Sexy Witch

Goodbye and Hello

2009-02-21T15:30:00.000-08:00

After two and a half years on Blogger I am moving this blog to WordPress. I am doing this because Google has decided to become the inescapable and ruthless arbiter of puritanical morality (as Angela Caperton says), and because they are doing everything in their considerable power to make this blog invisible here (see my first post on this).

I hope you will follow me to my new site by clicking on the image above. It may take me a little while to settle in, update the links and find a style I like, but there will be no interruption to the flow of great images and intelligent discussion. I hope to see you soon!

Blonde Tally Witch, ca. 1925

2009-02-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

Here is another beautiful tally card from the mid-1920s. I am not sure why so many great tally cards survive from such a short period of time. Looking over my postcards the other day I realised that they also have a peak in production (beautiful postcards of beautiful witches), but with postcards it is the period 1910–15. There are hardly any postcards of interest from the mid-20s and no tally-cards of interest from ca. 1910–15. So, for whatever reason, the artistic skill and commercial activity shifted from one to the other, before moving on to pulp and magazine covers.

This card is described as a "mechanical tally card" because the area surrounding the witch on the top half of the card folds over so that the tally card can stand up. Of course, in this upright position the card-players can no longer keep a tally of scores on the back of the tally card, but this is a small price to pay for having such a lovely tally card that can sit upright before and after the game.

There is no maker's name for this card, just the serial number "HT76" (=Halloween Theme, no. 76?) and the words "Made in U.S.A." The orange and black tassels are common to almost all Halloween-themed tally cards, but I usually remove the tassels when scanning, to get a sharper image.

* * * * *

This will be my last real post on this site. From next weekend I will be on WordPress HERE. I have killed off the GoDaddy site and blog that I tried to establish and the bifurcated Blogger sites I had set up as possible fall-backs to GoDaddy and WordPress.

Since I first transferred all my posts and feedback to http://sexywitch.wordpress.com a few weeks ago I will have to transfer the my recent posts to WordPress during this week. Next weekend I will be posting on WordPress only. I will then have to start the endless process of updating all my internal links on the WordPress site, putting up redirection notices on this site, and notifying people who have linked to my Blogger posts of the move to WordPress.

By my, very rough, calculation this will take at least four months (fixing a dozen posts per week would take about eighteen weeks); getting the layout and design right on WordPress may take even longer, but I will try to get it done as soon as I can, and there will be no interruption to my posts. So, while invoking the law of le mort saisit le vif, I declare: Le Roi est mort, vive le Roi! [i.e. The King is dead. Long live the King!].

Luis Falero's Witch, 1880

2009-02-14T13:20:00.000-08:00

Luis Ricardo Falero (1851–96) was born in Spain, studied in Paris, but lived most of his short life in London. As this site explains he concentrated on painting highly-finished nudes, with a mythological or fairy-tale setting. One of his passions was reading about the supernatural. He seems to have had a particular fondness for the witches who feature in the Faust story, painting bacchanalian Sabbat-scenes on a number of occasions.

Of the seven paintings by Falero that I would like to eventually include on this site, at least three, and possibly all seven, concern Faust. Specifically, they concern Faust's experience of the Witches' Sabbat and have titles such as "The Vision of Faust" (or "Vision de Faust"), "Faust's Vision" ("La Rêve"), "Faust and Mephistopheles ("Faust und Mephisto") and "Departure of the Witches" ("'Sorcieres qui vont au Sabbat"). Only one of the seven actually contain Faust, but they all contain witches.

In fact, as far as I can tell, most of these paintings do not have proper titles at all; certainly the paintings are not found in contemporary frames with title-panels; nor, apparently, were they exhibited with fixed titles, nor are they consistently referred to today by fixed titles. The titles that are used in different sources come from a variety of European languages and so it is never really clear whether "The Vision of Faust" and "Vision de Faust," for example, is the same painting or two paintings and, if the same painting, which title is the real title (the English title or the French one).

Adding to the confusion is the fact that Falero clearly painted a lot more than seven paintings on the subject of witches or Faust (one has a pencil inscription on the back that reads "Etude de Sorciere N.22" [Study of a witch, no. 22]); also many, if not most, of these paintings are still in private hands. And I guess if you want to call your study of a witch "The Vision de Faust" after spending US$150,000 on it, who is going to stop you?

Finally, Falero was a genre painter and it seems no decent collection of his works has been made, no complete study of his paintings has been published (a catalogue raisonne), and so there are no reference book to consult to discover the real/first/accepted/latest title.

Although I have used a Falero painting on this blog before (the 1907 postcard here), I wanted to start the Falero series with this small but magnificent painting, because it is one of the few witchy paintings that deal with a single subject.

When this painting was sold in 2003 by Sothebys, on behalf of John Morrin, New York, it was titled "The Witches Sabbath" ("La Socière Allant au Sabbat"); this is the same title that was used when it sold by Sothebys in 1998 for US$21,850. This painting is dated 1880 and seems to be the same painting that was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1880 (No. 1380) under the title "Vision de Faust. More commonly it is titled "Muse of the Night" ("Musa de la Noche"). But if you want to call it "Hot Redhead on a Broom" I won't stop you.

I do not know how much John Morrin got for his 74 x 41cm painting in 2003. The estimate was US$18–25,000: the price of a car. Since Morrin only held the painting for five years the chances are reasonable that it will come up for sale again soon. If it did, I'd sell my car and walk to work every day for the rest of my life just so that I could come home to this. Which of us wouldn't?

BTW: If you'd like to look at some more Falero while you are waiting for my next post Artcyclopedia offers links to a few Falero galleries online, suggesting these two as the best: The Athenaeum and Art Renewal Center. I'd add ArtMagick.

* * * * *

When Google decided to freeze me off the internet I realised I had a number of options. I have tried, discarded, re-tried and basically wavered between the various options so that now I find myself [1] all-but ready to move to my own domain: I have paid GoDaddy to host the site, have done most of the layout for a blog and am ready to copy all my posts over there, but GoDaddy have a technical problem that makes it impossible for me to use the domain that I own and want to use. I am not doing any more work on the blog until I can do it on my chosen domain. I have also [2] set up a Wordpress blog, having done the layout and copied all my posts over last night. I have also [3] set up two more Blogger blogs and set them up so that I can split this one blog into a SFW and NSFW version. I also [4] set up a web site, but it looks like crap and I'm taking it down this afternoon.

At this stage, since my preferred option is [1], I am still unable to announce where I am moving. If GoDaddy keep mucking me about, or if, after getting my domain, I am unhappy with the appearance of it, or have trouble transferring the posts across, I will opt for [2] next week (the final option is [3], but I set that up before [2] and I am quite happy with the look of wordpress so Blogger can go ... "away" would be the nice way to say it, but you know what I mean!).

Finally, I spent two days catching up on my scanning and OMG have I got some great stuff for this blog, wherever it happens to be. I can't wait to concentrate on the material in my post, rather than on the location and the layout!

Taller and Blonder Witches, 1950

2009-02-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

The shout for this Press Photo of Joyce Holden is titled "Hallowe'en Witches are Taller—and Blonder—this Season." The copy-writer at Universál-International (address: "Universal City, California." Trust me, it really says that) goes on:

Miss Hallowe'en Witch, which is an alias for Miss Joyce Holden of the movies, may have lots of secrets to keep with this little black cat—but its no secret how she got into the movies. Universal-International Studio talent-hunters got one look at her natural-blonde, long-legged, milk white beauty and declared "She's for U-I!" Film fans will get their first look at her in "The Milkman," comedy starring Jimmy Durante and Donald O'Connor. Five foot 7 inch Miss Holden, who stands three inches taller than Durante, is his girl friend in the movie.

Joyce Holden had a seven-year contract with Universal, but she dropped the studio after five years because they were not paying her enough, not the other way around as Imdb states. Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen explains that in March of 1952, due to her complaints about the high cost of living in Hollywood, she received a $100 per week salary raise (from $150 to $250).

She started working for other studios and on television, as doing some modelling for extra money. She becomes a Jehovah’s Witness in 1954, divorced her first (nobody) husband in 1955 and a few years later married David P. Mannhalter (who was on his way to success as an industrial real estate broker) and immediately retired from show business. In 1964, if you were really lucky, she and her husband might have turned up at your door to deliver a sermon.

This seems to have been the natural life-cycle for a 40s or 50s starlet: modelling (Holden was "Miss Southern California" of 1949), minor acting (she is probably best known today for her role in The Werewolf (1956)), and at least two of the following: marriage, retirement or religion (Holden got the trifecta). Which suggests that great beauty combined with modest talent is handsomely rewarded.

One could be bitter about this, but the consequence of Hollywood system is that a significant proportion of the world's natural-blonde, long-legged, milk-white beauties (and every other kind of beauty), are immortalised every October in the guise of a witch. And the cumulative impact, the un-remitting force, of this army of gorgeous witches, is that every year the Disney-style hag witch seems more of fantasy, more of an imaginary character than the sexy witch. Which is a good thing in my book.

* * * * *

On the subject of my new web site, the weather gods continue to play merry hell with my plans. Yesterday, the only day of the week I can spare for this enterprise, was the hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne. Last week's heatwave maxed out at 45°C [113°F]; yesterday we managed 46.6°C [115.9°F] here, but some suburbs went to 47.1°C [116.8°F]. Despite the heat I managed to finish two-fifths of the new site before I had to abandon my study and retreat to the air-conditioned lounge, but even if I were to finish today the new site will not go live until next week. So, thanks again for all your great advice and support, and stay tuned here for the next few weeks at least!

[Oh, and as one of you reminded me about my planned CafePress shop: it is on hold until I have the new site live. Since I will be forced to adopt a new name there doesn't seem much point in developing a CafePress shop under the old name, and all my extra time is going into getting the new site up anyway. This is just one more reason why I am so disappointed to have had the rug pulled from under me by Blogger. And NB, site traffic is down another 30 percent this week, so I am doing what I can, as fast as I can!]

Gay Witch in her Underthings, 1950

2009-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

This 1950 advertisement is for Spun-lo Rayon underwear, or "underthings" as Spun-lo like to call them: Grin, Grin, Grin at budget troubles with Underthings of Spun-lo Rayon Fabric. The advertisement continues in verse (of course):

Undies made of Spun-lo rayon,
Give you savings to get gay on!
Always sure to make a hit
Are their famous wear and fit!

I hope you are all paying attention to this useful piece of advice for us all in tough economic times: [1] grin; [2] save money; [2] get gay (in your underthings perhaps)

Of course, we should be careful about ridiculing this very pretty Spun-lo witch, she has a knife after all, and is clearly not afraid of using it!

* * * * *

Speaking of attacking thick-heads with a carving knife, I have more-or-less decided to move this blog to a new domain. I've had enough of Blogger. So I have bought a few domain-names (because I am a little undecided about which one I want) and am now trying to find a host who is not too squeamish about content but who is large enough to offer me free templates etc ('cause I am still a bit of a novice when it comes to coding HTML and I need things to be simple). I think GoDaddy might be the one.

I hope to have something set up next weekend. In fact I'd hoped to have something done this weekend, but we have had the worst heat-wave ever recorded in Melbourne (the three worst days last week were 43°C, 44°C, 45°C [109°F, 111°F, 113°F]) and it was too hot to do anything useful.

To all the people who left feedback on my last post: thank you, thank you, thank you! For your advice, your kind offers, and for your support. Traffic to this site dropped thirty percent as soon as the blogger Content Warning went up, and has stayed that way since. It is quite likely there will be a similar, possibly larger, fall when I start moving the content to a new domain, but your comments have convinced me that I should keep going, and that I shouldn't compromise on content because someone who is unmoved by the death and destruction that greets us every night on the 6 o'clock news is sent into an apoplectic rage by skin and hair. Or possibly it is just witches they hate. We'll never know and soon—hopefully—it won't matter!

About the Content Warning on this blog

2009-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Ladies and Gentlemen this is serious. Blogger is—quite rightly—deeply concerned that you may inadvertently catch sight of a Halloween Hat, Tally Card or Napkin, a Postcard, Calendar image or Press Photo, a Sketch, Painting or Photo containing images of witches. I know! What was I thinking? That if you typed in the words "Sexy Witch" into a search-engine that you might find what you were looking for? That you might not be shocked to see parts of yourself that you see ever day of your life (if you are female), and parts of female anatomy that you see almost ever day of your life (if you are male). I know, I know. What a fool I have been.

So, what is to be done you ask? Absolutely nothing! You may not realise what an irredeemable offence I have committed. I must be punished, annihilated if possible. Let me explain how: as soon as a sufficient-number of decent, god-fearing, skin-hating net-citizens have "contacted Google because they believe [a] blog's content is objectionable" Google "unlist" it. Unlisting "means the blog won't be promoted on Blogger.com but will still be available on the Web", which probably doesn't seem like a sufficient punishment for my inexcusable behaviour. Don't worry, dig a little and you discover that "unlisting "determines whether or not your blog will be included in Google Blog Search and if it will ping Weblogs.com"; this means "everyone can still view your blog but search engines will be instructed not to crawl it". (Crawl = search, index and generally make available on the web when you search for stuff, like Halloweeniana.) So, this blog is quite likely to become—and quite rapidly become—a ghost: gradually fading from Google searches, missing out on more-and-more traffic, until I disappear from the Internet altogether.

There is, of course, no way to contact or query Blogger about these decision, to discover what content has been objected to, change it and ask for a decision to be reconsidered. They also do not offer any warnings or contact anyone about content before "unlisting". Blogger just adds the warning page to a site, and removes the blog description from the Internet. If any degenerate like you searches for this site they will get, as you will have seen: "Blogger: Content Warning" as a title, and "Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google …" as the blog-description. This way, "censorship" is avoided, "freedom of expression" is protected and everybody is safe. (Am I the only person who has read 1984?)

So, here are my options as I see them (1) Keep blogging behind the warning page until I am talking to myself. (2) Move all of this blog's content to somewhere else on Blogger, and hope that my objectionable content escapes notice. (3) Move all the unobjectionable material to somewhere else on Blogger and maintain two sites, one with a warning page, one without. (4) Move all, or some, of the content, to my own domain and pay someone else to host it. (5) Give up on blogging.

After more than two years building up traffic on this site I am reluctant to start again under a new name (options 2,3,4), but given the existing traffic, I suspect option 4 would be quite expensive. Options 2,3,4 would also mean I would lose all the formatting for this site, since the coding can not be used on new Blogger sites, or non-Blogger sites. Since at least one other Blogger site was "unlisted" for posting a photo of a female mannequin (seriously), I am not sure it would be possible to escape "unlisting" for very long with options 2,3, and options 1,2,3 all require me to continue to deal with Blogger. As for option 5, I don't really like it either. I enjoy doing this blog, and I have heaps of great stuff I'd still like to share.

I'm going to need some time to think about these options. So don't be surprised if I take next Friday off, or only do a really basic post. But please, stay tuned…

Another Gibson Tally Card, ca. 1925

2009-01-23T14:02:00.000-08:00

Here is another great Halloween tally card from the mid-1920s by the Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati.

Just like the last tally card I posted, this one is from Gibson's Halloween heyday. But, unlike the last one, this time I can't tell you the product number, how many were in the box; nothing, in fact, beyond what you can see, which is a young woman dressed for a ball in the most outrageous Halloween-themed dress. On top of her narrow orange knee-length skirt is a golden bustle, patterned with black Bats and Scaredy Cats. The bustle is shaped like an enormous golden pumpkin, i.e., an enormous golden Jack O’ Lantern (JOL).

Now that I think about it, JOL-bustled skirts appear on a few other bits of Halloweeniana from this period. In an early 30s tin-litho noisemaker we saw a woman standing in the top of a positively gigantic JOL, whose skirt joins seamlessly with the JOL, so it looks like she is wearing the JOL (see here). And in a mid-20s Halloween Party Invitation by Rust Craft the skirt of the masked belle shades off into a huge egg-shaped JOL (here). I will have to keep an eye open for more.

Returning to our golden party-girl, do you notice the bow on her wrist? I wonder what that is doing there. A short-lived fashion accessory? Perhaps our young red-head has forgotten something, and the bow on her wrist is a reminder for her, like a knot of string on your finger.

What could she have forgotten? Witches hat? Check. JOL? Check. Party-dress? Check. Perhaps her expression offers a clue? What do you think?

BTW. When I got this image into Photoshop I couldn't resist having a play with it. I thought this might make a good tee shirt design, though it isn't what I had in mind when I started setting up my Cafe Press show. Any takers?

Livia, Sexy Witch, 1957

2009-01-16T19:35:00.000-08:00

Allison Hayes plays the part of Livia, "a bosomy witch wrapped in a revealing medieval sarong", in Roger Corman's The Undead (1957). Hayes is best known today for her lead role in Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Corman for The Little Shop of Horrors (1960).

[Shapely, sinister… Hayes portrays the scheming witch Livia, threatening in every scene to spill out of the revealing bodice she's been poured into]

The plot of The Undead is quite complex, involving the hypnotic regression of a prostitute to a past life, a life in which she was accused of witchcraft and condemned to be beheaded. The action in the past is driven by Livia, a witch who is in love with Pendragon. The problem is that Pendragon loves Helene, so Livia orchestrates the condemnation of Helene for witchcraft, vowing she alone will have Pendragon's body or his soul.

Helene escapes at the start of the film—with the help of advice from her future self—and the rest of the film concerns the flight, and pursuit of, Helene. Helene eventually realises that she is trapped in a form of the grandfather paradox (her future self has helped her escape prison, but by escaping death she prevents her future self from coming into existence; so in the end she must choose whether to live, or return to prison so she can live her future lives).

Because so many Corman films have become cult classics (he has directed 54, and produced 384, other films), there are a few sites that offer a more detailed account of this film, with screen-caps etc (see here and here), which is great because it means we can focus on the witch, Livia.

Livia is a very, very sexy witch. As Laughing Gravy says on Amazon "Allison Hayes [is] simply the most awesome woman to ever appear in any horror film … her turn as a witch in The Undead is sure to make you forget about Elizabeth Montgomery, Kim Novak, or even Melissa Joan Hart." Below are some highlights from the action.

