Mixed Gender Nudists

Not too long ago, I mentioned that I might stop cropping the females out of at least some of the nudist photos I post.  Perhaps surprisingly, I got some comments and emails in favor of the idea, so here we go.  (For the more squeamish among you, I've decided to begin with pictures in which the males at least outnumber the females.)  Starting with a photo that includes one of my favorite nudist magazine men, the fellow at left.  While his boots might seem over the top, they are quite practical when in rattlesnake and sharp rock country.  He knows what he's doing and looks good.

 

Trophy Time

In the first of three nudist pageant photos in today's series we see a group of trophy winners.

These were usually given for looks, but occasionally athletic awards were the reason.

 

Hootenanny

Until the Beatles upended the popular music world, one of the biggest things going in the USA was a folk music revival that featured get-togethers called Hootenannies.  These nudists are promoting their own version, but they have unfortunately misspelled the name of their event.  Oh, well.

 

Embarrassment of Riches

The female here seems absolutely giddy over her good luck at snagging not one, 

but two attractive males.  They look pretty pleased themselves for that matter.

 

Lineup

This picture from California is more than likely a pageant lineup, although the usual practice 

was to have separate men's and women's groups.  This must be prior to the announcement 

of the winners as no one has a crown, cape, scepter, trophy, or sash yet.  The cheap 

pageants gave ribbons that the winners found quite difficult to effectively display.

 

Howdy

Considering how casual they were about clothing, Mid-20th Century nudist photos frequently show rather formal introductions and greetings.  Hard to tell who is being presented to whom.

And I have to add that the older man at left is rather nicely built.

 

Royalty

Closing the mixed gender nudist series with something from that endless array of pageants 

the nudist colonies used to hold.  Here we see the King of Eureka getting cozy with the 

Queen while the runner up (or is he some sort of Prince?) at right looks distracted.

 

Whatever Happened to Ted Starkowski (1927-1977)

There is no better example of the intertwined nature of post World War II gay cultural life in New York than Ted Starkowski.  The son of Polish immigrants and one of six brothers, he was born  in Hartford, Connecticut in 1927 and grew up there.  Ted's 1945 draft registration card is below:

Ted only made it through three years of high school and was working at a Catholic seminary when 

he registered.  (That job must have presented some interesting opportunities to a guy like Ted.)  

He was drafted into the U.S. Army in the dying days of World War II, and when he finished his 

hitch he initially moved back in with his mother in Hartford.  Shortly thereafter, however, he 

went to New York to live with Bernard Perlin whom he met while in the Army.  (More about that 

later.)  Before long, he was hobnobbing with George Platt Lynes, Paul Cadmus, Jared French, 

Margaret Hoening, Carl van Vechten, the aforementioned Bernard Perlin, and no doubt others.  When his live-in affair with Perlin didn't go well, he moved out and took up hustling tricks in Manhattan.

As you will see, there are a lot of unanswered questions about this remarkable

 man's life.  Today we look at whatever happened to Ted Starkowski, 

and this photo by Lynes sort of sums up his enigmatic nature.

 

Ted by Lynes - Early

George Platt Lynes met Ted Starkowski in late 1949, likely through mutual friend Bernard Perlin.  Never one to miss an opportunity to pick up a great model, Lynes started photographing 

Ted nude right away.  The photo above from 1950 is classic top quality Lynes.

The Houston Museum of Fine Arts dates this Lynes image of Ted Starkowski at 1949.  

Ted was 22 at the time and looks older.  This is my personal favorite photo of the man.

Ted looked good from just about any angle or direction.

 

PaJaMa I - Ted and Chuck

The ponderous biography of George Platt Lynes that I've been reading (no, I'm still not done with it) says that Chuck Howard was living with Lynes around 1950.  He had previously been the lover of Lynes' friend, the artist Bernard Perlin, whom he had met during World War II.  (We'll see some of Perlin's work later in this series.)  When Ted Starkowski came upon the scene, he and Chuck ended up together, having what was described as a tempestuous affair.  Not surprisingly, Lynes' friends from the PaJaMa group took up with these two using them as photographic models and, in Ted's case, an art model.  Who knows what else was going on?  I've posted this PaJaMa piece before, but I think you'll find it worth repeating.

