New Years Eve

It's our annual New Years Eve party, and we start 

the festivities with a beer drinker who may be musical.

 

Beer in the shower

Who drinks beer in the shower?  This guy apparently.  

Maybe it was a "hair of the dog" morning after thing.

 

Bottle

I'm sure he was the only person in the room looking at the bottle.

 

Hmmmm . . .

This guy looks like he's thinking,  "It's gonna take more than 

two beers for this guy to get anywhere with me."

 

What is this?

This guy looks like he doesn't know what he's about to drink.

 

Memories

This is probably not vintage strictly speaking, but I had to use it because this guy reminds me so much of my date New Years Eve of 1983.  Now that's a night I'll never forget.

 

New Years Art

New Years Eve falls on Friday art day this year, and I want you to know it's not 

easy finding vintage male nude art relating to this holiday.  I couldn't resist this 

non-vintage item, and what follows is the best I could do.

 

Etienne

These three men making their way through a case of beer are a good example of 

Etienne's leather phase.  Used by permission of Leather Archives and Museum.

 

1940s Jammies

This holiday ad for Textron has an unmistakable gay subtext.

 

Tom of Finland

This scan of leather men at the bar was used to promote the resale 

of a book of Tom of Finland's work.  Appropriately enough, they used page 69.

 

To the nines

Remember when men dressed up for New Years?  This charming work is by Joseph Christian Leyendecker, an early 20th C. artist whose work predates and is said to have inspired that of Norman Rockwell.  Leyendecker was gay, and used his lover, Charles Beech, as a model.  Look for a series on this very talented and interesting man soon.

 

Etienne Libation

This almost looks like George Quaintance's work, but it's by Etienne.   I got it from the impeccably curated collection of the Leather Archives and Museum.  Used by permission.

 

Fort Sheridan Body Type Studies

I had a request for more of the World War II military induction nude photos, 

and having just discovered a stash of "new" one, it was easy.  We start with recruit 

number 9422 who seems totally indifferent to the whole process.

 

9500

Number 9500 looks like he's trying hard to suppress a smirk.

 

9471

Poor recruit 9471.  When his buddy came out of the photo room and told him

 to stick his chin out and pull his belly in, he got it backwards.

 

9485

Eager to please, when the lieutenant told him to stand naked at attention 

with his arms out in front of the camera, No. 9485 said,  "Yes, sir!"

 

9472

Here is an example of the type I've heard referred to as "all potatoes and little meat."

Not a body type, mind you.  Some other type.

 

5M

 5,000,000 Page Views

Google Blogger informed me today that the blog has hit a milestone of five million page views.  While the number is inflated by the fact that I do at least five posts per day to allow individual comments on the photos, it still struck me as a "wow" moment.  Many thanks to all of you who come here every day and spend some time with me, and special thanks to those of you who choose to comment and join discussions.  Stay tuned.  There's a lot more to come.

Bob Delmonteque, Part 1 - Nudes of the man himself

It's been over a year since I devoted a whole series to Bob Delmonteque, so I decided to do a double feature.  Part one has a wide variety of nudes of Bob himself, while part two is photos he took of other models, unfortunately not nude.  We start with a very blonde Mr. Delmonteque by Douglas of Detroit.  An interesting fact that I just discovered recently is that he was in his 30s when his modeling career took off.  Click on the label for earlier posts with more biographical details.

 

Trademark Douglas of Detroit

I still haven't figured out if this well known technique by Doug Juleff was a double exposure or a composite.  Whichever it was, Bob Delmonteque appears in several versions.

 

California?

After moving to California, Bob Delmonteque posed for several of the local photographers 

including Russ Warner and Dave Martin.  One of them probably took this unattributed

 photo as it does not look at all like Douglas of Detroit's work.

 

Oiled with a friend

The unknown model with Bob Delmonteque looks Latino, but I haven't been able 

to find a name for him.  He appears in several other Douglas of Detroit photos.

 

Slumberland

In yet another unattributed photo, a reclining Bob Delmonteque seems to be taking a nap.

Based on his rather youthful appearance, I'd venture a guess that this one was by Doug Juleff.

 

Bob Delmonteque, Part 2 - G-Rated Photos by Bob

Bob Delmonteque was one of several models and bodybuilders who ended up behind the camera.  While he began taking photos while still in Michigan, most of his work was done in California, and he seems to have given it up when his training and gym business took off.  Too bad, that.  Although he did take some frontal nudes, having seen what happened to Doug Juleff in Detroit, he kept most of his photographic work on the mild side.  Today we look at five of those.  This is Don Reyes.