[Livia confronts her nemesis, the good but ugly witch Meg Maud]

[Livia to Meg Maud: "You will make me a fine opponent"]

[Livia with her delighted imp]

[Livia chatting with Smolkin, the gravedigger]

[Livia, about to chop off the head of Scroop, the innkeeper]

[Livia tells Pendragon she is a witch; she offers to free Helene if Pendragon sells his soul]

[Livia and Pendragon waiting for the sabbat to start]

[Livia offers Scroop's head to the Devil]

[Livia meets Quintus Ratcliff, the hypnotist, who has travelled back in time, with his watch (but losing all his clothes)]

[Livia confronts Meg Maud: "I smell eight quarts of human blood that will soon enrich the grasses here"]

[Livia is stabbed by Pendragon]

The Undead is available on DVD via Amazon (UK) for a small fortune (here), and in the form of a DVD-R from VideoScreams [catalogue no. 3782-P72 on this page] for USD6.00 to USD11.00 depending on postage.

Google Advertising

2009-01-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

I have—reluctantly and after much hand-wringing—decided to trial Google AdSense on this blog. I hope you don't find it too intrusive. I have certainly tried to keep it discreet.

As some of you are aware, I have been using Amazon in-text advertising since I started this blog, which has paid a fraction of the postage on a few parcels a year for the last few years (that is, about $10 a pop: the difference between sea mail and air mail). During the holidays I worked out that I had spent more than $10,000 on postage alone on the witchy items that I have purchased over the last few years and that it would take me about five hundred years to recoup this amount via Amazon links!

With $20,000 on my credit card I think it is time to try something new: AdSense. I have no idea if it'll be any more profitable than Amazon links. If not, I'll drop it.

I am also in the process of setting up a CafePress shop, with t-shirts, coffee cups, tote bags etc with designs based on the earlier, out-of-copyright images. This shop will likely start small, with only a few designs and gradually grow as I find time to prepare new designs. Again, I have no idea if it'll be at all profitable: if not, I'll drop it too. (So, if you see anything you like, you'd better buy it!).

And since no post should go un-illustrated, here is Wang Wei's Witch (2006). Nice, yes?

Bringing you Good Fortune, 1910

2009-01-10T15:28:00.000-08:00

I like the sentiment on this postcard: "May This Season Bring Good Fortune." Although the anonymous manufacturer specified "Hallowe'en" as the season concerned, I would like to apply it to Xmas and New Year. 2009 is going to bring a few changes to this blog, which will be the subject of a post next week, but for now I'd like to wish you all Good Fortune for this year.

This is one of my favourite postcards. At first glance the young woman on this card seems to be a magician—she has a classic magician/wizard hat on and appears to be demonstrating a card trick—but the black cat and the caption inform us that she is actually a witch. The "Good Fortune" in the caption clearly relates to the cards we see in front of her, particularly the Ace of Hearts in her hand, so she is obviously a fortune-teller rather than a magician or wizard. And since witches often told fortunes or, rather, women who told fortunes were often described as witches, and since this is a Halloween postcard, there is a strong chance she is a witch. But it is the black cat that is the clincher: gypsy-style fortune tellers didn't come with black cats, witches did! So, our young fortune teller is a witch.

Our witch is also absolutely stunning, and the closer you look, the more gorgeous she appears. The cat is sensational too. If you look closely at the above image you will notice that there is a copyright date and a signature for the artist next to our witch's right knee: "c 1910 M. Focini." or "c 1910 MiFocini"; unfortunately I can't find out anything about this card which would tell us anything more about the artist or publisher.

The only other information I have about this card, is the postmark ("Niles, Mich. Oct 30, 5PM, 1911"), the message ("Just returned from the city, while there I met a dear 'old friend of yours.' Friend Anna") and the address ("Mr Russell Jiles, R.R. no. 3, Niles Mich.). Niles, Michigan is near South Bend, Indiana, but the nearest city is Chicago, so Anna may have bought the card in Chicago, before posting it in, and to, Niles. Whether that means this postcard was printed in Chicago is unclear, but it seems likely. Beyond that there is nothing more to say, except how much I like it (a lot!).

Water Skiing Witches, 1954

2009-01-02T15:39:00.001-08:00

This is my new-year's holiday photo for you all: Hot Witches Water Skiing. (Once again I am indebted to an anonymous tip—left here—for this great picture.)

This photo appears in lots of different places online, in different sizes, with and without captions. It took a while to find out where the original image came from, but I am persistent and so I can tell you that this is image U1268129INP from the Bettmann Archive. The photo was taken on 27 October 1954 at Cypress Gardens, Florida, USA; the original caption given to this photo was:

In suitable witches raiment (and lovelier witches it would be hard to find), two sorcerers of Cypress Gardens switch from broomsticks to broomskiis (and this is not to say it is an invention of the Russians) to herald the dawn of Halloween.

You can buy copies of this picture here for £1.60.

Sapolio Witch in Colour, 1904

2008-12-25T16:52:00.001-08:00

The Witchcraft of the 20th Century (March 1904) is an Enoch Morgan Sons' advertising magazine/booklet. When I did my post on the Sapolio Soap advertisement, which appeared in The Cosmopolitan of March 1899 (reproduced below), I mentioned this advertising magazine, and the fact that I didn't have a copy of it. A tip from an anonymous reader—thank you whoever you are!—that a copy was up for auction on eBay gave me an opportunity to secure a copy, so now I can show you what all the fuss is about.

Describing this magazine as an "advertising booklet" this doesn't really convey the weirdness of The Witchcraft of the 20th Century. The magazine claims to be vol. 19, no. 77, which is an obtuse and private joke, the volume and issue count suggests that this magazine was a quarterly and that it had been running since January 1885 when Artemas Ward, Jr. was appointed as advertising manager to Enoch Morgan Sons' Co. The issue is 192 pages in length (196 if you count the covers, as they do); it is heavy; it contains 45 articles, stories, poems, songs and letters and lots and lots of advertisements for Sapolio. Almost every story is about Sapolio, and almost every advertisement is for Sapolio. It is the sort of magazine one might imagine the Soviets to have published in the 1950s, soap in a one-party state!

Among the stories are "The Detective's Problem by Herlock Shomes" (an Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes rip off which concerns a coded message, that—when decoded—is revealed to be an admonition to Bathe Constantly), "Around the World: A Commercial Globe-Trotting" which is a travel narrative that advises constant washing and somehow manages to relate the Taj Mahal's white marble to Sapolio), "Have the Stars a Story For You? The Lighter Side of Astronomy" (which manages to find Sapolio spelled out in stars, and the Milky Way is the clear white suds of ....); there are articles on "Art in Advertising", "The Life of an Advertising Girl," and "The True Function of Soap as a Medicament"; and catchy songs such as "This is the Mayor of Spotless Town" and "The Busy Little Microbe." Weird.

The 1899 Advertisement, uncoloured

Of course, Sapolio was actually a competitor with Pears in a two-party state but Pears doesn't get a mention in this faux-magazine. Both Pears (UK) and Sapolio (US) competed furiously, each company used every new advertising approach and gimmick to out-do their competitor, including fancy-shmancy artwork and faux-magazines. I am not sure if or when Pears "won"; Sapolio was a household name at one time in the US, but it is Pears' Soap artwork that is collected today and Pears soap that is still for sale at my local supermarket. And no copy of this magazine appears on any library catalogue.

Although some of the interior artwork is quite nice, it is only the cover I am interested in here, because it is the only image of a witch in the whole magazine. The same image was first used in the 1899 advertisement mentioned (and shown) above; and it was reused on the Official Program of the 1905 "All-Halloween Carnival" of Albany, New York (reproduced in Stuart Schneider's Halloween in America: A Collector's Guide With Prices (1995), 174–75).

Keith Dotson Witches, 2007

2008-12-20T12:25:00.001-08:00

Keith Dotson is an "artist, musician and writer." The evidence for the first claim is in front of you, those wanting to test his other claims can chase up his MySpace page and blog (mentioned here).

BTW: Dotson sells sketches like these on eBay at a very reasonable rate; he also does commissions, which would make a great xmas present (see his eBay listings here).

Coven 3, 2005

2008-12-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

Coven 3: A Gallery Girls Book was published by SQP Inc. in 2005. It follows Coven: Sisterhood of the Dark (1998) and Coven 2: A Gallery Girls Collection (2002) (see my posts here and here).

Pelaez cover

Each collection is better than the previous one, and so it was very difficult selecting images for today's post (which is why I included so many!). My advice is order this collection immediately. It is only $10, so buy one for yourself for xmas! You've worked hard, you deserve it; the artists have worked hard too, so support them! You know you want to...

Ruben Meriggi, p.13

Anibal Maraschi, p.28

Gustavo DeSimone, p.29

Carlos Arguello, p.36

Pablo Kousovitis, p.39

John Bosco, p.40

Tomas Giorello, p.42

Pablo Kousovitis, p.48

Coven 2, 2002

2008-12-05T13:13:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my post on Coven: Sisterhood of the Dark that I would discuss the second and third collections of witchy pin-up art "another time." Well, now is the time for Coven 2: A Gallery Girls Collection published by SQP Inc. in 2002.

Tomas Giorello cover

This time most of the illustrations are of witches, historical or modern, or enchantresses, sorceresses and other practitioners of the Dark Arts, rather than the female demons, devils, fairies and vampires that dominated the first collection. But the quality of the artwork is just as varied as before, ranging from polished and engaging to crude and clichéd.

Tempting as it is to show just how bad amateur pin-up art can be, I will stick with what I consider to be the better pieces, and try and show the work of a range of artists, not just all the pieces of the best. Enjoy!

Parrillo, p.4

Anibal Maraschi, p.28

DelRivero, p.30

James Ryman, p.52

Parrillo, p.54

Cano, p.55

Cuevas, p.62

Ariel Heath's new broom, 1942

2008-11-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

Ariel Heath had a very short Hollywood career, nine uncredited appearances in 1942–43, followed by four forgettable—if credited—appearances, that culminating with her as "The Blonde" in Machine Gun Mama (1944). (The sole reviewer of this film on imdb concludes "Pretty bad. Avoid.")

As you can see in this RKO press photo, however, Ariel Heath does make a credible sexy witch; she has a lovely face, and she has a particularly interesting broom: it has a propeller!

The photo by Alex Kahle [AH-49d] was approved by the Advertising Advisory Council, Hollywood, on 2 August 1942, two months before her first, uncredited appearance in Here We Go Again (1942) (the prequel to Look Who's Laughing (1941), which was such a turkey that Lucille Ball refused to appear in it).

Unfortunately my photo is missing its blurb, so I can't share with you the desperate attempt by the RKO copy writer to explain the propeller and to excite your interest in Ariel Heath as an actress.

An explanation for the propeller would have been particularly interesting (for me at least): witches are often depicted on "modern" brooms that sport a bridal, steering wheel, propeller, wings or jets, or riding on modern equivalents of brooms, such as a vacuum cleaner. One Easter Witch postcard from Sweden that I saw recently has a group of witches stopping at a floating petrol station in the clouds, filling up their brooms!

The Lady is a Witch, 1950

2008-11-22T19:49:00.001-08:00

Norman A. Daniels's "The Lady Is a Witch" is a complete novel that was published in Startling Stories (March 1950), 11–87. I will say something about the story in a minute, but first the artwork that accompanies it: according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, Earle Bergey (1901–52) provided the above colour illustration for the cover, and Virgil Finlay (1914–71) provided three pen and ink illustrations for the interior of the magazine, below.

Bergey has really let his imagination run wild, and his witch is stunning. She is riding side-saddle on a broom, seemingly fleeing from some terrible pursuer, who she is watching with a fearful expression on her face, and at which she hurls lightning bolts. A twister roils below her (at left) and the howling wind throws back her hair and cape. Our witch is wearing a strapless fishnet body stocking and a lace glove.

The detail, and her figure, is amazing, Startling even. Unfortunately, Bergley's artwork bears no relation whatsoever to Daniels's story.

Daniels's story concerns an unsuccessful doctor by the name of William Wilson; Bill comes from a long line of successful Boston doctors. He lives in the ancestral mansion, alone. Bill discovers that the first of his line—Ezra—had "been a male witch—a wizard" (13); soon afterwards he is approached by a mysterious man, Thaddeus Link, who wishes to examine Ezra's coffin because he wishes to establish whether Ezra had been interred alive, shackled in irons, in a hermetically sealed coffin as contemporary account claim and, if so, whether any of Ezra's "radiations" are still detectable. All of which is "highly irregular" (24), as Bill notes. Nevertheless, Bill agrees, they open the coffin, there is a whirlwind, Bill is knocked unconscious, Thaddeus takes his measurements of Ezra's radiations and that is that.

The real story begins in Chapter 4, which is where the reader is introduced to Priscilla, a seventeenth-century witch who was interred with Ezra. She is invisible, but speaks in Bill's mind. Her voice "was completely feminine, alluringly low and warm and vibrant, with the unmistakable timbre of youth" (28): the "loveliest voice [Bill has] ever heard" (30). Priscilla wants to "join" Willy (as she calls him) and offers to help him to fame and fortune by using her powers to help him work great cures. Meanwhile she is wants to become stronger to fight Ezra "who worked for Beelzebub himself" (30).

Priscilla describes herself as "the fairest maid between Portsmouth and Nieu Amsterdam" (30), and a good witch, before she was entombed in April 1692. The "girl" has the "voice of the sirens" and Bill's "only wish" is to "see what goes with it" (33); he "longed to embrace the fair young body that was not there" (34); he says to her I "wish I could see you and —", breaking off "embarrassed by his own trend of thought" (37). Priscilla cures a crippled boy, an old woman with cancer and a deaf, dumb and blind invalid and brings Bill a fortune by curing a degenerate rich man. Meanwhile Ezra curses, blights, causes train wrecks, sets fires etc.

I won't detail Priscilla's jealousy of Bill's love-interest, Natalie, the suspicions held by Bill's rival (for Natalie) about Bill's new-found success, and how everyone eventually teams up to prove that Ezra was not a wizard, that only Priscilla had been entombed, that Priscilla has been doing Beelzebub's work under Ezra's name and, most important of all, she is hideously ugly. The group confront Bill, he comes to his senses, banishes her from his mind, gets the girl (Natalie) and discovers that he has witchy powers of his own.

So, the stereotypes are upheld. Bill is tricked by hideous, old, evil hag into believing she is a pretty, young, good witch. At no point do we see Priscilla, except in a 1692 description and an engraving:

[Pricilla] possessed rare ugliness of form and feature and indeed, by the latter, might have been nigh onto a century old … Her eyes were small and black and suffered from a cast and her nose was so thin and hooked that it was difficult for those who attested against her to look upon her (81) If I look at it [an engraving of Pricilla] more than half a minute my stomach turns. Did you ever see such a dreadful old hag? (81)

Moreover, modern witchcraft is elided with the historical witchcraft:

Witchcraft, as you must know, is a mockery of every virtue known to Christianity. And Walpurgis Night is the unholiest celebration. Every witch, modern and ancient, living and dead, who is not under the seal of Solomon or any other leaden barrier, gathers in conclave to ridicule faith and virtue. They perform the Black Mass, they plot evil for the year to come, they indulge in what scholars like to call orgiastic rites—some of us have less academic words for that sort of thing. And your Pricilla is there with the rest of them, indulging in their horrid pastimes (78)

So, to return to Earle Bergey's cover-art, it is clear that he did not read the story at all, and had practically no idea of what went on in it. He has produced a sexy witch painting that is far more progressive than the story it is supposed to illustrate. Our blond beauty in a body-stocking is not Pricilla, not even Pricilla as "Willy" imagines her, on the basis of a sexy voice.

Virgil Finlay on the other hand, clearly had read the story. His image of Bill and Pricilla show the latter as a hag.

Finlay's two-page spread of the Walpugis Night celebrations has an Evil Ezra (at far left, with demon in tow), a few male witches flying in (above Ezra), a young witch and Pan figure at front.

On the second page there are three more demons and and a hag at left. The hag is probably Pricilla.

However, the main action in this image—the figures that everyone are watching—are the young witch and Pan who are about to demonstrate the "orgiastic rites" for which Walpugis Night is famous.

The opening image is classic Finlay: it shows a naked Pricilla is a burning laboratory—Thaddeus Link's—being licked and partly clothed by flames. Finlay shows Pricilla as Bill imagines her to be, young and stunningly beautiful.

Clearly, it was impossible to resist the urge to depict the "fair young body" that features in the text; and in a story that depends on Bill's mistaken belief in Pricilla's beauty, it is probably necessary to show Bill's fantasy, though Finlay does not make it clear that it is a fantasy.

Whatever the logical or narrative inconsistencies indulged in by Bergey and Finlay, we can only be grateful that they were commissioned to illustrate this story, and that they produced such memorable images despite the stereotypes are upheld in Daniels's story.

Miss Kitty, Pin Up Witch, 2008

2008-11-14T13:31:00.002-08:00

One of the regular visitors to this blog, the beautiful Miss Kitty, has been inspired by the images on this site to celebrate Halloween by doing a Brujita Sexy Pin Up - Sexy Pin Up Witch post on her own blog: a fantastic idea, which I encourage you all to do!

I asked Miss Kitty if there were any particular images that inspired her. Not surprisingly, she was specially motivated by Gil Elvgren's Riding High (which—as I said one before—is the most famous of all pin-up witches, and the image against witch all other calendar and pulp-cover witches are measured). Miss Kitty also mentioned my posts on other pin-up artists such as Freeman Elliot, Bill Laynes, Ren Wicks and Vargas, and the 1951 photos of June Haver.

Raul Fernandez will be delighted to know that his Glinda was also mentioned by Miss Kitty, but I am particularly pleased she mentioned Coven: Sisterhood of the Dark because this offers the perfect segue-way into next weeks post. And on that mysterious note, I will leave you with only three more of the three dozen photos that the naughty Miss Kitty has published for our viewing pleasure. To see the rest: go on her site!

Sincere Flattery and Invisibility

2008-11-14T13:31:00.001-08:00

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I have been blessed with some very sincere flattery indeed. I love it when people link to this site, or when people illustrate those links with images and text from this site. I don't mind too much if people who link to this site in their blog roll (for example) use images from this site without actually crediting me for them, though nobody is likely to make the connection between my images and the link to my site.

