I’ve written about author Robert F. Dorr in previous entries here and posted reprints of several of his classic men’s adventure magazine stories (most recently, the ripping yarn “I FOUGHT CASTRO’S CUTTHROAT GUERRILLA SQUAD”).
Bob is one of our country’s top military and aviation historians. He’s written 70 books and hundreds of non-fiction articles over the past few decades.
His latest book, co-written with former U.S. astronaut Thomas D. Jones, is HELL HAWKS! The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht.
It’s an aerial “Band of Brothers” story about the 365th Fighter Group — the heroic P-47 Thunderbolt pilots and crews who played a vital role on the European front during World War II.
I’m a big fan of HELL HAWKS! and Bob Dorr’s other history books and articles — the types of writing he’s best known for today.
I’m also a big fan of the stories he wrote earlier in his writing career, in the 1960s and 1970s, for men’s adventure magazines.
Bob was adept at almost every type of story found in men’s pulp mags: war stories, spy stories, animal attack stories, exotic adventure stories and news-related exposés.
Unlike the history books and articles he specialized in later, most of Bob’s men’s adventure magazine stories were made up partly or wholly of fictional elements he created to fit the sensationalized style the editors wanted.
A common story genre in vintage men’s pulp mags was the “sex exposé.”
Stories of this kind are sometimes called “sexposés.” Many are Kinsey-like articles about sex trends or “perversions.” Some are semi-anthropological stories about “primitive” sex customs. Others are basically sex-oriented travel pieces.
One of my favorite examples of a foreign travel sexposé is Bob Dorr’s “BEHIND THE SCENES OF BUDAPEST’S SEX REVOLT,” a story published in the September 1970 issue of Bluebook magazine. (You can read the entire story in PDF format by clicking this link.)
Recently, I asked Bob some questions about these types of stories and he kindly reached back into his memory for some answers...
Thanks for talking with me, Bob. First, on a recent topic, have you been surprised by the positive reception for HELL HAWKS! and the large number of followers you have on the Facebook group for the book?
BOB DORR: HELL HAWKS! has, indeed, had a positive reception and has been praised by critics. I’m especially pleased that a lot of people have come to our book signing events. [NOTE: You can also order a signed copy of HELL HAWKS! by emailing Bob at robert.f.dorr@cox.net.] This is primarily a book about Americans at war, suitable for all ages, but we were delighted when one reviewer called it the best book, ever, about the P-47.
Back when you were writing stories for men’s adventure magazines, were you already planning to focus on becoming a military and aviation historian?
DORR: That was the farthest thing from my mind. From childhood, aviation and especially aircraft photography was my hobby. But as an author, my plan was to write the Great American Novel in the tradition of Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Mailer. There are bits and pieces of it, written over a period of decades, sitting in drawers all over my house. Taken together, they constitute a Not-So-Great American Novel. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
You wrote hundreds of action, adventure and war stories for men's adventure magazines. Did you also write a lot of “sex exposé” stories and were they your ideas or suggested by editors?
DORR: I wrote dozens of sex exposé stories and I did it all without having sex with anybody. With one exception involving one article, no editor ever suggested a topic to me. I simply looked at what the magazines were publishing and tried to copy it.
The Budapest story has references to true history and a lot of details about the city. How much was based on personal knowledge versus imagination?
DORR: I’ve never been to Budapest. I don’t remember how I wrote the story. I believe “pure imagination” was a big factor. Remember that any place with a faraway name was deemed exotic back in 1970 and not very many other Americans had ever been to Budapest, either.
DORR: The Magazine Management Company magazines, like Stag and Male, and Pyramid’s Man’s Magazine almost always paid $350. Bluebook paid less, so I may have received $200 for “Budapest.”
Two hundred to three-fifty in 1970 dollars would be over a thousand bucks today. Not bad. About how many stories did you write each month?
DORR: I finished about one story every couple of weeks.
The editor of Bluebook in 1970 was B.R. Ampolsk, the publisher of some of the wilder men’s adventure magazines in the 1960s and early 1970s. Do you have any recollection of dealing with him?
Although your Budapest story is sex-related, the sex scenes are really pretty mild by today's standards. Did the editors give you any guidelines or do much editing of what you wrote?
DORR: I guessed that they had guidelines and composed my stuff based on the level of explicitness in other stories they were publishing. The editors made very few changes and discussed none of them with me.
Are there any other things you recall when you re-read your Budapest story today? Was it as much fun to write as it is to read?
DORR: It wasn’t half as much fun as you might suspect. I’m picturing me with manual typewriter, carbon paper, white-out ink, cigarettes, and booze. I don’t use any of those tools any longer. I think I recall being fairly humorless about all this and never detecting at the time that these magazines were, to a degree, farce.
Thanks again to Bob Dorr for talking with me and allowing me to reprint another of his classic men’s adventure magazine stories. There will be more to come in future posts.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on the Men’s Adventure Magazines Facebook Group.
Further reading: some of the books by Robert F. Dorr
