B. (Steve) collection of personal advertisement responses, 1990-1994

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Summary

Title:
Steve B. collection of personal advertisement responses
Dates:
1990-1994
Creators:
B., Steve
Extent:
0.88 Linear Feet 2 boxes
Language:
English , Spanish; Castilian .
Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Steve B. collection of personal advertisement responses, Collection no. 6276, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of approximately 130 letters from around 90 different women, all written to one southern California man, Steve B., in response to personal ads he placed in the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, and international pen-pal services in the early 1990s. Most of the letters are written in English, but a dozen or so are in Spanish. The majority of correspondents were from California, but women also wrote from Mexico, the Philippines, Czechoslovakia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Colombia. A few of the California correspondents were incarcerated. Many of the letters are accompanied by one or more photographs, and many have brief notes on them written by Steve after he spoke to the woman on the telephone. He generally noted age, race, and/or physical characteristics (weight, height, hair color, and even bust size), but occasionally added comments such as "loves water sports," "full-time student," or "likes old music."

Johnson Rare Books & Archives located an example ad that Steve published via the Los Angeles Times, which reads "Financially successful, generous, good-looking male in 40s seeks very attractive, open-minded female 18-30 for travel, dining, & shopping" and requests that a photo and phone number be sent to his post office box. Some women responded to this literally, sending only a photograph and contact information, others wrote short letters with a physical description or list of activities they enjoyed, while others wrote longer missives explaining who they were and what they were looking for. Nineteen-year-old Corey from Hermosa Beach describes herself as a kitten who is "cute, cuddly, sassy and very playful" and "like[s] it when a man takes control," while 38-year-old Leena from Singapore writes that her "long life desire" is "to fly to the moon or disappear in the haunting Bermuda Triangle and re-appear to the astonishment of the world with a hand full of diamond[s] and rubies." The women came from a wide range of ethnic and educational backgrounds, and Steve seems to have been open to communicating with all of them. It is clear from his notes that he wrote or called most, and the letters themselves indicate that he saw a number of the women in person and/or developed extended correspondence with them, presumably courting many women at one time. A perceptive young woman in Manila responds to his request to be his "pen-pal girlfriend," with: "It's really shocking. Are you so fast in deciding it[?] Are you awake? or dreaming? You don't know me yet. You really made me laugh. How many girls have your told like that[?] Are you planning me to be one of your collection? Sorry for saying it, I'm just frank!" Yolly, a woman who Steve is seeing in person, writes with dismay of discovering by chance that Steve is also dating an acquaintance of hers.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Johnson Rare Books Archives, April 14, 2023.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Bo Doub -- with collection-level notes adapted from the seller, Johnson Rare Books and Archives
Date Encoded:
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-09-29 15:29:12 -0700 .

Access and use

Restrictions:

The USC Libraries created color photocopies of every item in this collection. The photocopies are held in Box 1 and the original items are stored in Box 2. Users may request access to the redacted photocopies in Box 1. The original correspondence and photographs, held in Box 2, include sensitive personally identifiable information. Access to the original documents held in Box 2 will be closed for research until January of 2064, which is approximately 70 years following the material's creation.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Collections at specol@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Finding aid description and metadata are licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license.

Preferred citation:

[Box/folder no. or item name], Steve B. collection of personal advertisement responses, Collection no. 6276, Special Collections, USC Libraries, University of Southern California

Location of this collection:
Special Collections
Doheny Memorial Library, Room 209
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189, US
Contact:
(213) 740-5900
specol@usc.edu
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