New Years at Last!

Yes, friends, the horrific ordeal that has been 2020 is just about over, so for the next 

two days I'll be doing an extended New Years series.  Today we start with pre-midnight 

festivities and these lovely lads patiently queuing to get into their favorite party club.

 

Annie, Fannie, and Mannie (l-r) had rehearsed for weeks and thought they had every detail 

of their New Years Glamor Review covered when they realized at the last minute that their

 shoes didn't match.  Oh, well.  The show must go on!  Miss Magnolia Thunderpussy gave 

them a severe talking to in the dressing room afterward.  "Girls, I know you can do better!"

 

Bernie didn't mind getting to the party a little early.  It gave him

 time to down a few drinks and practice his trollop barside pose.

 

Banjo, the New Years Baby in the Bluto Social Club pageant, spoiled 

the 1943 show by getting snockered and passing out before midnight.

Photo by the immortal Weegee.

 

The floor show at this New Years party looks  bored,

and I'm pretty sure they were on the floor before it was all over.

 

Al Urban Day - Men who weren't "small" and magazine covers

Bob Mizer of AMG somewhat famously said,  "Al Urban has made a good living for years photographing men with the smallest dicks in America."  While there was something 

to that statement, it wasn't entirely true.  First, there were quite a few of his models 

whose endowments were at least average.  And second, Urban did a good business 

shooting photos for fitness and bodybuilding magazines.  So today we will look at 

some men from both of those groups, starting with John Gallagher, one of Urban's 

favorite models based on the number of pictures made of him.

 

Gene Jantzen ended up in the world of West Coast bodybuilding in the post-World War II era, 

but somewhere along the way he posed for this magazine cover for Al Urban.

 

Bob Ciambroni posed kneeling for this Urban picture which was used in a 1958 ad.

Of course, it was only shown from the waist up.  Apparently Bob was in the Navy at some point.

 

This is perhaps the most interesting Al Urban magazine cover.

Somehow, a 1940-ish photo he took of David Asnis ended up 

on the cover of a prominent French magazine in 1961.

Asnis was a New York fashion model who talked Urban into doing nudes of men.

 

Arthur Harris did some memorable work for Al Urban, 

both nude and with his pants on.

 

In a relatively rare two-man cover, Jules Bacon (left) and Connie Kosiris

appear on the April, 1941 issue of Strength and Health.

 

Although this photo of Henry Karczewski is not dated, 

the hair style look late 1930's, which would place it early in Al Urban's career.

 

I have clearer photos of Harold Zinkin in my collection, but I wanted to use this one 

to show the breadth of Al Urban's work in the world of physique publications.  

As you can probably tell from the title spelling, Vigour was a British magazine, 

and Urban did a number of their covers.  Also of note is the fact that Zinkin was a 

West Coast American bodybuilder who worked with New Yorker Urban.

 

This is Jules Bacon in an interesting pose.  

Maybe he was doing that skull gazing scene from Hamlet.

 

Al Urban often used frontal nude shots as magazine cover photos . . . 

he just drew in a posing strap.  Often, one sees the fully nude version in the 

online collections, but I've never seen this one of Santo Leone in the original.

 

Larry K. has a new blog!

I am pleased to let you know that frequent contributor and collaborator Larry K. has gone live with his own blog, The Unashamed Male, and you should all check it out.  He mixes vintage and modern 

photos in a more narrative style than I use, and he has some early posts in place.  This sample from 1994 is by blind photographer Jon Dugdale.  Look for more from Larry on a daily basis in January.

Meanwhile here's the link where you can see his early posts:  

https://unashamedmale.blogspot.com/ 

 

Trios from before the physique era

Today's series is brought to you by the number three, and we'll take a look at some trios from the first half of the 20th Century.  Let's start with these Germans building a log cabin on the Eastern Front.

 

First we had the log cabin trio, and now we have three bumps on a log.

Do the two at each end look like brothers to y'all?

 

This trio of spear chunkers is showing off some nice muscles.

 

Here we have three leaping lizards whom I think are FKK Germans.

 

Three skinny dudes are standing in a marsh showing off their muscles, but only one of the 

group has any to show.  The guy in the middle does have something else to show, though.

