Kenn Duncan

It's been almost six years since I did a series on the work of Kenn Duncan, and that's too long.  If you notice a similarity in his work and that of Roy Blakey, consider that they both had backgrounds in ice skating and drew from model pools that included a lot of dancers and cabaret performers.  In fact, Mr. Duncan was a successful dancer himself after moving on from skating.  We'll start with a photo that shows a clear parallel with Mr. Blakey's work and then move on to other styles.

 

Light and shadows

The light and shadows work wonderfully together in this photo.

 

Alexander Godunov

Kenn Duncan convinced ballet dancer Alexander Godunov to pose nude, but not frontally.

 

Contorted

This model did a whole series of photos for Kenn Duncan in which he appears to have been 

contorted to various degrees.  This is one of those which is less so.

 

Duo

Mr. Duncan made a number of photographs of nude male duos and trios in which no genitalia 

were shown.  Most of them were still on the erotic or suggestive side, however.

 

Bill Cable

This Kenn Duncan photo of Bill Cable appeared in After Dark magazine.

I have to say it's one of the best I've seen of Bill, and original prints

are fetching high prices on vintage resale websites.

 

Over the shoulder

Maybe it was the Fourth of July when Kenn Duncan 

photographed this unknown (to me, anyway) model.

 

Jason Roberts

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Little Joe in a Box

I'm more convinced than ever that Joe Dallesandro was photographed by just about every professional photographer active in the 1970s.  Kenn Duncan put him in a box for this one.

 

Lou Christie

I saved one of my favorite Kenn Duncan photos for last.  This is singer-songwriter 

Lou Christie from 1971's photo essay Paint America Love.

 

Amateur Day

It's Amateur Day, and we start with a profile shot.

 

Smoker

This guy is having a smoke on what may be a dock overlooking

the water where he's skinnydipping.

 

Putting away the clothes

I thing these two are folding their clothes in anticipation of a nude sumbath.

 

WWII

I found this in an online collection of amateur World War II servicemen's photos.

The quality makes me have doubts that it's really amateur, however.

 

Tease

I think we may have a tease here.  Note the rotary telephone and the curled up pictures that might be Polaroids.  This might be one, too, but it only has a few spots and not the giveaway streaks.

 

July 1969

I can't tell if this is a desert of a cliffside beach,

but we do know when it was taken, July of 1969.

 

Showoff

"Why don't we do it in the road?"

 

Guy with hat

I wonder if that hat was leather?

 

January 1977

It was January of 1977 when this photo of a guy sprawled on a bed was taken.

I wonder if he knew he was being photographed?

 

Happy guy

We close with a happy looking guy in a bathtub.

 

Mr. America Goes Full Monty

The Mr. America pageant, begun in 1939, was quite popular and got a lot of attention.  Publisher and promoter Joe Weider even put out a magazine of the same name, although it is doubtful that it was sanctioned by the contest.  Mr. Weider knew his magazines had a big gay audience and even knowingly hired gay staff, something unheard of in the 1940s and 1950s.  Today we will look at some Mr. America competition winners who went full Monty and posed frontally nude.  And yes, at least one of them made the cover of Mr. Weider's eponymous magazine.

 

1942 - Frank Leight

The photo above with winner Frank Leight at center was actually taken at the 1942 Mr. America competition.  (That's Sigmund Klein at left, but I have no ID on the man at right.)  Below is a frontal nude by Lon of New York with a pair of his Classical columns.

And I can't resist adding this third photo of the amazing Mr. Leight.

 

1943 - Jules Bacon

Like major league baseball and football, the ranks of competitive bodybuilders were depleted by 1943 due to the World War II military draft.  Having said that, Jules Bacon still seems a worthy winner for that year.  We see him with his trophy above and in an Al Urban nude below.

 

1946 and 1949 - Alan Stephan

Two time winner Alan Stephan won Mr. America in 1946 and again in 1949.  The composite above shows him during his peak years, and I have been able to find neither a photographer's name for the photo below nor any more full nudes of this great looking man.

 

1949 - Bob McCune

1949 was one of several years in which there was both a professional and amateur winner of Mr. America.  Bob McCune won the pro version that year, appearing not long after on the cover of Strength and Health above.  We have a rare frontal nude of Mr. McCune below by Russ Warner.

 

1950 - John Farbotnik

John Farbotnik won Mr. America in 1950, but the photo above celebrates 

his win as Mr. Chicago in 1946.  Below we see him nude by Al Urban.

 

1951 - Roy Hilligen

Born in California in 1922, Roy Hilligen's family moved him to South Africa at age four.  He grew up in an orphanage there after his father died, and he took up bodybuilding after recovery from a fall left him weighing only 85 pounds at age 17.  One thing led to another, and he became a title holder in South Africa before moving to Oakland to train for the 1951 Mr. America contest, which he won. Mr. Hilligen continued winning titles into the 1970s when he was 54.  Shown above on the cover of Reg Park's magazine Muscleman, he is nude below in a famous Russ Warner photo spread.

 

1952 - Jim Park

Chicago native Jim Park won the 1952 Mr. America contest after a couple of unsuccessful tries. 

 He went on to win Mr. Universe in 1954.  Mr. Park appears above in a British magazine 

and below in a photo generally unattributed to Clifford Oettinger.

 

1955 - Jack Thomas - Junior Title

I'm fudging here on both the title and the date.  Jack Thomas, famous for posing nude alongside 

Jack Lalanne, is widely referenced as a Junior Mr. America winner in the 1950s. The 

"Junior" designation was apparently only run for a few years, and the record keeping 

was spotty.  Mr. Thomas was in G-rated physique photos at age 16, so I'm 

guessing at 1955 as the title date.  The magazine cover above is from 1959. 

 Although the great bulk of his nudes are attributed to Russ Warner, 

I don't have a photographer for the one below.

 

1961 - Ray Routledge

Ray Routledge made the cover of this British magazine after winning the 1961 Mr. American title.  

He had already been around the bodybuilding and modeling scenes for quite some time, 

however, as witnessed by the much younger photo below by Russ Warner.

 

1962 - John Tristram

I don't know if this magazine with John Tristram had a formal relationship with the Mr. America contest, but he was the winner of the IFBB version in 1962. Below is an AMG photo.

 

1970 - Chris Dickerson

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