Performers - Part 53

Limp Wrist

Limp Wrist is an American punk rock band formed in 1998.  They are an openly gay band, as can be seen on the cover of their first album Don't Knock It Til You Try It, above, and they identify as part of the "queercore" punk subculture.

Part of their appeal is singer Martin Sorrondeguy, at left on the cover of their 2017 album Facades, above, who has been described as a "hot gay bear leather daddy."  Also part of the scenery is drummer Paul Henry, with his backside to us.

And we get to see his frontside at a concert in Nagoya, Japan in 2008.

Frontal nudity was rare.  But audiences routinely got to see Martin Sorrondeguy's backside, because he wears a jockstrap while performing.  Above, a short clip from a performance at Köpi, Berlin in 2009.

Occasionally guitarist Scott Moore also performs in a jockstrap.  Above, Limp Wrist at Silent Barn, Brooklyn in 2015.

Another short clip of Limp Wrist performing, this time at First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia in 2016.

Martin Sorrondeguy whipping up the audience at Obsidian in Olympia, Washington in 2017.

I don't know what Sorrondeguy is wearing, above, in 2019, but it's pretty clear he's not wearing it to cover his ass.

Sorrondeguy routinely shows his rear but not his front.  But in the shot above at the Brooklyn Bazaar in 2017 he was wearing some extremely short shorts, and I think what's hanging out below is not underwear or a jockstrap; I think it's him.

We end with this view of Sorrondeguy at the Echoplex in Los Angeles a year later, wearing what looks like the same shirt, only more faded, and the same short shorts, somewhat the worse for wear, and something's hanging out again down below.  Well, like their first album said, don't knock it til you try it.

Events - Part 56

Mr. Los Angeles Contest

Mr. Los Angeles was a contest sponsored by the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) from 1946 to 1984.  Above, the winners of the 1953 contest.

Many of the contestants were photographed naked outside the contest.  This is the 1947 winner, Eugene (Gene) Meyer, photographed by Kovert of Hollywood.

The 1953 winner was Irvin Koszewski, as we saw in the first photo.  Above, Koszewski is at left with Al Hazen at right

Bud Counts won 2nd place in 1954.

Jerry Ross was the 1955 winner.

Ray Routledge won in 1958.

Larry Scott won 3rd place in 1960.

Gable Boudreaux was the 1966 winner, seen here in the AMC shower.

Bill Grant won 2nd place in 1969.

Jim Morris won in 1970.  In 1971, he became the first openly gay IFBB professional bodybuilder. 

The 1973 winner was Bob Birdsong.  In other years he won the Mr. America and Mr. Universe contests.

We end with a clip from a gay porn flick showing Bob Birdsong being sucked by Ric Drasin.  I guess there are benefits to being a bodybuilding contest winner.

Vintage Military - Part 59

 Unloading an LCT, 1943

This is part of a British Pathé newsreel video of British troops unloading supplies in barrels from an LCT (Landing Craft Tank) ship in 1943.  The location was not given, but looking at the soldiers, I'm guessing it was in the warm waters of the South Pacific for one of the World War II battles to regain islands held by the Japanese.

Why are the troops naked?  Well, why not?  As I've noted before, there's no place for modesty among soldiers at war, and this way, they're not getting their uniforms wet.

Protests - Part 54

Slow Down For My Horse

A while ago, we saw how Lauren de Gruchy, a 19 year old horse rider on the English island of Jersey, started up a campaign on Facebook in 2015 called "Slow Down for my Horse," after too many drivers had startled her horse by driving by too close and too fast when she was riding on the side of the road.  She posted a photo of herself riding her horse in her underwear, thinking maybe that would grab people's attention to get them to slow down.

The campaign caught on, and hundreds of horse riders, male and female, submitted photos for the Facebook page of their horses and themselves, wearing underwear or less.

Of course, we're concentrating on the males wearing less, like the guy above, seen from the front ...

and from the rear.

Ride a white horse ...

Here's a set of beautiful photos of a man and his horse.  The "Slow Down for my Horse" campaign was posted on Facebook, which doesn't allow frontal views, but Facebook allows rear views ...

as long as they don't focus in on the rear too obviously.

Here he is riding the horse, from the front ...

and from the rear.

And we'll let the horse have the last laugh.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 33

 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.  The Yale program predates Sheldon, and, as far as I can tell, the Yale photos were never connected to Sheldon's work.

Here are four 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.  All of these men have passed away, so their names are not redacted.

This is Yale freshman Tung Hon Jeong on Oct. 6, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view, as seen in these photos.  Prior to that, the posture photo was just a side view.

This is Yale freshman Frederick H. Williams on Oct. 3, 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 Peter R. Williams on Oct. 12, 1953.

If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium.  Nobody outside this staff saw the photos, and the photos were not published for other students to see.

