Performers - Part 90

Paul Robeson

Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was an athlete, actor, singer and political rights activist in the first half of the 20th century.  In 1915 he won a scholarship to Rutgers University, the third black student to ever attend Rutgers.  He played on the Rutgers football team (above) and was named All American in 1917 and 1918.

He then went on to law school at Columbia, playing professional football while earning his law degree.  After graduation, he became an actor in the Harlem Renaissance movement, performing in Eugene O'Neill's The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings.

While all this was going on, he found time to pose for Nikolas Muray in 1926 for a series of photos called Nude Studies.  Robeson had no problem showing off his athletic body.

Another from Nude Studies.

And another.

In 1925 he posed for a statue by Antonio Salemme called Negro Spiritual.  This is a plaster cast of the statue.  The original was shipped to France to be cast in bronze but was destroyed in World War II.

In 1936 he sang "Ol' Man River" in the movie Showboat, in which he starred, above.

His liberal political activism led to persecution in the McCarthy era after World War II.  Today he is honored for his views on civil rights as well as his artistic accomplishments.

Photographers - Part 90

Danny Fitzgerald

Danny Fitzgerald (1921-2000) was a Brooklyn-based photographer whose work was ahead of his time.  In the 1940s and 1950s he started by photographing scenes of everyday life, with some shirtless subjects,  but no nudes.

Then, in 1958, Richard Bennett (above) moved to New York to become an actor/model.  He sent his portfolio to Danny, who invited him to do a photo shoot.  The two became lovers and stayed together until Danny's death in 2000.

Richard also became Danny's business partner.  They called their photography studio "Les Demi Dieux", which means "The Demigods" in French, and Danny started photographing nude men.  Above, Richard Bennett.

They published photos in many of the gay physique magazines of the time.  Above, Richard Bennett.

Danny's photography took a more artistic approach to male physique photography than most other physique photographers.  He also used outdoor locations for many of his photos.  Above, Richard Bennett.

Richard Bennett was not the only model he photographed.  Above, Tommy, 1964.

Orest Daszo, Smoking, 1960.

Swim Hole, New York, 1964.

We end with an unnamed model sporting angel wings in a cemetery.

Les Demi Dieux was active only from 1958 to 1968, and after that Danny Fitzgerald stopped taking nude male photographs.  The reason is unknown, but perhaps after the courts legalized full frontal male nudity in the late 1960s, Danny may have thought that his carefully composed works wouldn't sell in the flood of cheaply produced gay porn that followed.

Danny Fitzgerald died in 2000 without ever having exhibited his works in a gallery.

Calendars - Part 91

Ripped & Stripped 2015

Many British nude calendars are put out by university sports teams, but there are also private calendars, such as the Ripped and Stripped calendars by photographer Nick Baker.   

As usual for these British calendars, part of the proceeds went to charity.  20% of the proceeds of this 2015 calendar went to three charities ...

the Albert Kennedy Trust, which supports young homeless LGBT people ...

Ballboys Testicular Cancer ...

and Macmillan Cancer Support.

So people who buy the calendars can feel good while ogling the photos.

The 2015 calendar features eight athletic guys ...

on the beach.

Frontal views are concealed ...

if only just barely ...

but not rear views ...

so we can use our imagination ..

or not.

Protests - Part 90

G20 Protest, Toronto 2010

The G20 is a group of 19 major countries plus the European Union and The African Union.  They focus on maintaining world financial stability and other issues related to the global economy.

In 2010, when the G20 met in Toronto, Canada on June 26-27, major protests and demonstrations were held in the streets outside the meeting by people protesting poverty and capitalism.

One of the protesters was naked. 

A rear view of him.

Here he is being interviewed.

In front of a line of police.

Some of the protests turned to rioting and vandalism.  Police arrested over 1000 people, making it the largest mass arrest in Canadian history.  Above, our naked protester gets arrested ...

and led away.

There was another naked protester called "Naked Jesus".

Naked Jesus also confronts the police.

If the police reaction (over 1000 arrests) seems excessive, they were reacting to things like this police car being set ablaze.  However, the police were criticized for brutality during the mass arrests, and later, those arrested won a class action suit against the police for $16.5 million.

Ivy League Posture Photos - Part 69

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 posture photos of six more Yale students that I had the opportunity to acquire.

Yale freshman James M. Mclelland on October 7, 1953.

In 1952, Yale installed an apparatus using mirrors to photograph the front, rear, side and top view.

Yale freshman John E.R. Master on October 7, 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.

Yale freshman William J. Martin, Jr. on October 6, 1953.

Supposedly, by examining the angles formed by connecting the points where the pins touched the body, certain posture problems could be detected.  If posture problems were detected, the student had to attend remedial posture sessions, and a second posture photo was taken.

Yale freshman Hugo Dunlap Smith on September 30, 1941.

Photos taken before the fall of 1952 show only a side view.

Yale freshman Joseph Grant McCabe III on October 8, 1941.

Freshmen were told to report to Yale's Payne Whitney Gymnasium, and once there, they were told to strip.  The photography and analysis of the photos was conducted by the staff of the gymnasium.  Nobody outside the gymnasium staff saw the photos.  The photos were not published for other students to see.

Yale freshman Warren Harding R. Stannard on October 9, 1941.

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 consider these photos an invasion of privacy for the students.  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 and relatives of the deceased person.

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 88

FTD

FTD (originally Florists Telegraph Delivery, now Florists' Transworld Delivery) was founded in 1910.  They let you order flowers remotely and have them delivered fresh from local florists.  As their symbol, they adopted the Roman god Mercury, as seen in the 1928 ad above.

Mercury was the messenger of the gods.  In the 1910 ad, as in this sculpture of Mercury, he is holding a caduceus, the winged staff held by heralds and messengers.

Later, FTD changed their logo to have Mercury holding a bunch of flowers instead of a caduceus.

That brings us to this Dutch ad from Fleurop Interflora, the European branch of FTD.  It says "First class flowers ... travel with Fleurop."  And it features a nice live recreation of the Mercury logo.

Grab Some Nuts Day 2026

Grab Some Nuts Day

Did you know that August 3 is Grab Some Nuts day?  It has been celebrated at least since 2013.  Officially, the day is about tree nuts.

But there's another kind of nuts you can grab.  All the photos in this post are from my friend Pat's blog Big Whack Attack.  Pat reminds his readers on the 15th of every month to check their balls.  In his blog, he also answers all kinds of questions from readers about the male sexual apparatus and related issues.  Check it out!

If you detect any suspicious lumps in your balls, you should immediately get checked by a doctor.  Testicular cancer is the most common type of cancer for men age 18 to 35, but the cure rate is excellent (98%) if it is detected early, which is the reason to do a monthly self-check.

Pat calls this monthly check the "buddy ball check", but he's not actually advocating having your buddy check your balls and vice-versa, though that idea sounds appealing (above).  You really have to check your own balls to know whether there's something there that feels abnormal.  Pat calls it buddy ball check because he's advising you as a friend to do it, and you should spread the word to your buddies that they should check their balls, too.

Pat has featured lots of photos that apply to "grab some nuts" day today ...

like this one ...

and this one.

Finally, here's an extract from a British YouTube video showing you exactly how to check your balls.  The British are less prudish about these things than Americans are.  So grab some nuts, and do it every month, not just once a year.