I have even reconciled myself to having images taken from this site, printed out and sold on eBay, either as small posters, or to illustrate jewellery, vanity cases and handbags. Even though someone else is profiting from the images I have often bought at considerable expense and after much time spent searching; I figure that I do not loose much by it as long as I am not also trying to sell posters, jewellery etc. Anyway, as I have argued before, a few images from the entire site is probably fair use, at least in my eyes.

I mention all of this because I discovered yesterday that someone has been duplicating the entire content of this blog since 8 August: every word of every post, all the images, all the internal and external links: basically my blog on someone else's domain. Search engines like Google do not like this sort of duplication, because it is used by spammers and web traffic manipulators; so they block the sites. What this means is both my site and the one which has been duplicating my content have now been blocked. My Google Rank had dropped from 5 to 0 and none of my back-links appear on Google. You cannot find me on Technocrati (but if you search for "Sexy Witch" you find the content thief), though I still appear on Google, for now at least.

I have asked both the web owner and the ISP to remove the duplicated material, to no avail. I must now wave a very big (legal) stick, but even if the content were dropped today it may be months (I am told) before Google will reinstate my back-links, my ranking etc. In the mean time I may disappear from Google all together, just as I have from Technocrati.

So, my advice to my regulars who have relied on a web-search like "sexy witch" to find me, is bookmark this site before I disappear from the rest of the search engines. I will keep posting, I will keep fighting, and—as Arnie says—I'll be back.

UPDATE 18 December 2008: Well the content thief has completely removed all of my material. I am still invisible on Technocrati, but my Google ranking has been restored, which is great news for anyone trying to find this site. It is a shame that I discovered that YouTube had taken down my most popular video on the same day I had this little victory, but if there was no struggle in publishing a blog like this someone else would have done years ago, right?

Dennison Diecut Witches, ca. 1920

2008-11-07T14:17:00.000-08:00

These tiny diecut witches were sold in quite large sheets by Dennison in the mid-20s. Each diecut is about 28.5 x 47.5 mm (1 1/8" x 1 7/8"); as you can see the stock number is 4534. Larger, and more detailed, versions of these diecuts were also produced. I saw one two years ago that was 98.5 mm (or 3 7/8") tall, but I was well-and-truly-outbid—it sold for US$233 [about A$350]—and I have not seen another since.

The individual witches would probably have been cut off the sheet to decorate cards, seal envelopes etc., although special-purpose "seals" were also sold in small boxes with adhesive already on them. Being cheaper, and even more ephemeral than other Halloween decorations, these diecuts are quite rare and do not feature in any of the collector's guides to Halloweeniana.

The curious thing about this design is the collar, which is straight off a Clown or Harlequin outfit. As I have said before there seems to have been a transition in the first decade or so of the twentieth century from simple or crude (home-made) outfits worn by middle-class men and women to more detailed, sophisticated and shop-purchased costumes. (The rich have always had beautiful tailor-made masquerade—and Halloween—costumes.) One of the most popular or the home-made type was the Harlequin, which is just a baggy jump-suit, frilly collar and peaked hat with pom-poms. Very easy to make.

It is often difficult to distinguish a Harlequin vs a Witch in transitional costumes, and I have given away many items that turned out not to be a witch, or not sufficiently witchy for this blog, once I got them home. For me the hat and the owl are the clincher in this image, this is because the hat is black, pointed and it carries standard Halloween imagery (the JOL), rather than having the multicoloured stripes, ribbons and blunt top of the Harlequin. The pom-pom-like decoration on the side of the hat above the ear is a bit of a worry, but it is only one, not three, and it is not at the top, where you might expect it. Also, Clowns are certainly not associated with full moons and owls; and Halloween witches are always female, whereas clowns were both male and female to begin with, but increasingly were only males (certainly by the 20s, which is when this diecut is from). So, all considered, I'd say this is about 75% witch, 25% clown/Harlequin. Which is why it is here.

Hollywood Halloween Witch, 1940

2008-10-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

Because you have been good I am going to give you all a Halloween present: a photo of the radiantly beautiful Anne Nagel (1912–66) dressed as a witch for Halloween.

When this photo was taken in 1940 Nagel was 27 and a widow (her "self-hating homosexual" husband having committed suicide in 1937). 1940 was, however, probably the high-point of her life. As Wikipedia notes, in March 1940 she appeared with W. C. Fields and Mae West in My Little Chickadee—the most successful film of 1940 after Gone With the Wind; she was also soon to remarry, and so Nagel had reason to be happy. Unfortunately, life didn't stay happy for long for this striking beautiful model/dancer/singer (for all the sad details see imdb).

But let us return to Nagel's delightful smile and the Universal promotional copy that appears on the back of this photo [serial no. A.N.-P-36; dated 30 October 1940]:

Starlet Gives Version of Hollywood Hob Goblin

Armed with a broomstick and jack o'lantern, and sporting streamlined witch's costume, Anne Nagel, Universal player, is all prepared to ward off any evil spirits that may be floating about this hallowe'en. One of Hollywood's busiest young actresses, Anne is currently seen as the leading lady in the serial film 'The Green hornet Strikes Again.'

The OED tells us that a "Hob Goblin" is: "A mischievous, tricksy imp or sprite; another name for Puck or Robin Goodfellow; hence, a terrifying apparition, a bogy," and it provides an appropriate quote from Bishop Samuel Ward: "Phylosophie … hath taught them not to feare any such Hobgoblin spirits." Quite right Sam; in fact philosophy has taught us not to be frightened of witches either.

And just so you get it right when you try to dress like a—very stylish—"Hollywood Hob Goblin" next Halloween, here is a close up of the shoes!

Campfire Witches, 1946

2008-10-28T13:06:00.001-07:00

In Stuart L. Schneider's Halloween in America: A Collector's Guide With Prices (1995), 185, a copy of the following photo appears which has annotations on its edge that identify the actresses below as Jane Adams (left) and Patricia Alphin (right). The actor playing the tree is not identified but, damn, he is ugly.

This Universal Studio publicity photo is numbered 08-P128 and dated 7 August 1946. Yes, August, not October. A bit early for Halloween? Well, perhaps I can explain. Both Adams and Alphin only appear together (uncredited) in A Night in Paradise, which imdb says was released on 3 May 1946 in the US (5 June in New York). So this press photo may be an attempt by the studio to fill the publicity vacuum following the film. Then again, the photo may have nothing to do with the film and the fact that they appeared together in the film and the photo may be purely fortuitous. After all, they are both "Universal Stars" and they are both very pretty (and very pretty stars need constant publicity, yes?).

For Patricia Alphin, A Night in Paradise was only the second of a score of films in which she appeared, uncredited, between 1946 and 1949. Having got nowhere in particular in Hollywood, she gave up acting. I am not really sure why she wasn't a success. I mean, even the tree can't take his eyes off her!

By 1946 Jane Adams (aka Betty Jane Bierce, aka Poni Adams) had already done a stint in Westerns, Horror and Action films (she playing a hunchbacked nurse in House of Dracula (1945) which has insured her place as one of Universal's Leading Ladies from the Golden Age of Horror), and she continued acting in film and on television into the early 50s. In August of 1946—when this photo was released—no less than three films in which she appeared were released (Rustler's Round-up, Gunman's Code and Lawless Breed) so perhaps the publicity photo was all about Adams the Star of Westerns and we should be focusing on the campfire? Or perhaps, since her next film was a Horror film (The Brute Man) this was the studio getting in some pre-publicity for her role as "Helen Paige", a blind piano teacher? No. Oh well, clearly I haven't got a clue about the reason for this photo appearing when it did. And until I find a copy with the studio's "shout" glued to the back, I won't know.

So, let's focus on the costumes. The fabulous feedback on my newly-identified 40s starlets (my last post) has kept their costumes on my mind. I've been trying to remember where else I'd seen something similar when this photo occurred to me. And although the Penny Edward and Barbara Bates photo can now be dated to "ca. 1950" it is interesting to see what else was around at the time. So, here is Jane Adams' top:

If you look closely you can see that the witches and stars on the bras (or bikini top) are tacked-on cut-outs. Here is Pat Alphin's skirt:

I am not sure if the witches and scaredy-cats are also cut-outs on the skirt, perhaps they are and it is just not as obvious. Anyway, the cats look a lot like the ones on the tops of Edward and Bates (below). Yes?

40s Halloween Starlets revisited

2008-10-24T13:38:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago I did a post on the above image in which I puzzled over the Vitagraph watermark hidden in the bottom right-hand corner. I said at the time that "unless someone can identify these Hollywood starlets, or the particular costumes that they are modelling, the date of this photo is likely to remain a mystery". Well no-one has explained the watermark or identified the starlets [they have now, see my UPDATES below], but I have made some progress on the costumes. Examine them closely. One is a wrap-around, the other, not.

[Now identified as Penny Edward and Barbara Bates]

Now check out the following photos:

[Now identified as Martha Vickers]

[Now identified as Gale Robbins]

Notice anything? (Apart from the fish-net stockings!) Yep, they are the same costumes. One of each, which is pretty neat. Unfortunately, I still don't know who any of the women are, or when the photos were taken, so it is not much to add after two years of collecting. But they are pretty cool pictures anyway. And I have now doubled the chances that someone will recognise one of the models. If you do, let me know!

[UPDATE 27 Oct 08: Well, you people are Gods! Three of my starlets now have names: Penny Edward and Barbara Bates are the two women in the first photo; and Martha Vickers is the woman in the second photo. All that remains is to identify our diva with the fishnet stockings!

Not only have I been given some names to work with, but someone has already raced ahead (like swift-footed Achilles) and found a French magazine that uses the first photo—but coloured and cropped—on its cover (V [no. 296] for 4 June 1950). I have, of course, immediately ordered a copy. When it arrives I will post it and anything else I find in the meantime.]

[UPDATE 8 March 09: An anonymous reader has identified our final anonymous starlet as Gale Robbins, aka Betty Gale Robbins, whose career started in 1944 (when she was 23). Whoever you are: thank you!]

[UPDATE 2 April 09: My copy of V with Penny Edward and Barbara Bates on the cover (mentioned above) has now arrived, it is beautiful, but is too big to scan. The photo below is the best I can do for the moment, but I plan on doing a proper post on this soon!]

Vargas Vanities Witch, 1953

2008-10-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

When I did my previous post on Alberto Vargas I didn't realise that a decade earlier he had done another classic pin-up witch.

I spotted a thumbnail size version of the above image during an internet trawl but—as is often the case—it took ages to work out exactly where the image had come from. As you can see, it turns out that it is the Jack of Hearts from the "Vargas Vanities" deck of 1953. "Vargas Vanities" decks were reprinted for years, decades in fact. First-printing decks are hard to come by, since they are such collectors' items, so it took a while to get an original 1953 card.

Quite a bit of detail was lost when Vargas' original artwork, a full-length pose no less, was reduced to fit on a standard playing card. I have not seen any evidence that the original artwork survives, or that this image was printed elsewhere in more detail. I have scanned it in as much detail as I can. It is still a bit blurry, but this is as good as I can get it I am afraid. If anyone spots a better version, let me know!

Witchy Tally Card, ca. 1925

2008-10-10T15:12:00.001-07:00

This Halloween tally card is by The Gibson Art Company of Cincinnati (aka Gibson & Company, Lithographers, aka Gibson Greeting Card Co., aka Gibson Greetings, Inc., now a brand owned by American Greetings Corporation, Inc.) The Gibson brothers started producing cards in the 1860s. During the 1920s and early 1930s, according to Mark Ledenbach, Gibson "was a worthy competitor" of Beistle and Dennison—"the two bigger firms"—producing gorgeous Halloween diecuts, decorations etc.

This tally card is from Gibson's Halloween heyday: the mid-1920s. Slightly more glam than the witch in last week's Halloween Party Invitation, the cheerful witch depicted here has a shiny red bob and only a hint of curls. On the back of the card there you can see that these cards there is room for a table number, couple number, and name: these tally cards were for a large party! There is space for a dozen scores (i.e. it is a 12 count tally card), probably for Bridge, although it is possible they were used for other card-games (500, Canasta, Euchre, Rummy, who knows!).

The tally cards are 155 x 100mm (6 x 4 inches); they were sold in boxes of fifty, half of the cards in each box having yellow strings attached to the top, the other half black. "The Gibson Line" product code is "1723" and the product name: "Hallowe'en Tally Cards". I know this because the person selling the lot of four I bought on eBay had the original box. He didn't mention this, so you can imagine my surprise (and horror) when the cards turned up in an eighty-year old box completely covered in 21st-century sticky-tape. Unfortunately, the only way I could get the cards out of the box was by removing the tape, which ruined the original product labels etc. Since there was no packing inside the box, three of the four cards were also pretty mangled in transit. The one card that survived its imbecile of a vendor does, however, look great. So, cards anyone?

Halloween Party Invitation, ca. 1925

2008-10-03T20:21:00.001-07:00

Sexy Witches at Dreamgirl

2008-10-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

There really are only four sexy witch costumes of note from Dreamgirl; two of which are Wizard Wanda (previously listed by WonderCostumes.com) and Wizard Academy School Girl.

Wizard Wanda and Wizard Academy School Girl are wearing a school uniform and carrying a wand. The uniform is based on the house colours of Gryffindor (scarlet and gold) from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The most famous female from Gryffindor House is Hermione Granger. Hermione is, famously, a curly-haired brainiac. It seems likely that, though Hermione does not wear glasses as Wizard Wanda does, these costumes are intended to be cheeky Hermione Granger costumes.

Wizard Wanda

Since Wizard Wanda was available in 2007, when both the character Hermione Granger and Emma Watson (who has played Hermione in all the Harry Potter films so far) were minors, I was suprised that this costume attracted no attention.

Emma Watson is now an adult (we have the naughty party-girl photos to prove it) and the books tell us that Hermione eventually married and had children. But as long as she was wearing a school uniform she was a minor and so these are still, at least in part, a pedophilic fantasy costume. They now join the ranks of Sexy-Alice (seven and a half in Wonderland) and Sexy-Dorothy (eleven years old in the Wizard of Oz) costumes, among others.

Wizard Academy

Wizard Academy (plus size)

Broomstick Babe

Which Witch

[UPDATE: for all my posts on the subject of sexy witch costumes, see: Sexy Witch Costumes Index.

Thessaly: Witch for Hire, 2004

2008-09-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

Cover of the Vertigo reprint (2005)

About three months ago someone left the following feedback:

Are you familiar with Thessaly: Witch for Hire? Now there's a sexy witch!

The answer was "No" (I wasn't). After a quick look online I wasn't so sure that The Sandman Presents: Thessaly: Witch for Hire written by Bill Willingham and illustrated by Shawn McManus, actually qualified as a sexy witch. But I bought a copy (of the reprint) anyway and was won over. I have now ordered copies of Sandman Presents: The Thessaliad (four issues), which seems to have a different artist. (Both are spinoffs from The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman.)

Thessaly is the last surviving Thessalian witch, making her the world's oldest and most powerful witch. In this mini-series Thessaly is put in peril by Fetch, an amalgamation of her many, many victims.

Thessaly and Fetch

Thessaly traps Fetch

When Fetch coughs up all of these victims, its ugly. But Thessaly isn't. Apparently Thessaly "has hidden herself on Earth in the guise of a meek college student", so the artists give her glasses, but they also gave her curves (like all comic-book heroines she has a truly amazing hip-bust ratio!). So, although her outfits are daggy—she doesn't wander around in Red Sonja's astonishing, and mircoscopic, "armour"—she is still pretty hot. Thus the post.

Thessaly in earlier times, without glasses

Thessaly after "lovemaking"

Thessaly in evening wear

Thessaly at her geekiest (note: curves)

[BTW: As Diane Purkiss notes "by the Roman era, witches had been firmly located in an imagined Thessaly, and Ovid explains that Medea's herbs and knife are Thessalian."]

Frank Cho's Sexy Witch, 2003

2008-09-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

I am ashamed to say that I had never heard of Frank Cho, though it soon became clear that I knew his work: his Witchblade, Shanna and Red Sonja are pretty distinctive. I didn't know his most famous series though, Liberty Meadows. I mention this because an anonymous contributor mentioned, on my Real Witches page, that I should take a look at the following image of Brandy (a character in Liberty Meadows, dressed as a witch). It is from 2003.

[Baltimore Comic-Con Official Souvenir Program Cover]

I did look and, after a little searching, found an even better one from 2007, also by Cho.

According to Cho's own checklist of his artwork there are even more witch images in his oeuvre, but may take a while to work out where, exactly, I can find reproductions of these more ephemeral sexy witches. Anyone who knows should leave some feedback and explain.

Sexy Halloween Costumes at Yandy

2008-09-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I asked Chad Horstman at Yandy if he could tell me a little about the sales of 2007 sexy Halloween costumes, and offer a preview of the 2008 costumes. (And although it reads like an advertisement, I don't get anything out of this other than inside information and better pictures!) This was his reply:

In 2007 sexy Halloween costumes were bigger then ever. One staple that took off as a sexy costume is the sexy witch. Not really so scary anymore she is mostly cute colored, naughty and sexy. Sales of witch costumes for Yandy.com were up 300% over 2006 thanks to new softer/sexier styles.

For 2007 Yandy.com's top selling witches were:

1

2

3

We will be getting a lot more in the future from more brands for Halloween 2008 as we expect sales to continue to grow by an exponential margin. I will keep you updated.

You can see our current selection of Sexy Witch Costumes. Yandy.com also has a huge variety of other sexy Halloween costumes.

