Trio

All the information that came with this piece was the artist's name, Donald Friend.

 

Bali 1972

This is one of the later pieces in my Friend collection, being from Bali, Indonesia in 1972. 

Friend spent quite a bit of time in the East Indies near the end of his World War II service as 

a war artist, and he later returned there for both work and pleasure.  In fact, his tendency to 

date young men got him into trouble with the authorities on at least one occasion.

 

Florence, 1952

I enlarged the lower right of this Friend drawing and learned that is was done 

in Florence (Firenze) in 1952.  I have a few other works done by this artist in Italy.

 

1950

The only information I have on this Donald Friend piece is the year, 1950.

 

Locker Rooms

Today we make a long overdue visit to the locker rooms.  I'll start with a cheeky 

quartet who look like refugees from one of my "boy next door" series.

 

Billy Joe

Ralph Crane took this photo of Billy Joe Davidson.

From the LIFE Archive.

 

Suspicion

These three look like they're suspicious of something.

 

Color table wash

The tables in this undated photo don't look at all comfortable,

but the men are probably having some fun.

 

Not who we might think

The guy in the foreground looks a bit like John Manning, 

but it's not him . . . for a number of reasons.

 

Leonard Chambers (1929-1956), Part 1

This Physique Pictorial cover was the lead-in for an editorial piece published by 

Bob Mizer of AMG at a time when he knew the authorities were watching everything he did.  

Some of you young folks today probably can't know how unimaginably brave that act was.  

Rather than retell the story, I am going to post Bob Mizer's essay here unedited, and then move

 on to an homage for a great model whose life was stolen.  Please read on:

This issue of Physique Pictorial is dedicated to LEONARD CHAMBERS pictured here, who was SHOT AND KILLED by an off duty POLICEMAN who was in private hire at the time! See page 3. 

He continues on page 3 -- "WAS THE KILLING OF LEONARD CHAMBERS  BY TWO OFF-DUTY POLICEMEN "JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE"? Acting in the employment of a private bail bondsman, two Southern California policemen forced Leonard Chambers to get in their private car for allegedly failing to appear on some traffic charges. They testified that Leonard pulled a gun on them even though they had previously searched him and had him handcuffed. In desparate [sic] "self-defense" they shot him twice in the back of the head. Leonard of course didn't live to tell his side of the story. The coroner's jurors dutifully declared this murder "justifiable homicide."  

 

Who photographed Leonard first?

Leonard was killed in 1956, but we know his modeling work goes back at least to 1948 or 49 because all the frontal nudes of him were by Freddie Kovert who killed himself in May, 1949.  Leonard actually looks older in this Kovert photo than some of his work for AMG, so he might have begun even earlier with Bob Mizer.  I thought of doing a "whatever happened" to serie for today's material, but we all know what happened, and the only non-modeling background information I could find was a 1955 Los Angeles County marriage license for a guy with the same name and middle initial.  Probably him, but in all the various reports, I've never seen mention of any widow.

 

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.

 

Unmistakably Kovert

This has Fred Kovert's "silent movie style" written all over it,

whether Fred actually took the photograph or not.

 

Rope and derriere

This is the best derriere photo of Leonard Chambers in my collection.  By AMG.

 

Leonard, not Larry

Leonard looks a little bit like Larry Carr in this Kovert photo, and I have 

to confess to having once mislabeled a picture of Larry as Leonard.

 

Leonard Chambers (1929-1956) - Part 2, Non-nudes

Part two of my homage to Leonard Chambers starts with a Bob Mizer/AMG sunlight shot that can only be called striking.  Although he took no frontal nudes of Leonard that I know of, Bob Mizer must have been quite taken with him.  I say that not only because he memorialized him with front page piece in Physique Pictorial, but because there are more photos of Leonard (56!) in my huge AMG collection than any other model I can think of.  He was simply that good, and Mizer knew it.

 

Far away

Leonard Chambers has that faraway (and in the other direction) look in this AMG photo.

And there's Mamma Mizer's crystal punchbowl again.

 

Biker Leonard

Leonard looks like he's having fun with a motorcycle on the beach.

Modern collectors would kill for it.

 

Bottled up

Call it whimsy or art, Bob Mizer did a good job with the effects in this photo of Leonard in a bottle.  

I wonder if he was going for a genie or some sort of alcohol related concept.

 

Excalibur?

At first glance,Leonard Chambers seems to be pulling the sword out of a stone in this AMG shot, 

but on closer examination, that appears to be a pile of turf.  His muscles are nice regardless.

Bob Mizer's brave memorialization of Leonard reminds us that courage in the face of oppression is not only possible, but something we simply must do.  Thanks, Bob.  The lesson resonates today.

 

Chubbies of the Nations

Greggy requested a chubby series, and I'm more than happy to oblige.  We're going international again thanks to adamskostum, who directed me to a great source of "new" nudist material.  I'm starting with Australia, and a guy I wished for more photos of some time ago.  Success at last!  And he's quite appropriately cooking up a big batch of pancakes at a campsite.  Thanks, AK!

 

DDR

The first of two color photos in today's series features a guy from the DDR (Deutsche Demokratische Republik, aka East Germany) and his crappy Trabant car.  Although only the Yugo rates worse in the annals of automotive disasters, at least a significant number of East Germans were able to own cars, particularly compared to other Communist Bloc countries.  In fact, the DDR had the highest material standard of living of any communist country, even the USSR.