 

Dick

The posing strap looks almost like a clamshell in this photo of Dick Harrison.  Bob Delmonteque used this ruined California building in several photos, including another in today's series.

 

Vic

Detroit was the scene for this impressive Delmonteque shot 

of world class competitive bodybuilder Vic Seipke.

 

Bob

Bob Rome sports a Boston Blackie mustache in this Delmonteque photo.

 

Frankie

A palm frond provides some cover for Frankie Russell,

but he could have legally gotten by with much less.

 

Troop train showers

During World War II, 95% of railway engines were steam, and steam requires water near the tracks.  Today we will look at some German soldiers taking advantage of the water to shower trackside.  

There's something for almost everyone in this charming photo.

 

Bevy of behinds

There often seems to be a group of guys hanging out the train windows watching the others get naked and showered.  Leaves me wondering why they didn't join in and get closer.

 

Just enough

There seems to be just a dribble of water here, but the troops are making the best of it.

 

Deluge

I don't see how these guys stood up under the deluge of what has to be the 

most profligate release of water in my collection.  I wonder if Deutsche 

Reichsbahn ever came up short of water after these sessions.

 

Long ago and far away

I had to crop and sharpen this one for us to be able to see anything at all.

Apparently, the photographer was some distance away.

 

My favorite

Closing out the series with my personal favorite of the type.

I posted it once before, but it's worth another look.

 

Bob Jackson

While going through my "leftover" folder a while back, I came across some photos that I didn't use in my series on Bob Jackson earlier this year.  Bob worked for Kris, AMG, and Pat Milo, 

and I don't know which of those three took this shot of him.

 

Sailor

Even the socks look regulation in this Kris photo of Bob Jackson as a sailor.

Used by kind permission of the copyright holder, 

Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA

 

Kris

Chuck Renslow of Kris Studio is credited with this photo of Bob Jackson.

I think he probably took it on one of his visits to California.

 

Artsy AMG

While it doesn't rise to the level of George Platt Lynes,

this AMG photo of Bob Jackson is artistic.

 

Behind a chair

I don't have a photographer attribution for this interesting 

photo of Bob Jackson crouching a bit behind a chair.

 

George Platt Lynes Day, Part 1 - Nudes

Today I'm posting a double feature of George Platt Lynes' work.  (Yes, I know it's Boxing Day, but I'm tired of that shtick.)  We start with Joe Santoro and a Jared French painting.

 

1948

Chuck Howard was in the Navy during World War II when he met Lynes' friend Bernard Perlin.  After the war, the two moved in together, but Perlin got a fellowship in Rome and handed Chuck off to Lynes as a "secretary and cook."  Howard described Lynes as bored with photographing fashion models and celebrities.  It wasn't long before Lynes was taking nude shots of Chuck.

 

1937

Ralph McWilliams sprawled in a New Jersey creek for this 1937 photo.

 

Duo

We get a divergent view in this Lynes photo of an unknown pair of men.

 

1942

Francis Burton Harrison, Jr. posed on a settee in Lynes' home for this 1942 picture.

We can see a number of Lynes' photos on the wall at left.

 

George Platt Lynes Day, Part 2 - Non-nudes

We start the second half of our Lynes double feature 

with this very artistically lighted 1951 photo of Francois Moncion.

 

Antlers

I don't recognize this Lynes model with deer antlers.  Anyone?

 

Ritter Brothers

This 1935 Lynes photo shows the Ritter brothers (I think) and a piece of corrugated metal.

Bruce of LA later became known for using such a backdrop.  Could he have seen this?

Possibly, but Lynes nudes were not shown during his lifetime.

 

Oddly interesting

This one is not even seminude, but it shows Lynes' quirky side with George Tooker admiring 

a picture that may or may not have been by either Jared French or Paul Cadmus who are 

shown looking on in the mirror.  Tooker modeled for Lynes, Cadmus, and French.

 

1937

This 1937 image of an unknown model with tousled hair has always been a personal favorite

 since I began collecting George Platt Lynes work a decade ago.

 

Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas feature has a lot of variety, and we'll begin with a guy doing a bit of last minute decorating.  Should we tell him the bead garland goes on the tree and not his body?  Nah.

 

Double Duo

This duo twofer has subdued nudity, but works for me.