 

Pat Milo Scowlers

Of course Pat Milo didn't take this picture of "Butch" from The Little Rascals,

but he did take so many photos of mean looking guys that I have a file folder labeled 

"Pat Milo Scowlers."  So today we'll take a look at five of Pat Milo's tough guys.

 

Did Butch have a second career as a Pat Milo model?

This guy does look seem to look like him.

 

That dangling cigarette makes Lucky Penrose look even more surly.

 

Jim Bouvier seems to be saying,  "Oh boy, have I got plans for you.  

First, I'll beat on you for a few hours, and then I'm gonna drown you in the toilet."

 

Larry Pearson and Bill Nolan have appeared here on the blog on at least two previous occasions in photos from the same Pat Milo session.  They didn't look too happy in those, either.

 

I've posted at least one other photo of Mike Wilson 

where he looked even angrier than this.

 

Military Mix Day, Part 1 - Small Groups of Soldiers

We start our military mix with three Germans trying to make a human pyramid.

Too bad we can't see the rest of the group.

 

This is my favorite of today's pictures mostly because it is such a good quality photograph, 

particularly given that it was likely taken on the spur of a moment.  The details are exceptional.  

There's a letter from home propped against the soldier in the foreground's hat, and the guy in his underwear in back is showing just a bit of thatch through the fly of his boxers as he gazes off.

 

These men are having some hijinks in the barracks, and one of them wants to shoot a dummy with a pistol while another may be about to play the bugle.  Must have been a fun group.

 

These World War II German soldiers look like they may be contemplating a dive.

They seem to be quite friendly.

 

Eliot Elisofon took this photo for LIFE in 1943 at the 

Gafsa ancient Roman baths in North Africa.

 

Military Mix Day, Part 2 - Sailors in Love . . . or Something Like It

Shifting gears to the Navy for part two, where we will see affectionate sailors together.  Here we 

have a nice couple, one of whom couldn't resist copping a feel, and I don't blame him one bit.

 

OK, so here we have three very friendly 1930's sailors, one of whom is sitting on the pointed 

end of a fire plug while hugging his two friends . . . and one of them is groping his crotch.

I'd love to see what those two are doing with their hands in the rear.

 

As I was going through my "sailors in love files," I noticed that the guy doing the kissing here appeared with at least two different sailors, so I made this composite.  Of course, that left me wondering how many other photos of him kissing shipmates didn't make into cyberspace for me to collect.

 

Double dating in the old Canal Zone.

 

These two seem to be really into each other and not just fooling around.

 

Boxing Day Special

Yes, I know that Boxing Day has nothing to do with the sport of boxing,

but that doesn't really matter because I'm sure none of today's models were really boxers.

We start with Ray McGee as photographed by Pat Milo.

 

This one came to me without any information whatsoever.

The only thing I can say with even a little confidence is that he probably isn't a real boxer.

 

All I know about this picture is that it is supposed to be by AMG.

What I really want to find out is what those tattoos mean.

 

This guy isn't taking himself too seriously, and maybe that's why I like the photo.

Oh, and my mother had those awful plaques on the wall of our spare bedroom in the 60s.

 

Closing out our Boxing Day series with a photo that I've always pondered over.

The model is wearing chain mail gloves, something I don't even think the Romans did.

The photo is exquisitely lighted, and the man is . . . well . . . outstanding.

 

Merry Christmas! - Part 1, the Usual Fluff

It's Christmas Day, and I'm doing a three part extravaganza for it.

We start with five of the usual sort of material and this guy in front of the tree who has 

every reason to be happy.  I wonder what he gave somebody for Christmas that year.

 

Tony Perry, Johnny Stumps, and Tom Scott appear in this AMG Christmas photo that I lifted off http://menfrombackthen.blogspot.com/ .

Looks like somebody got some weights for his gift.

 

There's a tiny little Christmas tree back in the corner.

 

Somebody's going into the woods with Santa for some reason.

 

I have no idea what he's doing, but I like how he's doing it.

 

Christmas Intermission - Some bits of history

These 12 guys are gathered in front of a rather large Christmas tree.

 

All he wanted for Christmas was a red party dress . . . and he got it!

 

This was the 1952 holiday gathering of the Mattachine Society, America's oldest gay rights organization.  These men were heroes, and we don't even know but a few of their names.

In an act of unimaginable bravery, they picketed the White House that year.