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| Royale Studio - 'Navy Gash', Image 11 |
Above: A highlight of Royale Studio's 'Navy Gash' storyette
"The sexual chemistry these two men and the photographer
manage to
create between them is still amazing".
(from the mitchmen NAGA commentary, publication pending)
~
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| Royale's brochure image for Navy Gash |
Royale Studio's “Navy
Gash” (aka NAGA) is the story of a novice sailor being
initiated into the demanding standards and ways of naval service by
two of his more experienced colleagues. In the Royal Navy and Royal Marines 'gash'
was military slang for
rubbish or garbage, something that is considered useless, broken or
otherwise of little value. The words written on the victim's shirt in the picture above are 'Gash Can'. That gives you some idea of the thrust of
this piece which bears striking similarities to 'Navy Romeo' (No 2 in this mitchmen series on the work of Royale Studio in the 1960's).
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| Royale Studio - Navy Gash, The Cast |
The stars of this storyette are portrayed in the picture above with the 'novice', Percy, sitting in the middle. The two men on either side of him are Ned Willigan (left) and Tom Harding (who also appear as Spike and Tom in the Navy Romeo saga. This disparity in names is discussed in Identifying Navy Romeo models.
In these images Ned and Tom come across as big men and even in this innocuous cast picture there's a tremendous sense of physical disparity between them and their sandwiched victim (and a salivating display for all crotch watchers!)
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| Royale Studio - Catalogue entry for Navy Gash (NAGA) |
Royale's catalogue description for Navy Gash opens with the words 'Introducing...(the cast)' which suggests that it is those models' first appearance for Royale Studio. In the catalogues Navy Gash does indeed pre-date Navy Romeo but it's not Tom's first (published) appearance, Unapproved School is earlier still.
~
Next time: The Navy Gash storyette in full
and an updated link to the mitchmen Open Archive of Royale Studio Photos
4 comments:
Appreciate your comments on the Stephen Port case. Well done BBC for the drama series (and previous documentary) exposing the shocking Police 'inaction'.
For many years I worked in West London, just north of Earls Court. On one particular morning, when the Royal Tournament was using Earls Court Arena, I happened to drive to work a lot earlier than usual (about 6am). The troops were out for a morning jog in a long line, stripped to the waist. A more magnificent sight I have never seen, I almost ran off the road! I made it a point every Tournament day, and every following year, to park up the road and stand and watch as the ran past. Some of the guys must have recognised me after a while and smiled back at me knowing full well why I was waiting for them. Didn't have smart phones then otherwise the web would be flooded with my daily videos!
So sad when that all ended and Earls Court closed down.
Great story! I can remember similar impulses, gazing longingly through a chain link fence at a hairy chested worker who was working on clearing an old WW2 bomb site at the end of our road.
My memory of R. Tournament living in Earls Ct 1982-87 was the threat of a gay-bashing
I think that's true
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