This Week in Baltimore: The Playboy Magazine collection
Abstract
This collection is comprised of seven issues of This Week in Baltimore: The Playboy Magazine published by Bernie Lit. Promoted as the “complete and official after-dark leisure time guide,” this magazine was an events calendar that included advertisements and listings for nightclubs and lounges; restaurants and bars; burlesque and cabaret shows; as well as musical acts, theatres, and motion pictures.
Dates
- 1952, 1954-1955, 1966
Creator
- Lit, Bernie (Publisher, Person)
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Conditions Governing Use
The reproduction of materials in this collection may be subject to copyright restrictions. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine and satisfy copyright clearances or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections. For more information visit the MCHC’s Rights and Permissions page.
Biographical / Historical
Bernie Lit (d. 1984) was a theatrical agent in the Baltimore - Washington, D.C. area. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lit attended Temple University and moved to Baltimore, Maryland in the 1930s after a career of singing and dancing in vaudeville. He established his theatrical agency at 309 East Saratoga Street and published This Week in Baltimore: The Playboy Magazine from circa 1941 to 1974. Although similar in name, Hugh Hefner's Playboy magazine was not founded until 1953.
Lit also wrote the main column for the magazine entitled "Baltimore Nite-Life" (sometimes subheaded "MEN, MAIDS and MISScellaneous LITerature") and advertised in its pages looking for new talent ("Wanted Immediately: Show Girls - Strips - Exotic Novelty Singing Instrumentalists") for the Bernie Lit Theatrical Agency. Lit employed a distinctive vernacular style--a mixture of formal speech and colorful slang--for his column. For example, female performers could be described as "vocaluscious showstoppers" or "cutrix song & dance dolls," while pianists were often referred to as "solitudie 88ers."
After ceasing publication of the magazine in circa 1974, Lit retired to Ocean City, Maryland.
Extent
0.2 Linear Feet (1/2 Hollinger box)
Language of Materials
English
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Nancy Eichelman Handy, February 2023.
Bibliography
Scope and Contents
This collection is comprised of seven issues of This Week in Baltimore: The Playboy Magazine published by Bernie Lit. Promoted as the “complete and official after-dark leisure time guide,” this weekly magazine was an events calendar that included advertisements and listings for nightclubs and lounges; restaurants and bars; burlesque and cabaret shows; as well as musical acts, theatres, and motion pictures. The location of many of the venues listed in these issues are on "The Block," Baltimore's infamous stretch of adult entertainment clubs and bars on East Baltimore Street. Additionally, several of the issues in the collection also contain nightlife listings for Washington, D.C. as well as Baltimore and Anne Arundel counties.
Some of the notable establishments and performers featured in the various issues include Jimmy Wu's New China Inn located on the 2400 block of North Charles Street and advertised as "Maryland's Only Chinese Restaurant;" The Jolly Jax, credited as "Baltimore's Top Sepia Musiguys;" burlesque star Fanne Foxe; and the Bettye Mills Nite-Club, "the First Lady of Baltimore Nite-Life, with her Sexiest All-Girlie Show in Town!"
Creator
- Lit, Bernie (Publisher, Person)
- Title
- Guide to the This Week in Baltimore: The Playboy Magazine collection
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Sandra Glascock
- Date
- 2023-03
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org