Most of the models from that era were amateurs, whatever trick the photographer happened to invite home last night, or saw on the street and asked "Do you want to make a few bucks?" Their careers began and ended in anonymity.
But Mike O'Donnell seems to have appeared in several publications over a period of years:
J. Brian Presents Rick's Tricks of 1968 (Rick Dion Studios)
Galerie Golden Spurs
Rick Dion's Ephemera
The Phallus
Tiger (aka Tiger Man)
The tattoo on his left forearm looks like a scale with three lines over it. Tattoos were rare in 1968, unless you were in the navy.That uncut cock is rare for Americans of the Baby Boomer generation.
He's not very muscular. That's a 30-pound dumbbell, and he needs two hands to lift it.
He was living in Portland in 1968.
He was living in Portland in 1968.
He's reading a straight porn magazine, so he's straight, or at least that's the impression the photographer wants to give.
He looks a little younger in this black-and-white photo. Probably from 1966 or 1967.
They only had nude photos in physique magazines beginning around 1965, so this twink was an innovator.
That's all I know, except that Rick Dion was publishing out of Portland, Oregon. Box 73 at the One Institute Gay Archives contains some samples of his models: Rene, Race, Tuck, Scott, Pete, Gary, Rod, Kurt, Jack, Cy, Randy, Shannon, Mike, Lee, Pete Shea.
And Tiger Man was published in L.A.
And there's a buffed Bollywood actor named Tiger Schroff.
Dig the old-fashioned telephone.
There's a Michael O'Donnell at Rockefeller University, who got his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Portland in 1975. Around the same time, and he has the same jaw. Connection?
Probably not. I imagine that this well-endowed young ex-sailor vanished into the youth counterculture without giving anyone his real name.
Probably not. I imagine that this well-endowed young ex-sailor vanished into the youth counterculture without giving anyone his real name.
Anybody know who he is?
That tattoo could just be a Bob Mizer code. They had a "front" meaning (enjoys camping, devout Christian, etc.) since there were at least supposedly wholesome role models for our nation's youth (Got that, officer? They're role models, so I can't possibly be a pimp.) and an underground meaning ("straight, but will let you suck his cock").
ReplyDeleteThe mid-80s is when circumcision reached its apex, possibly a Boomer echo, or just the Reagan nostalgia Zeitgeist? Of course, no discussion of American circumcision is possible without discussing racial aspects. (White boys are more likely to be cut.) or region (Lots of White guys in the rural Midwest are, ahem, "pruned".) Millennials are resoundingly against the practice, but that could just be Boomer hate.
I don't think Bob Mizer affixed the code to the models' actual bodies; it was on the photograph. Anyway, this guy was apparently never in "Physique Pictorial."
DeleteFair enough. Though I'm sure other publications played those rules, but I can't think of any.
DeleteMostly I thought of that because of how crude that tattoo is.