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Sin Doll

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What makes a good girl go bad?

How are cute young girls induced to pose for off-color photographs? Why does a pretty miss allow herself to be used for illicit pictures? To give you the answers, this outspoken novel probes the shocking excess of attractive Cherry Gordon - who started as a good kid, but was taught to be bad . . .

The temptations of night-club life, and coercion to make her perform at 'stag' affairs - these things might not have ruined her. But then Cherry was pushed, poked, and prodded into the role of star performer in provocative photos. Thereafter her sins became progressively greater, and progressively worse.

There might have been hope for Cherry, for one man, although active in the foul racket, truly loved her. By this time, however, she was blunted to ordinary morals, commonplace desires. One day he found Cherry in the arms of a redheaded woman . . .

179 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

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About the author

Orrie Hitt

221 books30 followers
Orrie Edwin Hitt was born in Colchester and died from cancer in a VA hospital in Montrose, NY. He married Charlotte Tucker in Pt Jervis, NY (a small town upstate where he became a lifelong resident), on Valentine’s Day, '43. Orrie & Charlotte had 4 kids—Joyce, Margaret, David & Nancy. He was under 5’5″, taking a 27' inseam, which his wife altered because no one sold pants so short.

Hitt wrote maybe 150 books. He wasn’t sure. “I’m no adding machine”, he answered on the back cover of his book Naked Flesh, when asked how many he’d written. “All I do is write. I usually start at 7 in the morning, take 20 minutes for lunch & continue until about 4 in the afternoon.” Hitt wrote a novel every 2 weeks in his prime, typing over 85 wpm. “His fastest & best works were produced when he was allowed to type whatever he wanted,” said his children. “His slowest works were produced when publishers insisted on a certain kind of novel, extra spicy etc.”

Most of Hitt’s books were PBOs. He also wrote some hardcovers. Pseudonyms include Kay Addams, Joe Black, Roger Normandie, Charles Verne & Nicky Weaver. Publishers include Avon, Beacon (later Softcover Library), Chariot, Domino (Lancer), Ember Library, Gaslight, Key Publishing, Kozy, MacFadden, Midwood, Novel, P.E.C, Red Lantern, Sabre, Uni-books, Valentine Books, Vantage Press, Vest-Pocket & Wisdom House.

He wrote in the adults only genre. Many of such writers were hacks, using thin plots as an excuse to throw tits & ass between covers for a quick buck. Others used the genre as a stepping stone to legitimate writing, later dismissing this part of their career. There were few like Hitt, whose writing left an original, idiosyncratic & lasting mark even beyond the horizons of '50s-mid 60s adult publishing. What made him unique was his belief he was writing realistically about the needs & desires, the brutality (both verbal & physical), the hypocritical lives inside the suburban tracts houses & the limited economic opportunities for women that lay beneath the glossy, Super Cinecolor, Father Knows Best surface of American life. He studied what he wrote about. Wanting to write about a nudist camp, he went to one tho “he wouldn't disrobe”.

His research allowed him to write convincingly. S. Stryker, in her Queer Pulp: Perverted Passions from the Golden Age of the Paperback, says, “Only one actual lesbian, Kay Addams, writing as Orrie Hitt, is known to have churned out semipornographic sleaze novels for a predominantly male audience.” She thought “Orrie Hitt” a pseudonym, & “Kay Addams” a real lesbian author! Orrie’d like that one.

It wasn’t just about sex. It was also about guts. “The characters,” Hitt’s protagonist–a movie producer complimenting a screenwriter on her work–says in the novel Man-Hungry Female, “were very real, red blooded people who tore at the guts of life. That’s what I’m after. Guts.” If anyone knew about guts, it was him.

Life started out tough for Hitt. His father committed suicide when he was 11. “Dad seldom spoke of his father, who'd committed suicide, because it was a very unpleasant chapter in his life,” said his children.

After Father’s death, Orrie & his mother moved to Forestburgh, NY, where they worked for a hunting-fishing club. He started doing chores for wealthy members for $.10 hourly. Management offered him a better job later, at .25 hourly. Eventually, he became club caretaker & supervisor. “Dad talked a lot about working as a child to help his mother make ends meet,” his children recalled. “He wanted his children to have a better life while growing up.”

