Royale Studios 17 - The Soldier-Sailor Set (FJSS) - 2

My copy of Picture 4 is a full size print and I have to admit this frontal pose doesn't seem very sexy, although it shows off Fred's marvellous thighs and John the Sailor's upper body well. In this image  the models have assumed a military persona. This is the era of compulsory military service in the UK when young men are forced to leave their friends and family and enter a tough all-male environment where they have little freedom and have to do exactly as they are told. Seen in this light the un-military poses and resigned facial expressions make more sense.

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 4

The Sailor's trousers seem just too tight here, they appear have been stuffed but the groin detail is still interesting - is that darker area a wet 'tide-mark? His belt disappears inside the front flap of his trousers for some reason, which doesn't enhance the top line although I can understand the sensuality of that idea. You can see the wet creasing more clearly on the lower leg here. Tucking the trousers inside the gaiters is the correct way to use them, they serve no practical purpose with shorts - except for those who enjoy seeing strappings round limbs!
 
Post Script - Apparently gaiters with shorts was OK, see reader comment below

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 5

Things improve in pictures 5 and 6 as the pair admire themselves in a mirror. Curiously, the reflections of these men (especially Fred, the soldier) look much more impressive and interesting than they did in the straight forward frontal shot of picture 4, even the set of the beret seems more natural. John the sailor's back and bottom look great while Fred's poses show off his shorts particularly well, they curve around the thighs giving them solidity. These pictures are well composed and appealing but there is no lack of suggestive sexuality when you consider the sharply defined ass cracks and the frontal bulges.

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 6

I have seen it said on one blog that the intended recipients of these pictures were contemptuous of the obvious padding and rejected it, but that is to miss the point. It was illegal to sell or buy explicit images or excessively suggestive ones for that matter. The customers may have despised it but they knew it was all they were going to get. They had to make the best of little mounds hidden amongst the swimwear, rejoice in the shared understanding of subversive symbolism and enjoy the game as studios pushed at boundaries with ever more audacious images.

Part 3

For earlier articles in this series click on the GIU/Royale label below

I would be pleased to hear from anyone who has better quality copies of these pictures and is willing to share

Royale Studios 17 - The Soldier-Sailor Set (FJSS) - 1

THIS ARTICLE IS NOW SUPERCEDED BY A LISTING 

AT THE ROYALE STUDIO OPEN ARCHIVE

The FJSS set is a fairly typical example of what we might call Royale Studios 'Uniform' work - they also published a lot of conventional beefcake pictures featuring prominent bodybuilders. These military themed pictures seem quaint and artificial at first sight but closer investigation reveals a strongly erotic content can be as thrilling today as it was then.
 

The opening shot shows the two models posing naked apart from their footwear. The sailor (on the left) is ironing his uniform (yes, with an unplugged, cold iron!). This is studio print and you can immediately see how good the quality of the photography was. Also how well-built the models were, just look at the sailor's back and the soldier's thigh development.

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 1

This nudity would have been a problem in 50's Britain. Muscle posing in swimwear was OK but just putting two nude men together like this, in a pseudo-domestic situation without any pretence of classicism was risky. The positioning of the iron contrives to conceal the naughty bits but this would be regarded as smutty rather than artistic. 

 

Royale tried to disguise the erotic nature of these pictures, but the authorities could hardly fail to notice the positioning of the sailor's grasping hand, right in front of the soldier's groin and the focal point of both men's gaze. I suppose they might just have missed the erotic significance of the iron's pointed shape and the curious resemblance between the lower part of the handle and a man's scrotum, but seen with the right eyes this picture is simulating a jerk-off, plain and simple. 

Publishers did seek to wriggle out of prosecutions with the argument that “evil is in the eye of the beholder” but it didn't work very often, not least because the artifice is very obvious once it is spotted. 

 

The first picture is the only one in Royale's catalogue sheet for this set which shows the models naked where it counts. It's a bit of an 'odd man out'. From the second picture onwards they are both wearing trousers.

