Spartan of Hollywood Day

The son of Greek immigrants who settled in New York, Constantine Hassalevris became a professional dancer in his 20s.  He was injured in a Colorado auto accident that ended his dancing career, but a colleague gifted him with a box camera while he was recovering.  That led to his second career as a physique photographer.  The photo of an unknown above was published under the early Constantine marque, but he is better known as Spartan of Hollywood.

Editors note:  Several of the photos in today's set are not of the best quality.  I don't know 

if that is due to the original work or poor quality scans and/or conservation.  

Also, some are from pulp magazines which do not reproduce well.

 

Bob Rome

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Unknown II

The placement of the spear shaft vis-a-vis the posing strap is interesting in this one.

The model, who looks like a finely sculpted statue, is unknown, to me anyway.

 

Bodybuilders Promo

The pictures on this promotional piece are the worst quality in my Spartan collection, but I'm posting it because it demonstrates that Constantine Hassalevris was in demand in the late 1940s and early 50s for "legitimate" bodybuilder photos.  All of these were known quantities at the time, but Steve Reeves, Rex Ravelle, Eric Pederson, Bob Laurent, and Alex Aronis were top performers.  All those I mention except Steve Reeves posed nude, albeit under pseudonyms at times. And just so you know that Mr. Hassalevris was capable of high quality work, here's a studio shot of Steve Reeves.

 

Promo I - George

I cropped this from a post-liberalization ad for Spartan that featured half a dozen frontally nude models.  This one is only listed as George, but his front and center presentation caught my eye.  I'd love to know what happened to the other five photos of this guy.  They don't seem to appear in any of the online archives, resale sites, or blogs that I have been combing for hours.

 

Bob and Bob

These two are Bob John and Bob Rome, and Spartan did at least five more

photos during this session, most with the same dramatic lighting.

 

Hugh Pendleton

Spartan made quite a few photos of Hugh Pendleton,

and this is one of my favorites.  Love the impish grin.

 

Unknown III

The image is grainy, and it's even fogged at the bottom,

but the handsome model shines through anyway.

 

Promo II - Shawn Zee

Try as I might, I have been unable to find any of the photos 

of Shawn Zee advertised here anywhere online.

 

Jack Harris

Closing the set with Jack Harris and a little Spartan logo at lower right.

 

Chubby Day

It's chubby day, and we have a mixed lot,

starting with this naked landscaper.

 

Wet boxers

Two fetishes for the price of one.  Wet boxers and chubby.

 

Spa field trip

The guy in the white jacket makes me think this was a field trip from a spa,

but wouldn't a spa provide a place to keep their clothes?

 

Puppy lover

The pups are saying, "Please don't eat us!"

 

Pool Hall

I almost used this for a recent billiards series, but with 

all those chubbies, I had to save it for today.

 

Tubby Tummy

I want to rub his belly.

 

Nudist

He's naked and holding a trophy, so he must be a nudist.

Do you think they had a rotund division at the camp beauty pageant?

 

Better when wet

As Steve Miller said in Jungle Love, "Everthing's better when wet."

 

Ernst Voller

This chubby archer was photographed by Ernst Voller in 1930.

 

Precious

I saved this one for last because I wasn't sure I even wanted to post it.

Upon reflection, however, I decided Precious should appear.

 

Living on the edge

At the senior prom I was voted by my classmates as "most likely to fall down and hurt himself."  Today we will look at some nudists doing a variety of possibly risky activities.  We start with a guy who's trying to pull someone into the pool.  There's a reason public pools have no horseplay rules.

 

Could fall

I don't know what he's doing with that float, but he could fall.

 

Collapse

I get the feeling that everything and everybody here could collapse in a heap.

 

Self explanatory

This one is pretty much self explanatory . . . and staged.

 

At the mercy

This is another of those where someone is at the mercy of someone else.

Having said that, he probably won't get hurt falling on the sand.

 

Fencers

I'm sure this was carefully staged, but it doesn't take 

much imagination to see things going wrong.

Who the hell fences nude anyway?

 

Either way

This guy could fall in several directions.

 

Archer

All it would take for something awful to happen when shooting 

an arrow at that angle is a sudden gust of wind.

 

Poolside again

If she let's go, he's going to fall on his butt onto the concrete pool apron.

 

Low bar

Lastly, we have lowest bar I've ever seen for a hurdle or steeplechase race, but trust me, there are people who would trip over it and hurt themselves.  I know because I'm one of them.