 

France

1954 was the year this plus sized Frenchman posed on a rock near the ocean.

 

Italy

Italy provides us with a chubby derriere at the beach.

 

USA

One thing I've always admired about American nudists is their acceptance 

\of less than perfect body types.  These even made it into a few of the magazines, 

as with the chubby guy and the older fellow in this grainy 1966 photo.

 

Playgirl Men and the Water

Today we look at some 1970's Playgirl models in and around the water.

We start with Lou Zivkovich, a guy I never get tired of looking at.

 

Bart

That's Bart Turner at the helm of the boat,

 

Rogers Brothers

This odd arrangement of images of the Rogers brothers is supposedly

 exactly as it appeared in the magazine.  Albert the Gay Belgian is 

probably wishing they showed more of the left side brother's behind.

 

Lloyd

Lloyd Beardsley appeared early and often in Playgirl and other venues.

This boat on the ocean photo is from 1973.

 

Angie

Angie Reno had several surfing photos appear in Playgirl.

 

Joe Canoli Double Feature, Part 1 - Nudes

 

I have waiting quite a while, but I've finally put together a full double feature series on Joe Canoli, a really attractive Italian-American model.  Everything I have in my Canoli collection is by Walter Kundzicz of Champion Studio, and I'm not aware that Joe worked for anyone else.  For the unitiated, the term "canoli" is literally a cylindrical Italian pastry, but it is also an Italian slang term for penis.  We start the series with Joe by a fireplace with some snowshoes.  Interesting props.

This series is dedicated to my favorite paisan, Mike P.!

Football pads

Walter Kundzicz did a rather extensive series of photos of Joe Canoli what I believe was

 a faux locker room in a variety of football gear.  This is a favorite from that session.

 

Spelling error

You might notice that this magazine image has Joe Canoli's name spelled wrong.

Everywhere else I've seen has it spelled the way I have used in this series.

 

Weighty matter

Joe Canoli's fur and some other attributes are shown off nicely in this weightlifting scene.

 

More football

Despite having a lot of other choices, I decided to post another football 

gear photo of Canoli in today's series because of the interesting pose.

Also, the light and shadows will no doubt appeal to some viewers.

 

Joe Canoli Double Feature - Intermission/transition

Joe looked good in or out of pants, and our two intermission pieces show 

some montages of him in different sorts of gear.

(A full view color version of the background photo appears later.)

 

Twofer with interesting notes

This twofer features one of those magazine bio blurbs.  If this is to be believed, Joe was the athletic director at a Cleveland boys club.  Now we all know these pictures were being pitched to gays, so the question instantly arises as to whether a modern piece would mention this.  I really doubt it.

 

Joe Canoli Double Feature, Part 2 - Kundzicz Covers

In the second half of his double feature, we'll see Joe Canoli in a variety of crotch coverings, more about which we will learn as we go along.  This composite features a mesh posing strap.

 

Fancy undies . . . or whatever

In the days before frontal nudes were legal, Walter Kundzicz of Champion dressed quite a few of his models in some interesting and varied garments to create sexy images without risking arrest.  Those ranged from jockstraps to loose mesh thongs to cutting edge underwear.  I also think some custom made items may have been created, but I don't have documentation of such.  Here we see Joe Canoli in some yellow, almost see-through briefs.  Perhaps Calorman will enlighten us on this subject.

 

Ready, set . . .

Joe Canoli looks ready to charge out of the starting blocks or pounce in this one.

 

Pirate Joe

Walter Kundzicz was known for the large array of props and scanty "costumes" he used in his photos.  Here we see Joe Canoli in a pirate motif that seems to have been a one-off as I can't find others.

 

That pouch

I know several viewers who will actually appreciate the

 positioning of the pouch in this final photo of Joe Canoli.

 

Amateur Ablutions

Our Saturday theme is amateur shots of men doing their ablutions, and you will soon see 

some photo quality that shrieks "amateur."  We start with a World War II German 

soldier using a railway rotary track switch as a shaving stand.

 

Group of five

Here we have guys washing clothes, shaving, bathing, and bending over.

Did the bender drop the soap?  And why does the shaver have his pants around his knees?

 

Washing and doing his washing

This guy looks like he's washing himself in the sink after 

having washed and hung up some socks and underwear.

 

Washout

The washed out nature of this photo attests to the 

likelihood of amateur origin and also fits the theme.

Disclosure:  I had to work on this to make it viewable at all.

 

Blurry group

Although the image is blurry, we can see one guy shaving, one guy scrubbing his crotch,

one shaving, and on standing there washing his chest.  And all in a creek.

 

Filling a glass?

Finishing up with a beefy fellow who appears to be filling a glass 

somewhere in a rather large tiled bathroom or locker room.

Maybe he had been brushing his teeth.

 

AMG 1958

Bob Mizer of AMG captured this image of an unknown lanky model in what I suspect was a stage set bathroom, not a real one.  Am I the only one whose home had those space heaters as a kid?

 

Late 1950's, Part 1 - Five of our Favorite Physique Photographers

Today's double feature centers on the late 1950's with one or two possible shots from 1960.  

Part one has photos by five well known physique photographers, starting with this one 

of Jack Thomas by Russ Warner.  Jack was Young Mr. America of 1956.