The Twelve Days of Christmas According to Larry K.

For your Christmas Eve enjoyment, Larry K. has prepared the following guest series showing a vintage photo version of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Of course some liberties had to be taken with some of the enumerated themes, but I'm sure you'll find them enjoyable.  I did.

Many thanks to Larry!

Twelve drummers drumming

Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys, 1969.

 

Eleven pipers piping

J. Laurie Wallace by Thomas Eakins

 

Ten lords a-leaping

Members of the RAAF in Darwin, Australia, 1943

 

Nine laddies dancing

Ted Shawn and his dancers at Jacob’s Pillow in the 1930s

 

Eight men “got milk”ing

Rand Simmons and Dick Kern by AMG

 

Seven swimmers swimming

LIFE photo from the 1938 series ‘Matt Mann & Michigan Swimming Team’ by William Vandivert

 

Six guys a-laying

I like “guys” much better than “geese” a-laying, don't you?

Six guys on the beach. 

Editor's note:  Probable Wyngate and Bevins "nudist" magazine shot.

 

Five golden rings

Joe Dallesandro by Bruce Bellas, 1960s

 

Four college nerds

Who needs calling birds when you can have college nerds?

Stanford crew team by Berton W. Crandall

 

Three French men

Mick or Nick Magar, Christian Ferrand and Bud Lanter by Jean Ferrero

 

Two Turkish hugs

Turkish oil wrestlers, 1961 by LIFE photographer Stan Wayman.

 

And a partner caring for me . . .

1942 sailors kissing.

In these difficult times, I send each and every one of you my very best wishes for a

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

And to Larry K., my deep appreciation for his friendship and constant help with the blog.

 

Bob Harvest, aka Robert Hernandez, via Larry K.

As any of you who have followed this blog for any length of time already know, we can always 

count on my friend and collaborator Larry K. to provide some interesting photo submissions 

and guest series.  Today, I am posting a series by a "new" French photographer, Bob Harvest, aka Robert Fernandez.  It's very rare that I come across a good physique photographer of whom I 

have never heard, so I had to do an extended feature for this one.  I'm still looking for 

biographical information, but it seems Mr. Harvest was best known for his photos of 

naturists and bodybuilders.  Today, it's the latter, starting with Georges Lambert 

kneeling on a curbstone at the edge of some woods.  Many thanks to Larry K. for

nine out of ten of today's photos.  Yes, I found one on my own and included it.

 

Bob Harvest took this photo of Bernard Naceri in a posing strap.

I posted a photo of Bernard nude at a naturist campground not too long ago.

 

Samson Beltai was a bodybuilder who posed for 

Bob Harvest in what appears to be an autumn woodland.

 

We'll see Rene Mansuy here later in the series without the posing strap.

 

In the first of two appearances today, Jacques Louviers looks rather intimidating.

 

I think this is the only photo in today's series that I found on my own, and then it was only after Larry K. clued me in as to who Bob Harvest was.  The model is Charles Treard.

 

Lucien Roussin is quite effectively posed on a platform against the sky.

He may be a prime example of a well built model on a small frame.