As an amateur Royale sleuth , the first picture also stands out to me in another way in that both model's gaiters (the ankle strappings) are light coloured whereas from picture 2 onwards, the soldier's gaiters look dark (as they should do, army gaiters being coloured khaki rather than white, that is for the Navy uniform). It makes you wonder if the first picture really belongs in a different set, but having said that, the ironing table does appear in both pictures 1 & 2, so maybe it's just a trick of the light.

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 2

Picture 2 is taken from the catalogue sheet, so it's fuzzy but this is another great picture. The high waisted trousers show off the sailor's tapered torso rather well but the beret (a tricky garment to wear sexily) is less helpful for Fred's soldier image, try covering the rear overhang with your finger and you'll see what I mean. 
.

At first glance it all seems quite respectable, the pose is intimate in nature but has a classical ancestry in studies of the hero being readied for battle. Movie buffs will also recognise the female equivalent (maid dressing mistress) from numerous frivolous comedies of this era. So it's actually a commonplace image. Naturally the implied master-servant relationship would appeal strongly to British sensibilities at this time'! 
.

But if you think this picture is just naïve beefcake, look again! John the sailor's trousers are so tight that his balls are clearly outlined and his relaxed open pose seems to offer them up, unguarded, to Fred. A shadow cast by the soldier's arm looks like a cock which Fred is grasping, which the viewer knows he can do, if he undoes the button in his hand and lowers the flap at the front of the sailor's trousers. Clever stuff.

.

I have heard that Royale tailored garments to individual models to ensure this revealing fit. The soldier's shorts look as though they have had this treatment too. Royale also soaked them in water to make them cling to body contours, the vertical creasing below the sailor's knee and lack of volume where they tuck into the gaiters suggests this is the case here. 
.

The preparation for these sessions must have entailed considerable work and would have made an erotic movie in it's own right! The thought of innocent new models being put through all this unexpected intimacy and awkwardsness just to earn a few pounds is sexy too. That's a theme I follow up in my “Naive Models” series (which can be viewed at the mitchmen archive - see Gallery Hub for link).
 .

Royale Studio - Soldier-Sailor 3

In picture 3 the 'dressing' roles are reversed with the sailor adjusting his buddies belt. The wet tight clothing shows off his behind, and Fred's also looks good, you can also see some nice musculature in their backs and thighs. The sailor's profile is attractive too, you even get a sense of how sexy the fashionable, quiffed hair was at this time. 
 .

Fred's pose is a bit stiff and distant, possibly deliberately so, to fend off any criticism of intimacy. There's an element of lens distortion in this picture which increases the separation effect. Royale were probably on safer ground with this one although in the context of the whole set the proximity of hand to bottom is still suggestive, particularly with Fred's backward glance seeming to say 'what are you up to?' There are the makings of a very sexy image here.

.

Continued in Part2

For earlier articles in this series click on the GIU/Royale label below

Lightbox Feature

Shafted in the mineshaft at Bound Gods

If you notice something different here it's because I have turned off the 'lightbox' feature which Google recently introduced without telling anyone. It effectively extracted all the pictures in a post and displayed them 'filmstrip style' in an overlay. I don't think it's suitable for this blog where it is intended that you read the text alongside viewing the pictures. I wish computer geeks would stop fixing things that aren't broke!

Update Monday 24th - However I will qualify my criticism by saying I think the lightbox display looks better than the old style 'box in the corner of a white screen' format which is why I haven''t switched it off on my mitchmen.com address. I rarely post more than one picture on posts there.

Royale Studios 17 - Two Mysteries Solved - Part 5

Royale Studios - 'Unapproved' series 1

Above is another picture from the Unapproved School series showing the sailor more clearly.
Is this the same model* as in 'FJSS' below?

Royale Studios - Soldier Sailor (FJSS) Series

 .
I must admit I am not sure, but it's a tantalising thought!

