Focus on Focus ! Leonard Burtman Selbee Focus Magazine Vintage Sleaze
Lenny Burtman produced at least seven issues of "Focus…" the first which is, of course, Bettie Page and a landmark of publishing sleaze! I have seen questionable digital downloads available, but the actual artifact is a hundred dollars and up, one having sold for nearly $500. Even though the photographs Irving Klaw took of Ms. Page are far better known, Burtman's photos were hotter. The actual shots were taken either by Lenny or Sam Menning, I believe. Bettie is of course lovely, but I like the Eric Stanton cartoons of her better, in which the model, tired of her dark looks, tries to go red to no avail. By 1963 Bettie was famous enough to be satirized in a comic strip, even though she had left the business. Focus on Bettie Page came out in 1963, unfortunately long after the model was able to profit from her photographs, but Lenny sure could…and did. He also took time to point out Ms. Page's shoe size (of course) along with a full page layout of her shoes.
Second was Focus on London After Dark, which featured the story of a generic British sex scandal. Lenny had been doing business with the Brits…swapping photos, and apparently even picking up the fetish magazine Fads and Fancies, taking it over and publishing it himself. Still, after the bombshell Bettie issue, this one is little more exciting than a soggy bag of fish and chips. He had also once been arrested for importing photos from England.
Third was Focus on Strip Tease around the world, which makes sense as if Lenny could get cheap photos of virtually the only people doing nude back then, that being waning burlesquers…he would use them. By 1964 "real" magazines from the newsstands were doing this type of thing better, and while he hardly had the distribution of the big guys (Burtman's stuff was still for the most part "under the counter" that helps make the magazines more fun and more scarce today.)
Four was Focus on the Cinema (or Sin-ema) in 1964 and was as much an excuse to promote his failed film "Satan in High Heels" as anything else. Probably the most interesting of the lot, but only for the documentation of early nudies at a time when films were changing from cheap stags to cheap porn which was aimed at the theater rather than a dormitory wall.
Six was Focus on Las Vegas in 1965. Again, loads of stage babes, many of them in elaborate goofy costumes so they could qualify as "show girls" rather than strippers.
Seven was Focus on Girls Around the World. By this time the magazine was starting to lose that distinctive Burtman look, and I believe this was the last issue. When Health Knowledge took over Burtman's publishing, I think Lenny lost a little interest.
