Chelsea’s bohemians rage in fight to save New York landmark’s soul
Category: {gay}
Gay
Cocteau’s sword
Jean Cocteau looking nothing less than fabulous in what I guess is 1955 since the writer is sporting his Académie française medal, an award bestowed upon him that year. The ceremonial sword is his own design, needless to say, and the curiously-tinted photographs are by Frank Scherschel for LIFE. The colours and lavish decor—those metallic palm trees—aren’t so far removed from the photographs of James Bidgood although the milieu certainly is. I doubt Cocteau would mind who the photographer was if Bidgood’s favourite model, Bobby Kendall, was in the picture with him.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Cristalophonics: searching for the Cocteau sound
• Cocteau at the Louvre des Antiquaires
• James Bidgood
• La Villa Santo Sospir by Jean Cocteau
The recurrent pose 23
These latest examples of the postural idée fixe come via The Other Andrew (again…thanks, Andrew), courtesy of his eye for the vintage male. The first one isn’t quite the Flandrin pose (although that rule has been broken here before) while the second is even more vague but the Jack Baker ad was something that turned up while searching the newly unveiled LIFE magazine photo archive with the keywords “homosexuality 1970s”. In case you’re wondering, the picture is captioned “Campaign poster for admitted homosexual, Jack Baker, running for President of University of Minnesota Student Association”.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The recurrent pose archive
Strange fruits
Strange fruits
| “Harlem in the twenties was a kind of queer amusement park”
Vintage swordplay #3
Another vintage find courtesy of The Other Andrew. (Thanks, Andrew!) The tag on this photo revealed the model to be one Steve Wengryn and since I’m not an expert on these beefcake types this was news to me. A swift search also revealed that Steve was a popular model in the 1950s and posed for Bruce of LA, among others, a photographer whose work was mentioned here recently. And sure enough, this isn’t the only picture of Steve with a sword, there’s also this photo of him posing with an épée.
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The men with swords archive