Vintage Military - Part 47

 U.S. Recruits, Post World War II

Today's photos are from a photo set taken in 1948 by LIFE photographer Michael Rougier called "Air Base Inductees."  The Air Force had been established as a separate military branch the year before.  Previously, it was the Army Air Corps.

Above, a towel-clad recruit enters the room labeled Physical Check Up, where we see another recruit being examined without his towel.

Another recruit enters the Physical Check Up room sans towel.  It's too dark to see much, but there's something between his legs.

Some towel-clad recruits wait their turn to shower.  

A view of some recruits showering.

And some more recruits showering.  Don't drop the soap!

Like most of the 4 million photos in the LIFE archive, these photos were never published in LIFE magazine.

Performers - Part 41

The Gooch Palms

The Gooch Palms is an Australian bubblegum punk band consisting of husband Leroy Macqueen (above) and wife Kat Friend.  They grew up in Newcastle, Australia, a bit north of Sydney.

Their main claim to fame seems to be Macqueen's nudity onstage.  He explained that when they started their band, he didn't know how to play the guitar (he used to be a drummer) and she didn't know how to play drums.  He said "We were hiding the fact that we couldn't play our instruments.  Like, look at me, over here naked!"

Above, Macqueen getting naked as they play Novos at The Tote in Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia in 2015.

Above, part of Houston, We Have a Problem, at The Tote in 2015.

One more clip, this one thankfully without the purple lighting, but unfortunately with a theremin (an electronic instrument that sounds like a demented whistle).  This song was Cucaracha, at The Tote in 2013.

If you can't stand the music, here are some photos from that performance of Cucaracha, with Macqueen exposing his front ...

and his rear ...

and his asshole (this wasn't in the video clip).

We end with Macqueen crowd surfing naked at The Tote in 2015.

I think it's pretty clear that Leroy Macqueen is an unashamed male.

The Gooch Palms announced the band was breaking up in 2020.  Since then, Macqueen has been singing country music (without the nudity, I think), but the Gooch Palms have reappeared for a few special events from time to time.

Not the Same Old Song - Part 35

Climb Every Mountain

Climb Every Mountain is a somewhat sappy inspirational song from The Sound of Music, sung by a nun.  Not the most obvious song to be illustrated with naked men!  But then I saw a video of Nudist Jeff, a gay Australian naturist who is one of my favorite unashamed males, climbing a mountain, and looking further through my collection of Jeff's photos, I found pictures of him fording a stream, and with a rainbow ...

I ended up illustrating this song entirely with photos and videos of Jeff.  See what you think.

Jeff lives in the town of Denmark on the southern shore of Western Australia, and he has posted lots of nude photos of himself in various scenic locations. If you'd like to see more of this guy, go to his Twitter page (I refuse to call it X): https://twitter.com/Nude_Hiker

Protests - Part 42

 Lycra Protest

I was intrigued when I came across some photos of guys at the 2014 World Naked Bike Ride in London with slogans on their backs protesting lycra.  Many WNBR riders have slogans either protesting against burning fossil fuels, or advocating for bicycle safety.

Why would anyone protest against lycra (the fabric better known in the U.S. as spandex)?

This was another photo in the set.  Although it's black and white, it provides a nice frontal view of one of the guys.

I looked for more photos of them at the 2014 London WNBR and soon found a bunch.  Here they are together.  Not knowing the guys' names, I will label them by the color of the word "Lycra" on their backs, green and blue.

Here's Mr. Blue.

Here's a partial frontal of Mr. Green.

A rear view of Mr. Green and a front view of Mr.  Blue.

Mr. Blue looks frustrated here, like "When is the ride going to start?"

Now it started, and here they are on their bikes.

Of course, they weren't really protesting against the fabric lycra.  Bicycle shorts are often made of lycra (spandex), so they were advocating ditching the shorts and going naked.  By saying "Lycra restricts the body and the mind," they were really saying, "Going naked opens up the body and the mind."  Which is true.

We end with this cute view of both of them.  Click on it for a larger photo.