If you follow the links you will find the following (and NB, I will be updating all of my Halloween costume pages by the end of this month). Here are five of the latest eye-opening costumes:

Real Witches

2008-09-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

These are all of my posts on real (i.e. practicing) Witches and Wiccans. Individual posts follow index pages:

Maxine Sanders Pages

Maxine Sanders

My first post explains why Sanders is featured on this blog; it is illustrated with five pictures from the 1969 and 1970. [NSFW]

Maxine Sanders, January 1966

This post features eleven images of the famous Alderley Edge ritual, which catapulted Sanders to fame. [NSFW]

Maxine and Co., again, 1966

The twelve photos in this post were taken at a ritual held in Paul King's flat. [NSFW]

Maxine Sanders, Dawn Ritual, 1969

The sixteen photos in this post were taken in winter on the Yorkshire Moors. [NSFW]

Fire Child by Maxine Sanders, 2008

A review of Sanders' autobiography. [SFW]

* * * * *

Janet Owen/Farrar Pages

Janet Owen

My first post explains why Janet Owen (later Janet Farrar) is featured on this blog; it is illustrated with three pictures from her 1970 initiation of into the Sanders' coven. [NSFW]

Initiation of Janet Owen, 1970

This post contains full details, and fifteen pictures, documenting the Owen's initiation of into the Sanders' coven. [NSFW]

* * * * *

Marina Baker Pages

Marina Baker

My first post explains why Baker is featured on this blog; it is illustrated with a dozen pictures from the 1987 Playboy centrefold photo shoot. [NSFW]

Marina Baker Again

This post features photos from Baker's appearance in the March 1987 issue of Playboy. [NSFW]

Marina Baker in Casanova (1987)

This post is about Baker's appearance in Casanova; with photos from the April 1987 issue of Playboy. [NSFW]

* * * * *

Fiona Horne Pages

Fiona Horne

My first post explains why Horne is featured on this blog; it is illustrated with pictures from her 1998 and 2005 photshoots for Playboy. [NSFW]

Fiona Horne in Black+White

This post features photos from Horne's appearance in the October 1994 issue of Black+White. [NSFW]

Fiona Horne in Celebrity Survivor

This post features images from Horne's appearance in the August 2006 episodes of Celebrity Survivor. [NSFW]

Fiona Horne in Black+White (again)

This post features photos from Horne's appearance in the November 2006 issue of Black+White and an updated list of publications. [NSFW]

How to Become a Sensuous Witch, 1971

2008-09-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

"Two of New York's most successful witches", Abragail and Valaria, "reveal their occult (and culinary) secrets for a livelier love life!" in How to Become a Sensuous Witch: Spells, Rituals, and Recipes for a Livelier Love Life (New York: Paperback Library, [November] 1971). The shout on the rear cover continues:

Finding a new love, or getting rid of an old one, is simple when you use magic. Keeping the right man is eisier too.

How to be a Sensuous Witch is a combination of time-tested rituals and up to the minute recipes guaranteed to satisfy you and your love.

There are spells to attract both men and money (poverty is counter-sensuous), to arouse passion, to assure fidelity, or (if you get bored) to separate your lover from you. The recipes range from elegant dinners to restorative breakfasts—and there is a whole chapter on festive Sabbats for your whole Coven!

[NB: this witch is a model (in a very silly pose). See below for Abragail and Valaria.]

This books has an Introduction by no less a man that Dr. Raymond Buckland, eponymous director of the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Long Island, New York. Unfortunately, it says absolutely nothing about the identity, or reason for the fame, of "two of New York's most successful witches" (and note, "two of": this could mean two of the two thousand most successful witches).

Abragail's Preface is a little more informative. It tells us that "Valaria is a practicing witch. She does not belong to a coven, as she prefers to practice alone and on her own … Val has always had an interest in the occult sciences and was psychic as a child" (15). Val has a great "grandmother story" (every witch had one in the 60s and 70s): ten years ago she found an old letter, in an old truck, addressed to her from her long dead grandmother (a witch from Bohemia) directing her to "certain [hidden] books of magic" (16) which she duly finds and which now direct her occult studies.

Abragail is a sorceress "who has become adept in the arts of seduction and love through the study of herbology and the making of philtres and potions". Abragail & Val are introduced by their astrologer, formed a company "The Witches Cauldron, a metaphysical supply company" and "Bob's your Uncle", or Agent, or something (i.e. and so the book is made).

The spells are pretty much what you'd expect. A few have been reused by more recent writers (Robin Skelton uses the "Sensuous Witch Spell" (19) in Spellcraft: A Manual of Verbal Magic (1978) and Migene González-Wippler uses "Divorce Insurance Spell", "Black Candle Separation Spell" and "Separation Powder" (100) in The Complete Book of Spells, Ceremonies and Magic (1988)) but the names are the best bit; lots of alliteration, but also a lot of fun:

Salem Sausage (26), Scallops Satan (28), White Goddess Dressing (37), Moon Mushrooms (40), Apples Aradia (52), Banana Bacchus (60), Pan Pudding (61), Beltane Biscuits (80), Carrots Cernunos (82), Sex Soup (106) etc

(All of which is a lot like Lionel Harris Braun and William Adams' Fanny Hill's Cook Book (London: Odyssey Press, 1970), with magnificent illustrations—see here—by Brian Forbes.)

WITCH: We Intend To Create Havoc, 1971

2008-09-05T15:42:00.000-07:00

W*I*T*C*H: We Intend To Create Havoc (London: New English Library, 1971) is by "Jane Harman" aka Terry Harknett, who used his wife's maiden name for this 126-page exploitation novel.

The rear cover copy reads:

The nine principles of the WITCH creed:
1. We intend to gain equality.
2. We intend to shed our chains.
3. We intend to fight for right.
4. We intend to unite women in a common cause.
5. We intend to lose our man-created image.
6. We intend to change the law.
7. We intend to reveal our power.
8. We intend to win.
9. WE INTEND TO CREATE HAVOC.

Hordes of bare-breasted, shaven-headed girls on motorcycles roar into Southend—Bank Holiday style!

Cities everywhere are saturated with stripclubs for girls—where titillating males peel off their drag!

Havoc—pure havoc. Created by leather-clad, hate-filled, WITCHES.

There seems to be a certain tension between principles 5 and 7 (or even 9) in the writing of this book (to say nothing of the cover-art!). The opening paragraphs, for instance, read:

Susan wasn't wearing a bra. As she took off her coat and swayed across the room Gerald could see that her breasts were unfettered by anything except the white wool of the sweater. A thin covering that adhered to every line of her upper body, clinging to the gentle swell [three more lines on breasts] .... Of course, she wore trousers [five lines describing hips etc] .... Susan had hinted, but Gerald had never taken any steps to find out, that on some days she wore no panties.

(Actually, the first five words are a paragraph to themselves because the author wants you to know that THE BARE-BREASTS START RIGHT HERE!)

Anyway, it is possible that Susan is revealing her power (principle 7) by not wearing a bra, or even creating havoc (principle 9), since the magnetic appeal of Susan's breasts is truly astonishing: at the end of three paragraphs the narrator still hasn't drawn his eyes from Susan's chest (perhaps she needs one of those tshirts that read "My Face Is Up Here"). But if Susan knows this and is revealing her power and creating havoc I do not think she has lost her "man-created image" in the process. But to continue ...

Harknett was among "the first and most successful" of "the small group of writers whose noses were [kept] firmly to the grindstone at New English Library's genre workhouse" according to Steve Holland (see The Man Who Was George G. Gilman, first printed in PBO no. 8 (Winter 1997/98)). Holland goes on to explain:

The novel was actually a fill-in: "They had commissioned the book, that was to be called WAM (Women Against Men) and the guy who wrote it thought that it was so good he deserved more money for it; NEL said No, we're not going to give you more money, and promptly got on to me and said can you do us with a quick story and I think they came up with the title W*I*T*C*H and took it from there. I couldn't swear to it but I think Sphere published WAM."

It is worth mentioning that Peter Haining, the master of all things witchy and occultish, was a senior editor at NEL in the early 70s, and that he "singled Terry out as, historically, one of the instigators of the paperbook boom": perhaps it was Haining who suggested the title.

As many of you will know, there were real feminist groups called "W.I.T.C.H" active in the late 60s, the most famous being the Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell (more info and photos here). The group (and its manifesto) in Harknett's book has more than a passing resemblance to the real "W*I*T*C*H" groups, suggesting, what we already know, that this is an exploitation novel. I wonder what the feminists (and witches) of the time thought of this book?

As Glenn (the Administrator on the "GGG and the Piccadilly Cowboys" forum) mused in 2004:

Is it a work of subversive underground literature, pulpily reflecting the rising feminist movement and prophesying the coming of Girl Power, Riot Grrrls, and Third Wave Feminism …? Well, probably not. Sure, the story features an anarchic group of women, seeking sexual as well as political power (not a dungaree in sight—the WITCH uniform is tight t-shirts and leather trousers…) However, the resolution of the story involves the WITCHes being overthrown—not by the police, who come across as nasty pieces of work, but by an alliance of ‘proper’ women:

“It started with a few lady committee members on a back lawn,” he said … ”I knew men would never stop Ophelia … I told Susan about it and she telephoned every decent, law-abiding woman she knew. They called others and it kind of snowballed.” [122]

So society is saved! Some of the characters literally walk off to get married, after the memorable lines:

“What about some lunch?” Daphne said.
“Shush Daphne,” Susan warned. “That’s all behind us. The gentlemen are supposed to ask the ladies.” [126]

Blonde on a Broomstick, 1966

2008-08-29T14:15:00.000-07:00

Who could walk past Blonde on a Broomstick and not stop to have a look at this cover? Or to read the shout on the front: "Rick Holman is taken for a ride by a covey of curvaceous witches … and flies straight into MURDER!" Did you say "curvaceous witches"? Give me that book!

THE POT BOILS …
It's a heady brew.
It's spiked with plenty of Black (and blonde and brunette) Magic. And whose in the soup?

RICK HOLMAN, of course.
Stirring things up are four wild witches:
Sultry songstress Julie—she's said No to the biggest natural yes-deal of her life …
Sex-kitten Sally—self-appointed private eye whose lovely eyes are a little too private …
Dark, dazzling Stella—mistress of the Shades (from Hell to bedroom), queen bee of a hair-raising hive …
Wacky Barbara—demon-possessed and starving—for seduction.
The problem is: Which witch is witch? Rick had better find the answer fast. He's up to his ears in it. Its a murky case of sink or swim in a witch's cauldron.

So which witch are you? I'm rooting for "mistress of the Shades" myself. (See! Read a dozen lines of this sort of copy and that is what happens: you start writing lame puns. I knew it was bad for me.)

Anyway, this will be my last Carter Brown post for a little while: I have so many other pulps to do posts on! (As Toni has reminded me with her brilliant post on Cark Dekker (the little-known half-brother of Carl Dekker). (Check out the cover here.)

But to details. The above cover and detail are from Blonde on a Broomstick (Sydney: Horwitz, 1966). The two covers (and details) below are from: (New York: New American Library, [January] 1966) and (Sydney: Horwitz, 1972).

PS: I have to mention that this story starts with a quote, a motto if you will:

So choosing solitary to abide,
Far from all neighbours, that her devilish deeds,
And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off, unknown, whomsoever she envied.
(Edmund Spencer, The Faerie Queene)

The quote is from Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Qveene (1590), Book 3, Canto 7, stanza 6 (etext [of the 1596 edition] here):

There in a gloomy hollow glen she found
  A little cottage, built of stickes and reedes
  In homely wize, and wald with sods around,
  In which a witch did dwell, in loathly weedes,
  And wilfull want, all carelesse of her needes;
  So choosing solitarie to abide,
  Far from all neighbours, that her deuilish deedes
  And hellish arts from people she might hide,
And hurt far off vnknowne, whom euer she envide.

I'd be surprised if Allan Geoffrey Yates (aka Carter Brown) found the quote while reading Spencer: more likely he found it in a guide to witchcraft, or possibly in another book, like Sir Walter Scott's The Bride of Lammermoor (1819), where it appears at the start of Chapter 31. Even still, it is a surprising thing to see in a book that starts: "We sat—Paul Renek and I—on the open deck of the beach house and watched the blonde in a see-through bikini cavorting on the sand."

Terrible twos

2008-08-22T22:26:00.000-07:00

Oops, I missed my "birthday"; by over two months! Boy, I must have been busy!

So, for the record: my first post was on 21 June 2006. The 175 posts I have done since then have attracted over 250,000 visits and over 1 million hits (or page views). Woohoo.

I would like to thank all my regulars, all the people who have linked to this site, and all the people who have sent me photos or who taken the time to leave feedback. You make it all worthwhile, a cliche, but true.

I have a long backlog of feedback emails to reply to or to work into new posts (like the anonymous genius who has sent me a date for my "Hexenbecher", see here). Once I get the new format sorted—and it is nearly finished—I will do a series of update posts and some other tidying up, before letting rip with some recent finds. So, as I said at the outset: stay tuned!

The Coven, 1971

2008-08-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Rebecca is my new hero. Not only is she a "mysteriously archetypal enchanted storybook witch-princess" (which, of course, we all want to be), but she has sent me the link to a the The University of Queensland's Carter Brown Book Covers page.

Once the UQ page loads you will see 496 (!!) different Carter Brown book covers, each of which can be examined in considerable detail. Click on a thumbnail and you get a 500 pixel wide image, click again and you get a magnifying glass tool that allows you to get even more detail, but only of part of the picture.

Once I looked at this site I wondered whether there was any point continuing with my Carter Brown posts, but four things occurred to me. First, I collect the witchy Carter Brown books, no matter how hard they are to identify (see my last post for details), and so my posts are about my collection rather than just providing images of Carter Brown covers, cool as they are. Second, the large images I provide—which are linked to the smaller images below—are 1000 pixels wide, twice the size of the largest you can download on the UQ site. (And the detail pictures are even larger). Third, I also provide information on the relationship between the titles, not just images. And fourth, I do acually have a few covers not on the UQ site. (Ner ne'ner ne'ner ne'ner).

On the third point, Toni Johnson-Woods (the expert on all things Carter Brown-ish) has asked me about my sources for the overseas titles. I am sure she will be dissapointed to hear that it is a combination of Austlit, Graeme Flanagan's Australian Vintage Paperback Guide (1994) and lots of little bits picked up off second-hand booksellers and eBay folks over the years.

But now to The Coven. The UQ site has two covers: below are three (once again with the gloating and the Ner ne'ner ne'ner ne'ner!). The first US edition (New York: New American Library, April 1971), the first Australian edition (Sydney: Horwitz, November 1971), and an American reprint (New American Library, October 1978). The blurb on the back reads

SATAN IN HOLLYWOOD

The nude girl in the photograph was beautiful, young, and rich—and a witch. And RICK HOLMAN had to find her. It looked easy—until a beautiful corpse washed in with the tide and her throat slashed.

And until he met the Coven!

They were six young psychos who liked their sex mixed with dope and the Devil. But one was a rapist with a kinky taste for ritual murder!

The shout on the first page is even "better":

A WITCH WHO WANTS IT!

Her body, bathed in the soft light from the bedside lamp, was breathtakingly beautiful. My eyes absorbed every detail with a kind of stunned disbelief and I opened my mouth to say something, but all I got was a croaking sound from deep inside my throat. She sat down on the edge of the bed and wrapped her arms tight around herself, giving support to the deep swell of magnificent breasts that were in no need of support.

"I'll go down onto my knees and beg," she said in a tremulous voice. "If you insist …"

Apparently, in 1971 the "magnificent breasts" of the vulnerable witch could only be included on the cover of the New York edition if the they were not really real. In Australia, we got a photograph. I am not sure who got the better deal: the painting used on the New York edition is pretty damn cool (and for more on paintings vs photographs on paperback cover art see here and here). By 1976 the American public was able to cope with draped breasts.

The 1980s

2008-08-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

The following link is to my only post on sexy witches of the eighties.

Pumpkin Pie, 1985

An Ash-Blonde Witch, 1987

But, also, see my Marina Baker Pages (1987).

Marina Baker

Marina Baker Again

Marina Baker in Casanova, 1987

The 1900s

2008-08-22T16:32:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches from the first decade of the nineteenth century (the nineteen-naughties). See the index pages for the 1910s, 1920s etc for the ninteenth-entury as a whole.

Jugendstil Witches, 1900

Magic Lantern Witch, 1900

Champagne Witches, 1902

Meyer's Witch of Endor, 1902

Swedish Easter Witches, 1902–50

Sapolio Witch in Colour, 1904

How you really ride a broom, 1907

Jolly Halloween Witch, 1907

Halloween Clown/Witch, 1908

Witches' Sabbat in Paris, ca. 1910

The 1990s

2008-08-22T15:54:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the nineties.

Klemke's Fairy Tale Witch, 1990

Lopez & Barreiro's Young Witches, 1993-now

Glenda vs Glinda, 1995

Coven I, 1998

The 1910s

2008-08-22T15:12:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the ninteen-tens.

Bringing you Good Fortune, 1910

Nannie in Ivorex, 1910

Penot's Salon Witch, 1910

Bewitching Welsh Witches, 1910

The Witch’s Dance, 1911

Fortune Teller Witch, 1912

For Ways That Are Dark, 1912

Melbourne Cup Witch, 1912

The Witchal Witch, 1912

Beware the beautiful witch, 1913

Halloween Witch, 1915

Studio Witch, ca. 1915

Coloured Tam O'Shanter postcards

The 1920s

2008-08-22T15:03:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the twenties.

Dennison Diecut Witches, ca. 1920

Mrs Price's Dancing Witch, 1920

Brocken Money, 1922

More Brocken Money

A Modern Witch, 1923

Another Gibson Tally Card, ca. 1925

Blonde Tally Witch, ca. 1925

Halloween Party Invitation, ca. 1925

Witchy Tally Card, ca. 1925

Opening the Party Season in 1926

Witch in Stockings, 1926

Ipswich Witch, 1927

Another Beautiful Ipswich Witch, 1927

Walpurgisnacht, 1928

Bisque 'Nudie' Witch, 1920s

The 1930s

2008-08-22T14:59:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the thirties.

Naughty Glittering Witch, 1934

Witch in Silk, 1936

Vivacious Blonde Witch, 1938

Wholesome Dancing Witch, 1939

Witchy Film Fun, 1939

Sexy Flapper Witch

Hot Flapper Witch

Walk Softly, Witch, 1959

2008-08-08T15:14:00.000-07:00

It has been almost two years since I did my first post on Carter Brown paperback and pulps with their wonderful witchy covers. You could be forgiven for thinking that I had given these books no more attention since then, but you'd be wrong. It is just that, being a bit of a completest I have been holding off doing any more posts on the Brown novels until I had copies of all of them. I still don't, but I thought it was high-time for another post. And this one should make it clear why I have still not collected them all.

Here we have Walk Softly, Witch (Sydney: Horwitz, 1959)

Once I had this in my hands I thought, "Brilliant. Now the hardest part is over. I have the first edition!" As it happens, I was wrong. Or, at least, not wrong, but not completely right either. You see, Walk Softly, Witch is actually a reworking of an earlier novel called Eve—It's Extortion! (Sydney: Horwitz, 1957), so perhaps Eve is the first edition?

