Royale Studio 3 - "The Itch" (ARTICLE SUPERCEDED)

NOTICE

This article has now been superceded by separate, greatly enlarged and revised ones for
'Navy Romeo' and 'Navy Gash'

 

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Some Royale Sailor subjects come under the heading of 'larking about' but even these had an edge in their day which might not be fully apparent to the modern reader.

'Oblivious Hunk' from 'The Itch'

'The Itch' shows a couple of sailors behind a screen, secretly watching a colleague dressing in his tight (of course!) navy whites, starting with underpants at half mast revealing his buttocks. The observers seem to get more and more excited as the dressing proceeds and even swop a kiss at one stage. The object of their attention seemingly proves his straightness by blowing a kiss at a photo of a film starlet. There are bottoms galore in this set and some nice pictures of (mostly unmodified) naval uniform worn by hunky men but it all seems a little tame on the surface.

 

In it's day, however, this set of pictures was charged with daring messages - openly gay servicemen, naked bottoms, clothed bottoms in suggestive positions - it was dangerous stuff. Plus of course the whole sequence could be viewed in reverse as an undressing scene, a most distasteful idea to Mr Average at that time. 

 

In my sample picture, the positioning of the figures is quite satisfying although it looks totally artificial and comical. The arrangement of the mirror reflection is a nice touch but it's intended audience would not miss the glimpse of the pubic area. Fetch the smelling salts!

 

 

 

'Navy Gash' is less artful with a lazy sailor dragged from where he is dozing, drenched, scrubbed and finally stripped and labelled as gash (surplus, rubbish, not worth anything). It might pass as genuine representation of bullying/rough justice were it not for revealing trousers, the water poured down inside the front of the victims trousers and his exposed butt crack as his body is forcibly scrubbed with a brush. There is some excellent male and sailor imagery in this set but the picture quality suffers from an abundance of background detail which includes a motley collection of uniforms, some male pin-up pictures and an distinctly un-nautical bath!

 

 

 

You will see the reference to Sailor Al's collection on these pictures and you will find most of the rest of these series there although his site appears to be abandoned and most of the retrievable pictures suffer from ageing which has faded out subtle details like crotch creases in trousers which should be a major part of the pleasure for us.

 

Footnote: In Sailor Al's sequence for 'The Itch', which is not numbered on the actual images, the underpants disappear when the sailor begins to don his trousers which suggests that the first 3 underwear pictures should appear in reverse sequence, showing him removing them before re-dressing and 'going commando'.

Al says the sailors have laced his pants with itching powder forcing him to abandon them for his date, hence the celebrations.