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Monday, 19 December 2016

Vintage Season 7 - The Baggies


Given the restrictions on sexual display that Beefcake Studios had to contend with I can't really grumble about posing pouches that don't show very much, but this slack effort offends against the universal dress code, it's just so untidy! Not at all flattering to the wearer, although these two handsome creatures would get away with almost anything. I don't know their identities (info from readers appreciated) but this looks like an AMG wrestling still. The movie-style pose of the 'loser' is very 50's and possibly a satirical jab at closet cases in that industry and an assertion that 'we are everywhere and you adore us without knowing'.


This chap seems to have the same problem. Maybe this was a period when there was a crack-down going on and models were told to lower the side strings to loosen the material. There's just the tiniest hint of projection here but visually it's the crispness of the fabric that catches the eye. Whilst I may chuckle at these loose pouches, I know the sensation for the wearer can be quite pleasant, particularly with freshly laundered material. Also anyone who's tried to make one with more cloth than needed between the legs will know that that can feel quite enjoyable too. 

I don't know quite what to make of those moccasins, perhaps they are a necessary accessory in grubby body-building arenas but why didn't he kick them off for the photo? Did someone decide they were sexy? Or is this some peverse mitchmen-esque mockery by the photographer?

I was pleased to find this image so that I could include a black model in my Festival. They are not exactly rare in vintage photos but not that common either and are usually limited to star bodybuilders like this man, rather than those with more ordinary physiques. The poses are correspondingly formal and for that reason tend to be less suitable for my erotic musings, but in this case the glimpse of fabric disappearing between his buns is adequate entertainment! There's an even more fundamental problem with many old, black and white photographs of dark-skinned models. That is their body details don't show up clearly enough, due to the ageing of the original image or because the photographer's equipment or technique was not up to the challenges of less reflective skin tones.

Mark Nixon - WPG
  This picture of Mark Nixon shows the visual equivalent of the 'loose material sensuality' I described under the preceding image. You can see and enjoy the fabric of his G-string curving under and between his legs. 

The image itself, however, is the complete antithesis of the last one featuring a white, boyish, cute and mildly muscular model in a very submissive pose. Kneeling with legs together, hands behind back and downcast eyes there's more than a hint of bondage and captivity here. The G-string's improvised nature, instead of seeming odd, actually feeds into that narrative. It's eroticism of a different order to the butch, commanding maturity of our body-builder above and it defies the censors by exploiting their ignorance of what makes up gayness.
See more in my post on Mark Nixon in bondage

I could have featured this one in my 'Size Matters' post but it also shows a different aspect of bagginess emanating from the width of the material. The blurry blob in the middle indicates that it still did not disguise the contents to everyone's satisfaction! Perhaps I'm funny but I would have thought the other model's pouch was far more challenging to the sexually averse. I can't work out if this is a WPG-style outside shot or an AMG faked set, that furry box looks very dubious (and I'm not referring to the models here!).

Giancarlo Zampetti by Barrington
To finish, a British photographer and a totally original, glossy, G-string design that probably felt great to wear. Less so to look at, although there comes a point where improvisation transitions through charming innocence to delicious manipulation. The picture illustrates the limited resources available to this photographer - or his impulsiveness and willingness to work with them perhaps (ships in the night and all that). He did do studio work as well.

There's a world of commentary about post-war 50's Britain here, not just in the furnishing and decorating detail, but in the suggested furtiveness of this homoerotic encounter with drawn curtains and anxious looking model. This was a time of very aggressive homophobic policing* in Britain and in some ways the looming shadow on the wall eloquently conjures up that sinister era.

(*reference movies - Dirk Bogarde in 'Victim' and 'The Imitation Game' about Alan Turin give some sense of how it was)

More next time
Read this series from Part 1

Friday, 16 December 2016

Vintage Season 6 - Hand Made by .... who?

David George (by Bruce of LA)
This cute model has a pleasing balance of muscularity and litheness and his face has a touch of butch ruggedness set off by that raffish quiff. You can imagine that this young man takes quite a pride in his dress normally. But although his G-string does not look out of place in this arty image and is of a sensible size, you can see that it doesn't seem very well made, the side seam is ruched up as though the thread is too tight. Perhaps the cotton shrank when washing out the traces of a previous wearer?


