Did you ever wonder how early pornographers advertised and distributed their wares? It is usually assumed that back in the days of routine obscenity prosecutions, the “hard stuff” was distributed by organized crime on a city-by-city basis and sold “under the counter” by your shadier sort of neighborhood news stand operators. That probably was a common method of distribution, too. But in the back pages of the December 1947 Sports Fiction magazine, I’m seeing evidence that the cheaply-printed 8-page raunch booklets known as Tijuana bibles were being advertised for sale through the mail. I’m quite certain that the “eight page bibles” are the product these coyly-cryptic ads describe, but I’m less certain if these were genuine offerings. Given the serious penalties for mailing obscene material in those days, it’s possible the ads are simple fraud: send money, get bupkis.

The deliberate vagueness of the advertisements further raises the possibility of more complex frauds. Order sea monkeys, get brine shrimp eggs. Order x-ray specs, get a cheap lens with a spine-shaped feather glued to it. Order what sounds like Tijuana bibles, get similar-looking pamphlets with no obscene material in them? I discount this as unlikely, only because the ads offer dozens of different titles. If an entire genre of non-pornographic 8-page-bible lookalikes had ever existed, where are surviving examples? The real ones were cheap and fragile, yet many survive. On balance, I think these advertisements are likely more-or-less legit.

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