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Shabby Street
Orrie Hitt’s 1954 pulp classic is back and better than ever in a brand new acid-free trade paperback and eBook still sporting its original Walter Popp cover.
From the original: Johnny Reagan quickly learned the slum’s depraved rules for survival. At six, he was a petty thief. At twelve, he was a procurer. At twenty-one, he was a respectable, lovable, 18-carat heel who never missed a trick—especially if she promised an evening’s cheap thrills. Then rich Mr. Connors befriended Johnny, and Johnny knew there was big money to be made—if he pulled the right strings, told the right lies, and played around with the right women. But Johnny played with Julie . . . Julie who had been brought up in the same slum that had spawned Johnny—and who knew all the cute gutter tricks Johnny thought were his exclusive property . . . plus a few female tricks all her own. A tough and lusty novel that moves with the white-heat of a lightning bolt!
From the original: Johnny Reagan quickly learned the slum’s depraved rules for survival. At six, he was a petty thief. At twelve, he was a procurer. At twenty-one, he was a respectable, lovable, 18-carat heel who never missed a trick—especially if she promised an evening’s cheap thrills. Then rich Mr. Connors befriended Johnny, and Johnny knew there was big money to be made—if he pulled the right strings, told the right lies, and played around with the right women. But Johnny played with Julie . . . Julie who had been brought up in the same slum that had spawned Johnny—and who knew all the cute gutter tricks Johnny thought were his exclusive property . . . plus a few female tricks all her own. A tough and lusty novel that moves with the white-heat of a lightning bolt!
274 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 2012
6 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
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"
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 17, 2021
Surprisingly, below the many layers of sleaze and grit there proves to be some depth here. Shabby Street is a lurid, hardboiled story about Johnny Reagan, a down and dirty grifter from the streets who straddles the line between amorality and depravity and believes that anybody dumb or naive enough to get duped, whether in love or business, deserves it. And he's got zero regrets about any of it. From beginning to end he digs himself deeper and deeper in the hole as he gets caught up in an insurance racket of his own making, juggling multiple women and angles, until things start flying apart at the seams like you know they must eventually.
No doubt a real SOB, Johnny's not without his charms, and every so often there's the briefest glimmer there may be something actually human deep down inside that's redeemable. The women featured are also wonderfully conceived, with depth and variety. Some are ruthless sharks like Reagan, some turn out clever enough to beat him at his own game, and others of course are just the patsies he thought they were all along. The writing is better than I was expecting, consisting of lots of Johnny's inner monologue and frequent dialogue, with some occasional flashes of real grit and flair...
"It was as hot in there as plate glass in the sun and the smells were all mixed up with it. My whole life on Clarke Street seemed to walk into the room and come showering down around me. I could see it in the chipped china on the drainboard, in the cracked and grease-stained paper on the walls, in the way my mother’s bare feet spread out, wide, on the linoleum floor. I saw it all and I wanted to throw up. I’d seen and known enough of it all to last me forever."
No doubt a real SOB, Johnny's not without his charms, and every so often there's the briefest glimmer there may be something actually human deep down inside that's redeemable. The women featured are also wonderfully conceived, with depth and variety. Some are ruthless sharks like Reagan, some turn out clever enough to beat him at his own game, and others of course are just the patsies he thought they were all along. The writing is better than I was expecting, consisting of lots of Johnny's inner monologue and frequent dialogue, with some occasional flashes of real grit and flair...
"It was as hot in there as plate glass in the sun and the smells were all mixed up with it. My whole life on Clarke Street seemed to walk into the room and come showering down around me. I could see it in the chipped china on the drainboard, in the cracked and grease-stained paper on the walls, in the way my mother’s bare feet spread out, wide, on the linoleum floor. I saw it all and I wanted to throw up. I’d seen and known enough of it all to last me forever."
May 7, 2021
This was Orrie Hitt's fourth novel and it's a serrated knife. Johnny Reagan is the first-person narrator and Hitt gave him a hard-boiled style and used it to show what a right bastard Johnny is. He has zero redeeming qualities - unless you count how hard he works at being a lying, cheating, thieving SOB -and he's proud of it. So this is a great little joy-ride with Johnny at the wheel. As usual with Hitt's books we get the inside look at some scammy business. This time it's insurance agencies selling crap policies. Johnny starts up a couple of agencies, each one to bail-out what he stole from the last one, so there's the plot driver of him constantly having to raise cash to replace money he stole. Then there's Janet and Julie and Beverly and Cynthia. The first two he wants, the third he marries, and the last is sort of his partner in crime. Plot complications galore as Johnny chases and juggles his activities with these four women. Really enjoyed the edginess in this one. It's kind of what was lacking in some of the other Hitt books that I've rated lower. Has the same corny metaphors, the kind that clunk up the other books, but the difference here is that the rest of the writing is clean and tough and driven by a strong voice.
Want to read
July 29, 2018Originally printed by Beacon as number 104 in 1954.
November 9, 2022
3.5 stars.
A fast moving story, I got through the book's 262 pages in just two days.
The narrative grips one, as we meet Johnny Reagan, a heel who wants to rise above the hopelessness of his upbringing on Clarke Street and make good, in any way how.
A girl that he knew in the same area, Julie, also wants to better herself. But she isn't likely to go about things in the same way Johnny does. She is a single mother, which is a difficult thing to be in the early 1950's when this story is set.
There are two other women in Johnny's life. One, Janet, who gets helps Johnny get a new job in the life insurance industry and Beverly, the boss's daughter and his future wife.
But whoever comes into Johnny's life will be used and abused, they are nothing more than fodder who are there to satisfy his needs and help him along the path to financial success.
He even resorts to pilfering money from his new boss to fund a new and secret insurance agency of his own.
He is a rather awful person, treats those connected to him as rubbish and there were times when I wished he would get his comeuppance. Yet this reader didn't totally hate him.
But do all his misdeeds come back to bite him, does everything all fall down into a heap at the end?
In a simple morality tale, bad guys lose in the end. But is this book a morality tale?
I guess one has to read to find out. A good book overall. Sometimes I didn't think there was too much of a story plot-wise, and I would occasionally get a bit lost with some of the wheeling and dealing details of backstabbing people in the insurance business.
But the book is undeniably gripping, the chapters have cliffhanger-type endings, and the following chapters would be headlined to give one an indication or inkling on what was to happen next.
The book is a product of its time, and shows that times can change - for the better.
And it's made me feel less inclined than ever to carry out some life insurance policy - are they worth the paper they're printed on?
A fast moving story, I got through the book's 262 pages in just two days.
The narrative grips one, as we meet Johnny Reagan, a heel who wants to rise above the hopelessness of his upbringing on Clarke Street and make good, in any way how.
A girl that he knew in the same area, Julie, also wants to better herself. But she isn't likely to go about things in the same way Johnny does. She is a single mother, which is a difficult thing to be in the early 1950's when this story is set.
There are two other women in Johnny's life. One, Janet, who gets helps Johnny get a new job in the life insurance industry and Beverly, the boss's daughter and his future wife.
But whoever comes into Johnny's life will be used and abused, they are nothing more than fodder who are there to satisfy his needs and help him along the path to financial success.
He even resorts to pilfering money from his new boss to fund a new and secret insurance agency of his own.
He is a rather awful person, treats those connected to him as rubbish and there were times when I wished he would get his comeuppance. Yet this reader didn't totally hate him.
But do all his misdeeds come back to bite him, does everything all fall down into a heap at the end?
In a simple morality tale, bad guys lose in the end. But is this book a morality tale?
I guess one has to read to find out. A good book overall. Sometimes I didn't think there was too much of a story plot-wise, and I would occasionally get a bit lost with some of the wheeling and dealing details of backstabbing people in the insurance business.
But the book is undeniably gripping, the chapters have cliffhanger-type endings, and the following chapters would be headlined to give one an indication or inkling on what was to happen next.
The book is a product of its time, and shows that times can change - for the better.
And it's made me feel less inclined than ever to carry out some life insurance policy - are they worth the paper they're printed on?
December 17, 2024
In Shabby Street we follow the narrator, Johnny Reagan, through a year in his life. Johnny is a sociopath who cares nothing for anyone else, uses people left and right, is handy with his fists when dealing with his women, steals any money he comes into, etc. He’s basically a monster. He believes that his attitudes come from the fact that he was born on miserable Shabby Street and was destined from the moment of birth to be beaten by society. So, he devolved a tough exterior and does the beating himself. Here is a small example of his dealings with his one of his women::
“Christmas is a hell of a time of the year, Johnny.”
I agreed that it was.
“It’s the one day that when you’re no good you know it. You think of all of the things you’ve shoved aside and you want to slit your throat.”
“I’ll loan you a knife,” I told her. “I’ll even watch you do it.”
She was just a chippie and I had half a snootful and I didn’t give a damn about her.
“Must you be so cruel?” she wanted to know. She didn’t move away from me but she started to tremble and I could hear her crying. “Can’t you be human with me for once?”
“All right. I’m sorry.”
“You sound it.”
“Say, what do you want me to do, get it engraved on a twenty dollar bill for you?”
“Now you’re being nasty.”
“Have it your way.”
She tilted her head further back, resting it against my chest and she stopped crying. The moon hammered its way through the clouds and the whole night lit up.
The book was intense from beginning to end and is a modern day Emile Zola-oriented book of naturalism. And, being sleaze fiction, it really holds your interest.
“Christmas is a hell of a time of the year, Johnny.”
I agreed that it was.
“It’s the one day that when you’re no good you know it. You think of all of the things you’ve shoved aside and you want to slit your throat.”
“I’ll loan you a knife,” I told her. “I’ll even watch you do it.”
She was just a chippie and I had half a snootful and I didn’t give a damn about her.
“Must you be so cruel?” she wanted to know. She didn’t move away from me but she started to tremble and I could hear her crying. “Can’t you be human with me for once?”
“All right. I’m sorry.”
“You sound it.”
“Say, what do you want me to do, get it engraved on a twenty dollar bill for you?”
“Now you’re being nasty.”
“Have it your way.”
She tilted her head further back, resting it against my chest and she stopped crying. The moon hammered its way through the clouds and the whole night lit up.
The book was intense from beginning to end and is a modern day Emile Zola-oriented book of naturalism. And, being sleaze fiction, it really holds your interest.
October 8, 2020
Johnny Reagan pitilessly preys on anyone who thinks they can get something for nothing — suckers. He is hard -boiled, -bitten, -hearted, -nosed, and -edged. But he tells so many lies that he can't remember them all. The dames he defiles (Janet, Julie, Beverly, and Cynthia) want payback. Is Johnny the spider or the fly?
Orrie Hitt writes with flair. The dialog and Johnny's internal monolog is loaded with stinging one-liners. Each of the 24 chapters has a title. Each chapter ends with a short (4-8 word) paragraph — a concluding quip or a pity teaser.
Based on this one book, Orrie Hitt — the Dollar-Tree Tolstoy — should be revered as much as Thompson and Cain.
Orrie Hitt writes with flair. The dialog and Johnny's internal monolog is loaded with stinging one-liners. Each of the 24 chapters has a title. Each chapter ends with a short (4-8 word) paragraph — a concluding quip or a pity teaser.
Based on this one book, Orrie Hitt — the Dollar-Tree Tolstoy — should be revered as much as Thompson and Cain.
February 12, 2016
Meet Johnny Regan. Johnny likes to observe women.
"She went back to her buzzers, her slim fingers dancing over the board. She wasn’t any raving beauty. She just looked innocent and interesting. Her hair was black and her eyes were black and she had a pink rose complexion. She also had an hourglass figure with round, soft curves that wobbled just right when she walked — and got me thinking all wrong."
Which leads us to the other thing Johnny does a lot of and that's - thinking all wrong. And you are going to find lots of examples of female observations and wrong thinking in this book followed by a lot of loud moaning and in between little chunks of story.