Tragedy struck Hitt again during those years. His children explain: “Dad’s mom died at her sister’s house on the club property during an ice storm, so Dad walked to the house to get his mother & carried her back to his car"

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Josh.
1,732 reviews179 followers
November 27, 2022
Right from the outset, you know what sort of book this is.

Originally published in 1959, the sleaze racket of the time could be considered moderate by today's standards, however, for Cherry, the buxom beauty at the centre of the plot, 1959 was a time when nudity and posing for pictures was near one of the worst professions a girl on the make could have. The only problem was - she needed money and was prepared to put her morals aside to get that green - to an extent that is.

Singing in cafe's, undertaking menial work in factories and working as a receptionist/bookkeeper didn't provide enough dough to make way for the big smoke, that, coupled with a deadbeat boyfriend with an equally dead end job, lead Cherry down a path she never thought she'd walk; posing for nudes pictures.

Seems a little tame, however when accosted to ramp things up and move into filming R-rated acts with strangers, the line she'd not cross was firmly drawn and oddly enough - her firm 'no' resulted in better long term life prospects. Enter Tom, her photographer who happened to be madly in love with her, whispering sweet nothings and promising her a wedding ring and to keep the nude pictures he took of her to himself - damn the money! Cherry seems pleased with this, however, life has a way of complicating things...if only she didn't have these other urges...

Sin Doll is pure sleaze pulp; from big city dreaming Cherry down to Millie, a stripper/sex worker who tries and succeeds in helping Cherry discover her sexual orientation, the pages drip with lust.

Yet there's more to the story which makes Orrie Hitt's style so easily readable and enjoyable. True, sexploitation is the name of the game, however Cherry's character is as well rounded as her curvaceous wares with Hitt writing her as a fully independent woman with sass and charisma to burn with a sense of self worth which puts her head and shoulders above the males who try (and fail) to take advantage of her. I wouldn't go as far as calling this a 'coming of age story', however there are some themes akin to that style of narrative.
Profile Image for Steven.
Author 1 book115 followers
October 9, 2021
Basic good girl gone bad plot. Cherry's motive is money and heavy hitting the booze makes her go further than she intended. Plus she's constantly berated with “you are no good, just like your mother, she was a tramp and put you up for adoption.” Next thing you know she is quitting her factory job and becoming the sin doll of the title by posing nude for 1950s era pornography. As with most of Hitt’s books he stays on the good side of the censors by omitting the sex scenes and skewing the narrative with moralizing. It gets redundant as she has the same don’t-be-a-bad-girl-be-a-good-girl arguments with her parents over and over. And her boyfriend wants to have the same argument over and over about getting married. Having to listen to all that, no wonder she drinks and has a lesbian affair instead.
Profile Image for Oliver Clarke.
Author 99 books2,065 followers
August 13, 2022
A lot of trashy fun in parts, but all over the place.
Profile Image for Emily.
109 reviews9 followers
May 22, 2013
Most fan fiction is better than this crap.

Beginning inauspiciously with incredibly stilted language and bad sex, this seedy little dime novel doesn't really have any redeeming qualities. It's got vintage titillation and a couple of lesbian scenes, sure, but even then it's so packed full of moralistic angst that only someone as caught up in the same shame over porn can ever get into Cherry's head. At no point does Cherry sound like a woman, rather than a man's idea of what a proper woman should feel, and every man is a fast-talking manipulative bastard that all just happen to be good guys who want the best for her after all, and don't you feel sorry for them. The Madonna/Whore complex on display here is so intense that it seems to drive every interaction, and the bland main character exists only for other people to push around for most of the book.

The one thing that kept me from putting it down is that the writing did improve and start to flow, even if the characters and story didn't. It felt like a first novel, and I feel bad for buying a few Orrie Hitt books at once now.
Profile Image for Warren.
Author 3 books6 followers
May 17, 2021
This was bad even by "no expectations" standards. Definitely has the "plot was determined as he was typing" feeling. This can be avoided, even if it is a quick read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews

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