Earle Forbes Day

Earle Forbes is one of my favorite photographers, and I've acquired some more of his work since the last series I did on his work.  This model looks familiar, but I have no info on him.  Anyone?

 

Unknown with staff

This unknown model with a staff looks like he's saying,

"Am I getting this right, Mr. Forbes?"

 

1940

All I have on this one is a year, 1940.

 

Charles Whitlock

Although we might wish to see more of him,

this picture of Charles Whitlock is still pretty good.

 

Lou Di Angelo

Earle Forbes made good money photographing bodybuilders in trunks for the burgeoning fitness magazine industry starting in the 1930s.  This shot of Lou Di Angelo is a good example.

 

Swordsman

A sword makes a good prop in this Earle Forbes photo of an unknown.

 

Rudy

This is Rudy, half of the male acrobat duo of Rudy and Renald.

They posed as a pair for Al Urban, and this is the only solo nude I could find.

 

Barton "Bunny" Mumaw

Barton "Bunny" Mumaw was probably a contact from Earle Forbes'

early career as a dancer and photographer of dancers.

 

Mel Cohen

I'm not aware of Earle Forbes having the legal problems that so many other male 

nude photographers had, but he did use the device of the drawn on posing strap 

in this photo of Mel Cohen.  Better safe than sorry, I guess.

If anyone has an origial of this, please contact me.

 

Right at us

This not the clearest photo, but the impressive model is looking right at us.

 

Military Day

It's military day, and we start with a shot that came to me cryptically labeled "Army Swim."

 

Laundry

These soldiers are doing their laundry in a small stream.

 

North Africa

I think these are U.S. GIs in North Africa drying off after a portable shower.

This may be by Eliot Elisofon, but my source didn't say.

 

Stray

I usually post these St. Mary's College Pre-Flight School pictures as full sets, but this 

particularly nice photo was a stray among today's generic military.  This fellow is older

 and beefier than the usual cadet, and his jockstrap has "Ackerman" stenciled on it.

 

Horse or man power?

These German troops are pushing an inflatable boat across a river, the horses just seem to be walking alongside.  When asked after the war why Germany lost, one high ranking general said,

"You had a million Dodge trucks, and we had two million horses."

 

Austro-Hungarian?

I really like this photo of military men having a swim, but it came with no information.

I have a hunch, however, that the caps of the uniformed men were Austro-Hungarian WWI.

 

Ledo Road

Bernard Hoffman took this photo of an American officer

along the Ledo Road during the Burma Campaign of 1944.

 

French

This tilted and blurry group are World War I Frenchmen.

 

Canadians

These men were among the 7,000 Canadians who volunteered for the Boer War, 1899-1902.

 

Initiation

This is a repeat from 2019, and it is believed to be 

some sort of U.S. Army barracks initiation rite.

 

Coming Attractions

In the next few weeks, the blog will be featuring men in gym shorts, the male nudes of Helmut Rottgen, 1950s men's pulp magazines, some recent finds by Earle Forbes, a whole lot of Irish for a certain holiday, and finally Physique Week beginning on March 30.  Stay tuned.

 

Nudist All Male Beauty Pageants

In their heyday, nudist resorts were always staging pageants and games competitions, and today we will look at the men's divisions of some of the former.  We begin with a group in front of a rundown cabin that looks like it was made out of shipping pallet boards.  If you think it looks rickety here, you should see some photos apparently made later when it was literally falling down.

 

Sun Valley

 This lineup was competing at the Sun Valley Gardens Nature Park.

I would give the win to the guy at far left whose number is illegible.

And if I win . . .

"And if I win the title of Mr. Barebottom Bungalows, I promise 

to work hard for world peace and to help the children."

 

Low budget

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Smiles

Our only color image of the day features a lot of smiles.

 

Audience

This is a rare nudist pageant photo in which the audience is shown, albeit from the back.

Apparently the contestants had to step forward and flex in turn.

 

All winners

I think any of these fellows might have been a winner.  Nice lineup!

 

Clap your hands for the winner

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Blurry

 Try as I might, I have been unable to find a clearer copy of this group.

Corn field

The nudist camp where our final pageant was held must have raided some farmer's corn field to deck out the stage.  This is a clearer version of a photo I posted a five years ago, btw.