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Sunday, June 13, 2021

Tex Smutny, 1943 . . . plus a mini "Whatever happened to"


Charles "Tex" Smutny (1925-1987) was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, but the family moved to Long Island, NY before he was five years old.  Still in high school when this striking photo was made, he had somehow come onto George Platt Lynes radar.  Speaking of high school, below is Tex's senior school portrait and his activity list from Long Island City High School's 1944 yearbook:  


He was in the army before the ink on the high school yearbook was dry, but he continued his education on the GI Bill as soon as World War II ended.  This is his 1950 Springfield College senior piece:

Tex eventually ended up as a dance instructor at Smith College.



 

17 comments:

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    1. Dance instructor at an all women's college? What happened being an engineer/actor? He also died at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, like Casey Donovan. If this guy wasn't gay, he should have been.

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    2. Oh, I'm pretty sure he was, Greggy.

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  2. Thanks for all the research. Do you have any info on his posing partner Charles "Buddy" Stanley. Lynes did some beautiful photos of those two. Were they High School friends or just another model Lynes found ?

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    1. Sorry, but I can't seem to find anything on Buddy.

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    2. I recall reading David Leddick's book Naked Men, Pioneering Male Nudes which had about 40 plus vintage models, and still alive at the time included one of the duo, not sure if it was Buddy Stanley or Tex Smutney, but one was interviewed with a current picture and he was married. The book also included Jim Dardanis, but reported he had died I believe in a car crash after a long career as a traveling salesman in Colorado.. Wish I had the book.

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    3. Interesting! I need to get that book, too.

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    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. FWIW, I remember digging into Smutny a while ago. Parents were Charles Joseph Smutny Sr and Lillian Mae Parks. When his mother died in 1996 it mentions him and the fact that she had 2 grandchildren. The 1940 census shows he was the only child. Of course, that doesn't preclude a later child. Also, I wonder if that death date is right, because he is listed as a survivor in the obit. There was another Charles Smutny born about the same year, but in New York,in the censuses.

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    1. Yes, there was another Charles Smutny in the New York area born about the same time.

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  4. Beau portrait de profil !

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  5. Springfield College is affliated with the YMCA and trained physical education teachers. They were well known for their Tableau Shows in which their student-athletes wore briefs, with their bodies covered in gold body paint. They would pose like living statues in various poses as a group.
    -Rj/IE

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    1. Interesting. I'm sure Tex joined in if they did that while he was there.

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  6. I know that this photo was taken between 1941-43. Then he must be under 18 at that time period. Wasn't it illegal in old times?

    Also do you have any info if he had children?

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    1. The laws were less clear back then, but frontal male nudity was illegal regardless of any other factors. Some models lied about their age, some posed with parental consent, and sometimes the authorities looked the other way if the photos were not sexually explicit. In the cast of Tex Smutney, the point is moot because all the nude work that I know of was for Lynes, who never publicly displayed or distributed them. I'm not aware of any children.

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