This photo of Greg Bradford is one of the few captioned by Dave Martin for which I could not find a matching uncaptioned version. I'm including it for the amusement of Albert and the Bum Brigade.
Edited to add: See comment below by Carlorman for some interesting additional information.
Edited to add: See comment below by Carlorman for some interesting additional information.
Merci pour cette pensée Jerry :-)
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Thanks for that thought Jerry :-)
I know who my friends are.
DeleteHe looks like a well built Rory Calhoun
ReplyDeleteA lovely rear and classic bamboo screen background..
ReplyDeleteI always thought that Greg Bradford was a pseudonym used by Dave Martin for the perennial favourite Joe Napoli (sometimes, oddly, Napolie), who posed for nearly all the big stables and spanned the pouch-to-nude era. Muscular, he also bridged the gap between the bodybuilder proper and the emerging gay porn scene, after which he simply disappeared. I wonder what happened to him.
ReplyDeleteIs it accepted fact in the Vintage Men Model genre that GREG BRADFORD who modeled for Dave Martin in 1955 in San Francisco was in fact JOE NAPOLI who modeled for Bruce Bellas and Bob Mizer in LA in the 1960s.?Are there any experts/bloggers who claim that is not true?
DeleteI'm sorry, but I don't think that "Greg Bradford" is the same person as "Joe Napoli."
DeleteSure, there's a strong general similarity (though not as much as, say, actresses Margot Robbie and Jaime Pressly), and I can see why people think this-- particularly because there are so few available photos of "Greg Bradford" (only about a dozen are listed in the university holdings on Dave Martin) to examine and compare.
However, there are a large number of available images of "Joe Napoli" taken from a wide variety of angles and at different ages, that when closely examined reveal enough differences between the two that make it highly unlikely that they're the same person.
It's been claimed that "Greg Bradford" simply stopped working out and lost muscle by the time he modeled as "Joe Napoli" in the early '60s-- but with no evidence given that this actually happened-- and that this accounts for any perceived physical differences between them.
(And despite claims that Dave Martin described "Bradford" as a "gymnast," Martin's notes on the picture above cite "BodyBuilder" and "Soccer Player," while other photos that have been auctioned include "Surfing, Weightlifting, LaLanne Oakland Gym" and "Oakland Soccer Player, Spccer (sic) main sport" in their notes-- but not "gymnast.")
But when I study the "Greg Bradford" photos available side-by-side with multiple images of "Joe Napoli," to my eye there's a noticeable difference in head-to-body ratio-- the head compared to the *length* of limbs and torso, not the muscle mass-- that indicates that "Bradford" is somewhat taller than "Napoli."
It's also been claimed that the alleged weight loss, plus letting his naturally bushy eyebrows grow back fully in some photos, accounts for any facial differences between "Napoli" and "Bradford."-- but again, with no evidence given that "Bradford" had his eyebrows shaped to pose for Dave Martin.
However, there are too many differences in facial bone structure that can't be accounted for by changes in weight and eyebrow shape.
"Bradford" has a more prominent jaw and chin shape than "Napoli"-- who has a notably softer jawline and smaller chin that makes his face clearly rounder, and the jaw and chin difference is even more apparent in side views when you compare the faces from the nose down.
Additionally, "Bradford" has notably thinner lips than "Napoli"-- and "Napoli" has a more pronounced curve to his upper lip, with a differently shaped philtrum. And if you look closely at the other photos, you can see "Bradford" has a mole just below his right collarbone and another mole just below his left nipple. I haven't been able to find images of "Napoli" where these moles are visible.
And I'm also aware that an unidentified person is said to have contacted an unidentified "Vintage Blogger" years ago claiming to be "Napoli's" niece, saying that he died in 1991 at age 58-- though she wouldn't give her name or his real name, making verification of this claim impossible. And what isn't said is whether the "niece" claimed "Napoli" also used the name "Bradford" earlier.
Furthermore, the implied birth year of 1933 conflicts with Bruce Bellas' notes on "Napoli" which claim a birth year of 1942 and that he was a "gymnast" and "diver"-- sports that fit the smaller, quite flexible "Napoli" better than the more powerful "Bradford."
