This rare photo features Irving Klaw’s Pin-Up Photo when it was located next to the Jefferson Theatre on 14th Street in Manhattan. The Jefferson, which later became known as a mecca for cult cinema and kung fu flicks, is screening kaiju eiga monster classic Rodan (1956), along with Battle Hell (1957), Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954) & Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957).

Klaw’s business, which eventually became Movie Star News, began in 1938 when he and his sister Paula opened a basement level used bookstore at 209 East 14th Street.

After Klaw discovered the popularity of the photos inside of his self-published movie magazines, he switched to selling movie star stills and lobby photo cards and stopped selling books. Klaw soon moved the store from the basement to the street-level storefront. Business thrived, and the self-named “Pin-Up King” moved to 212 E. 14th St., as Irving Klaw’s Pin-Up Photo, eventually taking the name Movie Star News.

Irving Klaw was also a photographer in his own right, focusing mainly on fetish and bondage subjects. His models included Barbara Leslie, Vicky Hayes, Joan “Eve” Rydell, Lili Dawn, Shirley “Cici” Maitland, Kevin Daley, Roz Greenwood, and burlesque icon Bettie Page. Klaw also commissioned and distributed illustrated adventure and bondage chapter serials by fetish artists Eric Stanton, Gene Bilbrew and Adolfo Ruiz, among others.