‘experts’ on sexual behavior. So my Stranger at the Door from Greenleaf in 1967 quoted at length Alex Comfort’s book, Sex in Society (1963): ‘Forms of behavior have to be considered in the light of their unconscious origin, in the light of what is customary or tolerated in a given culture, and in the light of the part they play in the individual’s mental economy – of who does what and when and where. It is disproportionate, if we are interested in the social effects, to lay much emphasis on the kind of physical variation or deviation in behavior…’ The actual quote was considerably longer and much in the same vein. I’m not sure that it had any particular relevance to the novel that followed, but it could be seen to supply redeeming social value." "In the late sixties, when ‘case history’ types of non-fiction began to proliferate, these books invariably included an authoritative forward or introduction written by some ‘expert’ – nearly always a Ph.D., though the degree often had nothing at all to do with this field of interest. In the seventies, books began to appear with out-and-out hardcore photographs. The text that accompanied these action photos addressed psychological and (sometimes peripheral) medical issues and was deliberately written in a dry, scholarly style. It was thought that it would be difficult, hopefully impossible, for a jury considering the work ‘as a whole’ to find this text obscene, whatever they might think of the photographs. At the time of Gloria, however, and the Sioux City trial, much of that strategy was still in the future. The Affairs of Gloria did have some rather crude drawings, but the sexual element was only vaguely suggested and the people in them were clothed, if sometimes a bit scantily." "Watching these two pros at work was fascinating. And, at least to start, I wasn’t too worried. At this time I still believed that somewhere along the way, someone would look at Gloria and realize a mistake had been made. And I was a celebrity, if only of a minor sort. Flashbulbs flashed and reporters barked when we arrived at airports, and we made the New York Times (though not the front page). For the record, they had no shortage of words with which to describe us. In Sioux City we were shunned in the manner that every queen comes to recognize and in a perverse way enjoy. We were lepers, but lepers who were the focus of everyone’s attention. Notwithstanding the interesting companions or circumstances, however, there were ten years in Federal prison hanging over my head. I was young, blond, not unattractive and a bit effeminate. I thought it safe to suppose that, should prison be the outcome, those would not be the cheeriest of years for me."
November 8, 2024 at 9:09 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Abridged version of when Victor J. Banis was indicted for obscenity charges, from his memoir 'Spine Intact, Some Creases' (it hops around from chapter to further along chapter, like the last screenshot here). Seemed relevant right now, especially what he decided to do in the end. 1/?
"Curiouser and Curiouser. I kept the appointment as arranged and found that I was to be charged, along with ten others, with Conspiracy to Distribute Obscene Material. I met my fellow conspirators – Milt Luros and his wife, Bea, the owners of Brandon House and a number of other publishing operations; Mel Friedman, of course; Bernie Abramson, who headed their shipping department; Stanley Sohler, Harold Straubing and Paul Wisner, who were editors; Elmer Batters, a free lance photographer; and two other free lance writers besides myself – Sam Merwin and Richard Geis. The others were each of them hit with a variety of charges but I was included only in the first, blanket conspiracy charge, a fact which would ultimately prove significant. Conspiracy? Didn’t that require some form of communication among the conspirators? I had never met any of these people before, nor communicated with them in any manner. Indeed,[...]" "until we met at the Federal Building, I had never even heard their names. The only person from the Luros publishing business with whom I had communicated – except for the call the day before from Mel Friedman – was the editor who had written regarding my book, and his only suggestion had been to expand its length. There had been no suggestions, veiled or otherwise, to ‘spice up’ the book in any way, as would later be suggested in court, or to address myself to anyone’s prurient interests. Gloria’s melons were entirely my own. Anyway, that editor wasn’t among my indicted co-conspirators. It was all a bit Kafka-esque. The more so when, as we were leaving the courtroom, I was met by a man who introduced himself as Donald Schoof, Chief Postal Inspector for the Los Angeles area. I later learned that it was Mister Schoof who had headed the so-called investigation and brought the charges against us. Mister Schoof asked to speak with me alone; apparently the others were all known to him but I was a paperback virgin, so to speak. Or almost, anyway, which I have always thought ought to count in those matters. Mister Schoof muttered (muttered, I swear it, just like a bad gangster movie) that he could make things easier for me if I would care to switch sides and cooperate with the government. Now, at the time, I had no problems with cooperating with the government. I had always considered myself a good citizen, if not a model one, and had never set out to commit any crime. Up until now my only courtroom experience was in Dayton, Ohio in 1956, when an angry wife named me as co-respondent in a divorce case." "But it did seem to me that if this Mister Schoof’s interest was in making things easier for me, the best time to have approached me might have been before I was charged with a crime of which I was so patently innocent. I have always been a devout coward. And after that debacle in the divorce court I certainly wanted no more legal entanglements. To be honest, had someone taken the trouble to romance me beforehand (candlelight and soft music are givens in this scenario) I would probably in the afterglow of consummation have blabbed everything I knew about Milt Luros – which was of course absolutely nothing. But didn’t they already know that? Looking back, I can see that what I was really guilty of was criminal innocence. I hadn’t a clue. In my defense, I might point out that I had not bought those initial paperbacks from ‘under the counter;’ no plain brown wrappers, no hasty swaps in darkened doorways. I had walked into a store in broad daylight, had taken them directly from the racks on the walls, and forked over my money. How could I have guessed that forking so openly might involve anything illegal? I scorned Mister Schoof’s advances. Anyway, his approach struck me as a bit too ‘after the fact.’ I was indignant at being so falsely charged, and kiss me where he might, Mister Schoof was not going to have me on his mattress willingly. I thought then – and think still – that if they had done a sufficient investigation to bring all these charges against all these people, they must certainly have known that this was a first time effort from me and that I had never met with – let alone conspired with – any of these people. Besides, when I went home and reread Gloria, I was convinced that someone from the other camp had only to get around to reading this lovely book to realize at once what a mistake had been made." "As I said before, Milt Luros’ critics dubbed him the ‘King of Pornography.’ Actually he was one of the nicest people I had ever met, a soft spoken New Yorker and a true gentleman in the most old fashioned sense of the word. An artist himself, Milt had set out to print quality art books. In short time he found art books entirely unprofitable – but he was able to make money printing sexually related material – initially for others but eventually for his own companies. The Federal Government did not like the material he printed. It seemed that manhood and melon breasts were corrupting society. And as I said earlier, federal law allowed charges to be brought not only where the material was shipped from or to, but anywhere it was shipped through. In our case the charges had been brought and the trial would be held in Sioux City, Iowa, even though none of the material involved was ever available in Sioux City, Iowa. I can say for a fact that my Gloria would not have been found dead in Sioux City. I myself went with the greatest reluctance. The idea apparently was not so much that the government thought they might get convictions on these charges but that by bringing repeated charges and forcing Luros to defend himself over and over again in small towns and cities around the country (at that time, there were trials pending in two other locations, one in Texas and I have forgotten the other) they could bankrupt him – or convince him to give up the business.
November 8, 2024 at 8:41 AM
victorjbanis.bsky.social
Happy Halloween! 🎃
The cover of 'Gothic Gaye' where protagonist Jackie Holmes is in the hallway of a dark castle. 'Three on a Broomstick' cover, with three drag queens running joyfully. 'Drag Thing' cover, with three fragmented pictures forming a drag queen. 'The Devil's Dance', a red cover with a woman in a gown running from a mansion.
October 31, 2024 at 8:44 AM