John Davidson (not the actor) was "everyone's favorite model," even though he only worked for about six months.
"Butchie" (nobody called him John) was born in Bronxville, New York in December 1945, and grew up near Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating from high school in 1964, he moved to New York and puttered around, making money by hustling and modeling. His first professional photos were taken by Walter Kundcziz's Champion Studios.
In March 1965, Butchie joined the Marines and was sent to L.A. for a 12-week boot camp. He found time to model, too, posing for Pat Milo, Spartan Studios, and Bob Mizer of the Athletic Model Guild.
He got a USMC tattoo, and he also may or may not have befriended Tony Dow, the 20-year old actor who previously played Wally on Leave it to Beaver.
Mizer said that Butchie was "one of the liveliest, most energetic models we have ever had," and filmed him eight times, giving him starring roles in The Improvident Immigrant (with his Marine buddy Al Emonds, who he brought along for the day), Vicious Guard (where he did a jail-house card game scene with Pat White), Gladiator and the Slave, and The Sassy Seaman and the Officer.
He also put Butchie on the cover of the June 1965 issue of Physique Pictorial.
The secret symbols Mizer used reveal that Butchie was Greek passive (an anal bottom), French active (into oral), "a ball" (fun to work with), and "an experienced hustler."
In June 1965, Butchie shipped out to Vietnam, but he never made it. While on shore leave on the island of Okinawa, he contracted Japanese encephalitis from a mosquito bite. He died on July 4th, 1965, only 19 years old.
But he managed to cram a lot of great experiences into those 19 years.
The Tony Dow connection is on Boomer Beefcake and Bonding
Models from that period seemed to have a life outside of modeling. So, more like the "boy next door" sites of today. (What I call a boy next door is, usually solo videos which begin with an interview, show an activity maybe, and then he starts jerking it.)
ReplyDeleteEncephalitis can still be a huge problem, just because of the blood-brain barrier: Hard to deliver medication there. (One proposed mechanism is to take the RNA out of a virus, such as rabies, and replace it with medicine.)