Gang Girl and Sex Bum-Don Elliott

Gang Girl and Sex Bum
Don Elliott
Stark House, Apr 29 2011, $19.95
ISBN: 9781933586342

Gang Girl. When her family moved from the Bronx to Manhattan, sixteen years old Lora had to give up her place as the local gang leader’s woman. She plans not just to join a gang; Lora expects to lead the local Cougars though she wants to have a man serve as her puppet. Thus vicious Lora begins her Machiavellian scheme to become gang leader Whitey’s woman.

Sex Bum. Nineteen year old Johnny Price wants out of hick town, but needs a ticket to escape. He helps two mobsters with a hit, which leads to his employment with the mob as a collector. Ambitious Johnny observes his employer Rizzo skimming money from what is collected. He files it away waiting for when he can best use this information even as he sleeps with a lot of mob related women including Rizzo’s moll Marie.

This collection is a reprint of two 1959 hardboiled softcore erotica pulp fiction (from a historiography perspective; these seem very light by even a decade later standards let alone today’s definition as society norms changed. Robert Silverberg used the alias Don Elliot as he provides double the fun tales though at times what seemed graphic in 1959 comes across humorous as the test of time takes it toll. The short essay Sin, Softcore and Silverberg by Michael Hemmingson adds perspective to the anthology as does a listing of other similar tales from that era. Both entries are well written, exciting and provides a spotlight on a somewhat forgotten period.

Harriet Klausner