| Year | Month | Day | Text | Media |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "After approximately 4 years of gathering information from various sources, I am finally prepared to show others what I call my scrapbook. This incorporates the majority of the work that Tony De Blasé included in his original version of the leather history timeline. Portions of his timeline have not been used and information from other sources has been included. The information from other sources is indicated at the end of each item. If the item has not been referenced to another source, then it is from Tony De Blasé’s timeline. This has been my attempt to join both the heterosexual and homosexual history of the BDSM/ Fetish/Leather Lifestyles. What originally started out as a personal interest hobby turned into a major project. Though this project does not cover all aspects of the BDSM/Fetish/Leather lifestyle, it does include a majority. This project will continue to grow as I stumble across more and more information. The words on these pages are not my words, but instead those of others who have researched this lifestyle. Again, my main focus was to combine the information that had been obtained from both the het and homosexual sides of life. As I have found information as well, I have included that in this scrapbook as well. But as you thumb through all the pages of this scrapbook, you will see the difference between this and anything else you have seen in the past. It indeed is a scrapbook of our history." -- Gwen Hardy on the original Colors of Leather website. |  |
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| 1940 | Irving Klaw developed an independent distribution system that he used later as he moved into the SM/Fetish market. Klaw primarily sold his material through mail order and also over-the-counter at his store at 212 East 14th St. in New York. Mail order was his primary sales medium. Klaw publishes a small magazine format publication called Movie Star News. Later his primary format would be the Irving Klaw Bulletin, which were illustrated with thumbnail photographs from photo sets. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1940 | 7 | 27 | Birth of the Reverend Troy Perry, Minister, activist, leatherman, and and. founder of the Metropolitan Community Church. He devised a wonderful way to use the Gideon bible found in every hotel room as a ball weight. |  |
| 1940 | Publication of Durch Leiden Freuden (Happiness through Suffering) by the Masochist and Psychoanalyst Theodor Reik. Reik shaped the expression “social masochism”. In his opinion, masochism is a development phase in everyone’s life that helps to keep aggressive and anti-social drives under control. (DACHS Timeline) |  |
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| 1941 | 10 | Publication of Beauty Parade Robert Harrison's first cheesecake magazine. Ceased publication in February 1952. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1941 | Publication of Masochism in Modern Man by Theodor Reik is put out by Grove Press |  |
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| 1941 | The first appearance of the cartoon character, Wonder Woman, an Amazon with special powers, living on an all-woman island. Her magical lasso rendered powerless anyone she placed in bondage. |  |
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| 1941 | The German Luftwaffe bombed The London office of London Life magazine in 1941 when 10,000 pounds of machinery and all the files were destroyed. Thus the business was shut down. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1941 | Bill Ward graduates from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute and lands a job in Jack Binder’s shop, which produced comics for Fawcett. Under Binder’s tutelage, Ward laid out thousands of pages of such titles as Bullet Man, Doc Savage, The Shadow and even Captain Marvel. Wards experience with Binder led to employment at Quality Comics, where he took over Blackhawk. (GHardy) | |||
| 1942 | 2 | 12 | The Catholic National Organization for Decent Literature (NODL) placed Film Fun on it’s permanently banned publications list. Film Fun was a totally sexy magazine filled with extremely suggestive images. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
| 1942 | 4 | 3 | Birth date of Anthony F. DeBlase, aka Fledermaus, leather/SM writer, editor, publisher, teacher, and creator of the Leather Pride Flag. |  |
| 1942 | 4 | 27 | The earliest known police reference to Irving Klaw in a FBI report, which indicated that an evaluation of Klaw’s publications, sparked by a complaint, found them to be “not so lewd as to be considered obscene”. (Robert Bienvenu) | |
| 1942 | 7 | 22 | Film Fun was denied second class mailing privileges on grounds of obscenity, which eventually led to the magazine’s folding. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
| 1942 | In his book Fear of freedom, The German psychoanalyst Erich Fromm establishes the theory that S&M is the symptom of a social illness: the inability of humans to live in freedom. (DACHS Timeline) |  |
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| 1943 | 3 | Publication of Eyeful by Robert Harrison, it is his second cheesecake publication. This publication ceases in April of 1955. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1943 | 7 | 22 | Birth of Robert Wiley Kirk, the erotic artist “Cirby” (died Dec 21, 1991) |  |