Unidentified
It's hard to imagine a stylish man about town being happy at being asked to wear this garment! The sides appear to be sewn up with string or leather, Native American style (if that's not an insult to the craft skills of those people). I can only imagine that it's holding some sort of tough lining in place, possibly an inner device designed to produce the projecting effect, although that tip looks like the real thing. The creases underneath are probably due to some other tailoring that is accentuating his balls. I don't think his mother made this for him!

Marty Shimkus (by Kris)
Another example of tailoring designed to lift and separate, but more skillfully executed. Despite the movie star pose this is an unashamedly erotic image and an astonishing example of just how far the sometimes despised G-string allowed photographers to go, pubic hair and all. I'm quite sure I'm not the only man who finds this close-up amply rewarding. The snug fit is a joy. There's another view of Marty's tackle in my previous post

Gene Meyer (AMG)
 You have to feel for this model, he's got pumped-up muscles, well distributed body hair and a mean and moody look, but they've made him wear the strangest of G-strings, looking more like his granny's old-fashioned, soft furnishings than manly sexy clothing. You can almost see his annoyance. It makes me wonder if some mischievous, back-room boy deliberately put together this item with the intention of embarrassing the wearer(s).

Andy Kozak & Vern Charles (AMG)
Andy's covering in this picture seems to have similar properties, thick looking material with oddly bulky side seams. Perhaps this pouch was designed for a winter shoot in a cold room. Taken by the same studio as Gene (above), it might even be the same garment (what tales it might have told us!). In this position it produces the peculiar effect of seeming to be attached to the supporting string only at the corner tips, like washing hanging on a line or that awful curtaining pinned up by those disinclined to put up conventional rails.

Don Fuller
 Don Fuller was a stalwart of the G-string era and some of his images are excellent but this posing pouch won't have won many converts to the cause. Workmanship aside, what's odd here is that although there is a strong intimation of something heavy hanging down inside, the top line is absolutely horizontal instead of showing the dipping curve you would expect. The supporting string looks more like cord than the usual flexible elastic but even allowing for some extra stiffness on that account, it still seems to defy the laws of physics. You might also wonder what is that oddly flat shape sitting at the bottom and pulling it down? Has he stowed his credit cards there? It's possible it's just a clumsy cover up of the dreaded penis head of course.
 
Nestor - by Danny Fitzgerald (Les Demi Dieux)
This is one of my favourite G-string images. A well muscled chest, cute face and an unusual pose that looks like the naughty boy waiting outside the headmaster's study for his misdemeanours to be dealt with. The seated position does not make great demands on his G-string but it looks almost as if it is torn at the side and hanging down.

"Fighting again is it, Jones? Well see about that!"

 More next time
Read this series from Part 1

Tuesday, 13 December 2016

Vintage Season 5 - Size Matters

After the string of faked G-string/Posing Pouches in preceding posts, the images in this one seem to be slightly more authentic and closer to what nature intended but perhaps a little lacking in erotic purpose. After all the aim of this garment is draw attention to (near) nudity and to hint at eroticism at the very least, otherwise you might as well clad your model in conventional, uncontroversial swimming trunks or shorts. So why present a model in a piece of cloth so large that it looks like a babies nappy, as in this picture of Forrester Millard?
(see also Donnie Kay in No2 of this series)

 Forrester Millard

The model's pose in this photo seems beyond reproach so perhaps the excessive pouch size is mocking the censorship of genuine 'nude art' by exaggeration. On the other hand it might simply be a device to make less obvious the hint of 3-piece suite daringly showing through at the bottom of the (wetted?) pouch. Unfortunately this stratagem seems to diminish the model's credentials as well. It does look as though model modesty can be discounted as a factor in this particular case though.

Artie Zeller and Marvin Eder (Keeling)

Marvin Eder seems to be just as bemused himself in this picture by 'Lon' which might be entitled 'You can look but you can't touch'. Actually this is a daring pose in some ways, hinting none too subtly at domination, bondage and manly interest in the nether regions. Of course, the Grecian column brands it as just a historical re-enactment, so that's alright then.

These two models have deliciously plush upholstery that goes a long way to mitigate that unappealing garment that bizarrely forms the focus of the image. I have a much nicer image of Artie coming up in a later article.

 
Marty Shimkus by Kris

You can almost glimpse another rationale for the oversize pouch in this example, with it's suggestion of a full erection created by artful folds and shadows. You can see there's complex multiple light sources involved in making this happen but I suspect there's a bit of touching up as well, either way I doubt it would have got into widespread print 'uncorrected'.

