BUtterfield 8

I have a certain book of postcards featuring paperback cover illustrations from 40s and 50s pulp. There is of course The Big Sleep, with the oh-so-subtle image of a skull wearing a blond wig. Sally Bowles reclines on the cover of Goodbye to Berlin (the basis for Cabaret) and does appear to be wearing green nail polish. A Rita Hayworth-type presents herself bedside in a strapless black push-up on the cover of the perfectly-titled Kiss Tomorrow Good-Bye. And then there is I Was a Nazi Flier, which says it all. But my favorite is H is for Heroin (not a Sue Grafton novel), which depicts Nancy Drew standing in the dark, head hung with hand over eyes. Apparently she is "only seventeen and married to a boy who gave her heroin." I believe the story was later adapted for an installment of The Baby-sitters Club.

The cover of BUtterfield 8 is somewhat less provocative, featuring a call girl in elbow-length red gloves flashing a bare shoulder at a tuxedoed trick at a martini bar. Classy, but boring. The same could be said of the 1960 Liz Taylor movie, minus the classy part.