Events - Part 45

 Christopher Street Day 2017

Christopher Street Day (CSD) is the name that some cities in Germany and Switzerland use for their Gay Pride celebration.  The name refers to the location of the Stonewall Riots on Christopher Street in New York in 1969.  CSD is a celebration, usually including a parade, but it's also a demonstration for LGBT rights and against discrimination.

Most participants are not naked, of course, but a few are.  Today's photos are from CSD in Berlin and Cologne in 2017.

We start with photos from Berlin.  We previously saw the guy above in the 2016 Berlin CSD, with the same green-dyed mustache and little green bow tie.

Some of the guys got body-painted. 

This guy's body paint reminds me of a Christmas tree, for some reason.

A bunch of naked marchers, painted and unpainted.

Posing together.  Cute.

Our friend with the green mustache again, plus another marcher.

Switching to CSD in Cologne, which is called Köln in German, we find a guy dressed as a devil.

Here he's accompanied by a female devil.

And here he's by himself again.  He has changed his footwear, but he's otherwise dressed the same, including a cock ring.  Maybe these boots were more practical for the parade than high heels.  Why did he expose himself like this?  Obviously, "The Devil made me do it."

Artists - Part 45

Don Bachardy

In 1953, 18-year old Don Bachardy (at right), met 48-year old Christopher Isherwood (at left) at a gay beach in Santa Monica, California, and it changed their lives.  Bachardy moved in with Isherwood and began a relationship that lasted until Isherwood's death 33 years later.

Christopher Isherwood was already an internationally known author.  Among other works, he had written the autobiographical novel Goodbye to Berlin which became the basis for the musical Cabaret.  Isherwood and Bachardy lived as an out gay couple at a time (the 1950s and 60s) when being out was difficult, even in California.

Isherwood recognized Bachardy's artistic talent and paid for him to attend art school.  Bachardy specialized in portraits.  Above, Bachardy paints a portrait of Isherwood many years later.

Bachardy created more than 10,000 portraits.  His talent became recognized, and his work can be found in major museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Smithsonian, and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

It also didn't hurt that Isherwood, being a literary celebrity, helped to connect Bachardy to art patrons.  Above is his portrait of gay poet Allen Ginsberg, whom we have previously seen.  Though it's not a nude portrait, it's interesting that Ginsberg's belt is undone.

But, in addition to the thousands of conventional portraits, Bachardy also drew and painted a large number of male nudes.  I have included a sample; there are many more.  Above, Timothy Robinson, 1984.

Jim Wiley, 1986.

Jay Wheeler, 1992.

Scott O'Hara, 1990.

Shahin, 2005.

Dan Greischer, 1984.  Greischer was a close friend of Bachardy and Isherwood, and during the final months of Isherwood's life as he battled prostate cancer, Greischer lived with the couple and helped care for Isherwood.

Dan Greischer and Keith Coleman in 1984.

After Isherwood's death in 1986, Bachardy continued to paint, and he still does at age 89.  Judging by this painting of Doug Zimmerman, 2019, his interest in the male nude is undiminished.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 21

 Ivy League Posture Photos

Yale started taking nude photos of incoming freshmen in 1919 as part of a program to detect and correct posture problems.  The Yale photos have erroneously been associated with William Sheldon, a psychologist at Harvard and author of Nazi-like eugenic theories who used Harvard nude posture photos to illustrate his theory of somatypes.  But, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos are not connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are five more posture photos taken at Yale that I had the opportunity to acquire.  For privacy reasons, I redact the names of men who might still be alive.  Three of these men have not passed away, so their names are redacted.

This is Yale freshman Siebert G. Adams, Jr. on Oct. 5, 1953.

An article in the Journal of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation described how in spring, 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to produce "PhotoMetric" posture photos like this showing front, rear, side and top views.

This is Yale freshman D.A. on Oct. 12, 1953.

Note the strange pins stuck to each student's back and chest.  The pins were stuck on at specific points for later posture analysis.  Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.

This is Yale freshman R.A. on Oct. 5, 1953.

This is Yale freshman W.C. on Oct. 12, 1953.

