Uncensored [magazine] (April 1961)

New York: Nutrend Publications, Inc.. Near Fine. 1961. (Vol. 10, No. 6). Magazine. [sharp-looking copy, minor edgewear and a few tiny edge-nicks to front cover]. (B&W photographs, advertisements) A typical issue of one of the numerous "Confidential"-inspired scandal mags of the era, purporting to supply "all the facts [and] all the names." The latter, in this issue, include: Red Skelton ("he rode a non-stop carousel of babes and bourbon"); Marlon Brando (about his purported romance with Rita Moreno); Marilyn Monroe (an article about "the hidden secrets behind [her] tragic bust-ups!"); and Loretta Young (her "uncensored" story, "a story you won't see any Sunday night!"). There's also a bit of "hard news," you might say, in the form of an article entitled "Rape of the Congo: The Story the United Nations Hushed," pitched as "A Preliminary Report on the atrocities committed by the Congolese Army against the white population of the Republic of the Congo before the intervention of the Belgian Forces." Perhaps most interesting, however -- especially from our 21st-century perspective -- is an article entitled "The Mixed-up Love Life of 'The Minx of the Riviera'," which is a shamelessly sensationalistic piece about the French transgender entertainer Coccinelle (born Jacques Charles Dufresnoy) (1931-2006), who had been performing as a "showgirl" since 1953 and had undergone vaginoplasty surgery in 1958. By the early 1960s she was a headliner at Le Carrousel and the Olympia in Paris, and also made occasional film appearances. Also (per Wikipedia) she "worked extensively as an activist on behalf of transgender people [and] also helped establish the Center for Aid, Research, and Information for Transsexuality and Gender Identity. In addition, her first marriage was the first union to be officially acknowledged by the government of France, establishing transgender persons' legal right to marry." (But of course "Uncensored" gave her story the sleaziest spin possible: "She's the Darling of the Riviera -- But She's a 'He!'") .