IRVING KLAW

Irving Klaw was a legendary figure in Hollywood photography! He was born in New York City, and his family owned a business which is known today as Movie Star News. He started in 1939 with used books, and in the 1940s, he began selling movie star photos, which sold so well that he gave up selling books, and concentrated on the photos (and he was called "The King of Movie Stills"). In the late 1940s, he discovered that selling images of sexy women in erotic poses (especially "bound" fetish poses) outsold the Hollywood photos, and he wanted to specialize in them, but he could not find enough of them to satisfy his customers. So his sister and he began taking photos of burlesque dancers (and his most famous model was Bettie Page), and he also got involved in publishing illustrated bondage books and even produced some burlesque movies. Kefauver Hearings (like the ones that ended horror comics in the early 1950s) also did in Klaw's business. He continued his business in a much smaller fashion, and made a couple more movies, before he passed away in 1966 at the age of 55.