The chemistry came through even when they had their clothes on . . .

. . . and even more so when the clothes came off again.

 

Lynes, the middle part

I really like the effect the mirror provides in this undated Lynes photo of Ted Starkowski.

This is the only photo of Ted and Chuck Howard that I could find that was 

attributed to George Platt Lynes.  I'm not completely sure about the attribution, 

but the bench does match at least one other Lynes photo in my collection.

 

PaJaMa II - Some less sexual works

As time passed, and the tempestuous relationship between Ted Starkowski and Chuck Howard 

cooled, Ted continued to visit with and pose for the members of the PaJaMa Collective.  

These three portraits of Ted are by Jared French from the PaJaMa period, early 1950s.

Jared French is said to have taken this photo of Ted Starkowski at the beach in the 

early 1950s.  It looks like some of PaJaMa's work from the late 30s and early 40s, but the 

group didn't even meet Ted until about 1950 when he and Chuck Howard were lovers.

Although this drawing is generally credited to PaJaMa, the work is obviously that of Paul Cadmus.

Ted looks great, if not completely relaxed, in a hammock in this 1954 PaJaMa photo.

 

Later Lynes Work

Ted's face looks a bit more rugged here than in earlier George Platt Lynes photos.  This one is dated 1954 by one of the more reputable on line resale websites.  Regarding those websites, something has been puzzling me.  By virtually all accounts, Lynes kept his frontal male nudes closely guarded and never publicly exhibited them, leaving them to the Kinsey Institute when he died.  So how are these supposedly authentic prints showing up for sale?  Someone paid $3750 for a similar, but less attractive (imo), photo in the same auction group as this.  It was known that Lynes showed his frontal nudes to some of his friends, but did he give some to them for their private enjoyment?  Just about all of those men would be deceased by now, and their estates might be selling.  Just a thought.

This is another one dated 1954, and it shows him without

 his foreskin retracted as we see in some of his photos.

 

Perlin and Lynes

Bernard Perlin was an artist friend of George Platt Lynes who did at least four portrait drawings

 of Ted Starkowski.  I was only able to find two of those shown in the 1955 photo by Lynes at center above.  (The dating of the photo by a Virginia museum places it in the very last year of Lynes' life.)  

Perlin remarked that Ted would turn tricks all night and then entertain him and Lynes with 

stories about his work while posing during the day.  I wonder when the guy slept?

 

Carl van Vechtin, 1956

I haven't been able to find any nude photos of Ted Starkowski that can be reliably dated to after George Platt Lynes' death in 1955.  This 1956 shot showing Ted's belly is by Carl van Vechten.  It was shortly after this that Ted apparently found a sugar daddy.  I did some searches on a major genealogy website and found records of him traveling to Paris, the UK, and Havana a total of five times between 1957 and 1961.  He was also reported by some diarist acquaintances to have sported a diamond rind during that period.  I assume that Ted didn't pay for those things by turning tricks in the Village.

 

Age 36 by Cadmus and gone at 50

This is the latest image of Ted Starkowski I could find, and it is a Paul Cadmus portrait 

from 1963 when Mr. Starkowski would have been 36.  Little is known of his last years, 

but he was stuck and killed by a car in New York as he was leaving a bar in 1977.  His family 

placed an obituary in his hometown newspaper that listed no profession, incorrectly gave his 

military service as in Korea instead of World War II, and said there would be a private 

service at an undetermined time with no visitation.

I'm left wondering what Ted would think about the fact that we're still marveling 

over his life all these years later.  I don't say this often, but he is one of the characters 

from that era that I would have given anything to know.