Once more this image dallies with S&M with the appearance of a whip augmented with rather vicious-looking extensions. The model's penitent pose with downcast eyes feeds into the suggested punishment theme. He seems to await his fate, draped with the implement that will deliver it. His G-string has a slightly less improvised quality than the previous two with proper side-hems visible, but then, the implied sub-text of ancient slavery does not require stylish gear for authenticity.

Forrester Millard + ano

In this picture it all gets distinctly jokey. Forrester Millard again with another model I haven't identified (but who bears a bizarre resemblance to a well known current British Football manager). The two men link arms outrageously like a promenading couple, hands on hips. Forrester eyes his companion's diminutive cover garment with something like disapproval or disdain.

You can see here how the smaller garment exposes more of the abdomen which is potentially a zone of erotic stimulation. Consequently that area has been shaved of pubic hair and possibly painted over in the photo as well to hide any unsavoury undulations, since in the eyes of the censors that was just as objectionable as the actual organs down below. It's quite likely Millard's expression is sarcastically drawing attention to the un-natural clean up. So here's another explanation of the high line garment - to avoid all possibilty of falling foul of the law. However there are traces of Millard's own pubic hair as well, above the 'string line'.

Jerry Ross

These 'large' G-strings came in a range of shapes and sizes. This picture of Jerry Ross (with the old bamboo again - see first pic) illustrates the 'narrow and deep' variant which sucessfully covers hairy zones above the groin and permits long penis-like shapes to be hinted at (as with Marty Shimkus above). Of course it doesn't deal with lateral hair growth quite as well and you might detect suspicious effects in this area on close inspection. At this point it might occur to you that hunting the alterations can become quite an erotic hobby! The streamlined, plunging shape of Jerry's garment lengthens his legs and links up nicely with the shadows at the side of his body/six pack, they angle downwards in the same direction creating a harmonious flow of lines whose focal point is......... you guessed! My copy of this photo credits AMG but the outdoor location makes me wonder about that.

Giancarlo Zampetti 

Here we have the wide and shallow variant photographed by British photographer John Barrington. It looks altogether more comfortable and arguably presents a more impressive sense of being filled with earthly delights than most of the others in this group. The width helps to accentuate the model's body bulk rather than his litheness, the reverse of the image above. If you compare the last two pictures their disparate garments almost reverse the model's relative sizes and shaping.

Andy Kosac (foreground), Vernon Miller, Forrester Millard

A splendid example of little and large G-strings. In this picture the pubic hair region of the lead model has not only been 'cleansed' but enthusiatically embellished with fanciful shadows that don't correspond with male anatomy. Kozacs scanty G-string appears to have gone unscathed in this process and that honesty makes a decent case for the garment as an erotic accessory. However it's the big fellows at the back that surrepticiously provide the most explicit imagery with rounded ball pairs showing clearly through their more capacious coverings. This sneaky incongruity must have surely thrilled the target audience.

I wonder who contributed their prized persian carpet for this scene? It conjures up the image of a slave being readied for sale in the bazaar so it's disconcerting to realise that those are actually handcuffs going on his wrists not antique chains. Nevertheless, Kosacs is almost into bondage here and make a decent fist of struggling against it. Unfortunately his cute companions seem more like paid attendants, politely dressing their charge and finding the complexities of the handcuffs more of a problem than his feigned resistance.
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(L to R) Juwa LaVonce, Howard Heidtmann and Don Hawksley

This picture by AMG (and it has to be them with bricks and bins in the background!) makes me wonder if models supplied their own G-strings. These ones certainly don't appear to have all come off the same production line. So we have Juwa modestly opting for the safety of size, Howard going for tight definition, just like his own body, while ragamuffin Don simply offers up a good handful neatly presented. Even G-string sceptics would surely be interested in taking their pick from this line-up. Notice how the actual colour of the string in all these pictures makes a surprising difference to it's prominence and through that the acceptability of it's appearance.


More next time
Read this series from Part 1

Saturday, 10 December 2016

Vintage Season 4 - G-String Mysteries


 What do you make of this picture? It's obviously a magnificent torso image and that owes much to the skill of the photographer in preparing the oily model (I'll help with that!) and then audaciously cropping the image, removing half his head and outer limbs. It's awash with sensuality and for my money this G-string does not look at all out of place. The skimpy proportions and froth of pubic hair are unavoidably erotic when you're as close as this of course but it's shape is quite attractive too, with dipping curves seeming to echo the underside of the model's buttocks, like the overlapping scallops on a posh pelmet. 