And so now I have a problem, do I buy a copy of Eve and include it in my post? Since almost none of the Carter Brown covers feature recognisable witches (you know, hats and brooms), then it is an open question as to whether the cover-art on Eve—or on Walk Softly, Witch—is really a witch after all. I would have to read both novels and try to establish if the buxum blonde on the cover of the latter is really a witch or not.

So, what of later editions? I am glad you asked. Walk Softly, Witch was reissued by Horwitz, in April of 1960 under the title Terror Comes Creeping. Why the change in title? Nobody knows, it could have been an accident, except they did it again in December of the same year. Do I have copies of these yet. Err, no. Because I would have had to know that Terror Comes Creeping is, actually, Walk Softly, Witch, which I didn't until recently.

So, were there any other editions? I am glad you asked. In the US and in Canada this book was published under the title The Victim in 1959. Why? No idea. Do I have any copies yet, No.

So, were there any later editions actually called Walk Softly, Witch? I am glad you asked. Yes, there are two, as you can see below. Horwitz published a book under this title in 1964 and it was reprinted in London by Four Square/New English Library in 1965. Here they are

The problem is, these are not the same books as Walk Softly, Witch (the change from blonde to brunette gives the game away). The real one starts "This is, you should forgive the expression, Lieutenant Wheeler" and this one starts "She crossed her legs …" This 1965 text is actually So Deadly, Sinner which was first published in 1959.

Confused? Let me recap: Walk Softly, Witch (1959), based on Eve—It's Extortion! (1957), is reissued as The Victim (1959) and Terror Comes Creeping (1960). An altogether different work, So Deadly, Sinner! (1959) was reissued as Walk Softly, Witch (1964).

Have I finished yet. Err, no. There are translations to consider, lots of them. Walk Softly, Witch (which one? Don't get cheeky! I have no idea) was translated into Danish (Mordet pa Hamlet 1965, 1974), Dutch (Rendez-vous Met Hamlet 1962), Estonian (Sammu kergelt, kaunis noid 1998), Finnish (Paukkurauta soi 1961), French (Piece a tiroirs 1959, 1972), German (Hexe auf leisen Sohlen 1962, 1965, 1979), Hebrew (Hazmana lerezah 1967), Japanese (Shinayakani Aruku Majo 1962), Norwegian (Indigo Betyr Fare 1961, 1964, 1979), Russian (Beglec iz psihuski 1993, Guljaj, ved'ma 1991) and Spanish (Despacio Bruja 1961).

The Victim (1959), which you will recall is simply a reissue of Walk Softly, Witch, was translated into Danish (Offeret 1961), Dutch (Weduwe Zonder Tranen 1962), Finnish (Miljoonat Pelissa 1963), French (Envoyez la soudure 1959; 1970; 1981), German (Das Kostbare Opfer 1961; 1961; 1975), Japanese (1965), Norwegian (Doden gar uten korsett 1960), Swedish (Fara For Livet 1961) and Spanish (La Victima) 1961; 1973).

No doubt there are more. How many of these do I have. Um, none. You see, there are quite a few Carter Browns titles to collect without worrying about reissues, changed titles, earlier titles and translations, it'd be over a hundred volumes. These titles are: Widow Bewitched (1958), The Sinners (1963), Blonde on a Broomstick (1966), House of Sorcery (1967), The Witches (1968) and The Coven (1971). So now you know why it has been two years: collecting all of these Carter Brown books would be a life's work. But I'll keep at it and I'll do another post soon(ish).

Changing Layout of this Blog

2008-08-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

As some of you might have noticed, I have started to slowly de-clutter the layout of my blog by grouping all of my posts into periods (40s, 50s, 60s etc) and to abandon the separation of posts under books, films, etc. I will also be updating the labels to my posts so it should start to get easier to navigate your way around this site. Since there are 160 posts, on witches between 1470 and 2008, this will take a little while!

[UPDATE: Crystal. The witchy stamp has arrived; there are a few others I want. When I have them all I will do a post on them]

Since 2000

2008-08-01T17:10:00.003-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the twenty-first century. (See also my Sexy Witch Costumes Index.)

Lopez & Barreiro’s Young Witches, 1993–2003

Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 2000 & 2003

HRC Sexy Witch Pins, 2001 to now

Coven 2, 2002

Sexy Witch Charm, 2002

Witchy Tarot, 2003

Frank Cho's Sexy Witches, 2003 & 2007

Dallas FestEvil October 2004

Thessaly: Witch for Hire, 2004

Zille The Witch, 2004

jFury's Witches, 2004 & 2005

Coven 3, 2005

Amandine Magic at Hegre-Art, 2006

Dita, Burlesque Witch, 2006

Fiona Horne in Black+White (again), 2006

Fiona Horne in Celebrity Survivor, 2006

Halloween E-Cards, 2006

Muse as The White Witch, 2006

Raven Riley, 2006

Keith Dotson Witches, 2007

More DeviantArt, 2007

Sadie's Halloween Striptease, 2007

Serafina, Sexy Witch Queen

DeviantArt, Drawings of Witches, 2008

DeviantArt, More Drawings, 2008

DeviantArt, Photos of Witches, 2008

DeviantArt, Stock Witches, 2008

DeviantArt, More Colour Art, 2008

Fire Child by Maxine Sanders, 2008

Playing Games with Gwen, 2008

Witchy Fashions, 2008

Miss Kitty, Pin Up Witch, 2008

The 19th Century

2008-08-01T17:10:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the nineteenth century.

Tam O'Shanter Pot Lid, 1850

Staal's Witch of Endor, 1853

Burns' Tam O'Shanter, 1791 (1855 illustrations)

Doré's Witch of Endor, 1866

The Witches' Ride, 1870

Louisa the Salem Witch, ca. 1870

Brochart's Witch of Endor, 1873

Late Victorian Fancy Dress Witches

Luis Falero's Witch, 1880

Carte de Visite Witch, ca. 1880

Welti's Walpurgisnacht, 1897

Bierbaum's Jung-Hexenlied, 1899

Hexensalbung, 1899

Pears' Soap Witch, 1899

Sapolio Witch, 1899

Germany's Walpurgisnacht Witches

Before 1800

2008-08-01T17:09:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches before 1800.

Sexy Witch in the 1470s

Dürer's Four Witches, 1497

The Witch of Endor, 1728

The Witch of Endor, 1754

Burns' Tam O'Shanter, 1791 (1855 illustrations)

The 1970s

2008-08-01T17:06:00.005-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the seventies.

Initiation of Janet Owen, 1970

Studying Witchcraft in 1970

The Coven, 1971

How to Become a Sensuous Witch, 1971

W*I*T*C*H: We Intend To Create Havoc, 1971

Blood Sabbath, 1972

Babetta, 1974

Carter Brown's Sexy Witches

Sexy Witches on Tandem Books

The 1960s

2008-08-01T17:06:00.003-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the sixties.

Walk Softly, Witch, 1959–65

Vargas' Trick or Treat, 1963

Ren Wicks' Bathing Witch, 1964

Bill Layne's pinup witch, 1966

Blonde on a Broomstick, 1966

Witch Girl's Broom Zoom, 1966

Daughters of Astaroth, 1968

Anita, sexy sixties witch

Sexy Witches on Tandem Books

Carter Brown's Sexy Witches

Also, on my Maxine Sanders Pages

Maxine Sanders

Maxine Sanders, January 1966

Maxine and Co., again, 1966

Maxine Sanders, Dawn Ritual, 1969

The 1950s

2008-08-01T17:06:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the fifties.

Gay Witch in her Underthings, 1950

Elliot, This Trick's A Treat, 1950

Taller and Blonder Witches, 1950

The Lady is a Witch, 1950

Naked Kitchen Witch, 1950s

Naked Kitchen Witch Returns!

More Kitchen Witch

June Haver, 1951

Vargas Vanities Witch, 1953

Water Skiing Witches, 1954

You're Bewitching, ca. 1955

Livia, Sexy Witch, 1957

Gil Elvgren's 'Riding High', 1959

Walk Softly, Witch, 1959

Caped Witch, 1950s

Late 50s Halloween Hat

More 50s Halloween Hats

Delores Devaughn

You're Bewitching, ca. 1955

2008-08-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

There is no publisher's name on this Valentines card. The only identifying feature is the number "627" and "Made in the U.S.A" on the back. The (massively) out of proportion broom suggest that the anonymous artist was an amateur. The colouring, clothing, and the style of the roof-tops is a bit similar to 40s and 50s Swedish "Easter Witch" postcards (see my post here), so, perhaps the artist was European. The length and style of the skirt look a little later to me (it is a version of the classic 50s Polka Dot Skirt), so I am opting for ca. 1955.

To have a witch on a Valentines card is also very unusual. Few women—even today—would thank you for calling them a witch on Valentines Day. But this witch is very cute, with her pretty ribbons and bows, her heart-shaped pendant and Wizard of Oz ruby-red shoes. Irresistible, yes?

Nannie in Ivorex, 1910

2008-07-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have done three posts already on Robby Burns' 'Tam O’Shanter' (see here, here and here) and I am bound to do more because so many different objects have been decorated with scenes from this poem. Despite the fact that the poem is 224 lines long, with a variety of action, all of the postcards, paintings, plates, jugs, toothpaste containers etc only ever rework the same few scenes: the six same scenes painted by John Faed (and engraved by Lumb Stocks and James Stephenson) in 1855.

Of these six scenes, only three feature our sexy witch "Nannie", in her famous “cutty sark” (short shirt): Nannie dancing, Nannie leaping out the window, and Nannie with the tail of the Tam's horse clutched in her hand on the crest of the bridge (the tail gives way "as if blasted by a stroke of lightning"). This last scene seems to be one of the favourites with illustrators; personally I prefer the dancing.

The caption to this Ivorex plaque is "So Maggie runs the Witches Follow wi' monie an eldritch skriech and hollow" (Maggie is the name of the horse). It should have been "The carlin claught her by the rump, And left poor Maggie scarce a stump", but I guess the earlier lines sound better.

As you will discover if you look here: Ivorex plaques were made in England between 1899 and 1965: the originals were sculpted by Arthur Osborne; plaster duplicates of this original were made via gelatine moulds; the plaques were hand finished and painted by local women using water colours (under the direction of Walter Davis); then the plaques were dipped in hot paraffin wax to give them their Ivory-like finish.

This plaque is 220 x 135mm (9½" x 6½") and is signed and dated on the back.

As you can see from the two pictures below, Osborne's molding is quite impressive, and the colouring is good. The delightful Nannie is the "souple jad … a strang" (supple wench, and strong) as Burn's describes her, although—once again—her "cutty sark" is not "In longtitude … sorely scanty" (i.e. very short) as Burns describes it. The search continues for a more accurate depiction of Nannie and her scanty sark. In the meantime, enjoy!

Napkin Witch, ca. 1940

2008-07-18T16:53:00.000-07:00

One of the many weird and wonderful (and collectible) vintage Halloween objects that I have found with sexy witch decorations, is old paper napkins or serviettes. In Halloween collectors' Guides these "Party Paper Products" are usually listed along with paper table covers, crepe paper hats, paper plates, candy cups, paper place cards, wall hangings and so on. Stuart Schneider has illustrations of individual serviettes from the 1920s and Party Sets (four napkins and a table cover) from the 1930s, but printed crepe paper wall hangings made by Dennison survive from as early as 1912. (Schneider, Halloween in America (1995), 75ff).

This napkin probably dates from about 1940. There are two different sexy witches in this design, which are repeated on the two other corners. It doesn't appear in any of the books I have on Halloween Collectibles, but the designs on napkins are pretty crude compared to other items of Halloweeniana so it is not surprising they get overlooked. This example is very cute, though, and deserves a place at our table.

Jolly Halloween Witch, 1907

2008-07-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

This smartly-dressed Halloween Witch appears on a sepia postcard with the caption "To Wish You a Jolly Old Halloween." It was published by Gartner & Bender in Chicago and is signed "M Ries" (detail here). The card was sent by Cora in Aberdeen, South Dakota to Ruth Peterson, Hecla, South Dakota, a distance of about 50 miles; it is postmarked "Aberdeen, S[outh] Dak[ota] OCT 28, 12PM, 1907."

Our witch is wearing a high-collared cape, wasp-waist corset and a hooped skirt with a frieze of Scaredy Cats. One silver-buckled pointed black shoe pokes out from under her skirt, the perfect counter-point to her silver-buckled(?) pointy witches hat. The lettering is high art-nouveau, but the dress is late Victorian in style: a common combination with images of witches.

It seems witches encourage artistic nostalgia. If you look at some genuine, late, German art-nouveau witches in my post on Jugendstil Witches (wearing loose, flowing, diaphanous, off-the-shoulder and calf-length dresses), you will see what I mean. Also check out the Dancing Witch series, with its Beardsley-style early art-nouveau dresses, which are carried forward by about twenty years into the Jazz Age. Beautiful, but weird.

Muse as The White Witch, 2006

2008-07-04T16:00:00.000-07:00

While trawling through DeviantArt looking at stock images of witches for this week's post I found this photo, which I recognised immediately.

The photo is of Muse, an English model "with a difference," who has her own web site called Image of Muse. Muse believes that "the figure of woman in every shape and size is Mother Nature's ultimate masterpiece; to hide it is an insult to the creation of beauty": ergo her site has over fifteen hundred images of herself, naked, in an astonishing variety of poses, costumes, and locations. (Many are also available via her DeviantArt gallery).

The photos are of a very high professional standard and are absolutely gorgeous: terrific examples of the nude body as art. Muse is a very talented woman and it is well worth your while to visit the site and read what she has to say (and follow the links to SuperBeauty.Org). I particularly liked her warning: "If you are prohibited to view nudity, or you are of a small minded nature, I suggest you turn back now and throw your Shakespeare, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Degas, Cezanne, Van Gogh etc all in the bin ..."

The shoot below is of Muse as The White Witch, aka Her Imperial Majesty Jadis, Queen of Narnia: beautiful, "but white like snow or paper or icing-sugar, except for her very red mouth" as C. S. Lewis describes her (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (London: Collins, 1980), 33). Although The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe takes its inspiration from the Bible, and Lewis was a "blatant and naive" Christian apologist (this according to his friend, J. R. R. Tolkien), sex is everywhere in the novel. This may be because Lewis imagined all beautiful and powerful women were evil (indeed that all women were evil) and that the source of their evil was their beauty, but he certainly believed all witches were evil and so he made The White Witch extraordinarily, enchantingly beautiful.

The following photos of Muse are a perfect realisation of all that Lewis wrote, and feared. (Full gallery on Muse's site, here and here).

The 1940s

2008-06-27T17:11:00.001-07:00

The following links are to all of my posts of sexy witches of the forties.

Swedish Easter Witches, 1902-50

Hollywood Halloween Witch, 1940

Keppler's Halloween Witch, 1940

Napkin Witch, ca. 1940

Glamour Witch, 1941

Ariel Heath's New Broom, 1942

The Passionate Witch, 1942

Sexy Witches in Nose Art

Halloween Glamour Girl, 1944

Dusty Anderson, Glam Witch, 1944

Petty's 'Salem Witch', 1945

Campfire Witches, 1946

Three Art Deco Witches

Ava Gardner, Sexy Witch

Wurlitzer Party Witch, 1947

Sexy Witch vs Hag in 1949

Bewitching Hollywood Starlets

40s Halloween Starlets revisited

DeviantArt, Stock Witches

2008-06-27T15:26:00.000-07:00

If you spend a lot of time searching DeviantArt you will notice that there are sequences of "stock photos" that are freely available for other artists to download and use in their own digital art. These photos are usually taken with a plain coloured backdrop so it is easier for end-users to manipulate them in Photoshop.

Why do I mention this? Well, I have avoided including stock photos of witches in my posts so far, not because the images are not any good—some of them are great—but because I wanted to cover the finished products first. But now it is time to celebrate the originals.

One of the most popular is the "Autumn Witch" and "Autumn Witch Portrait" series by Ida Mary Walker (aka mizzd-stock). Ida may be from Denmark, but she is everywhere on DeviantArt. The forty-seven photos in her Autumn Witch Packs turn up in scores of digital compositions. A few examples are below, matched with a few of the original photos of Ida.

1. Autumn Witch 3 becomes The Halloween Witch by Marta
2. Autumn Witch Portrait 2 becomes Portrait of a Witch by Healersmoon

Another popular stock is the "Pretty Witch" series of photos of Angie by Jamie (aka Lisajen-stock). Angie, from Belgium, is also everywhere on DeviantArt, though there are only a dozen pictures in the sequence. I give a few matched examples below. Hopefully, you will recognise Angie from my previous post (which used this image). My next post will cover some other stock witch photos and models.

3. Pretty Witch 12 becomes To the Sabbat We Go by The Nocturnal Empress Shasta
4. Pretty Witch 3 (flipped horizontaly) becomes Witch by kamiste

DeviantArt, More Colour Art

2008-06-25T19:26:00.001-07:00

Here is my pick of the witches in colour art from DeviantArt. As I said in my previous post, I have chosen only images that are not watermarked and are feely available to download, and in all cases I have cut the images down to 400 pixels. If you follow my links to the images, you will find larger versions of the pictures, and if you follow the links to the artist you will see that some are selling decent prints of these images (buy them!), and other great artwork. The artists, titles, and gallery links etc for to the following ten works are below.

1. Scott Blair: Witch
2. Kevin T. Chin: Witchy Yummy
3. Dominic Marco: Halloween
4. Nabbit: Witch and Nabbit
5. Elton Portilho: Carlucci's Witchie Boo*
6. Evilfaye: The Ambrosia Witch
7. wingzero620: Happy Halloween
8. Kittie Peters: Love Always
9. Gustavo Verdezoto: Dark Uriko sexy Witch (line art here)
10. Liesl Teicher: Cute Witch (original by Russ Platt here)

See more Witchy Boo: "Witchy Boo" is the creation of Pat Carlucci (home page, DeviantArt gallery; Halloween Witch, Witchie Boo's New Hat, Broom Trouble); look here for other artists using the Witchy Boo character.

DeviantArt, More Drawings

2008-06-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the sketches I liked from my recent trawl through DeviantArt for witchy images. And please note: I have chosen only images that are not watermarked and are freely available to Download, and in all cases I have cut the images down to 400 pixels. If you follow my links to the images, you will find larger versions of the pictures, and if you follow the links to the artist you will see that some are selling decent prints of these images (buy them!), and other great artwork.

