Irving Klaw
Irving Klaw (November 9, 1910 - September 3, 1966) was an American photographer and filmmaker.
Klaw is best known for operating a mail-order business selling photographs and film of attractive women (sometimes in bondage) from the 1940s to the 1960s. He was one of the first fetish photographers, and one of his models, Bettie Page, became the first famous bondage model.
Movie Star News
Klaw was born Isadore Klaw in Brooklyn, New York. into a Jewish family. His business, which eventually became Movie Star News, began in 1935 when he and his sister Paula opened a struggling used bookstore at 209 E. 14th St. in Manhattan.
After he discovered teenagers were frequently tearing out photos from his movie magazines, around 1939 he started selling movie star stills and lobby photo cards. Customers could order by item number from catalogs of sample photos. These sold so well that he stopped selling books and moved the store from the basement to the street-level storefront and renamed it Irving Klaw Pin Ups.
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