This is Yale freshman Patrick Winlock Child on Oct. 12, 1953.

Note: some of my followers have questioned the propriety of publishing these photos.  If you think I should not publish them, please don't comment to that effect.  Too much time and space has been taken up on the subject.  We can agree to disagree.  If you don't like it, go to some other blog.  Here is my position:

1. Were these photos an invasion of privacy for the students?  By today's standards, yes.  By the standards of the day, not so much.  In that era, guys were routinely naked around each other in locker rooms and in swimming pools when women weren't present.  Being asked to strip and even being photographed naked as part of a posture examination would not seem too outrageous.

2. To protect the privacy of the students, I redact the names of students who may still be alive (despite the fact that their names have already been published on an online auction site).  I only publish the names of students who have died.  Legally, the right to privacy does not extend beyond death, i.e. it does not extend to spouses, children, grandchildren, etc. of the deceased person.

3. In my opinion, publishing these photos is similar to publishing nude photos of athletes and soldiers taken by LIFE magazine photographers.  At the time, the understanding of the photo subjects was that photos with frontal nudity would never be published in the magazine (and they never were), but the LIFE photo archive containing those photos is now publicly available online, and nobody seems to be complaining about it.

4. I consider these photos to be a historical record of the time.  Almost all of the Ivy League posture photos were burned when their existence became widely known.  In my opinion, that was akin to book-burning of books that someone claimed were obscene.  These photos are not obscene.  They should be celebrated, not hidden away.

Vintage Athletes - Part 45

Marathon

Today's post celebrates the legendary ancient Greek runner Pheidippides.  In 490 BC, the Persian Empire invaded Greece.  Athens sent a runner, Pheidippides, to Sparta, the major military power in Greece, to ask for soldiers.  Pheidippides ran the 150 miles to Sparta in two days.  The Spartans were holding a religious festival and said they couldn't send help until their festival ended 6 days later at the full moon.  Pheidippides ran the 150 miles back to Athens with the bad news.

The Persian army met the Athenian army near the town of Marathon, 26 miles from Athens.  The Greeks, who were outnumbered 6 to 1, defeated the Persians, an amazing victory, but a Persian ship was seen slipping away toward Athens, perhaps to claim a false victory and raid the city.

Pheidippides was sent to run from Marathon to Athens to tell the Athenians that the Greeks had won. (Above, a National Geographic illustration by Tom Lovell)

Arriving in Athens after running 26 miles, he reportedly cried "νικῶμεν" (we win), or, as in Robert Browning's poem: "Rejoice, we conquer!" and then collapsed and died. (Painting by Luc-Olivier Merson, 1869)

This is a copy of an 1881 statue of Pheidippides by German sculptor Max Kruse.

And this 1906 postcard shows acrobat and strongman Willi Olympier posing nude as the Max Kruse statue.

Despite the legend of Pheidippides' run, the ancient Greeks did not run marathon races.  They did run other races, as shown above, and like all ancient Greek athletes, the runners were naked.

The modern marathon race began when the modern Olympics began in 1896.  It was a male-only event.  The length of the race, after some minor adjustment, was set at 26 miles and 385 yards, which was believed to be the length that Pheidippides ran in 490 BC.

The first non-Olympic marathon race was held in Boston in 1897, which makes the Boston Marathon the world's oldest such race.  The marathon race in Košice, Slovakia, where a marathon runner statue was erected in 1959 (above), is the oldest in Europe, dating from 1924.

Of course, modern marathon runners don't run naked ... or do they?  Here's a runner wearing a tiny Borat costume in the 2008 London marathon.

Here's Australian comic Tommy Little (second from right) with fellow Aussies Lachlan Spark, Justin Quill and Campbell Brown after running the Antarctic Ice Marathon in 2018.  They didn't run naked in the -20 degree Celsius weather; they just posed naked afterwards.

For actual naked marathons, there's nothing like the Nakukymppi race in Finland (above), held a week before Midsummer's Day.  Contestants run back and forth several times along the course, and depending on how many times, they can run a 10-kilometer race or a full marathon.  All contestants are naked.  Click here to see my previous post about this race.