Men in Love from the 1850s

Related DL Thread

pouch

Muscle Beach 1971

That journalist who wrote the comments is an idiot.

It is an outrageous rewriting of history and social mores.

Men clinging to one another in portrait photographs was nothing strange. It has nothing to do with them being gay lovers.

Three Greek men dancing, Crete, 1966

Grant Haugen by John Arnt, 1954

John Gavin - Hollywood Star

Lorenzo Lamas in 1980

Chet Hilkert

Mike Henry as Tarzan

Manual - July 1964

Tony Curtis in The Prince Who Was A Thief (Rudolph Maté, 1951)

how difficult their lives must have been....

Rock Hudson, 1954

Robert Mitchum in His Kind of Woman (John Farrow, 1951)

Ohio yearbook of 1984

Eugene Sandow, 1894 - Souvenir Strip of the Edison Kinetoscope

A different sort of solo portrait than featured before, this cabinet card from the 1890s shows an impressively muscular fellow proudly displaying his Sandow medal, sadly without a caption of his own name.

Providing an artist with the pose reference for an equestrian portrait or sculpture, maybe even a single figure within a cavalry battle scene, this model sits very upright and poised - though as a rider myself I cannot help but notice that his stirrups are adjusted far too long!

It has been an awfully long time since I shared a photograph of Ange Camilli, 1st prize winner in an early physical beauty contest (later to become the body building still with us today). Published - sadly all censored - as a set of postcards circa 1920, by Alfred Noyer of Paris.

The guys in those photos are all so great looking. What happened to us?

Sarony, Napoleon, 1821-1896, photographer. Bodybuilder Eugen Sandow as the Farnese Hercules. New York, 1893.

TCS 1 Houghton Library, Harvard University

Lifeguard on Parkway (now Brighton) Beach, New York in 1901

Jim French (1932-2017), “Untitled (Sailor) / P00144,” c. 1967-9, Vintage Polaroid print

VPL.

Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis

The Italian Games from 1911

Josh O’Connor & Alec Secareanu as Johnny and Gheorghe in “God’s Own Country” (U.K. 2017)

Eugene Jansson, Sweden (1862-1915)

Bob McCune by Bruce of LA

Edmund Holovchik, also known as Ed Fury

Four 1920s Life Guards

Gay artist Thomas Eakins, with three of his frequently used male models in the 1880s.

One of the most beautiful bodybuilders I have ever seen.

Nice R84. There is something so erotic and enticing about the old beefcake photos. It just works on a different level than today's porn world.

Personally, I'm glad there is both.