John Willie

Book cover for "The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline"

John Alexander Scott Coutts (December 9 1902 - August 5 1962), better known as John Willie, was a pioneering fetish photographer and bondage artist.

Life and work

Coutts was born in Singapore and grew up in England; contrary to some claims, he was not related to the Coutts banking family.^[1]

In 1921 he entered Sandhurst and in 1923 was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Royal Scots. He was forced to resign his commission in 1925 after marrying a nightclub hostess, Eveline Fisher, without the permission of his regiment, whereupon he moved to Australia; the marriage ended in divorce around 1928 or 1929.

In the mid-1930s, he began working for a Sydney-based fetish club as an illustrator and photographer; around this time he began a relationship with Holly Faram, one of his models, and they married in 1942.

Around 1945-47 Coutts moved to New York City via Montreal, in order to publish his bondage and fetish magazine Bizarre; Holly chose to remain in Australia. At this time he adopted the name 'John Willie'. Bizarre was published, somewhat irregularly, from 1946 to 1959 (compare with ENEG's work in Exotique magazine, published 1956 - 1959). The magazine included many photographs, often of his wife. There were also many letters from readers; he was accused of inventing these letters, but insisted that they were genuine.

As a bondage artist, he is best known for his character Sweet Gwendoline, which he drew in a clear, anatomically correct style that influenced later artists such as ENEG and Eric Stanton. Other characters include U69 (censored to U89 in some editions) as the raven-haired dominatrix who ties up Gwendoline and Sir Dystic d'Arcy, the only prominent male character and probably a parody of Willie himself.

The comic strip was published by Irving Klaw, who forced Stanton to paint clothes over the whip marks on the originals of "The Missing Princess".

After publishing 20 issues of Bizarre he moved to Hollywood, California. He developed a brain tumor in 1961 and was forced to stop his mail order business. He destroyed his archives and returned to England, where he died.

He was portrayed by Jared Harris in the 2006 movie The Notorious Bettie Page, which featured a (fictional) meeting between Willie and Page.

Quote

"Unless a model is a good actress, and has 'that type' of face it's difficult for her to look sad and miserable when working for me. My studio is a pretty cheerful place, and quite unlike the atmosphere that surrounds Gwendoline when the Countess gets hold of her." - John Willie, The Art of John Willie, Sophisticated Bondage - Book Two (Page 1)

See also

• Fetish artist
• Eric Stanton
• Irving Klaw
• Sexual fetishism

References

Further reading

• A John Willie Portfolio, n.1 (a cura di Carl McGuire), Van Nuys, CA., London Ent. Ltd., 1987
• Bizarre: The Complete Reprint of John Willie's Bizarre, Vols. 1-26; ISBN 3-8228-9269-6 Taschen. Edited by Eric Kroll.
• Plusieurs possibilites. Photographies de John Willie, Paris, Futuropolis, 1985
• The Art of John Willie - Sophisticated Bondage (Book One)
  • An illustrated biography edited by Stefano Piselli & Riccardo Morrocchi (128 pages)
• The Art of John Willie - Sophisticated Bondage (Book Two)
  • An illustrated biography edited by Stefano Piselli & Riccardo Morrocchi (128 pages)
• The Bound Beauties of Irving Klaw & John Willie, vol 2, Van Nuys, CA., Harmony Comm., 1977
• The First John Willie Bondage Photo Book, Van Nuys, CA., London Ent. Ltd., 1978
• The Second John Willie Bondage Photo Book, Van Nuys, CA., London Ent. Ltd., 1978
• The Works of John Willie (a cura di Peter Stevenson), s.l., s.e., s.d.

External links

• http://www.lambiek.net/willie_john.htm
• "The Rembrandt of Pulp"
• http://www.belierpress.com/review.html
• American Fetish - Scholarly resources for the study of SM and Fetishism in American Culture
• John Willie

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