But hang on, what's happening to the support string on the left? It is definitely real - you can see the indentation and shadowing of the hip flesh quite clearly. As it approaches the pouch, however, it seems to dive down and miss the point where you would expect it to join up and disappear inside the top hem. In contrast, the right-hand string appears to fully obey the normal laws of keeping up drawers. The more you look at the pouch, however, the more it seems to be hovering in the air, just in front of the model, but I can't decide if it's totally faked (despite the beguilingly realistic right hand string), or if it's actually attached to some other device behind, which we can't see.  
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Exhibit 'B' is another typical WPG image of two shapely men enjoying the sunshine. Their poses do not look natural, comfortable or stable and that tends to produce a corresponding, dissatisfied feeling in the viewer. However, if you allow your eye to rove over the torso areas you can see how the curves of their muscles and bodies seem to fit together and subtly complement each other. Thus the shoulder and pec of the model at the back fits into the curve of his companion's armpit, while the sweep of his tilted-back neck leads the eye down the plane of his chest to sweep across the concave shape of the nearer man's abdominal cavity and thence inside his G-string. This requires very clever crafting of the model's positions. It not only looks nice but visually suggests an intimacy between them and is thus erotic as well as arty. The overall composition is not entirely sucessful but you can see how judicious cropping might easily produce an image just as spectacular as the first example.

The G-strings in this picture are not clear, but they form different and slightly odd shapes, the one at the back strangely mounded while that at the front seems to taper off in mid air instead of continuing between the legs. It has a rigid shell-like appearance, a construction which would avoid inadvertant shaping of the garment to the objects inside. It lends some support to my conjectures about the shield-like appearance of the G-string in the first picture.
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This image also creates that shell like impression, with side strings again that don't go where you would expect. The curve of the top hem seems un-naturally rounded but that creates an unexpected peeking opportunity. It's another example of the Studio's low key eroticism and their refined artistry is illustrated here in the echoing double curves of pecs and knees (and the same shaped G-string between them). Also the elegantly flowing body lines like those of a diver. He's quite cute too!


Despite the Western theme, I don't think this is a WPG image and there's none of their artistry in this stilted pose (how I hate hands on hips!) or the lighting which does little for the muscularity on show. This shot relies more on the inherent appeal of the handsome model and on props to make it interesting but there's a very clear gulf in quality.

It's not a good copy but you get the distinct impression that this chap's pouch has been well and truly doctored. The black shadowing around the irregular shaped white patch makes it look 'applied' and the string is also unconvincing, not seeming to quite connect with the hem. Remember though that these disguises were intended to look just that, enough to be decent but unmistakably hiding something more tasty whose outline, surprisingly, can actually be discerned in the shadowing.
This feels like the tail starting to wag the dog!

More next time
Read this series from Part 1

I'd welcome ID information on the models in this article

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

Vintage Season 3 - More Puzzles in G-strings

Billy Joe Carr

Billy Joe Carr posing nude with his favourite record.
His chunky torso belies his boyish-looking face but it shows lots of pleasing curves without the bony-looking, extra detailing which shows up in ultra-lean physiques like that of Jack Thomas in No 1 of this series. Only the slicked-back hair style with quiff dates the model, but the domestic setting around him shows some interesting early sixties taste and technology.

Even if you knew nothing about Harry Belafonte, it's fairly obvious from the picture itself that the
inclusion of one of his album sleeves, carefully angled towards us is a very deliberate choice. Given the time the photo was taken (early sixties) I would guess that this is referencing his support for civil rights rather than the gay rights he has also become directly associated with now.

The admiration being shown for him here by a naked white man is not without it's own subversive element. This image may also be reflecting the widespread, wishful thinking that Belafonte might himself be gay. The symbolic extraction of his image from the interior of the record player implying a coming-out scenario. Belafonte however is married and if you take this picture at face value, so too was Billy Carr who is shown wearing a wedding ring.

 Billy Joe in G-string? 

At first sight this looks like an authentic G-string. However comparison with the previous photo shows it can't be, both pictures are the same. On closer inspection the shadowing and angling of the just-visible creases and hems, while seemingly real, actually suggest that the garment and its contents are angled to our right whereas Billy Joe's body is facing the other way.  It looks like this G-string cup has been taken from another model and superimposed on the photograph of Billy Joe (an interesting variation on my 'sharing clothes' postings!). The side strings also perhaps look a bit straighter than you might expect as they curve round behind him. Real or not it's compact size is rather more attractive (or at least more erotically interesting) than that worn by Donnie Kay in my last post. 