The excuse for this discrepancy in birth year is that Bellas must either be lying or was lied to by "Napoli," while some unidentified person claiming to be a "niece" is somehow more credible than Bruce Bellas-- who can at least be proven to have been in contact with "Napoli" at a specific time and place.
-- hsc
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DeleteJerry, my apologies to you and especially to Cambria, since my deleted reply was evidently considered by you to be "offensive or hurtful toward others" according to the terms in your FAQ.
DeleteIf my reply took on that edge, I'm glad you deleted it, because it certainly wasn't meant as a personal attack.
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However, I do think it's valid from the perspective of scholarship to point out that the model identified on MMVB in a March 13, 2017 posting as "Greg Bradford Photographed by Russ Warner" appears to be one of the models on the "Warner Model Guide 2" included as part of a November 4, 2016 posting headed "George Parker Photographed by Russ Warner."
Unfortunately, the two model guides included in that post were not scanned, but shot with someone's camera as they lay on a shag carpet visible at the edges. The guides appear to have been large composite photo prints that curled as they aged, and there was no attempt made by the photographer to flatten them.
As a result, "Warner Model Guide 2" is blurry, and the names hand-printed underneath are hard to fully make out on some of the models. Mike The Content Producer provides lists of names for both guides, with "SOMETHING" wherever part of a name is not clear.
One of the images on that second sheet appears to be the same model posted on MMVB a few months later as "Greg Bradford."
The cropped head and torso image on the sheet is soft, but the hairstyle, face and body type, and even the lighting and positioning strongly suggest that it's a different shot from the same session. The only thing other than a slight repositioning of the arms that's different is that the three empty white picture frame to the left of the "Bradford" image are not visible.
However, this model is clearly not identified by Russ Warner on the sheet as "Greg Bradford" but as "John SOMETHING"-- as Mike The Content Producer lists it.
After enlarging that section and adjusting the contrast on the image, I think it's most likely "John Fontenet" or "John Fontenot"-- two family names originally from the Savoie region of France that are found in the U.S.
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One other thing that might be of interest is that the online auction house "Ashcroft and Moore" had a May 19, 2017 sale listed as "The HE Auction-Photography, Art and Literature" which included a good number of Dave Martin prints, along with a smaller number by other photorpahers like Douglas Juleff.
The listings can still be found online by a Google search, and the Dave Martin photos start on page 2 and run though page 7. There are also notes by Martin on the backs of some of these prints.
Unfortunately, the names of the models are not given, except as a long list of models on each listing, so you pretty much have to go by sight when browsing. (Although if notes are present, the model's name is given in them.)
Two beautiful "Greg Bradford" shots I've never seen on the blogs are Lots 140 and 144 on page 3 of the auction. (BTW, it's easy to lift the photos and the notes on the back by clicking on the buttons to the left of the image and opening in a new tab.)
Surprisingly, most of the prints failed to fetch anywhere near the estimates, and some failed to sell at all!
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I haven't included links to MMVB or the auction because I'm not sure if that was part of why the previous reply got deleted, but it's easy to find on Google.
-- hsc
Did you get a notice that your comment was deleted, or did it simply fail to appear? I don't recall deleting it, but my memory isn't what it used to be. While I reserve the right to deleted "hurtful" comments, I can only recall deleting sexually explicit comments recently. Sometimes, commentators who make multiple or lengthy comments across the Google Blogger platform (not just here) go into a sort of spam filter that I have to check manually. Give me the date of the comment, and I will check.
DeleteAnd one other thing for hsc. You don't have to write a full on essay every time you have a thought. Succinct communication is usually more conducive to understanding.
DeleteI'm sorry I ever went down this rabbit hole.
DeleteYou've got a great blog, Jerry! Keep up the good work, and any comments in the future will be "succinct."
-- hsc
This really gets tiresome. Please stop beating a dead horse and give it a rest. Your reply will be deleted shortly.
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