| 1943 | 8 | Publication of the third cheesecake publication by Robert Harrison, Titter. This publication ceases in April of 1955. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1943 | Edythe Farrell is listed as editor on Volume 148, Number 5 of the National Police Gazette. Around 1944, the fetishistic content of these magazines commences. In an attempt to increase circulation sales, Farrell contacts a costumer and asked him about what costumes might be used in their photographs. He gave her a photo of a woman wearing high boots, a rather masochistic type photo. Though this did not impress her, the National Police Gazette did run it as a cover photograph and the edition sold out. From that time on, Farrell became aware of the sales value of sadistic fetishistic and bondage material. The costumer was Charles Guyette. Cheesecake publisher, Robert Harrison, employs Farrell later and she continued to use fetishistic content while in his employ. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1943 | The Yva Richard Company closes in Paris under German occupation. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1944 | 6 | 10 | Christa Winsloe, author of Madchen in Uniform and vocal anti-Nazi is murdered in Vichi France. |  |
| 1944 | Publication of Torture Garden by Octave Mirbeau. | |||
| 1944 | Publication of Wink by Robert Harrison, his fourth cheesecake publication and publication ceases in April of 1955. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1945 | 8 | 7 | Birth of Cynthia Ann-Slater. Together with Larry Olsen, Slater founds one of the first S&M organizations in the US, “The Society of Janus” in San Francisco in 1974. |  |
| 1945 | 12 | 11 | Birth of John Preston, author of Mr. Benson and many other notable volumes of leather fiction. |  |
| 1945 | Publication of Justice Weekly begins in Toronto. This little magazine excerpts news items related to punishment but its highly coded personal ads are to real attraction to SM people all over North America. |  |
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| 1945 | Birth of artist Robert K. Bishop, a Michigan born illustrator who studied art in Detroit and started doing art for Centurians Publications and other assorted early scene magazines. He joined up with the House of Milan (HOM) He also did some side work with Harmony Publications, but had some concerns with the cautiously consensual “Harmony Philosophy” as it pertained to fiction) and it was with HOM that he produced much of his best-known work, including Fanny Hall comic series and covers for Frank Campbell and Geoffrey Merrick novels. Bishop also used the alias of Ashley, when doing illustrated covers for the Fellowes series of Frank C. Campbell novels produced by the House of Milan in the 70’s and 80’s. (GHardy) |  |
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| 1946 | 9 | 26 | Birth of Andrea Dworkin, American writer and feminist. An ardent crusader against pornography, SM and other sexual evils |  |
| 1946 | 11 | 4 | The US-American photographer, Robert Mapplethorpe is born in New York. (DACHS Timeline) | |
| 1946 | 12 | 29 | Birth of William Carney, author of one of the earliest explicitly gay male SM novels, The Real Thing. |  |
| 1946 | Publication of Bizarre magazine by John Willie begins. In an effort to make his magazine to appear to be well received, Willie begins publication with issue 2 instead of issue 1 and adds his own fabricated editorials and correspondence in the second issue. Willie publishes 20 volumes of Bizarre between 1946 and 1956. A close friend R.E.B published issues 21 through 27. Approximately 5000 copies were printed and cost approximately 25 US-cents. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1946 | Publicaton of Whisper by Robert Harrison another cheesecake magazine, publication ceases in April of 1955. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1946 | John Coutts (aka John Willie) moves to the United States. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1947 | 12 | Publication of Flirt, another cheesecake magazine by Robert Harrison, it ceases to be published in April of 1955 as well. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1947 | Coutts (aka John Willie) meets Irving Klaw through a mutual acquaintance. Coutts sells Klaw his photographic negatives, which contributed to the early development of the fetish and bondage component of Klaw’s business. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1947 | Eager to find non-comic book work, Bill Ward begins employment with publisher Martin Goodman and published under the name of Humorama. (GHardy) | |||
| 1947 | Irving Klaw hires artist Eric Stanton. (Robert Bienvenu) |  |
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| 1947 | Alfred C. Kinsey founds the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University. | |||
| 1948 | 3 | 3 | Birth of Albert Andrew Kraus Jr. Later to be a founder of the Windy City Bondage Club, and a co-chair of NLA:I during a critical period of it’s redevelopment, |  |
| 1948 | Due to financial problems, John Coutts did not publish Bizarre magazines between 1948 and 1950 and resumed publication in 1951. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1948 | Publication of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey, it's the first part of his study on human sexual behavior, . |  |
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| 1949 | Publication of Voyeurism by Dr. D.O. Cauldwell | |||
| 1949 | Publicaton of The Thief’s Journal by Jean Genet, first in France. The English edition is published in 1964. |  |
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| 1949 | Klaw’s use of the U.S. Mail was to bring him into conflict with the government agency most zealous in its persecution of erotica producers – the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. On the other hand, the fact that he did not use interstate freight shipment, a distribution mode used by major distributors, kept him largely beyond the purview of the FBI. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1949 | Cheesecake publisher, Robert Harrison, publishes John Coutts’ work. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1949 | Irving Klaw produces his first film, a 16mm bondage film. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1949 | Irving Klaw purchases from Coutts, a cartoon series Sweet Gwendoline in the Escape Artiste. (Robert Bienvenu) | |||
| 1949 | Sam Steward and Steve Masters meet in Alfred Kinsey’s garden. The two, who would each later be leather icons in their own right, perform SM scenes for Kinsey’s research. |