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Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Leonard by Bruce


There was a story making the rounds of vintage physique collectors a few years ago which said that upon arrival in LA, Bruce Bellas got a license for a "legit" photo business and promptly borrowed Leonard Chambers from Bob Mizer to take his first male nude photo as Bruce of LA.  I have never seen any convincing corroboration of that story, and my doubts are increased by the fact that the few Bruce images that can be found these days are a few color slides, as above.  I doubt that Bruce would have gone that far outside the box of black and white prints that dominated the era.  I could be wrong, though.  I've been wrong lots of time before.

 

4 comments:

  1. You know me, Jerry...a light/dark lover, and shadows, too. His body, his ass. Was absolutely breathtaking. This shot has it all. Thanks.

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  2. I agree that Chambers was "borrowed" from anyone. If Mizer was to "lend" any of his frequently photographed models, it would have been John Chambers or Forrester Millard. Even then, Chambers was supposed to be a bodybuilder/nude model for a short while, and Millard did work for others infrequently. He and Chambers were the original nude models that Mizer hired in 1946 when he started his nude photo business and magazine.

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  3. It should have been typed Chambers WASN'T BORROWED. BD you're not the only one who hates spell check.

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