Back in February, I picked up a publicity photo of actress Betsy Drake standing in front of a newsstand (at right). I’ve been intending to add it to the collection of newsstand photos over on the Pulp Photos page.
When I first got the photo, no pulps jumped out at me. The only pulp-related item seemed to be the promotional poster for The Shadow high on the wall above Drake. I noticed a Time magazine cover from November 1948, so I assumed the photo must have been taken around that time.
Last evening, I scanned the photo and was processing it for posting when something caught my eye. It was none other than the mysterious Cowboy Thrill Magazine — or so I thought.
It was the same bucking bronco artwork and similar logo type, but the title was Old Western Tales. Oh, and what looked like Flaming Western Stories, with the same artwork. What?
The more I looked at the photo, the more I noticed odd things:
• Modern Mechanics and Aviation Mechanics both feature the same artwork, as well as the same blurb: “A new plan to span the stratosphere across U.S.”
• Saddle and The Billboard both display the same photograph of a man in riding attire on their covers.
• Mayfair Life and (what may be) Mayfair also have the same cover artwork of a top hat and gloves.
Clearly this wasn’t an actual newsstand.
The photo is stamped “Warner Bros.” on the reverse. Drake made a couple of films with that studio, released in 1950 and 1952, but was previously under contract with RKO Pictures.
In my post regarding Cowboy Thrill Magazine, there was a connection with RKO. Was this publicity photo of Drake taken on the RKO lot?
Where else will Cowboy Thrill Magazine turn up?
