Mr. Utah 1956 Top Five

You may recognize several of the names of the top five at the 1956 Mr. Utah competition.  Remarkably, four of them went on to have physique modeling careers and three were cover men for magazines.  Today I am using a slightly different format than usual and presenting you some great Utah beef.

 

Fifth Place

 Howard Jones at Fifth Place

Alone among the top five finishers at the 1956's Mr. Utah, Howard Jones did not have a modeling career.  Nor did he apparently pursue bodybuilding any further competitively.  That's a shame when we see how well he was developed as a 1956 Senior at Salt Lake City East High School at center.  He was one of two of the top five who may have been under age when he won fifth.  The photo at left is his junior year class picture and at right is his 1957 freshman shot from the University of Utah.  Wish we had more.

Fourth Place

 Reed Phippen took Fourth

Reed Phippen appears here on the left in his 1955 Kaysville High (Utah) School Senior yearbook photo.  On the right, he was a freshman Phys-Ed major at Brigham Young University in 1956.  That was the year he came in fourth for Mr. Utah.  Like three of the other five top placed men, he took up modeling with a career that extended into the early 1960s as you will see below:

This is supposed to be an AMG picture, but it isn't the usual Bob Mizer shower.

Good to see some chest fur on Mr. Phippen here.

Dave Martin took this great photo of Reed Phippen at a location

 he used for several other of the Utah bodybuilders.

Somehow, Reed Phippen managed to not appear on any magazine covers I could find.

We can console ourselves with this AMG shot of him with John Krivos.

Third place

 Coming in third was Walt Needham

Walt Needham (1936-2012) lived a remarkable life and will be given his own "whatever happened to" series in a few weeks.  In the meantime, I'll give y'all a teaser today.  This is his 1954 Senior class photo from Salt Lake City's East High School.  He appears in the Latin Club and a few service club group shots, but not in the athletics section.  Odd, given that he took 3rd in Mr. Utah not long after.

Like all but one of the top five 1956 Mr. Utah competitors, Walt Needham 

appeared on magazine covers.  Tomorrow's Man was known to have been pitched 

to gays, but it did feature quite a few serious competitive bodybuilders.

This Dave Martin shot of Walt Needham with Mr. Utah 1956 winner Mike Sill was featured 

in another series a few months back.  I'm using it again because I'm saving my other frontal 

shots of Walt for his upcoming "whatever happened to" series.

Although I don't have an attribution for this Walt Needham photo,

it looks like it might be by Dave Martin who visited Salt Lake City.

Then again, so did Bruce.  Oh, well.

Second Place

 Second place goes to Dennis Christensen

You'd be surprised how many men named Dennis Christensen lived in Salt Lake City at the same time as our second place winner.  Oh, and at least four of them were about the same age.  I finally found these three yearbook images from Salt Lake West High School that appear to be the right Dennis.  He won second place in the 1956 Mr. Utah competition while probably under age.  The left side is 1956, while the other two were from 1957.  I suspect, however, that given the usual practice, they were taken in the 1955 and 1956 portions of the school year.  The center photo shows him in a track warmup suit, but is clearly labeled "Weight Men."  It gives no real indication of what Dennis would look like in the following photo from September, 1957:

Could he possibly have looked like that under his warmups?  Or did he bulk up over the spring and summer?  Having been this well developed, I find it amazing that he doesn't seem to have won any other major titles.  That didn't keep him from modeling, however:

Bruce of LA took this stunning photo on the shores of Great Salt Lake.

Taken in the same spot as the preceding photo, this Bruce picture is about as racy as Dennis Christensen's modeling work got.  I've looked and looked for frontal shots with no luck.

That's Mr. Utah winner Mike Sill on the right with Dennis, 

and I wonder if they were playing a game of paper, scissors, rock.

First Place

 And the winner is . . .(total lack of surprise) . . . Mike Sill

This is Mike Sill's 1957 University of Utah class photo.  Somewhat surprisingly, he doesn't appear on any of the athletic pages of the yearbook.  Neither did he in his high school annual, despite having been described both during and after his lifetime as a track and field star.

Dave Martin called Mike Sill "my biggest discovery," and that's an amazing compliment considering how many outstanding models he photographed.  Both the seaside rock setting and the pose are classic Martin.  The tan lines provide added interest, as if we needed any.

The above vignette shows that Mike Sill was well connected in the world of bodybuilders, 

having helped his friend Steve Reeves find a high end horse after he appeared in Hercules.

We get a blonde version of Mike Sill in this 1957 cover shot for The Male Figure.  I don't know if Bruce of LA, the photographer, got him to bleach his hair or if he spent a lot of time in the sun.  

Mr. Sill appeared on no less than 12 magazine covers, most of them of the bodybuilding type.

And I'm bringing this somewhat unwieldy series to an end with the ultimate (literally) 

money shot.  Fellow bodybuilder turned photographer Bob Delmonteque described to a

 friend how he talked Mike Sill into posing frontally nude for this session "despite his 

deep religious convictions because of the pride in his amazing body."

Roy Dean Day

Roy Dean produced a number of tasteful and well photographed coffee table books of male nudes in the 1970s.  Today we'll look at five examples of his work, starting with Rick Draisin.

 

Brothers?

These two guys look like they could be brothers, and the setting looks like it was shot in my back yard here in Hawaii.  Neither is too far fetched as brother modeling acts weren't unheard of, and Roy Dean made several working trips to Hawaii for his coffee table books.  From what I can piece together, some of the models were local talent, while others were flown in.  Great gig if you could get it!

 

Equine

Roy Dean did several photo shoots involving horses, and I have to say that the one 

in this picture looks well cared for and quite comfortable with his situation.

In fact, the horse looks rather more relaxed than the human model.

 

Tony

This Roy Dean photo of Tony Pearson reminds me of some of Pat Milo's work which was shot on and around a courtyard portico in LA.  This was more likely to have been made in Hawaii, as it is from Dean's book, Dean's List, much of which was shot here in the Aloha State.

 

Lookalike

I get a definite Burt Reynolds vibe from this unnamed Roy Dean model.

 

19th and 20th Century Images with Staffs

We have to assume that the mid-20th Century physique photographers were influenced by the artists of the 19th Century, especially when it comes to the use of the staff as a prop.  Today we will look at five of each that match reasonably well, starting with this Al Urban photo of an unknown model.

 

Ruiz

Most of the academic drawings in my collection are French, which is quite understandable given the prominence of France in the art world, both in the 19th C. and later.  This very good drawing, however, is by Enrique Ruiz, a Spanish artist who drew it in 1896.

 

Hal

Bruce of LA was quite liberal with the use of a staff as a prop in his work, and this image of Hal Holston is both a good example and a great match for the following drawing.

 

Unknown artist

The great bulk of academic drawings in my art collection are well identified as to artist and even as to date.  This lovely derriere drawing of a model with a staff is an exception, however.

 

Fred

Fred Demus is always easy on the eyes, and this picture of him by Bruce of LA

 is a fair match for the academic drawing that is next in the series.

 

Lalire

Adolphe Lalire made this drawing in 1875.

 

Henry

Finding seated models with a staff was no easy task, but Al Urban's photo of Henry Karczewski

 is a close match for the French academic drawing that follows.

 

Boisson

This handsome model posed for Boisson around 1875.

Does the seal indicate that he won a prize?  I could see why.

 

Charles

This is Charles Zumwalt holding a bamboo pole

 that we've seen in other Bruce of LA photos.