First up are two fabulous pictures by Russ Platt, who studied art at San Jose State University. His DeviantArt gallery is here, and his website is here. These two amazing pieces are The Night Flier and The Witches.

The artists, titles, and gallery links etc for to the following five works are below

1. Steve Mannion: Witchie Witch
2. Joey: Kandi Korn (Brummelbaer's coloured version here)
3. Featherstroke: Wicked Witch
4. M. Xander: Blq Witch
5. Elspeth Dark: Draco's Slave

DeviantArt, Photos of Witches

2008-06-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

And here are five photos that I found on my trawl of DeviantArt last year. More artwork next week!

UPDATE 15 JUNE 08 (for Gwinevere): the artists, titles, and gallery links for these five works are as follows:

1. Andrzej Orlowski: Witch (Look here for more on Orlowski's "Witch Project")
2. Megan: The Day Has Come
3. LittleDark1: The Wicked Witch of the West
4. Marion Z. Skydancer: Leah–Student Witch
5. SpinningEffigy: Witch

DeviantArt, Drawings of Witches

2008-06-13T18:39:00.000-07:00

It has been over a year since I posted my favourite witchy artwork from the thousands of images on DeviantArt. I said at the time that I would do a separate post of "photos, drawings and anime." I put this off because every time I looked at the site again, there were more witches! I spent hours and hours searching, in many different ways, finding more and more images; and every time I did this I was left wondering if the "top ten" I had previously selected for this blog was still my top ten! I realise now that there is no end to this searching and finding and that if I don't star posting the images I have already I'll never get around to doing it.

So, here today are five sketches I gathered last year. Later on I will post the anime-style digital art. And then next week I will do another set of posts on the digital images, and then on the images I have found on DeviantArt since last year. Rather than string out all these posts over a whole month, I will do a few posts each week for the next few weeks.

I hope you enjoy the selection!

UPDATE 15 JUNE 08 (for Gwinevere): The artists, titles, and gallery links etc for these five works are as follows:

1. Candace: Witch
2. Julia I M Clark: Halloween Girl
3. Kyle Hutchings: Halloween Witch
4. Featherstroke: Witch and Co.
5. FatBottomedGirl: Witchy Woman

Louisa the Salem Witch, ca. 1870

2008-06-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

This is the photograph I mentioned last week. It is a fancy-dress photo from ca.1870 of two costumed couples: Lillie, Governor Herble(?), Herman Gaunt, Louisa. The photograph is still attached to the original photo-album page and three photographs are attached to the other side of the page of Lausanne and "Ceuchy", Switzerland. (The cloths of the children in these photos help date the album. See here).

The names, costumes and provenance suggest that the four people in this photo are Americans, though it is not clear where the photo was taken. It is possible the fancy-dress party occurred in Switzerland too, and it is tempting to see the Salem Witch and Civil War costumes as an attempt to wear an unmistakably "American" costume in a European milieu. This would explain the Puritan-style hat (high, flat-crowned felt hat with wide uncocked brim and a silver buckle on a ribbon band, discussed here).

Much of the detail has been lost because the photo has been clipped (note the trim-lines around the hat and broom), touched up (the eyes and the colouring of the hair on Louisa's right shoulder) and then copied (the photo edge is not along the apparent trim-line, but beyond the area that looks like mounting board). And so, while it is clear that our Puritan witch has wonderfully-goth lace fingerless gloves, and the "broom" she holds in her right hand is actually a billiards cue (or pool cue) with some bristles attached, it is not at all clear what the object is that she has in her left hand in her lap or what is suspended around her neck (if anything).

Still, you are unlikely to see an earlier photo of such a gorgeous witch in a hurry. And if you do, it will be here!

Carte de Visite Witch, ca. 1880

2008-05-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

This small fancy-dress photograph was taken by W. J. Rea at his Grand Central Gallery, on the corner of Fourth and Edmond Streets, St. Joseph, Missouri at some time between 1878 and 1872 (see here for details). The type of photograph is a carte de visite (or cdv to the cognoscenti), which was hugely popular in the 1860s. It is only 93 x 55 mm (3.75 x 2.125 inches).

While it may be a Halloween photo, I am inclined to think it is a posed fancy-dress photo. That is, the young woman in the photo has prepared an elaborate costume for a fancy-dress party, and had her photo taken in the costume to memorialise the occasion. I say "young woman" with some confidence because the photo is small but sharp and a 2400 dpi scan of the face and hands leave little doubt. It is also seems pretty unlikely that an old woman would allow herself to be dressed up in a costume as a witch!

So, although the costume is of an old witch, the photo is of a young one. And while it may be stretching things a little to describe the young woman as a sexy witch she is certainly very pretty (and I am sure she should would have been delighted to have been described as either sexy or pretty, or bewitching, or beautiful, or any other term you prefer, since she is wearing a tight waistcoat "that imprison[s] the waist merely to give greater freedom to the chest"*). More importantly, this is the oldest photograph of a witch on my blog thus far. I have only one which is older, and that will have to wait until next week!

* This quote is from Leigh Hunt, Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres (London: J. Hunt, 1807), 177.

Studio Witch, ca. 1915

2008-05-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

The above Halloween photo is a "Real Photo Postcard" taken by a professional photographer, with props and a backdrops. It is a "postcard" only in the fact that the back is divided, arranged for an address and a message, with a square for the stamp, and the statement "Copies of this photo may be had by quoting number on the front" has all printed on it. (Actually, the number "638" is not on the front, but on the back). But photographers could buy photo-developing paper with this postcard information pre-printed on it, so the fact that the photo has a postcard backing doesn't mean it was ever a real postcard which was sold commercially. In fact, it is far more likely that this was the only copy ever printed, just like any other photo.

As for the date, it must be after 1908, when divided postcards became common, and before ca. 1920, when commercial costumes became so common and cheap that few people would get a professional photo taken in a hat or dress they made themselves. The fact that the hat and dress is clearly homemade, that the subject of the photo is in their own costume, suggests that the photo was taken on Halloween, on the day, or in the evening, when the subject was dressed up to go trick-or-treating, or to go to a party, etc. This would also explain the combination of home-made elements and profession props, the photographer was well-prepared for the 31st! (Another possibility is that the photo is of a character in an amateur theatre production, but the hat appears to be just a little bit too festive and amateur for the theatre.)

As for the bewitching individual in the photo, all I can say is that her delightful figure suggests that she is a fit subject for this blog: a sexy witch indeed! (She is also mistress of snakes. And that hand-signal shows that she is the devil's minion, although she is using the wrong hand. What can I say, but "Be still my beating Heart"!)

Halloween Clown/Witch, 1908

2008-05-16T15:01:00.000-07:00

This postcard was published by 'Meda Logan Co., Pittsburg, PA', a short-lived enterprise from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I have only been able to trace one other card (from 1907) by this maker. Mrs J. N. J. sent it to Mrs C. Yost on 30 October 1908 with a one-word message: "Howdy!"

The image is simple, but I love it because it is very early for a photographic Halloween postcard. I have earlier European postcards with photographs of witches, but not American (and so, not Halloween). The costume is also pretty interesting because it is half-way between being a clown costume and a witch costume. The broom is the clincher, without it the costume is almost all clown (the hat is ambiguous, since it is common to both).

I have said before the clown/Harlequin and witch costumes are sometimes difficult to tell apart, but I suspect there is a more interesting story to be told here. My theory is that clown costumes were the most common around 1900 in America, for males and females, because they were easy to make, and most costumes were home-made at that time. There were also very few young women who were prepared to dress as witches, because the only images of witches (in the American mind), were the hags of fairy-tale.

As Halloween became more commercialised, and Halloween images proliferated (many hag-witches, but also a lot of pretty-witches, some of which came from Europe), young women were more inclined to dress as witches. At the same time, witchy props were easier and cheaper to buy, so it was easier to dress as a witch. (See my post here on the very complex and expensive witchy costumes worn by the affluent and aristocratic ball-goers). As it became more common for young women to dress as witches, images of these pretty witches became more common, a trend that has been constantly strengthening over time.

So, in the first decade of the twentieth century you mostly see hybrid costumes (like this one), in the second decade there are few hybrids, and after 1920 you rarely see any of the clown elements (the loose Pierrot-gown, ruffled collar, pom poms and pointed hat). For a late example of the ruffled collar, see here.

[UPDATE 18 May 08: typo corrected, thanks]

For Ways That Are Dark, 1912

2008-05-09T14:59:00.001-07:00

The above is one of a pair of embossed Halloween postcards. They are unsigned and I have been unable to find out anything about them except the obvious: they are gorgeous, the series number "552" appears on both, and they clearly date from 1912 because the second of them is postmarked 28 October 1912, from Woodstock, Oregon (the message: "Dear Friend, I hope you have a jolly hallowe'en. Your Friend, J. E. B."). The first is my favourite: who could resist a face (and a dress!) like that.

Even the cat is impressed!

The caption to this first postcard is interesting: "Hallowe'en Time: For ways that are dark, / And for tricks that are vain, Look Out!" This is a quote is from Bret Harte, "Plain Language from Truthful James" (aka "The Heathen Chinee"), which was published in 1870 as a satire on anti-Chinese sentiment in northern California (as Wikipedia explains). The poem is about a card game, and a cheating "Heathen Chinee" named "Ah Sin" ("In his sleeves, which were long, / He had twenty-four packs / Which was coming it strong"). The lines are from the opening stanza:

Which I wish to remark—
And my language is plain—
That for ways that are dark
And for tricks that are vain,
The heathen Chinee is peculiar:
Which the same I would rise to explain.

(see here for the full poem).

What this has to do with Halloween is not clear, but as Gary Scharnhorst explains it was "one of the most popular poems ever published," being reprinted, parodied, set to music, illustrated etc so many times that even news stories about murder and tax evasion were sometimes headlined "Ways That Are Dark" and "Tricks That Are Vain" ("Ways That Are Dark: Appropriations of Bret Harte's Plain Language from Truthful James," Nineteenth-Century Literature 51.3 (December 1996), 377, 382–83). Clearly the two lines work well out of context!

By comparison the copy on the second postcard is pretty feeble: “Halloween. It’s Best Beware of the Witching Hour, In which the Witches Show Their Power.” It is just as well the picture is pretty!

Well, reasonably pretty.

Walpurgisnacht, 1928

2008-05-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

The Hexenritt is over for another year, and the sun shines one again on the Hexentanzplatz. To help keep your memories fresh until 30 April next year, I have scanned this postcard from 1928. Although it is a mixed card, containing young and old, witches, cats and goats, it is pretty cute, and so I hope you all like it. And, keep in mind Goethe's lines "O’er stick and o’er stone they go whirling along, / Witches and he-goats, a motley throng," or, kittydiggins said, "Happy Walpurgas Night to all the sexy witches, and to their Grandmothers"!

Here is our sexy witch:

And her friends:

Don't forget to have another look at my many previous posts on the Walpurgis Night celebrations: Germany's Walpurgisnacht Witches, Welti's Walpurgisnacht, The Witches' Ride, Brocken Money, More Brocken Money and Walpurgisnacht, 1928.

More Kitchen Witch

2008-04-24T15:47:00.000-07:00

It seems that you really can't get enough of a good thing. My two previous posts on the humble, anonymous kitchen witch (here and here) continue to be my most popular; and so, here are two more photos from this sequence for your viewing pleasure.

I have only seen one other photo from this shoot (here), though I am sure there are more. It was on eBay, and it sold for over US$70, roughly ten times what I paid for the earlier photos and certainly more than it was worth. With such prices, it is likely that these will be last images of this popular woman that will be posted here.

Maxine Sanders Pages

2008-04-18T17:04:00.000-07:00

In order to make it easier for you to find all of my Maxine Sanders posts I have created this Maxine Sanders index page. The following are all of my posts to date:

Maxine Sanders

My first post explains why Sanders is featured on this blog; it is illustrated with five pictures from the 1969 and 1970. [NSFW]

Maxine Sanders, January 1966

This post features eleven images of the famous Alderley Edge ritual, which catapulted Sanders to fame. [NSFW]

Maxine and Co., again, 1966

The twelve photos in this post were taken at a ritual held in Paul King's flat. [NSFW]

Maxine Sanders, Dawn Ritual, 1969

The sixteen photos in this post were taken in winter on the Yorkshire Moors. [NSFW]

Fire Child by Maxine Sanders, 2008

A review of Sanders' autobiography. [SFW]

Maxine Sanders, Dawn Ritual, 1969

2008-04-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

I used the colour photos from the following sequence in my Sexy Witch Video No.2. A particularly astute YouTube viewer asked to see more of them, and here they are!

The ritual that is the subject of this shoot obviously took place in winter, "on one of the high and private ridges of the Yorkshire Moors" (as a 1971 article tells us). On 16 February 1969 one picture from this sequence was printed in News of the World and I think it is likely that the ritual occurred shortly before that date.

Although the sixteen pictures below are taken from eight different publications (listed at the end of this post), and were reprinted in many more, few details about the event have emerged. Consequently, the pictures will have to tell their own story!

Man, Myth and Magic, No.3 (1970). p. 74; Man, Myth and Magic, No.11 (1970), front cover; Man, Myth and Magic (1970-71), pp. 1868b, 1870; Dennis Wheatley, The Devil and All His Works (1971; repr. London: Peerage Books, 1983), p. 233; Witchcraft 1.10 (January 1973), pp.36–37; Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology (London: Octopus, 1974), pp. 8–9, 104–5, 109; Encyclopedia of Magic and Superstition (London: Octopus, 1974), pp. 10, 19; Peter Haining, The Illustrated History of Witchcraft (London: New English Library, 1975), p. 15; Francis X. King, Magic: The Western Tradition (London: Thames and Hudson, 1975), plate 39; Susan Greenwood, Encyclopedia of Magic and Witchcraft (London: Lorenz Books, 2001), p. 202.

Wholesome Dancing Witch, 1939

2008-04-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

The cover art to this issue of The Household Magazine 39.10 (October 1939) is by Walter S. Oschman (fl. 1940–60). Oschman is known today for illustrating children's picture books and school textbooks (including "Look and Learn" Books and "Dick and Jane" readers like All Around Us (1945), We Learn to Read (1947) and Hello, David (1948), The New More Friends and Neighbors (1953) etc). He was also, apparently, a "Mountie artist"! But, as AskART explains, it is probably because of his background in children's books that Oschman's other art is "marked by [its] lightness, lack of detail, and pastel hues."

In this 1939 composition we have a woman at a Halloween masquerade ball, dancing in a red dress and witch's hat, joined by a dapper young man who is still wearing his mask, but has it pulled up. In the foreground we have an elderly couple, silver-haired and smiling while they watch the young couple. They are also dancing, but in a dignified closed position. They appear to be the chaperons of the young couple.

In the background a brass band is playing. The musicians are all wearing overalls, suggesting a country locale, which contrasts starkly with the dresses and fine suits of the dancers. The country-cloths, however, go perfectly with the harvest decorations: the carved pumpkin Jack-O-Lanterns and bunches of corn, giving a wholesome backdrop to this scene.

And, unlike last-week's witch in a red dress, there is no apple, no suggestion of danger, no sinister sub-text, and no implied warning to the young man dancing with his rosy-cheeked companion, or to you (the person looking at this scene). There is no condemnation from the moral guardians looking on because this witch is a symbol of all that was right in America in 1939.

Keppler's Halloween Witch, 1940

2008-04-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

On this November 1940 cover for Woman's Home Companion, Victor Keppler (1904–87) has his winsome witch holding an apple. Keppler was an award-winning commercial photographer who did cover art for the Saturday Evening Post, Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan etc.

While the rosy cheeks of the young woman—who is clearly heading off to a Halloween party in the cream convertible of her square-chinned beau—suggest fresh air and a wholesome apple-pie goodness, the apple is, in fact, probably a sly reference to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the 1937 block-buster.

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Schneewittchen" (aka the Princess "Snow White") the Queen is extremely beautiful, but very vain and jealous. She seduces and marries a widowed king, and then tries to kill his daughter: first with a corset, second with a poisoned brush, and third with a poisoned apple.

In the Disney film the Queen 'possessed dark powers and knowledge', i.e. she is a witch, and uses a magic mirror to discover that her first murder attempt has failed (the huntsman fakes the evidence with a pig's heart). She mixes up a potion to disguise herself as an old hag and, being a dab hand at such things, conjures up a poison apple which a sleeping potion inside it. That is, she goes from a sexy-witch to a hag-witch and, in so doing, shows her true self.

So, it seems that Keppler is offering a subtle warning to young square-chinned convertible drivers, or, at least, young square-chinned convertible drivers who read Woman's Home Companion: "beware the sexy witch!"

Serafina, Sexy Witch Queen

2008-03-28T15:56:00.001-07:00

Serafina Pekkala is a witch queen in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy (1995–2000). Her dæmon is Kaisa, a large grey goose. Serafina/Kaisa is over three hundred years old, but since her clan's oldest witch is nearly a thousand, Serafina/Kaisa appears young and beautiful to Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry—the heroes of the story—and Farder Coram, with whom she once had a child. Consequently, Serafina qualifies as a sexy witch. This is how Pulman describes her:

She was young—younger than Mrs. Coulter; and fair, with bright green eyes; and clad like all the witches in strips of black silk, but wearing no furs, no hood or mittens. She seemed to feel no cold at all. Around her brow was a simple chain of little red flowers. She sat on a cloud-pine branch as if it were a steed, and seemed to rein it in a yard from Lyra's wondering gaze … Lyra could see why Farder Corham loved her, and why it was breaking his heart … He was growing old; he was an old broken man; and she would be young for generations. (pp. 302-3)

In The Golden Compass (2007), the movie adaptation of the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, the part of Serafina is played by Eva Green. Green is astonishingly beautiful, so even if Serafina was supposed to be a hag in the books, I'd have to feature her here. (That and the fact that, as Persephone has pointed out, the 1899 Sapolio Witch looks a lot like Green as Serafina. Thanks Persephone).

