Identifying Royale Studio and Hussar Model's Names

How the lost names of Royale and Hussar models are discovered

Who played the MP in 'Redcap & Deserter?

   One of the main aims of the Royale Open Archive project is to identify by name and recognise the largely unsung heroes who actually posed for the photos that Royale fans love so much. The January 1960, Royale Catalogue is a priceless source of information, it names the stars of many of the early sets - David Reid, Fred Collins and Peter George etc., who often have such distinctive faces that it's easy to spot them in other, undocumented roles. Lesser mortals are much more difficult.  

  Royale Storyettes and Hussar playlets that were issued after January 1960 are almost completely undocumented. So, for example, it would not be possible to name the seedy barman in Shanghai'ed Sailor (Jack Shrimpton) without the help of a feature that appeared in Man Alive 10. Unfortunately few of the beefcake magazines of the time followed Man Alive's example in publishing storyette photos, so the supporting actors in most later storyettes (and some early ones that had been deleted from the Catalogue by January 1960) are completely unknown.

The only recourse is to try and match storyette faces to those of models featured in solo poses in the physique press. That task is not made any easier by the fact that faces change dramatically when they are angled and in the vast majority of solo poses, the model is looking directly at the camera, whereas in storyette roles, they are often seen only in profile and sometimes only from behind or below. Tentative identifications can best be corroborated by matching the dates when storyettes and solo poses were published, since most models only had short careers in the spotlight and in lesser cases probably had effectively only one posing engagement, perhaps spread over more than one day to accommodate separate solo and storyette sessions.

I have succeeded (I believe) in uncovering the identities of some of these mystery men, or at least suggesting possible names for them. These are presently explained in the profile articles of the sets concerned as and when I discover them, but this is often a retrospective change, so I plan to follow up this explanatory article by announcing the 'discovery' in blog articles here, using the common post label 'Identifying Model's Names'.

The first example will be the name of the model who plays the Military Policeman or 'Redcap' in the Redcap and the Deserter, story number 41, illustrated at the top of this post.

Recent updates at Royale Studio blog

 

 I have now completed the posting of Royale Studio, set 52 The Hold Up at the gallery. There are 10 images in all plus a couple of bonus AI efforts that are quite interesting. Background information about the set and cast can be found at the Profile Page: 52 The Hold-Up (Mar '61) 

There's also an update to set 55 Football Fight

Posting of 'The Hold-Up'

 

 

I have started posting the images of 'The Hold-Up', a Hussar 'playlet' which has striking parallels to 'The Wallet'. It stars a leather-clad Ron Wiltshire, seen above attempting to relieve an American sailor, Norman Simpson, of his wallet. His wicked plan comes spectacularly unstuck when a British sailor, Frank Harrod, intervenes. An early example of the 'special relationship'.

Read about the background of 52 The Hold Up 

Go direct to '52 The Hold Up' photo set

Significant revison to the Navy Trilogy

 

'Spike' in DTS04 from the Navy Trilogy

Royale's Royal Navy trilogy - Navy Romeo (parts 1 & 2), Navy Gash and the so-called 'DTS' photo-set tend to be overlooked because they don't have any spanking content, but they are an integral part of the foundations of the Royale Studio legend because of the tailor-made, tight (and wet!), white uniforms worn by the sailors, setting out the Royale, erotic dress style, and the uncompromising plot-lines about service life that would be called bullying these days. 

A good deal of mystery and confusion surrounds the casting of these photo sets but I have recently rediscovered information that was under my nose all the time and sheds new light on the actors who appear in them. This has led me to drastically rewrite the article about 

'Identifying the Navy Romeo, Navy Gash and DTS models'

This new analysis has also resulted in an update to 

Royale's 'Joke' Names 

There are significant 'knock-on' updates to DTS and Spike Millican

Major Update to Tibor Urgay's 'Roundel' set

Tibor Urgay looking Buff and Majestic

 I've added six new images to Tibor's TIB2 set 

and revised all the text.

Direct link to new version of Tibor Urgay set TIB2 

Visit TiborUrgay's Profile Page to see all his other sets listed 

Sailor Al

The Story of 'Sailor Al', a notable collector and source of Royale Studio imagery.

Tom Harding and Fred Collins shake hands,
from 'Fred Joins The Navy' 

'Sailor Al' is something of an elusive figure in the Royale Studio story. Copies of a number of Royale images circulate with his logo on them. As a collector he has a similar, but less intrusive, presence to that of 'Nick Shadow' whose brash logo* introduced many of us to the great, gay artists in the early days of the internet. He can be credited with helping to save the memory of Royale from oblivion.

(I would point out here, that images at this blog bearing a mitchmen-Royale logo have all been repaired/restored/enhanced by mitchmen. The untainted originals can be found at the blog archive on Google Drive).

Sailor Al is real enough, at one time he had a website dedicated to the memory of Royale Studio and Scott of London whose images had inspired him as a young sailor. There, he also recounted events from his colourful life which had included encounters with an (unnamed) former "assistant to Royale" who had possession of some of the original colour slides of 'Navy Romeo'*.

 

 

*Sailor Al knew Navy Romeo as 'The Itch', with a storyline in which the two voyeurs punished their womanising shipmate by putting itching powder in his pants. This is certainly a credible description of part one of this epic, but it doesn't tally with the 'NARO' description in the 1960 Royale Catalogue. Perhaps it was an earlier, standalone version. 

Sailor Al showcased a number of Royale images on his website, with pithy, knowledgeable critiques about the use of Royal Navy Uniforms in them. The pictures were possibly obtained from his authentic acquaintance. Because he was trying to sell copies, they were all presented in very small sizes. All of them seem to be in the public domain now.

Sailor Al's website was cited in the Milism article by Squaddie John. It was a useful source of background information. For example, that the outdoor photos for 'Unapproved School' had been taken "in the large grounds of a house owned by Royale" (see this blog's article about Royale locations, 110 Denbigh St). Also that Clavering's interest in corporal punishment was the downfall of Royale, a claim repeated by a member of the former British Photographers Yahoo Group, according to Tim in Vermont (references 1 and 9 respectively in my list of Royale Sources). 

Sailor Al's original website is no more (like the two just cited), but he later opened a blog, Sailor-Uniform which still exists, but hasn't been updated since 2023. On it he has posted an eclectic mix of naval imagery with a selection of Royale photos, including a complete set of Navy Romeo (Part 2).

Tibor Urgay in The Gardener

 

 

Tibor Urgay seems to have been Basil Clavering's favourite model for a while. He strikes up a strange relationship with a statue in 'The Gardener' which is the latest addition to the Royale Studio Gallery. He's sporting a new cropped hairstyle but not a lot of clothes.

View 'The Gardener'

See Tibor's other sets 

If any reader has a missing picture from this set,
 please get in touch via my profile page!