This is Yale freshman Clarence E. Zimmermann III on Oct. 16, 1953.

The posture photo program was discontinued in the 1960s, and later, most of the photos were burned.  However, some of the photos escaped burning, including the photos that I have been showing in this series.

*        *        *

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.  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 not 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.

Ads - Part 52

Burma Shave

Today we start a mini-series on Burma Shave signs.  In 1926, the Burma Shave company started putting up advertising signs along American highways.  At first, the signs merely advertised the company's product: a brushless shaving cream.  The message was posted as a series of signs along the side of the road, spaced about 100 feet apart.  By the 1930s the signs had evolved into little rhymes, sometimes touting the product, sometimes asking the driver to drive carefully or not to speed, but always with a bit of humor and always ending with the sign "Burma Shave."

The series above, on U.S. Rt. 64 in Arkansas, is typical:

                                                                This will
                                                                never come

                                                                to pass

                                                                back seat

                                                                driver

                                                                out of gas

                                                                Burma-Shave

Following are some more Burma Shave rhymes that I have illustrated with photos of guys shaving and other appropriate photos.

From 1933:

                                                                Within this vale

                                                                Of toil and sin

                                                                Your head grows bald

                                                                But not your chin

                                                                Burma-Shave

From 1933:

                                                                Ruddy cheeks

                                                                And face of tan

                                                                Neatly shaven

                                                                What a man!

                                                                Burma-Shave

From 1934:

                                                                Your beauty, boys

                                                                Is just skin deep

                                                                What skin you've got

                                                                You ought to keep

                                                                Burma-Shave

From 1934:

                                                                College boys!

                                                                Your courage muster

                                                                Shave off

                                                                That fuzzy

                                                                Cookie duster

                                                                Burma-Shave

From 1934:

                                                                Pity all

                                                                The mighty Caesars

                                                                They pulled

                                                                Each whisker out

                                                                With tweezers

                                                                Burma-Shave

Next time: more Burma Shave rhymes.

The Naked Farmer - Part 29

Victoria

We continue our series of photos posted by the Naked Farmer, Ben Brooksby, a young Australian farmer who takes and posts photos of naked Australian farmers on social media sites. The naked photos are to get people's attention, and his message is to encourage people with mental health issues like suicidal thoughts to talk about it with someone and not to hide it away. Ben himself had suffered from panic attacks in school.

Farmers send Ben naked photos of themselves from all over Australia.  I organize the photos by which Australian state they're from.  Today's photos are from the state of Victoria.

The photo above from Mansfield, Victoria was captioned "Somebody's got to fill the lake," presumably referring to what the guy is doing with his right hand.

This one was called "The View" from Navarre, Victoria.  A nice view, indeed.  And I guess those guys are looking at something, too.

This is "Time for the Kingston Rodeo," held in Kingston, Victoria.

A farmer and his tractor in the Yarra Valley, Victoria.

A farmer washing the tire of his truck in the Yarra Valley.  (Note: tires are called tyres in Australia, like in England, but trucks are called trucks, not lorries.)

We end with a poster for a rural expo in Hamilton, Victoria that features a view of sheep – and sheep farmers.  These guys are unashamed males!

Bodybuilders - Part 5

 Frank Hollfelder

Frank Hollfelder was a West German bodybuilder.  In 1960 he won the Mr. Apollo of Europe competition in the Junior division, above.

In the next few years, he was photographed by French physique photographer Jean Ferrero.  Above, a Ferrero photo of Hollfelder.

Another photo by Ferrero.

And another, with perhaps the clearest view of Hollfelder's equipment.

Ferrero also did a set of photos of Hollfelder (right) with French model François Rossi in 1961.

Another photo of Hollfelder (left) and Rossi.

This seaside photo of Hollfelder was not attributed, but I'm guessing it's another one by Jean Ferrero ...

and I'm guessing this is by Ferrero, too.  Of the many nude photos of Hollfelder that I found, only a couple of them show his butt.

Hollfelder also posed for photographer John Barrington in 1962, above.

Another photo from the Barrington set.  Compared to the previous photo, something is starting to come out of hiding.

Hollfelder even appeared nude on this magazine cover.  I presume it's a naturist magazine.

In 1965, Hollfelder struck out on his own as a male physique photographer.  He is credited with "discovering" Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1965 in Graz, Austria.  One of Hollfelder's photos of the 18-year-old Arnold is above.  

Other Hollfelder photos were not bodybuilders, just young male nudes.  The photo above is 19-year-old model Gerhard.

And here's teenage model Janne.  You could order 8 color slides of teenage models from Hollfelder for $5.  Did the 8 slides include views that the ad didn't (or couldn't) show?  I don't know, but Hollfelder's photography business apparently wasn't very successful, and he eventually gave it up.

Today we remember Hollfelder not for his photos, but for the photos of him.  (Above: another photo by Jean Ferraro.)