So, here are four movie posters featuring the delightful and delicious Green as Serafina:

And here are two stills:

Those of you who look at the imdb entry on Green will see that this 27 year-old actress only appeared in four films before the The Golden Compass. These are: The Dreamers (2003), Arsène Lupin (2004), The Kingdom of Heaven (2005) and Casino Royale (2006). In the first of these she regularly appeared in the buff, does a mesmerising striptease, engages in on-screen sex etc, so anyone wishing to conjure up a mental image of a naked Green (as Serafina) need only examine the 80+ stills here, the five stills and short video clip here, or simply buy the R-Rated edition of The Dreamers DVD here.

As a tiny taste of what is in store for you if you do check out the above links, here are two tasteful screen-caps from The Dreamers:

Your Sexy Witch Photos

2008-03-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

Curiously, Wiccaphilia seems to be a lot less common than Wiccaphobia. At least, if you Google the two terms the ratio is 3:18,500 (or about 1:6000). But I am sceptical: everyone loves witches, don't they?

(BTW: you can Overcome Wiccaphobia: 'Sick of Wiccaphobia?' Well, there is 'Treatment and Hope for Wiccaphobia', indeed, with 'One of the best solutions for anyone with Wiccaphobia' is now available and you can 'Start within 2 minutes (yes, from now)'. Astonishing, isn't it?).

So, what is Wiccaphilia? Sensual Swingers list it on their paraphilia pages as 'Sexual arousal by witchcraft and witches', while Ordinaryman included it on his/her topsy-turvy list as 'Abnormal affection towards witches and witchcraft'.

I think we can do better than this. Although the Oxford English Dictionary does not define Wiccaphilia (or Wiccaphobia for that matter), it does list the suffix -philia, comb. form as both 'a. Tendency to' or 'b. Love of or liking for, esp. sexual interest in'. In this case, the (a) 'obsession with' and (b) 'love-object of' the Wiccaphiliac is witches or Wiccans.

Someone suffering from mild Wiccaphilia might, for example, take particular pleasure in accidently finding pictures or descriptions of witches or Wiccans on the internet.

Someone with moderate Wiccaphilia might search the web for images witches and take particular pleasure in locating a blog dealing with Sexy Witches.

Severe Wiccaphilia might result in the victim spending a small fortune on books and objects featuring witches and then shamelessly parade their affliction by starting a blog about Sexy Witches. Sad, but true.

Now that we have that sorted out, I would like to draw your attention to some feedback I received last Halloween. Anonymous said...

Fantastic site! For years I have had a real fetish for witches - I believe its called wiccaphillia - or something like that! My wife indulges my interest and she has sixteen sexy witch outfits! great site!

This is the sort of feedback that raises the spirits of a Wiccaphiliac. If it had not been anonymous I would have replied and suggested to the happy man that his wife should send me at least sixteen pictures of herself, dressed in her various costumes.

Instead, I am posting his feedback here with an open invitation to all sexy witches: send in photos of yourself in your favourite sexy witch outfit to share with the world (send to RedWitch1 at gmail.com). The images need to be a large, clear and equal parts 'sexy' and 'witchy'. Whenever I get a sufficient number, I will post them here for all the world to see (with whatever explanation/defence of your fetish you care to add). Don't keep everyone waiting now.

[*some people spell it Wiccaphillia, others use Wicaphilia, and some Wiccafilia, Wiciphilia, Wiciphillia or even Wicifilia!]

UPDATE 31 MAY 08: Only one brave individual responded to my call for photos and that was from the woman with "sixteen sexy witch outfits" mentioned above. Below are two of the best, or at leasts, the most modest, of the photos the happy couple sent in. I hope others will be inspired to follow suit.

UPDATE 14 JUNE 08: The gorgeous Willow Moonbeam has sent me the following photo of herself, taken in one of her favorite dresses. I am sure you will all agree that it looks great on her, or that she looks great in it ... one or the other! Thanks Willow.

UPDATE 19 JULY 08 A couple of weeks ago Marti sent me two delightful pictures which she has kindly agreed to let me post here. Thanks Marti, they are "magical pics" indeed!

UPDATE 9 January 09 A couple of weeks ago Witch Fran very kindly sent me a few pictures of herself in a great witchy costume to post here. I liked this one best. Thanks Fran.

Playing Games with Gwen, 2008

2008-03-20T12:44:00.000-07:00

Witches (aka Project Witches) is a third-person tactical combat game played in a dark Medieval setting. According to Revistronic, the player directs the 'beautiful but dangerous' Gwen (a witch): 'a sultry warrior that still resists his dark will and leads the rebellion against his satanic power.' Conceptually and aesthetically, Gwen has many similarities to the heroine of BloodRayne, which, incidentally, spawned one of the worst vampire films of all time. (Even though Natassia Malthe—as Rayne—looked perfect for the role, and undoubtedly kept at least half the audience awake at night, hoping for a visit.) The game, which will be available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, is designed to promote cooperative play, locally and via the Internet.

A lengthy review of the game by Ben Dutka on PSXExtreme.com is based on the publisher's teaser. As Ben notes, the witches of the title are white witches, and, although a lot of these women could be characterized as 'sultry' (like Gwen), 'they’re gonna be kicking some serious ass' while fighting the personification of evil (called 'The Beast'). So, 'don’t think you’re going to spending all your time ogling babes in Witches'. There are, nevertheless, 15 screen shots of the game on PSXExtreme.com, and 27 on IGN.com: most of which concentrate on 'leather, magic, feminine curves' etc.

This is what Gwen looks like:

An here is the 'healthy sampling of hotties' that Ben mentions:

For more on 'lovely ladies in tight leather' and their 'stealth occultism arts' check out Ben's review here.

Sapolio Witch, 1899

2008-03-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

This March 1899 advertisement for Sapolio Soap appeared in The Cosmopolitan (yes, this is the same magazine as Cosmo. It has been going since 1886!).

Enoch Morgan Sons' Co., makers of Sapolio appointed Artemas Ward, Jr. their advertising manager in 1885. According to the Feeding America site: Ward was 'a pioneer of modern advertising and publicity' and soon made Sapolio 'a household name. By depicting the name and product in a fanciful scene and using clever poems and captions to sing its praises, Ward succeeded in blending promotion with diversional amusement. Today, Sapolio ads culled from old magazines are collector's items.'

Actually, the US-promotion of Sapolio closely mirrors the UK-promotion of Pears Soap (which the parocialism of the Feeding America authors will not allow them to admit). Since the UK was the larger Colonial power at the time, the global promotion and 'reach' of Pears was far greater than Sapolio and the collector's market is probably larger today for that reason alone.

As regular readers of this blog will remember, the sexy-witch device was also used by Pears in 1899 (see Pears' Soap Witch, 1899) and it is quite likely that the Pears Witch and poem ('Whither! Oh Whither! Fair Maiden so High?') was not only the inspiration for the Sapolio Witch and poem, but an answer to it. As you can see above, the 'clever' and 'diverting' poem and captions used to sing the praises of Sapolio Soap is this:

In Days of Old, Ye Witches Bold,
Swept Cobwebs from the Sky.

But Modern Maid, Is Not Afraid,
Sapolio to try.

The second line is a reference to the Nursery Rhyme ‘There was an old woman tossed up in a basket’ which provided the words for the Pears advertisement, but it alludes to the third line of the second stanza ('To sweep the cobwebs off the sky') which was not used by Pears.

Far more diverting to my mind is the 'fanciful' Sapolio Witch herself, with her wind-tossed hair, rippling diaphanous gown and partially exposed bosom.

This same image appeared in full colour on the cover of The Witchcraft of the 20th Century, a 1904 Enoch Morgan Sons' advertising booklet. Unfortunately, I haven't yet managed to get a copy of this booklet and can only offer the following image of it:

UPDATE 17 March 2009: I have now managed to get myself a copy of this magazine. For details, see my post here.]

Opening the Party Season in 1926

2008-03-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

'When Halloween Opens the Party Season ... You'll Need New Stockings' and a Tardis to travel back to October 1926 to buy them. If you can manage the Tardis, please, please return with the model for this stunning ad.

This is the earliest of the four Ipswich advertisement I have posted (see 1920s Witch in Stockings, December 1926; Ipswich Witch, 1927, March 1927; and Ipswich Witch, 1927 May 1927), and the first with an artist's name: 'Meddy'. Unfortunately, I can't find out anything about Meddy, but this painting speaks for itself: Meddy was one talented commercial artist. At least as talented as the Ipwsich copy-writer:

You'll Need New Stockings ... in the new colors for fall. Halloween begins a new season. Party frocks, masquerade costumes, fall fashions ... these timely considerations send the feminine world [not female world, so this includes cross-dressing men] to take stock of closets and bureau draws, and then to go shopping. You can buy ahead for a whole season at an Ipswich hosiery counter and still stay within the limits of a thrifty budget

Remember, this delightful flapper is a witch. See any moles? No, though I'm sure you'd like to examine her more closely. Warts, wens and wrinkles? No. I have done 135 posts and—thankfully—there is no end in sight to these sexy witches!

Witch Girl's Broom Zoom, 1966

2008-02-29T14:47:00.000-08:00

Just in case you think that there is anything new under the sun, here is a 1966 version of my recent posts on witchy striptease galleries online. The following photos appeared in the January 1966 issue of Pagan, A Parliament Magazine (vol. 3 No.3) under the title 'Witch Girl's Broom Zoom'. The only text to accompany these images is on the back cover (below). It reads:

Follow this broom-zooming witch ... she's the sorceress who'll be your stewardess on our enchanting flight over PAGAN's jungle of pictorial loveliness. You'll soar to the heights of delight as the fascinating panorama of pulchritude unfolds before your fortunate orbs. The primitive package also offers a man-pleasing selection of fiction, fact and rollicking good humour. There's a solid measure of pleasure on every pulsating page of PAGAN!

So, now we know that copy-writers for Pagan magazine will be keeping all the real estate agents company in the seventh circle of hell.

Witchy Fashions, 2008

2008-02-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Thanks to The White Witch you get a two posts today. A few weeks ago she did a post on Luella Bartley’s witchy collection for Fall 2008, commenting 'the pointy hat seems a bit over the top to me, but hey- that’s fashion!' Here is the witchy outfit, which is rather cute:

[Model: Alice Gibb; photo by Marcio Madeira]

Sarah Mower reports that Bartley was inspired by 'Britt Ekland in The Wicker Man and the witch museum in Boscastle, Cornwall, where we live,' before adding, 'I wanted something a bit raw and pagan.'

There is a YouTube video of the rest of the collection here, but the above dress does not feature in it. Watching two minutes of emaciated woman strutting down a catwalk I am reminded of something 'Mr Ferdinando Flosky' says in Nightmare Abbey (1818) about the 'fashionable method of administering a mass of vice, under a thin and unnatural covering of virtue' (he was talking about novels, but his metaphor is appropriate). It was like, he said 'a spider wrapt in a bit of gold leaf … administered as a wholesome pill'. Or a corpse wrapt in a beautiful dress ... presented as an ideal of female beauty? Thanks Tom.

Zille The Witch, 2004

2008-02-22T13:51:00.000-08:00

This sexy Halloween photo shoot of "Zille The Witch" has been online, on the delightfully-named The Joy of Spex since October 2004. Sixteen of the forty-four photos are available here, I have only reproduced six of these below. The rest are rather too raunchy for blogger (and NSFW).

NB: Zille has in her hand the late Anton LaVey's infamous (somewhat dated, but often amusing) Satanic Witch (aka The Compleat Witch: Or, What To Do When Virtue Fails (1971)). She also has "666" tattooed to her nether-regions, which suggests that she has read the book, and decided that the shortest route to the "manipulation and seduction of men" is to present herself as a Satanic "kinky-gal." Everyone needs a hobby I guess.

Sadie's Halloween Striptease, 2007

2008-02-15T13:47:00.000-08:00

Every Halloween scores of adult websites do Halloween-themed pictorials. I encounter images from these galleries every time I trawl the net for contemporary witchy art and images. Most of these images are far too rude or crude (both in execution and content) to use here: but not all. From time to time I have done posts on the better, more interesting or more entertaining images, and these posts are among the most visited on this site (see, particularly, Amandine, Dallas Festevil and Raven Riley). Whatever one might think about the fact that witches constitute a porn theme or fetish, the fact itself is of some interest.

Anyway, the following photos of "Sadie" are only five from a gallery of sixteen at onlytease.com (actually two galleries of sixteen, which are almost identical). To see the full galleries, visit here and here. NB: The images I have chosen are PSFW, as are the galleries themselves. Next week I will post PSFW images from some emphatically-NSFW galleries. You've been warned!

BTW: Anyone recognise the particular costume?

Another Beautiful Ipswich Witch, 1927

2008-02-08T13:23:00.000-08:00

Twice before I have posted late-1920s advertisements for Ipswich Hosiery Stockings: 1920s Witch in Stockings (December 1926) and Ipswich Witch, 1927 (March 1927). The advertisement below is another from what now appears to have been a sequence, all painted by the one artist. It was published in May 1927.

Note the shadow on the wall. This is a variation of the "pretty-witch with hag-mask" theme I have mentioned before (here and here). In this case, we are reminded of what our pretty-witch is not (a hag) by the hag-shadow, or maybe this is the visual cue to what our beautiful young woman is (a witch). One could take this further and suggest that it is a reminder that, within every beautiful young woman, the hag lies waiting, but I think the artist had 'pretty-but-a-witch' more in mind.

The title to this advertisement is "Ye Modern Witch of Ipswich." (Once again, we have the definition of a witch: *A witch, according to the dictionary, is one who "exerts power more than natural; an irresistible influence." In this sense Ipswich is truly "The Modern Witch" of hosiery, for Ipswich sets the standard for beauty, fineness and durability in smart hosiery.). We are also told Here is a potent four-fold hosiery charm, to add enchantment to the loveliest costume for daytime or evening ware … Charm Four—Ipswich Fashion Features. Extra length of silk above the knee for abbreviated frocks … (And now you will know why I wanted to title this post "Another Beautiful Ipswich Witch, in an Abbreviated Frock, 1927." Unfortunately, titles on Blogger must be even more abbreviated than the frocks, so it wasn't to be).

Brochart's Witch of Endor, 1873

2008-02-01T15:30:00.001-08:00

The above chromo-lithograph by M. Jehenne of Charles Brochart's 'Witch of Endor' appeared as Plate XIII in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Woman in Sacred History: A Series of Sketches Drawn from Scriptural, Historical and Legendary Sources ... Illustrated with Twenty-Five Chromo-Lithographs, after Paintings by Raphael ... and Others; Printed by Monrocq, from Stones executed by Jehenne, Paris (New York: Fords, Howard, & Hulbert, 1873), opposite p.165. (The complete book is available here in B&W; and here are colour pictures of the cover, decorative title and title-page).

The image is rather lifeless and angular, looking more like an icon than a portrait. If we are to judge by the other lithographs in this volume it seems unlikely that either the lithographer, Monsuier Jehenne, or the printer, Monrocq, is to blame. (By way of comparison, here is Hughes Merle's portrait of Jephtha's Daughter (original here, un-censored) and Pompeo Batoni's Mary Magdelene (original here)).

So, it seems Charles Brochart — an absolute nobody, if his representation on the net means anything — is at fault. Which is perhaps why, though six of the twenty-five portraits are by him, Brochart is not mentioned in the list of twelve artists in the title-page ("Raphael, Batoni, Horace, Vernet, Goodall, Landelle, Koehler, Portaels, Vernet-Lecomte, Baader, Merle, and Boulanger and Others").

Despite Brochart's lack of talent, however, it is clear that he has attempted to present the Witch of Endor as an attractive young woman. Stowe's Woman in Sacred History was popular, being translated into Dutch in 1874 (as Vrouwen der Schrift) and reprinted under the title Bible Heroines: Being Narrative Biographies of Prominent Hebrew Women in the Patriarchal, National, and Christian eras in 1878.

Like the 1754 English version of Gerard Hoet's 1728 artwork I have discussed in two previous posts (here and here), Brochart contributed to the dispersal of what we might call more positive images of the Witch of Endor—the focus of this blog—even if he didn't do a very good job of it!

Fire Child by Maxine Sanders, 2008

2008-01-25T12:58:00.001-08:00

Maxine Sanders (née Arline Maxine Morris) has finally written an autobiography: Fire Child: The Life & Magic of Maxine Sanders 'Witch Queen' (Oxford: Mandrake, 2008).

I say finally because both of the two previous books on Maxine (below) were written by others: Maxine the Witch Queen (London: Star Book, 1976) was ghost-written by the journalist Wally Clapham (as we find out on 259 of Fire Child) and The Ecstatic Mother, Maxine Sanders, Witch Queen (London: Bachman & Turner, 1977) was written by Richard Deutch.

Generations of Wiccans, Witches and historians of The Craft will be grateful to Sanders for overcoming her aversion to writing, but Fire Child is a difficult book to read, not least because it is under-edited, disjointed and unnecessarily obtuse and confusing (as I discuss below).

Sanders bravely recounts physical and sexual abuse at the hands of her father (15, 18, 21, 27, 29) followed by emotional abuse at the hands of Alex, 'King of the Witches' (168, 239). Alex betrayed Sanders by sleeping with other men (120, 138, 169; engaging in a week-long bacchanal while she, alone, gave birth to their second child), used her as a prop to his ego (92), his ambition (68) and his finances, relying on her to work (124) and burdening her with substantial debts (171, 208). His meglo- and ego-mania (159) reached absurd heights and, once out of the spotlight, his desire to regain it undermined much of the little good his showmanship has achieved (239, 252, 261; he also deteriorated as a teacher: 173, 241). Future biographers may speculate about why Alex "liked being married to an attractive woman", whom he "placed on a pedestal", keeping her "apart and untouchable" (251), when his "preference was for men" (242) and why Sanders endured so many years married to a man with many similarities to her father -- whom she long wished dead (both being abusive, yet charismatic, men who were manipulative and unscrupulous spendthrifts and philanders).

Sceptically- and empirically-minded readers will wonder at the extent of Sanders' delusions about supernatural events, which are presented as matters of fact (levitation and destruction of inanimate objects, materialisation of spirits, use of telepathy and astral-travel to keep an eye on each other etc), as well as the claims made for the extent of Alex's authority in Wicca circles before leaving Manchester (66, "eight full covens and several smaller ones" in addition to his "teaching" coven in 1963). Personally, I am interested in the historical details, who met whom (real names, in full), when and where, what happened etc. These sort of details are provided sparingly and inconsistently.