Interestingly the model's wedding ring has been blurred out too in the second picture, perhaps this censorship is an early manifestation of the anti 'gay for pay' movement. Whoever imagined that these old porn pictures could have so much sociological significance?

More next time
Read this series from Part 1

Monday, 5 December 2016

Vintage Season 2 - The trouble with G-strings


 Kurt Freeman by Bruce of Los Angeles

This semi-arty style of image was typical of the era of the pouch/string. The open pose is nevertheless fairly erotic. I have always found clothed bodies more interesting than naked ones in general and I must admit I do like the G-string. I know there are those that find them slightly silly but this looks OK to me. Of course you might argue that Kurt Freeman would look good in anything.....
Kurt Freeman with pole

....then again perhaps not.

I don't think this is a painted-on G-string, but it is the wierdest design imaginable. Notice how the top hem is completely horizontal instead of following the curve of the body like the upper picture. Whether real or superimposed the result is neither erotic nor flattering to the physique. It doesn't make Kurt look any less handsome but slightly foolish instead.


Donny Kaye

I don't there's any room for doubt about the authenticity of this garment. It's capacious cut would make any man comfortable - if he had no sense of style that is. In this case I suspect there's something else inside as well, just to prevent any risky shape 'materialising' through oil soaked fabric. It's not nice really and poor Donny seems to be in tears about being made to wear it. That's a truly mitchmen-esque humiliation in it's own way, putting this man firmly in his place, but on the whole I'm at one with the detractors here. 

more next time

Read this series from Part 1

Friday, 2 December 2016

Vintage Season 1 - Now you see it....

A couple of pictures that show the two faces of erotic photography as it used to be.....
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 Don Hawksley 
Don Hawksley models an unusual jock-like garment - or is it underwear? Notice how the crossing lines of the hems act almost independently of each other in visual terms making the model simultaneously appear clad at the rear but unclad too. I'm not sure how intentional this was, open backed jock-straps seem to have been acceptable in the 60's. This garment seems to be made of a very clingy material and is possibly wetted to enhance shaping and give a degree of transparency (a practice I noted in my series on Royale studios).
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  Don Hawksley 
Same model, same pose, same stool but now he's jock-less. 
The existence of near-identical nude and clothed photographs was a consequence of the censorship of the times. Readers knew that the discreet photographs published in magazines were just the acceptable advertisement and more daring, exposed (so called 'natural') images were available by post. Not that it was legal to send nude pictures through the post, it wasn't, but obviously it was harder for the authorities to detect that. Studios made a virtue of discreet packaging! Customers ordering from abroad ran the additional risk of customs inspection which was much more likely to detect undesirable imports. Unfortunately, if found, such items came ready labelled with the recipient's name and address, but if he was lucky it would just be confiscated.
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 Jack Thomas
A name to conjure with! Jack models here in a posing pouch (to use the coy terminology of the time). It's the same as a G-string but perhaps the female connotations of that expression were too distasteful.
The fishing net was a popular posing accessory in the sixties, presumably that's to do with the idea of making a 'catch' as fishermen are not noted for exhibiting nudity (or sex appeal particularly). There's also a connection with gladiators which were a popular cover for nude photography and art. Having said that, I can't work out why he's holding it up in the air like this, he's not going to catch anything that way!
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Jack Thomas
Same model, same pose, same net, but now he's pouch-less.
Holding up the net makes more sense in this version but it won't take you too long to spot that this is actually the same photograph. The pouch/G-string has been painted on in the first picture for official publication. Fairly cleverly, it must be said but it wouldn't fool the practised eye. The giveaway is the flat front and extra length needed to cover the offending organ although you can see the dangling shadow has actually been altered. Of course, the objective is not to make the covering look real, but to highlight the existence of the nude version of the photo without getting the cops on your case. 

Some studios touching-up (as it were!) was extremely crude and the painted on layer very obvious - perhaps as a protest. This practice gave rise to the idea that photos were posted out with a covering which could be scratched off on receipt. I think this must be a myth, such a device would not cut any ice with the authorities and it's hard to imagine the suppliers laboriously painting error-correction fluid onto every image they sent out (typically in sets of 20 photos)! 

To nude-starved viewers however the resulting clumsily-censored pictures must have been just as arousing as the unspectacular nude version.

More next time