The mitchmen Royale Studio blog
Dedicated to the photography of the vintage British Royale and Hussar Studios founded by Basil Clavering.
Thursday 19 September 2024
Sunday 15 September 2024
Football Ballet complete
Royale Studio - The Football Ballet, FOBA1-19 Double Caning |
Friday 6 September 2024
Work continues on the Football Ballet set
Royale Studio - The Football Ballet, FOBA1-03 The Players Mount Up |
Thursday 29 August 2024
Horse Guard set added to Archive
Royale Studio's Tom Manlick as a Horse Guard |
As part of the work for setting up the gallery entry for 'Football Ballet' I have posted a new Index entry for the model Tom Manlick and a post at the Gallery covering his scandalous photo-set depicting a member of the Royal Horse Guard's Regiment semi-naked. Full details and link at his Index page.
I've also undated the Horse Guards Collection with two added entries
Tuesday 27 August 2024
Royale's 'Joke' Names
Confusion about model names abounds in vintage beefcake photos. Models often adopted pseudonyms for publication. Sometimes they used different names for different studios. Royale Studio seems to have had more than it's fair share of confusion.
Tibor Urgay and Brian Lamprill in 'Gym', April 1960 |
I relate elsewhere at this blog the confusion of Tibor Urgay's identity with the US Model Ray Andersen (see above) because they looked so alike. Brian Lamprill was also inexplicably given the name of another British model, Gerry Haywood (not Gerri!) in this caption. By the way, I love the idea that this image (actually from the Urgay v Lamprill set) was an impromptu session created by models 'waiting assignment'.
Vim Nov 1960 |
Poor Brian Lamprill was also tagged as Brian Lamphrille in Vim later the same year. This hardly seems like a simple mistake, a typo or misspelling. It's as if some wag deliberately turned the name into a suggestive pun. (Say it out loud if you don't get it!). It probably wasn't Vim's doing, they took themselves very seriously as a body building periodical. In fact, Royale seemed to make a regular practice of giving models 'joke' names.
The Cast of 'Navy Gash' |
Peter George as 'Harold Andsbury' in Gym 3, Jun 59 |
Gym Magazine were complicit in dubbing Peter George as 'Harold Andsbury' in this feature. Abbreviating Harold to 'H' produces the name H.Ands-bury, highly suggestive of FF fetish. Coining sobriquets like this for other people was a popular pastime for certain gay men in those days and some were very good at it. It's more likely a jest about Peter's memorable backside rather than titillating information about his actual sex life.
Stan Free giving a caning to a youth in' TEDS' |
Renaming models was not confined to magazine appearances, Stan Free was called 'Barry Cutts' in the Royale Catalogue listing of 'TEDS' but I've not found that name used anywhere else. I've speculated that this is another joke in his Solo Sets Post
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Sunday 18 August 2024
The Royal Tournament, Earls Court (updated)
Royal Tournament, Field Gun Race 1999 |
Royale Studio's catalogue description for the 'Navy Gash' storyette describes the models as being members of the 'Earl's Court, Chatham Gun Crew.' This identifies them as being (or having been) real sailors in the Royal Navy. It's a reference to 'The Royal Tournament', a military display which the UK military services used to put on annually at the Earls Court arena in South West London. It ran up until 1999 when it was halted on the grounds of cost, but is still revived occasionally for charity events.
The Royal Tournament featured displays from all three services - marching bands, army gymnastics, dog-handling skills and formation displays by motorcycle riders, cavalry and artillery regiments. One of the most popular events, was 'The Field Gun Race' (above) in which two Royal Navy crews, typically representing naval dockyards (such as Chatham, Portsmouth or Devonport) competed against each other to dismantle a cannon, ferry it across and through various obstacles and then reassemble it and fire it before their opponents could beat them to it. The image above features Portsmouth vs The Fleet Air Arm from the final Royal Tournament in 1999. In Royale's day the Royal Tournament got a lengthy, Saturday night, peak time TV viewing slot, so Royale's models were minor celebrities as well as being real sailors.
The Gun Race and it's Royale connection |
Read about Royale's use of real Servicemen
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The Gun Race was originally inspired by a heroic incident in the Boer War in which Navy crews transported guns from their ships across very difficult terrain to help relieve the siege of Ladysmith. There's a succinct explanation of the history of this event in Origins of the Gun Race. The Gun Race is still used as a Navy training exercise and I believe it featured in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
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Earl's Court Exhibition Centre |
In the 1950's, the Earl's Court Arena was one of the few spaces in the country capable of mounting large scale events like the Royal Tournament under cover before a seated audience. It could accommodate military vehicles and even stabling facilities for the horses (it was regularly used for indoor Show jumping events and for the 1948 Olympics). For the Royal Tournament it was also conveniently close to a number of barracks including Chelsea Barracks, home of the Queen's Guards. The building itself was also used for Exhibitions, Fairs (above) and Award ceremonies like The Brits. Unusually for a big arena it was very easy to get to being directly opposite the Earl's Court tube station. It had a striking 'Art Deco' frontage but was controversially demolished in 2017.
Saturday 27 July 2024
Whip Duel added to the Archive
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Royale Studio - Sailor tied to Rigging Welcome to the 'mitchmen' Royale Studio blog where Mitchell the gay fetish artist and founder...
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Change at v14 - 58.2 updated with John Barrington's support for Dolphin + New sections added about 'Storyettes' 58.5, 59.2 Chang...
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New AI-Enhanced Image of Peter George These are an example of the gallery posts which I have replaced with AI-enhanced versions. I think it...