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Dolls and Dues
What kind of woman was Paul s wife? She was a company doll with a bankroll for a heart, and a body that denied a man nothing - except love!
What kind of man was Paul? He was a union boss, magnetic, handsome, a leader of men - and irresistible to women. He was also ruthless, greedy, and completely lustful.
So everywhere in his vicious world of the fast buck and faster dames he sought the love his wife denied him. He picked it up from tramps and debutramps, from trollops, even from nice girls . . . And all the while he built his monstrous machine to bleed business dry and squeeze the working man. For Paul Jackson was driven by naked lust - for wealth . . . lust for power . . . above all, lust for women!
What kind of man was Paul? He was a union boss, magnetic, handsome, a leader of men - and irresistible to women. He was also ruthless, greedy, and completely lustful.
So everywhere in his vicious world of the fast buck and faster dames he sought the love his wife denied him. He picked it up from tramps and debutramps, from trollops, even from nice girls . . . And all the while he built his monstrous machine to bleed business dry and squeeze the working man. For Paul Jackson was driven by naked lust - for wealth . . . lust for power . . . above all, lust for women!
Paperback
First published January 1, 1957
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About the author
Orrie Hitt
221 books31 followersOrrie 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"
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"
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 21, 2017
Dolls and Dues follows Paul Jackson, an insurance salesman turned union boss. His rise through the ranks is a quick one, his fall equally so. Throughout the novel we see Paul gradually grate on the nerves of his women and that of the businessmen he's trying to extort perks from on behalf of his members. We see his trials and tribulations and the all expectant crash landing.
That's really all there is to it. There's a not a lot of depth here and that's ok; the story ticks along at a nice pace and Paul isn't quite a cardboard cutout character (though close) with just enough surface value to swing a sense for his character; self absorbed and ambitious.
The cover blurb is misleading, making Dolls and Dues read like an oversexed romp;
"...everywhere in his vicious world of the fast buck and faster dames he sought the love his wife denied him. He picked it up from tramps and debutramps, from trollops, even from nice girls."
While there is an element of this in the book, its by no means the be all end all of the story.
Overall, I liked the change of pace. Not what I was expecting but its a quick and easy read that allows you to switch off and not take books too seriously for a while.
My rating: 3 / 5 stars.
That's really all there is to it. There's a not a lot of depth here and that's ok; the story ticks along at a nice pace and Paul isn't quite a cardboard cutout character (though close) with just enough surface value to swing a sense for his character; self absorbed and ambitious.
The cover blurb is misleading, making Dolls and Dues read like an oversexed romp;
"...everywhere in his vicious world of the fast buck and faster dames he sought the love his wife denied him. He picked it up from tramps and debutramps, from trollops, even from nice girls."
While there is an element of this in the book, its by no means the be all end all of the story.
Overall, I liked the change of pace. Not what I was expecting but its a quick and easy read that allows you to switch off and not take books too seriously for a while.
My rating: 3 / 5 stars.
December 24, 2021
Hitt's books make for interesting cultural anthropology artifacts because he usually focuses on some occupation or business or a business-like scam and then immerses his protagonist in that world. Here we have a union organizer circa 1957. The target is the 16,000 insurance agents at a large insurance company, and Paul Jackson's task is to get all those agents to join a newly created union and then call a strike against the insurance company. When the agents are slow to sign up Jackson comes up with his brainstorm: host big parties for the agents and make sure there are plenty of hookers and booze. The agents start signing up in droves. Jackson hires a crew of good looking women and sends them on a road trip to towns where the insurance company has lots of agents. The union dues start rolling in. I will spare you the rest of the plot, but it involves greed and fraud and the eventual fall of Paul Jackson from his perch as President of the union. See, he has a problem with the dolls. He beds pretty much every woman he comes in contact with, although none of that is ever described, simply alluded to in a sentence. So plenty of sleaze but no sex scenes.
July 18, 2024
Not one of Orrie Hitt's better efforts.
February 20, 2013
Some rough patches in this story about the rise and fall of a corrupt and ruthless union boss...Hitt writes convincingly about the insurance biz and union organizing.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews