A Little History

Arnold Miller initially worked in comics. Based above a newsagent on Lower James Street, London, the Arnold Book Company produced a number of comic titles throughout the 1950s. However, Miller’s comics were frowned upon by the growing UK anti-comics campaign. Black Magic and Tales From the Crypt, American titles reprinted by the Arnold Book Company, were named in a front page newspaper article, which claimed that these and other hideous comics had prompted children to visit a local cemetery. Such controversy led to the passing of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act in 1955. Miller was prosecuted under the Act and the business closed shortly afterwards.

Arnold Miller went on to court controversy in other areas too, and produced the glamour magazine, Photo Studio. It was this publication that put him in contact with a young Stanley Long; Long took the pictures of the women that graced the magazine's pages. Miller recalls one particularly risky photoshoot that involved some frenzied snapping as a naked woman ascended a London Underground escalator! In time, they began shooting 8mm 'nudie' shorts, released under the Stag Films banner. At least one hundred such films were produced by Miller.

Photo Studio are nicely formed books, presenting a mix of pictures, light text and including a Classified Ads section. Pictures of some well-known faces are well taken, frequently topless and with plenty of stockings and suspenders on show to delight us as always.

Sadly, I don’t have a full collection and am not even sure how many editions there were, but will of course update this information and add new books here when I come across them.