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Sunday, August 16, 2020


Our final Bob Delmonteque nude shows him looking at a contact sheet of photos of himself.  Contact sheets were a pre-digital method to save money when a large number of film shots had been taken.  Rather than invest in the full process and cost of printing each negative, this "down and dirty" method allowed inexpensive, but low quality, multiple images to be printed on a single large page.  The quality was just good enough, however, to let the photographer know which ones were worth the full printing process.  I recognize quite a few of these from my Douglas of Detroit collection, so I can attribute this to him.  Needless to say, original contact sheets are rare and highly collectible.

8 comments:

  1. If you're able to really zoom into that contact sheet you'll notice that the penises of all the models have been blacked out. Isn't that curious? That there are nude full size photos of Bob and other models from Douglas of Detroit but his contact sheets don't show them nude? I wonder, has anyone ever written a history of this studio and the police harassment of Douglas and his models? And does anyone think, or is there any evidence, that the police harassment was particularly harsh because there may have been photos that showed erect penises or some of the models in more compromising positions?

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    1. I've seen this blacking out before, and it may be because the contact sheets were used as promotional materials. Also, some actual finished nude prints were sold with the crotches blacked out with pencil so that customers in the know could erase the marks and enjoy the full nudity. I have read several accounts of Doug Juleff's harassment, but I wouldn't call any of them a comprehensive history. I just did a quick review of my rather large Douglas of Detroit collection and didn't see any erections. They doesn't mean none ever existed, however, as much of Juleff's work was destroyed. Read my reply to Greggy for more on this subject.

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  2. Lots of rumors about what happened to "Douglas of Detroit" and his models. Not much of it is documented, but the stories still exist like folklore. The prevailing stories have one of Doug's bodybuilder models, in Detroit PD, showing off his very erotic photos using easily recognizable Detroit PD things. Homophobe chief of police goes on a witch hunt supported by politicians and public. I heard of these stories when I was in and out of NYC working for several booking agents and photographers. Few of these guys had good things to say about Mike Diaks (Delmonteque).

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    1. The prevailing theory for the cause of the raid was indeed that Doug Juleff had photographed a Detroit cop frontally nude. The most common version of this is that someone recognized the cop, whom I've never seen named, while looking at some D of D photos in a preliminary investigation. Bodybuilders were quite prone to showing off their photos, so I suppose that is a plausible instigation as well. I have never, however, heard of police props being used in the photo shoot in question. Juleff was relatively sparing in his use of props, fwiw. Bob Delmonteque was indeed something of a prima donna and lied about his age, among other vanities. Somebody needs to research all this and write a book or long article.

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  3. While Mike Diaks was an attractive guy, the Delmonteque sagas were fractured tales from someone desperately trying to market and self promote something salable and not quite believable. Like how does a farm boy outside of Houston, Texas end up as a nude model in Detroit. Diaks/Delmonteque supposedly came of age during WW2, but there's no credible accounting of any military service. Every able bodied guy (and Delmonteque promoted himself as such as a nude model) served in some branch of the military during this period, but there's no mention of this in the Delmonteque brand. This guy is coming off as another trump type.

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    1. He legally changed his name at some point, and my suspicious mind makes me think his self promotion led him to try (successfully, it would seem) to erase his history as Mike Diaks or whatever his original name was. My other hobby is genealogy, and I have paid access to some comprehensive on-line resources, and the only person of that name who shows up was a merchant seaman old enough to be Bob's father. Texas has comprehensive birth records for the span of time including any of the various dates given for his birth, and there is nothing. Ditto on military. Of course there is always the chance that the Diaks name given as his birth name was fake. With so many discrepancies and omissions in his bio, it's easy to believe he didn't want his full background known. Having said all that, he did have a successful fitness business for quite some time.

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  4. This is all very intriguing, and as Jerry says, someone really needs to write a definitive history. And that Mike Diaks/Bob Delmonteque story is certainly interesting! Of course,I had no idea. But certain persons are very adept at creating myths about themselves or fabricating their backgrounds for personal gain. It sure seemed to work for Bob. But when you look like that...

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    1. See my reply above for yet more. I think Bob would have been a legend either way, but the self promotion pushed things along.

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