So be prepared because it's one of those fifties softcore erotic tales starring a tough heartless guy who will do anything to get ahead, a woman with a pure heart who wants to save him and a lot of bad women who don't want to discourage him along with a large collection of saps (speaking in the vernacular of the day) waiting to be walked on.
Orrie Hitt? Well his little chunks of story telling weren't all that bad.
"She went back to her buzzers, her slim fingers dancing over the board. She wasn’t any raving beauty. She just looked innocent and interesting. Her hair was black and her eyes were black and she had a pink rose complexion. She also had an hourglass figure with round, soft curves that wobbled just right when she walked — and got me thinking all wrong."
Which leads us to the other thing Johnny does a lot of and that's - thinking all wrong. And you are going to find lots of examples of female observations and wrong thinking in this book followed by a lot of loud moaning and in between little chunks of story.
So be prepared because it's one of those fifties softcore erotic tales starring a tough heartless guy who will do anything to get ahead, a woman with a pure heart who wants to save him and a lot of bad women who don't want to discourage him along with a large collection of saps (speaking in the vernacular of the day) waiting to be walked on.
Orrie Hitt? Well his little chunks of story telling weren't all that bad.
May 17, 2017
Another Orrie Hitt dime store novel sleaze pulp masterpiece. Orrie Hitt has been referred to as the king of sleaze pulp. He wrote something on the order of 150 books from the 50s to the 70s. At the height of his writing career, he would churn out a book every two weeks, working 12 hour days. His books were all capped with racy,
lurid, tawdry covers. Yes, he has similar themes running throughout his work. The men are all con artists, grifters, shady characters that could charm the skirts off any woman. The women in his books were
lushes and tramps. And the men typically are juggling three women.
In this particular novel, Johnny Reagan works at the Hotel Shelly, which is little different from the town dump except it has a roof over it. Janet, who has an hourglass figure, works the hotel switchboard. Mr.
Conner offers Johnny a job selling insurance and, being an enterprising
young man, he jumps at the chance.
It's dark, dirty, sinister, and sleazy. The main character is as ruthless and underhanded as can be imagined and everyone just falls for his charms. It perfectly captures the feel and the attitude of thisshady grifter.
lurid, tawdry covers. Yes, he has similar themes running throughout his work. The men are all con artists, grifters, shady characters that could charm the skirts off any woman. The women in his books were
lushes and tramps. And the men typically are juggling three women.
In this particular novel, Johnny Reagan works at the Hotel Shelly, which is little different from the town dump except it has a roof over it. Janet, who has an hourglass figure, works the hotel switchboard. Mr.
Conner offers Johnny a job selling insurance and, being an enterprising
young man, he jumps at the chance.
It's dark, dirty, sinister, and sleazy. The main character is as ruthless and underhanded as can be imagined and everyone just falls for his charms. It perfectly captures the feel and the attitude of thisshady grifter.
February 19, 2025
Bugs Bunny
My dad used to tell me, "You can learn everything you need to know in life from Fred Flintstone and Bugs Bunny. Fred knows everything about marriage, and Bugs knows everything else."
Johnny Reagan is Bugs Bunny: A Wise-guy of Our Time.
2nd time I've read this.
My dad used to tell me, "You can learn everything you need to know in life from Fred Flintstone and Bugs Bunny. Fred knows everything about marriage, and Bugs knows everything else."
Johnny Reagan is Bugs Bunny: A Wise-guy of Our Time.
2nd time I've read this.
August 22, 2019
As with a lot of Orrie Hitt novels, the focus is not on crime, which, as in the case of Shabby Sheet, is usually white-collar crime such as embezzlement. Hitt's focus is on the day-to-day problems of working-class Americans and their inter-personal relationships.
October 25, 2020
This is a fine nasty little book by Orrie Hitt. Nobody is going to mistake this for great literature, but I really think he is an underrated writer.
January 5, 2013
Great read. Starts a little slow, but builds to an interesting story. It's an unusual noir tale about an antihero with few redeeming qualities who gets into the insurance "racket."
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews