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Monday, November 21, 2022

Shower Drew


Mr. Burton's last appearance in today's series is in Bruce's shower.  The plumbing fixtures look different from some of Bruce's other shower photos, so maybe he remodeled at some point.

 

13 comments:

  1. Perhaps he showered in situ at that rather exotic shoot. Having seen the inside of so many changing rooms, that is really quite an up-to-date, fashionable and doubtless expensive plumbing installation for the day.

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    1. Very good point. It didn't occur to me that he might need a shower after posing in the sun all day on a remote shoot. And of course, Bruce wasn't one to miss an opportunity for a few more photos.

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    2. Calorman has a sharp eye for detail.
      Yes, that was a pricey shower fixture, found in upscale tract homes.
      The front knob contolled water pressure and the lever behind it controlled water tempature. It was a rare style fixture with a complex mechanism and was expensive to repair, thus falling out of favor with home-builders.
      (per retired plumber friend)
      -Rj/IE

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    3. Calorman indeed has a sharp eye, particularly when it comes to vintage men's bathing attire, underwear, and athletic wear. He has an uncanny ability to accurately date a photo based on what the guys are wearing.

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  2. The famous Bruce shower. To me it looks like it was installed after Bruce bought his Kensington Drive home in Los Alamitos/Rossmoor. I understand that he turned the garage into his studio. There are photos of Scotty Cunningham using one of the bathrooms in the house itself and along with this one pictured.
    If those walls could talk. Sadly Bruce died in 1974, but at least one of the models
    Scotty was at his side.
    -Rj /IE

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    1. Scotty Cunningham was rewarded for his loyalty by being virtually the sole heir to Bruce Bellas' estate. He continued to market Bruce's work for several years under the Kensington Road marque, but the dropped out of sight by the 1980s. I'd love to know what became of Bruce's personal archive of original prints and negatives.

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  3. There are auctions sites selling Bruce of LA materials claiming they were part of his estate, The estate went to Scotty Cunningham and then it went to Kurt Deitrick/Kent Schlesselman who went to England. Question is, who was Mr Deitrick/Schlesselman? Supposedly he has the estate photo archive.
    Jerry, have who heard of this Mr. Deitrick/Schlesselman ?
    -Rj inthe IE

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    1. No, Rj, I haven't heard of those two. I'll try to research them and let you know if I find anything.

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    2. OK, so I did a deep search, and what showed up? An entry in my own blog that mentions Kurt Deitrick as a lower tier physique photographer who was involved in marketing Bruce's work after Scotty had a turn at it. The source citation was an online auction site that simply listed Deitrick as a contributing factor in the work for sale. Not much, but there it is.

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    3. Both names are of the same man. Real name and an alias.
      I imagine Scotty was young and naive, became overwhelmed by grief from Bruces death, the demands of running a physique studio, and the nightmare it must have been handling the legal and tax issues of his inheritance of Bruce's estate. Scotty apparently sold the estate to this man
      along with the photo archive. He's probably the one selling it off piece by piece, a real shame. Bob Mizer was lucky, enough people cared to form an archive.
      -Rj/IE


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    4. We all got lucky when a group of knowledgeable and committed people took over the AMG archive.

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  4. I have two prints of Shawn Mayotte using that same shower which likely date from mid 1980s - (who realized at the time that it would be helpful to keep dates and related info??? Lol) - all my dietrick collection was ordered from the Kensington rd address - there are also various pics taken in a bathroom with a tub/shower setup - an advertising brochure dated 1990 mentions a photographer named Phillipe Orleans as taking pics of Chris William's who also did vids for other studios - there is also a first amendment rights statement on the brochure which leads me to believe that Dietrick might have hit some legal troubles and decided to move to England (also why Scotty Cunningham decided to sell - the Meese Commission was hot on the trail of porn studios in those days)- I never ordered after he moved - as far as I know there were no vids produced - only solo masturbation and posing with many of the guys adding golden shower pics - never saw any duals advertised - many of the pics are indoors and out so maybe someone could identify the house - also Shawn Mayotte is apparently still around and might be a good source of information - hope that helps a bit

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    1. Thanks! Deitrick seems to be the one who made the decision to sell the Bruce catalog piecemeal instead of maintaining an archive. See most recent comments above.

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