Wow! That's old! How about a story and letters from 1937?

"Wow! That's old" is a reply to my post about the date of 1994 for a story in my archive.

Well, I can top that by a lot. How about 1937?

https://archive.org/details/Hollywood_Nights_3rd_Series_02_1937-05_Cimmerian32-DPP

You can download the publication above in a variety of formats. The interesting parts for us begin with the 4th story on page 22 and continue to the letters section. (In creating the pdf, someone switched the order of pages 36 and 37 - NOT a huge issue and still very, very appreciative of the scanner's efforts.)

I found the joke from 1937 mildly amusing:

"Are you refusing to kiss me?" he demanded.

"Well, I've never done it before," she admitted.

"Never kissed a man?"

"Oh no - Never refused to!"

Regards,
Tiredny

PS: Can anyone show us some even older American magazine stories? The British have their Pearl and Englishwomen's Domestic something or other, that go waaaaay back.

Well, that was certainly some interesting reading, particularly the letters:

1) An Austrian female doctor reported that their (1899) prison regulations allowed up to 30 strokes of the birch rod to the bare body as long as it was administered by a woman. She claimed to have witnessed many such thrashings and had the authority to stop them if necessary. Interestingly, she said "I never found the occasion to do so, though I have sometimes relieved the suffer somewhat by directing the remaining strokes to be applied somewhat lower down than the usual place." Not certain what the "usual place" was, but if it was her buttocks then would having her thighs swatted instead really relieved her suffering?

2) A 1912 couple admitted being switches, giving each other up to 15 cane strokes when deserved.

3) A sneaky guy sets his wife up for failure so he can spank her. "Smacked Wife" complains that he picks out her lacy lingerie and insists on her wearing the shortest skirts possible, but then if she accidentally flashes any of that lace in public he administers a severe spanking for her "immodesty."

4) An assistant headmistress explains that if her girls make too much noise while they're being caned they automatically get five extra strokes (harsh!).

5) This one creeped me out a bit as being excessive. A mom bragged about tying her 20 year old daughter's hands and feet to the bedstead and then starting whipping her with a birch rod on her shoulders and continuing all the way down "so that I did not leave one inch of her back or legs without a stripe." Yet supposedly the daughter is now happily married and has repeatedly thanked Mom for that thrashing...

Yes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. You can find similar tales even now among the various spanking-related voy.com forums.

The birch was sometimes used on the back or shoulders. No, I don't know why anyone would birch anywhere except the bottom (well, maybe the thighs) but that happened. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birching :
Birching is a corporal punishment with a birch rod, typically applied to the recipient's bare buttocks, although occasionally to the back and/or shoulders.

So if that place normally birched on the back she was telling them to birch the bottom.

I've found the hard boiled detective fiction from that era is also filled with spanking references.

Yes, I have seen those references as well. Another surprising source is the hard core sci-fi mags.

Back in the day they included spankings because the censors wouldn't let them include sex. At least not without a fight - like Lady Chatterly's Lover faced.

Well, I just had to see whether I could "top" my find of 1937 American magazine stories and here is what I found:

Liberty Vol 10 No. 8
February 25, 1933

Big Hands for Little Girls

Washington, D. C. — I have just read in the January 28 Vox Pop of the spanking received by seventeen-year-old Simone Ortiz.

I am nineteen years old and live with my father and his sister and both of them believe in old-fashioned discipline, and say whenever I behave like a child I should be treated as such, and how!

It is bad enough when my aunt whips me, but whenever my father does the honors, it is an event to be remembered.

He goes to work about 7:30 A. M., and he always administers the spanking just before he leaves. I am taken out of bed and carried to a chair in the middle of the room (placed there so I can kick without hitting any furniture), when my father picks me up and lays me across his lap, and then he lays the hairbrush on until I feel like I am on fire. Sometimes I kick and squirm so much that my aunt has to hold my feet, and then, boy, I really get it. — M. H.

Montreal, Can. — Give me Liberty and a spanking. Evidently Betty and Simone can't take it. Why blame their parents for their spankings instead of their naughtiness?

I had been naughty for some time, but the climax came when I used some wise cracks from Liberty on Ma which she thought impudent. Results : Taken by the ear to my room, undressed, bottoms up on Ma's knees, bare flesh spanked by palm of her hand, spanks and howls heard through house.

I am now forbidden to read Liberty, but still do, although it means another spanking soon. — Sweet Sixteen Who Got a Big Hand in the Right Place.



Liberty Vol 13 No. 44
OCTOBER 31, 1936

FINISH THAT SPANKING OR -

Champaign, III. — I am a regular reader of Liberty and have been enjoying the story Godiva Was a Lady very much. But why, oh why, when Stephen had Stella "in the old spanking position" (September 19 Liberty), did the author make him lose his nerve and stop the proceedings?

I'm sure that if any man turned me over his knee and didn't go ahead and spank, I wouldn't have any more to do with him!

Congratulations to the artist on his picture. It is the most natural and realistic "spanking picture" I have seen in some time. — Marie.



Liberty Vol 13 No. 50
DECEMBER 12, 1936

SPANKED WIVES FORM CLUB

Sioux City, Ia. — I am going to ask a favor for our club, and hope that you will grant it. I am a young married woman and I organized a club of twelve other married women between the ages of nineteen and forty. We call our club the W. O. S. H. Club — meaning wives of spanking husbands. Our husbands always spank us when we need it, and we admire them for it, and we know that clubs like ours will prevent many divorces.

Most all wives need to be spanked about every so often, and it really makes them like their husbands more and brings couples closer together and also makes home life something to be proud of. We expect to have thirty members by a month from now, and we always insist that they buy a Liberty before they come to the meetings, which are held once a week on Thursday or sometimes Friday.

It was through your magazine that we got interested in forming a club. We have voted to give three dollars to the lady, married or single, who sends us the best letter about spanking. After we decide which letter is best, we will send it to Vox Pop to be printed in Liberty, and the three dollars will be sent to the winner.

We hope you will help us, as we want all the information we can get about spanking. — Reta Rae.

[We receive quite a lot of letters about spanking— it seems to be in the air — and we feel sure Mrs. Rae will hear plenty on the subject. — Vox Pop Editor.]

Now, this last letter I have seen before in a magazine dated in the 60's. Clearly a "steal", but it makes you wonder whether the 1936 letter was a "steal" from an even earlier publication. On the other hand the continual reference to "Liberty" might just make this the original letter.

Regards,
Tiredny

PS: Like many of you, I am dying to see that pic from the September 19th Liberty.

Thanks for these letters, Tiredny. I suspect they were all written (or commissioned) by the editor, hence the repeated references to how much the authors enjoy the magazine, but I would just love them to be true. I especially liked the spanked wives club, although I wondered how one would go about identifying potential members, However, I suppose if the author's claim that 'most all wives need to be spanked about every so often' was true, then it might not be too difficult. Sounds like Sioux City in the 1930s was the place to be. Please keep us updated on any more discoveries, Tiredny.

Bob, in those days (long before TV and in the middle of the great depression) people spent significant time in church social events. Especially, in small towns where the church socials were the only game in town.

Commiserating with your fellow spanked wives or just sharing you are sore (and the reason for it) would be quite natural.

Hey... I just had a story idea!

Regards,
Tired