I have come to acknowledge that I have unintentionally started a small collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century sex manuals. My most recent purchase is The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex from May 1954, originally published in 1950. The book was written by several authors, the ones listed were: Dr. A. Willy, Dr. L Vander, and Dr. O Fisher, and it was published by Cadillac Publishing Company, Inc., New York. After researching the publishing company, I determined I had to make this blog a two-parter, the first part focusing on the publishing company and the second part on the book itself. The analysis was done using newspaper articles and an online report on a legal case that Cadillac Publishing was involved in in 1955. Due to the source material, some details are limited.
The Cadillac Publishing Company was established sometime before 1940, with the exact date unknown. On December 8, 1940, the Daily News, a New York City paper, printed an ad for Cadillac’s 
book titled “Ideal Sex Life” which was available for purchase through the mail. The ad read that it would be mailed “in a plain wrapper marked ‘personal’.” The only requirement that the purchaser had to fulfill other than the $1.98 payment, was that they had to be over the age of 21. A year later on June 29, 1941, another ad was published in the same paper for another one of Cadillac’s book, Sexual History of the World War by Dr. Magnus Hirschfield. The ad claimed that the book was “burned by Hitler” due to its content. Sex manuals were available for order at Cadillac Publishing till
their mysterious closure in c.1984, in addition to educational literature on a variety of topics. (1)
Cadillac Publishing advertised a “free offer” with the purchase of the book. The promise of a free item became an issue in 1948 when Cadillac, along with Book-of-the-Month Club, Inc., Doubleday & Co., Inc., Literary Guild of America, Inc., Nelson Doubleday, Inc., Book League of America, Doubleday One Dollar Book, and Home Book Club were accused by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) of “falsely offering ‘free’ dividends or bonus books. Because a customer had to purchase a book to receive the free item, the FTC argued that the “free item” was then in fact not free. The outcome of the decision regarding the usage of “free” in advertising was not settled until May of 1952, four years later. Ultimately though, the FTC “accepted [the] usage [of the word ‘free”] with bureaucratic fiat.”(2) Cadillac’s run-ins with the law did not end there.(3)
Later that same year, publishers who had ads for their sex books in movie magazines were under investigation by the House of Representatives. Max Shapiro who was the head of Cadillac Publishing Co., was criticized for the ads of their books Sex Facts for Adults Only, How Shall I Tell My Child, and Illustrated Sex Facts. The concern was that advertising these publications in movie periodicals would make their content “appeal to minors.” This incident was part of a larger movement in 1952 by Rev. Thomas J. Fitzgerald who went to Congress to “crack down on lurid sex and crime periodicals and drive them from the nation’s newsstands.”(4) In 1957, it was determined that the ads for sex books in magazines did break obscenity laws. At the same time as this decision Cadillac Publishing, Inc. was in court against the United States Post Office for confiscating their mail due to the questioning of “advertisements [Cadillac] had published in 140 issues of ‘girlie; and ‘men’s’ magazine offering for sale an ‘Illustrated Encyclopedia of Sex.’”(5) Initially, District Judge Alexander Holtzoff upheld the ban on the advertising stating that the “increase in recent years of obscene and lewd periodicals is a serious social evil.” (6) The following March of 1958, the decision that prohibited Cadillac Publishing Company from advertising their sex books was overturned by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia allowing Cadillac to advertise their book Encyclopedia of Sex with no limitations. (7)
Cadillac’s success in the Court of Appeals in 1958 seemingly was the publisher’s last legal fight. The company continued to sell books for the next twenty-some years until it closed sometime in 1984. The Albuquerque Tribune newspaper printed an inquiry from a reader regarding Cadillac’s phone number on March 19, 1984, the write-up read:
Q – I need the address and phone number for Cadillac Publishing Co. It sells encyclopedias. The public library gave me a phone number, but it has been disconnected – J.G.
A – JG tried an address in New York and a phone number in St. Louis, and both were outdated. Maybe some reader has a more recent number and will share it.(8)
Nothing further reported on Cadillac Publishing could be found. It seemed as though the company went “quietly into the good night” as no one seemed aware the company was closed until attempts to contact them were made.(9) Today what is left of Cadillac books are available at antique shops, used bookshops, and online through private sellers.
I could not find a lot on Cadillac Publishing, but I am sure there is further material on the publisher tucked away in a repository somewhere.
I hope you enjoyed it and thank you so much for reading it!
Sources:
(1) Daily News (New York, NY), June 8, 1940.; Ibid., June 29, 1941
(2) Evening Star (Washington DC) May 16. 1952.
(3) Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), July 4, 1948.
(4) Ibid., Dec. 3, 1952.
(5)The Tablet (Brooklyn, NJ), Oct. 12, 1957.
(6) Ibid.
(7) Evening Star (Washington DC), March 7, 1958
(8) Albuquerque Tribune (Albuquerque, NM), March 19, 1984.
Ahmad Graves-El says
Interesting read. Thanks for sharing!