 

The Bill D. Collection - Bob Mizer's Stationary Surfboard

Today we have another series from the generous donation of The Bill D. Collection.

This time it's models with Bob Mizer's surfboard.  I've never seen a photo of anyone actually surfing on it, but it's hard to imagine that among all the models and hangers on in Mizer's compound no one would take it to the beach for a ride.  Of course, it might never have been returned in such an instance, given the thieving tendencies of many of the models.  Our first example, however, worked as an office manager and probably didn't need to steal a surfboard.  This is James Anton at age 26.

 

Harold

This photo of Harold Sage is almost a bulldog shot.

I wonder if he was a hairy on the front side.

 

Angel

This is Angel Love, and I have no doubt that the name was made up.  He was 

a carnival ride operator who hated to wear clothes.  If he carried out that philosophy 

at work, I would have to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl 20 times just to see him.

 

Ron

Ron Milhorn was a second generation AMG model, being the son of Bill Milhorn, one of Bob Mizer's earliest models.  Ron looks quite good with the upright surfboard, even if poolside.

 

Jim

Aspiring stunt man Jim Box and his flowing blonde locks

got a rather nice character description from Bob Mizer.

 

Beau

Our second derriere surfboard shot of the series features Beau McPherson 

and qualifies even more as a modified bulldog pose.

 

David

Closing out the stationary surfboard series with truck driver David Newman

 

Roy Blakey

For a time in the 1970s, former Ice Capades star Roy Blakey was a preeminent 

photographer of male nudes.  For some reason, he did another career change and spent the 

last years of his working life as a chronicler of professional skating performance as art.  

His official biography doesn't even mention his nude photography.  We start today's 

series with a typically well lighted and dramatically posed Blakey model.

 

Trio

This is what you get when you effectively combine geometry and the male form.

 

Linear

There's a linear element to the pose in this Blakey

photo that I find quite impressive.

 

Archer?

I'm not sure if this was meant to be an archery based pose,

but it works well in terms of lighting and musculature.

 

Shrug?

This model seems to be giving us a shrug while squatting.

 

Twink

I've been justifiably accused of rarely posting photos of twinkie types,

so here's one by Blakey.  I may do another next year.  Stay tuned.

 

Herbert List

Herbert List (1903-1975) was a fairly well known German 20th Century magazine photographer.  On the side, he did some noteworthy male nude work that we'll look at today.  I find the lighting in this 1950s photo of showering Hamburg industrial workers to be very interesting.

 

Munich 1946

Herbert List spent his World War II service as a map designer in Norway, a very safe assignment.

When it was all over, he returned to Munich where he photographed this very symbolic photo of a fallen Nazi statue of a perfect Aryan male specimen outside a bombed out museum.

 

Alexander im Wald

I find myself wishing that List had done more work along the lines of this fine photograph of a young man in the forest.  It has a subtlety that contrasts with most of his better known pieces.  I've only been able to find one other like it, and I think it was the same model on the same day.

 

Edouard

Herbert List took some memorable photos of Jean Cocteau's lover Edouard Dermit.

I think the art may be Cocteau's version of Polyphemus getting his eye poked out.

We'll see more of this large mural in a later post today.

 

Factory Workers II

This expertly photographed  work even manages to catch the individual water droplets as they fly.

List did a whole series of these shower scenes in the late 1950s.

 

List photographed this statue in the Tuileries Gardens on a visit to Paris in 1936.

 

Edouard Again

There is a cropped version of this List photo circulated that focuses more on Edouard Dermit's 

fine body.  As much as I like him, I prefer the full version showing Cocteau's art.

 

Playgirl, R and G

Time for another Playgirl series, always a popular choice among many regular viewers.

We'll start with Burl Chester, who has appeared here twice before in other poses.

 

Barry

Some nice muscles on view in this G-rated archery shot of Barry Hostetler.

I have a couple of full frontals of Mr. H. that I'll post in the future.