The sleazy empire of Robert Harrison

"Girls, Gags & Giggles" was the simple recipe publisher Robert Harrison used to cook for America's men. They enjoyed his delicious dishes: a mix of strippers and starlets in costumes so fetishistic that no one noticed they were never naked. While other magazines delivered the "girl next door," Harrison relied on "bad girls" in satin and leather, fishnet stockings, and 6-inch heels , performing silly, burlesque-style antics.

Harrison lured his readers with colorful covers painted by leading pin-up artists such as Earl Moran , Billy DeVorss , and—most famously— Peter Driben . This edition of the Bibliotheca Universalis series contains all the magazine covers Beauty Parade , Wink , Titter , Eyeful , Flirt and Whisper from 1942 to 1955, as well as countless burlesque comic strips, including a newly blossoming Bettie Page . In a time when far more revealing depictions are the norm, 1000 Pin-Up Girls celebrates an era when erotic fantasy was still fueled by comedy, corsets, and capers .