SEXIS WRONG

his survival skills and increase his already well-developed
sense of do unto others before they do unto you.
But at this moment he did something that might be considered
courageous in any other individual but in Marvin was
just an example of brazen recklessness. In the immediate aftermath
of the Kennedy assassination, he was approached
by a CBS photographer who put together a “quickie” event
book on the tragedy—amongst the first, if not the first, such
quickie event books that would become standard over the
years. But now, in late 1963, early 1964, a wholly controversial,
some might say tasteless, opportunity. To make money.
Which, for Marvin, obviated any objections or other considerations.
The CBS guy had shopped it around. Nobody wanted anything
to do with it. Marvin? He published the book, Four Dark Days
in History, in magazine format with a huge print run. According
to his son, Ron, it sold 30 million copies and earned Marvin
a small fortune. 9 But what was really controversial about
the book was not its opportunistic tastelessness—Jackie and
the rest of the nation were still grieving—but its immediate
status as a political bombshell. For while everybody and his
mother in the government had embraced the lone-gunman
theory, the CBS photographer had the only shot that blew
that scenario out of the water: the Mary Moorman photograph
of the grassy knoll, clearly defining a person standing
where alternative theorists claim the fatal shot originated.
The photograph disappeared soon afterward, so the Warren
Commission had to buy a copy of Marvin’s book to see it.
This was Marvin’s first unlikely entry into American politicalcultural
history—a footnote to be sure, but a bona fide credential
and by no means his last.
Marvin now had some publishing experience under his belt;
he made money, a lot of it, by going out on a perilous limb.
Another lesson learned. The books Marvin published afterward,
however, were of a decidedly different character, and
while they never matched his Kennedy book in sales, they
were enormously successful. Marvin was the man responsible
for such immortal novelty titles as It’s Fun to Be Jewish!,
It’s Fun to Be a Mother!, It’s Fun to Be a Monster!, It’s Fun
to Be a Beatnik!, It’s Fun to Be Offbeat!, etc. It’s fun to be a
publisher: Marvin was making money hand over fist. He also
published Extremism U.S.A., a view of the far right and left;
The Official Polish Joke Book; Mrs. Goldberg Uncovers Hollywood;
The Ugly Book; and a host of other literary gems.
In 1965 he published what for him must have been the Bible
(though he issued a magazine-format edition of that other
Bible, you know, the Old Testament): Justice Be Damned!,
with a cover featuring a gothic-looking electric chair and the
tagline, “You Could Be Executed For A Crime You Didn’t
Commit!” His ad for the book read: “Every year 15,000
Americans are unjustly accused, tried and sent to prison. You
or someone you love could be next!”
To gain a foothold in the burgeoning sex end of publishing, in
June of 1965 he issued Daniel Defoe’s 1724 novel Roxanna;
Or, The Fortunate Mistress (“Another Searing Boudoir Saga
From the Author of Moll Flanders!”) and his 1726 The History
of the Devil, as Well Ancient and Modern; In Two Parts, under
the title Devil (“A Spine-Chilling Exposé of Evil Incarnate!”).
These were sex-lite titles, classics; they’d never run afoul of
the law since their original publication. Marvin spiced them
up with suggestive covers and galante text illustrations.
Marvin learned a few new tricks. His edition of Devil was a
photo-offset reprint of the first edition (London, Printed for T.
Warner, 1726), which is to say he photographed the book and
printed it from the photographic transfer plates—no typesetting
involved and a major expense avoided. And—forget for
the moment the public’s wet dreams—he’d discovered the
publisher’s wet dream: free content! For the Defoe books
were, and are, in the public domain. Free content, no typesetting
became his publishing mantra. At this point, Marvin was
working out of an office at 7046 Hollywood Boulevard, and
these books were issued under the imprint APS (Associated
Professional Services), with Marvin Miller Enterprises, Inc. as
the copyright holder.
In February 1966, in advance of the Supreme Court’s ob-
THE MAN WHO SCREWED THINGS UP 239