For example: Chapter 9 mentions Alex's famous 'Grandmother Story'. Sanders states that "Alex's showmanship made much of it", cryptically described as "probably more colourful and yet less shocking than Alex described"; his telling of it being "a means to an end" (101). The reader is left wondering how being sexually initiated by one's grandmother can be "more colourful and yet less shocking", and what "end" could have been served by telling this story. Sanders also spends pages talking about her "new husband" circuitously, leaving the reader guessing who on earth she is talking about, before finally naming him (290). Why not name him from the outset?

Doubts remain about the dates, too. Sanders says she was born on 30 December, and that she was conceived in the spring of 1946 (11). That is, she was conceived in April 1946 and was born 30 December 1946. This means she had only just turned nineteen on 15 January 1966 when (nude) photographs of her were first published (80; see my post on these photos). The publication of these photos prompted an appalling run-in with the police. In the course of which she says told the police that "no-one had taken my virginity, least of all Alex and at seventeen I was in any case old enough" (82). Even if Sanders was "seventeen" when the full moon rite took place, and that this had occurred before her previous birthday only a few weeks earlier, the dates must still be out by a year (meaning she was born in 1947, not 1946).

(In fact, I have long-suspected that the dates are even further out: that Sanders was born in December 1948, not 1946, turned seventeen in December 1965, and that she has been lying about her age since January 1966 in order to protect Alex and herself. It seems we will only learn the truth when Sanders' birth certificate becomes available, in about fifty years!)

Nevertheless, we learn a great deal about "Maxine Sanders", her family, Alex, his family and some of the central figure and events in Sanders' life. We also discover, indirectly, many details that will be of interest to different readers (such as her impatience with vegetarians, who "cannot master their sentimentality" 276), of her boredom with her role as priestess (112, 142), her struggles as a mother (242), lover and teacher. Though many of the stories are a little disconnected and cryptic, any reader interested in the rise of Wicca will gain much from reading Fire Child.

(And if the very high prices of second-hand copies of Maxine the Witch Queen and The Ecstatic Mother are any guide to the future demand for this book: buy it now, while you can still afford it!)

The Witch of Endor, 1754

2008-01-21T12:46:00.000-08:00

What I didn't mention in my post on The Witch of Endor, 1728 was that the image I used is by Gerard Hoet (1648-1733) from Figures de la Bible (The Hague: P. de Hondt, 1728). The rest of the images from this book are available online here.

The caption for the image is in Hebrew, Latin, English, French, German and Dutch, meaning the book was printed for a Europe-wide audience. The book and its images soon reached England, where they were copied for Robert Goadley in An Illustration of the Holy Scriptures, by Notes and Exposition. This book was published in Sherborne, in 132 parts, between 1754 and 1759. ("The First Book of Samuel, otherwise called the First Book of the Kings" being towards the start of the Bible, this image was probably published in 1754).

Here are the same images from a copy of the book that has had each engraving hand-coloured (using watercolour paints).

As you can see above, the English version of Hoag's artwork has been reversed in copying, and is a pretty poor imitation of the original. While the colouring is probably a professional job, it is also somewhat crudely done. Though our witch has lost much of her beauty, however, it is clear that she is supposed to be young and beautiful, even if the artist and/or engraver was not up to the task of creating an engraving as attractive as the original.

It also shows that representations of the Witch of Endor as attractive and young existed throughout the eighteenth century; and that Hoag's 1728 artwork published in Holland influenced later representations of the Witch of Endor elsewhere in Europe.

Bisque 'Nudie' Witch, 1920s

2008-01-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

The witchy figurine above is of a type known to specialists as a "Nudie." It is unsigned, there is no maker's mark and nothing quite like it appears in Sharon Hope Weintraub's Bawdy Bisques & Naughty Novelties (2005), or on her website here [but see the update below]. As Weintraub explains, it is often difficult to tell whether a bisque figuring that lacks clothing today was originally sold nude. The fact that our plump, rosy-cheeked witch is bare-foot and has her hands and legs locked into a position that would make dressing and undressing impossible suggests that she was sold naked as a 'Naughty Novelty'. Though there is no maker's mark, the figuring is almost certainly German, from the Weimar period (a period perfectly captured in The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin).

Bawdy, and Bathing Beauty, Bisques are highly collectible, and rarities such as this command high prices. They are also hellishly difficult to photograph. So, having spent a small fortune buying, and the better part of a day photographing, this stunning figuring I hope you will forgive me including so many photos of her!

The first five pictures below are taken from different directions at eye-level to the figurine.

The next three are taken from above, close-up, from different directions.

These last two are taken from below: as if the witch were flying overhead.

[UPDATE 14 JAN 08: Sharon Weintraub has informed me that a pure white figurine [29-002] posed on a ribbon swing in her book is, in fact, a witch: "After the book came out, a collector in Germany bought the identical figurine, on her original broom, which has a wooden stick and bisque bristles." Looking at the image again it is suprising I didn't recognise it as a witch (but hindsight is, proverbially, always perfect). So, there is a witch in Bawdy Bisques & Naughty Novelties after all! (And when I get one, you'll see it here).

Sharon writes "As you know (I looked at your wonderful blog), the image of a nude, nubile witch flying high on her broom was a popular image in the early 1900s (especially on 'naughty' postcards). I have no doubt that our bisque witches were inspired by such postcards ... [but] I do not know of any other naughty witch-related figurines [other than mine and the white one in Sharon's book], and am surprised there are not more of them for the period. Maybe it was because Halloween was more an American holiday, and Americans tended to be more prudish than their European cousins." If so, more's the pity.

BTW: Sharon notes that the ridges around the arms "are the application lines ... When a figurine is cast in a mold, any parts that project too far from the main body will break off when the figurine is decanted from the mold. To overcome this problem, makers used multipart molds or molded the projecting parts separately and applied them during the greenware stage. In our figurines the arms and legs probably were applied to achieve the complicated pose." So now you know.

Thanks Sharon!]

Dita Von Teese, Burlesque Witch

2008-01-04T14:46:00.000-08:00

In my last post I mentioned the magnificent Dita Von Teese and offered up the only two pictures that I had of her homage to Dusty Anderson. Dita's official site is here; it is well worth a visit.

[snip]

[UPDATE 11 JAN 08:

This DMCA complaint is being issued against XXXX.

OFFICIAL NOTICE of COPYRIGHT-TRADEMARK, or RIGHT of PUBLICITY INFRINGEMENT

www.dita.net
Official Website of Dita Von Teese

Technical Contact and Copyright Agent on this occasion:
Henry Jaremko, PO Box 24, Market Weighton, East Yorkshire, UK
Tel: (011) 44 1430 803396
Email: webmaster@dita.net

It has come to our attention that web pages on a website provided with image hosting services by yourselves, is infringing upon our intellectual property rights. Henry Jaremko is acting as an authorized copyright agent on behalf of Dita Von Teese, and has a good faith belief that the copyrighted work described in the paragraph below is being used in manner that is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent(s) or the law.

Date: January 10th, 2008

To: XXXXX

All (c) copyright Dita Von Teese (www.dita.net)
None of these pictures are licensed for public display anywhere.

Many blogs (like many fan-sites) walk a fine line between (free) advertising for the people/books/films/etc that they celebrate and infringement of copyright. My belief is that the people/books/films/etc that are mentioned on this site only benefit from this site's use of their images/stories/creations and that each post presents such a tiny fraction of their intellectual property as a whole that it would be covered by the 'Fair Usage' provision of the Copyright Act. That is, I am doing the equivalent of quoting from, rather than bootlegging, entire films, books, sites etc. As is clear from the above Henry Jaremko and Dita Von Teese think otherwise, for which I am very sorry. I hope my regular visitors enjoyed the images while they could and will understand why I removed the images as soon as requested.]

Dusty Anderson, Glamour Witch, 1944

2007-12-29T14:30:00.000-08:00

Here are three images from a (long) series of press photos of Dusty Anderson dressed as a witch. The numbering on the images I have seen suggests there may be as many as fifty photos from this shoot! It is not hard to see why: Anderson is the height of Hollywood glamour.

As IMDB notes, Anderson was (in the 40s) a dazzling dark-haired pin-up model-turned-starlet who signed with Columbia for a few pictures, beginning as one of the cover girls in Rita Hayworth's film Cover Girl (1944). Two years later Anderson married Jean Negulesco (a director), retired from acting in 1951 and moved to Majorca.

The shout for each of the press photos is the same:

Hallowe'en Glamour - Dusty Anderson, beautiful Columbia Pictures' actress, will need more than that witch's hat to frighten anyone on Hallowe'en, for she's just too good looking to be mistaken for a witch. That broom might help if it weren't such a creation of black velvet with ostrich plumes. Dusty recently finished a role in the Technicolour musical, "Tonight and Every Night," which stars Rita Hayworth, Janet Blair and Lee Bowman.

As the other images in this blog show, Anderson was by no means "too good looking" to be a witch, but she is certainly one of the most beautiful witches on this blog! Judge for yourself.

Becca (from No Smoking in the Skull Cave ) will recognise these images as probably being the inspiration for the "witchy Dita Von Teese" that she mentioned in a post on Witchy Girls Who Go Bump in the Night over a year ago. In all my searches since then I have only been able to add one image to that used by Becca:

[UPDATE 11 JAN 07: for reasons explained in my next post I have had to remove these images. Sorry.]

BTW: Dita Von Teese, for those of you not familiar with her, is an absolute legend: a "burlesque artist, model and actress" who specialises in 40s- and 50s-style glamour (The gallery section of her site is here).

[UPDATE 26 MAR 08: Todd Mecklem (see feedback) has dated these photos to before 8 August 1944. Quite possibly they were taken during the filming of Cover Girl, which was released on 6 July 1944, and were circulated well in advance of (but for) Halloween 1944.]

Fortune Teller Witch, 1912

2007-12-23T11:46:00.000-08:00

This "Fortune Teller" postcard was published by R. Kaplan (copyright 1909; Series No. 55). It has a hidden message, that is only revealed when the card is held up to a mirror (or you flip the image in Adobe Photoshop!). This card was posted 14 August 1912, so it appears not to have been a Halloween postcard, more of a party-card. Which is appropriate for Yule I think.

BTW: the artist is Clare Victor Dwiggins (aka 'Dwig'; 1874-1958). Comiclopedia explains that Dwiggins started his career as a cartoonist in 1897, producing 'School Days' in the early 1910s, and moved onto comics in 1918 (with 'Huckleberry Finn').

The Witches' Ride, 1870

2007-12-14T13:10:00.000-08:00

This woodcut of five witches on their way to the sabbat is titled "Hexenritt" [The Witches Ride]. It is dated to 1870 and is a copy of a painting by Gustav Adolf Spangenberg (1828-91). I have not been able to find out much about either Spangenberg or this this picture, although in 1862 Spangenberg produced a different work under the title "Walpurgisnacht" [Walpurgis Night].

The image is taken from a page that I bought as a cutting. It is very fragile and heavily tanned (because of the acids in the low-quality paper), but I have not been able to find a better copy, or a complete issue of the magazine. It looks better in black and white, as you can see:

A reversed and coloured version of this image appears in Susan Bowes' Life Magic: The Power of Positive Witchcraft (New York: Simon Schuster, 1999), p.109, which is credited to AKG London (the "Archiv für Kunst und Geschichte" [Art and History Archive] of Berlin, London and Paris).

I was in two minds about including this image on Sexy Witch until I saw the colourised version. It made me realise that the two women in the foreground are definitely justification enough, because they are certainly not hags. What made me hesitate was the pubescent daughter clinging to the back of one of them. The Late Medieval and Early Modern tradition in Europe seems to offer only one role for adults and one for children at a sabbat: the (unbaptised) babies are eaten, everyone else participates in the Satanic rites (eating the aforesaid babies, kissing Satan's arse, dancing, cavorting and copulating with demons). It seems likely, therefore, that this young woman is on her way to an orgy, possibly her first. But, for the record, whatever the age of the daughter, I have included the image because of the two women (the "yummy mummy" witches).

As a final note, given the poor paper of the original, it seems likely that the colouring was done recently, after it had been copied by AKG (either that, or my copy has been reversed, and there was an earlier printing on better paper, a coloured version of which survives. Possible, but I doubt it. More information anyone?).

Klemke's Fairy Tale Witch, 1990

2007-12-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

This delightful image by Werner Klemke (1917-94) was published as a postcard by Planet-Verlag in 1990 [SBM332]. The Lambiek Comiclopedia explains (here) that Klemke was born in Berlin and lived in East-Germany after WWII, teaching at the Berlin-Weissensee from 1951.

Klemke mostly illustrated fairy tales, novels and magazines, but this lovely witch is certainly not of the fairy-tale variety. At least, I don't recall witches in three-quarter stockings and pom-pom peeptoes in the fairy-tales I read. The cat, however, is very witchy and the backward broom a reminder of what I have said before on the debate about how you really ride a broom.

As for the man in his striped pajamas trying to lasso our witch, we can only wish him luck. He'll need it!

Vivacious Blonde Witch, 1938

2007-11-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

Margaret Rose Valliquietto (aka June Knight) is described as 'A vivacious blonde' on Imdb; and although she worked on a number of forgettable films, for a number of companies, in the mid- to late 30s, her short career was finished by the time they were released in the early 40s.

This press photo is one of at least two taken of Knight and distributed by MGM immediately after the 30 September release of Vacation from Love (1938) in the lead up to Halloween.

In this photo we see Knight at the height of her career, such as it was: a magnificent Blonde, White, Halloween Witch. All of her clothes and her props are white or silver: she has the most enormous shiny silver witch's hat I've ever seen, white broom, white cat, moon and bat.

The cut-out moon and cat look an awful lot like the (black) cut-out moon and cat in the MGM Ava Gardner photos here, Knight even has the same pose as Gardner, riding side-saddle so she can show off her lovely legs, and holding reins so she can sit more upright. (All of which makes me wonder whether the Gardner photos aren't earlier than I previously thought.) Here are the two cats:

See what I mean! Verrrrrrry similar.

Magic Lantern Witch, 1900

2007-11-23T12:20:00.000-08:00

Because this photographic magic lantern slide has no caption, it is not clear whether it is an illustration to a particular story, or just a fun stand-alone image. Dating is also difficult, but the witch's corset and the crude Georges Méliès-style prop suggests a date of about 1900. (For a previous post, illustrated by a coloured magic lantern slide of the Witch of Endor, see here).

As you can see, the witch stands at her ease on a crescent moon, while a clown dangles below. He stretches up his hand, imploring her help. She has a smiling face and her right arm raised, as if she is ready to cast a spell. Whether she is about to strike him down or raise him up we won't know unless the story can be identified.

Halloween Glamour Girl, Peggy Ryan, 1944

2007-11-16T17:20:00.000-08:00

This press photo of the leggy Peggy Ryan was released by Universal Pictures in 1944. The caption that accompanies it reads: "With Hallowe'en just around the corner, Peggy Ryan, comedienne of Universal Pictures, gives a glamour girl twist to the traditional witch with the broom. Peggy's newest picture is 'The Merry Monahans,' in which she co-stars with Donald O'Conner and Jack Oakie."

The Merry Monahans was released on 15 September 1944; this photo is date-stamped 5 November 1944, but for Halloween to be "just around the corner" is must have been circulated in mid-October. I mention this because Peggy Ryan lived almost exactly sixty years after this photo was taken, dying the day before Halloween in 2004, at eighty years of age (performing a "hilarious song-and-dance routine" at her own 80th).

I think the moral of this story is: Laugh and Live Long!

Sexy Witch Wins ...

2007-11-09T13:24:00.000-08:00

Tali at the Pinup Shop Blog has rated Sexy Witch as No. 3 among the Top 10 Halloween Pinup Websites of 2007.

The artist-site that got No. 1 is by Cris De Lara, a Brazilian who does great pinup digital art. Here is an example you will all love, "Jolly Halloween"

Alberto Vargas got No. 2, in particular his 1967 piece "Trick or Treat" (involving cats, not witches -- and so not to be confused with his 1963 "Trick or treat, Mr Malcolm," which I discuss here).

Given such fine competition, I am content with the bronze.

BTW: with the surge of interest in all things witchy over Halloween, the number of hits on this site reach half a million. To me this is a vast and astonishing number, but I discovered the other day (when I bought "a thousand of the most important books ever written") that the Internet Sacred Text Archive often gets a million hits per day! Puts it all in perspective.

Melbourne Cup Witch, 1912

2007-11-02T15:46:00.000-07:00

The following postcard was posted at Portland, Oregon, at 3.30PM on Saturday 2 November 1912, ninety-five years ago today! It was issued by The Ullman Manufacturing Co., New York (about whom I can find nothing online) in their "Hallowe'en Series" [No. 143, Subject No. 2413]. It is not clear who the artist is, since they are not credited, and the only signature I can make out is an upside-down "T. D." (or, possibly, a sideways "A. E.").

I love the wand (doubling as a whip) for the JOL-headed broom (doubling as a horse). And since our beautiful Halloween Witch is riding her broom as if it were a horse, she must, of course, ride side-saddle. And given the magnificent hat and gown that our fashionable witch is wearing I suspect she is flying to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup. If she were to turn up on the first Tuesday this November she would definitely win an award at the "Fashions on the Field."

BTW: the hat looks a bit like a petasus, the symbol of Hermes (Mercury to the Romans), the fleet-footed messenger of the Gods (which would be appropriate, but only in a weird kind of way).

More Sexy Witch Costumes, 2007

2007-11-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

Except for the last two costumes below, the following are all by smaller costume suppliers. I included CostumeCraze.com's "Witchful Thinking" and Brands on Sale's "Candy Corn Witch" here so they can be compared with Party America's "Candy Corn Witch," but I have also added them to my posts on CostumeCraze.com and Brands on Sale. For all my other posts on Halloween costumes see my Sexy Witch Costumes Index.

Condoms

Fantasy Lingerie Witch

Condoms

Fantasy Lingerie Naughty Witch

G World Collections

Wicked Witch

In His Dreams

Wicked Witch

JBI Essentials

Good Witch

Shirley of Hollywood

Hollywood Witch

SpookShop.com

Sexy Witchy Woman

Party America

Candy Corn Witch [similar to the Leg Avenue Candy Corn/Kandy Korn Witch]

CostumeCraze.com

Witchful Thinking

Brands on Sale

Candy Corn Witch