.

The next picture, also from Unapproved School shows the sailor with his cap off.
This is clearly a different man, John Dawes*, another Royale favourite and showing a splendid physique, although Fred Collins' thighs might edge him for sheer bulk. 

* No it's actually David Reid, John Dawes is a different Royale mystery! - Mitchell
.

Royale Studios - 'Unapproved' Series 2

Unapproved School was published as two sets and the images show here come from the two different halves. It's conceivable that the models changed between sets, but probably not. 
 

Why does it matter? It's only because the opening scenes of Unapproved School are somewhat incoherent with dressing and undressing and punishments for no clear reason before the escape sequence gets under way (see my previous article on 'Unapproved' for more). 
If the FJSS series is a precursor then it might untangle the 'storyette' a little.
.

In my next posts I'll look at the FJSS set and reproduce it with some full size versions of the images.

For earlier articles in this series click on the GIU/Royale label below

Royale Studios 17 - Two Mysteries Solved - Part 4

In my previous post I suggested that the catalogue label 'FJSS' stood for 'Fred and John' the names of the two models. The 'SS' I suspect is simply Soldier-Sailor. This is not just a wild guess. Royale advertisements which I have do mention a Soldier-Sailor set (without showing a sample picture unfortunately). Connoisseurs will also know that there are other Royale pictures circulating on the the internet using this label but they are from a different set 'Unapproved School', you will probably recognise the one below. 
.

from Royale Studio's - “Unapproved School”
.

You can immediately see a striking similarity to the uniforms used in the FJSS set, (sample below) and the soldier is clearly Fred Collins once again.
.

Does this mean the two sets are linked? 
And what about the EX2 bit? 
More next time in Part 5.
. 

For earlier articles in this series click on the GIU/Royale label below

Royale Studios 17 - Two Mysteries Solved - Part 3

As an aside, the Catalogue labelling system used by Royale Studios was sometimes based on the model's names (for example EAM = Earl Maynard) and sometimes based on the title of the 'storyette' (e.g. NAGA = Navy Gash). I suspect this one, 'EX2 FJSS', is a combination of the two.

The sailor who took my fancy in this set appears in another Royale Studio catalogue as 'JOS', he is shown in the same uniform and posed with the drum, see below.

Royale Studio - JOS - John Skilling?

This is another great 'shorts' picture, showing off the model's trim physique very well. I only wish I could lay hands on a decent copy of it! Cross-referencing the catalogue ID to other pictures in my collection I believe the model's name is John Skilling.The other model in this series is a Royale stalwart, Fred Collins 'FRC' in the picture below

Fred seems to be one of those models who get bigger as they undress, no wonder Royal wanted him to shoehorn his backside into their shorts and other gear! These two must have been great together. So it looks as if the FJ in FJSS comes from the model names. I'll talk about the 'SS' bit in my next post, it leads my little investigation off in another direction altogether! 

For earlier articles in this series click on the GIU/Royale label below

Royale Studios 17 - Two Mysteries Solved - Part 2

Royale Studios - Catalogue Page 'EX2 FJSS'

The Catalogue Page mentioned in my previous post is shown above. I don't know if it has an official name but I call it 'The Drum'. You can see the 'belting over the drum' picture is No 19.

The picture shown at No 15 is one I used previously in my first group of posts about Royale/GIU, namely in the Guys in Uniform post No 10 where I wrongly attributed it to that related studio. The picture came to me with no identifying information and after much thought I guessed at GIU based on the picture quality and the 'through the legs' imagery which I knew GIU used. I was wrong and I'm glad to set the record straight now.

Sailor Confronted - Royale Studio

I really love this picture, so you can imagine my delight when I found a companion piece in the FJSS catalogue with the soldier and sailor reversed - No 14.

In Part 3 I'll talk about the strange catalogue ID and the models before going through the set in more detail with some better images.