My Scrapbook: Private Eye Illustrated

My Scrapbook

A pulp of interest

I know absolutey zip about Private Eye Illustrated, a short-lived (two issues!) magazine from the late fifties, but it hits most of my sweet spots: a great, cheesy cover for the first issue that scans like a detective pulp trope greatest hits, and a title that makes my knees weak. Private eyes? Illustrated?

That first issue also promises a story about Liz Hunter, a “blonde private eye-ful with the most… DANGEROUS CURVES.”

No, I’d never heard of her either, but I LOVE that cover illo of her.

From what I could dig up, the magazine seems to be a hybrid of sorts, promising a little something for everyone: “short stories, true crime tales and pin-ups.” Its two issues featured, among other things, an article about the cast of 77 Sunset Strip, an exposé on New York call girls, some short stories and a piece on how Walter Winchell helped out the FBI round up some of the world’s “most dangerous criminals.” I’m not even sure how “illustrated” it was.

It was published by Cal-York out of New York City, and retailed for 35 cents, running 66 pages, suggesting it might not have even been a true pulp — it might have been a digest, trying to horn in on Manhunt‘s turf.

MAGAZINES

• PRIVATE EYE ILLUSTRATED
  (1959-61, Cal-York Features)
  2 issues
  • (November 1959)
  • (April 1960)

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